Something Old, Something New

The dining room china cabinet is full of antique fabrics, ribbons and jewelry. An ironing board and a sewing machine on it are part of the decor in the living room. Not the usual home design for a tract house in Huntington Beach, but one that suits its owner, Peggy Oloumi, and her sister, Cathy Johnston, perfectly.

The two create jeweled shoes for wedding dresses, lace pillows for wedding-ring bearers, velvet evening bags, christening ensembles and vests and dresses bedecked in French-style ribbon roses, hand-embroidery and a blend of antique and new fabrics.

“Our sewing business started about six years ago during our downtime at work. We are both hairdressers, so in between appointments, we would sew Victorian-inspired objects,” Oloumi says. “People liked them and started to buy them.”

The women work two days a week at a hair salon in Huntington Beach and devote the rest of their time to their business, Proverbs 31.

“The love of sewing and embroidering comes from our mother and grandmother. We grew up around it,” says Johnston, who lives in Garden Grove.

It was a class they took with their mother on novelty quilting and embellishing that led them to start their business. It also inspired Oloumi to focus on handwork, something Johnston had been doing all along.

“Where it hooked me was that there were no rules. I could do anything I wanted. I didn’t need a pattern,” Oloumi says. “That’s my nature.”

Their work combines the old and the new in surprising ways. They take new shoes and add antique ribbons and lace. Pincushions, needle cases, keepsake pouches and satchels are made from new and old bits and pieces.

They find most of their materials in secondhand stores and swap meets. Often what they make depends on what they find on shopping trips.

“We found some antique, cut-glass crystals from an old lampshade, and then we thought about what we wanted to do with them,” Johnston says. In that case, they used the crystals as fringe on a long, peach-colored silk scarf.

“We want our work to evoke an emotion in women especially,” Oloumi says. “We have found these little romantic treasures can bring out the ‘little girl’ in women that may not be being nurtured.”

When they decided to go into business, “we prayed about it,” Oloumi says. “We felt that this was something God put in our hearts to do with our hands. Since that was our inspiration, we decided to name it after Proverbs 31 . . . commonly known as the ‘virtuous woman,’ ” in the Bible.

“But when you read the passage, you realize there’s a lot more to it. It says that women are well-rounded. They care for their families and work in the home, but they are also individuals who have businesses outside their homes.”

Prices range from $18 for small gifts to $3,000 for a one-of-a-kind wedding dress. Custom work takes at least six weeks.

“Custom work is our favorite,” Oloumi says. “We’d much prefer to do that. That way people can incorporate some of their heirlooms like jewelry or fabric from antique clothing into their vests and gowns.”

Items are available at Hiatt & Peek in Long Beach or by phoning (800) 655-4349.