Extra Special Custom Order

I was approached a few weeks ago by a previous customer who asked if I was willing to donate a bag to a cancer charity dinner she was helping to organise.  Of course I leapt at the chance.  My mum had breast cancer and was a survivor so the support the charities give to families and suffers is very important to me.

We talked about colours and decided that since the event was going along the theme of green and bright pink, the bag should reflect these colours.  I approached one of my favourite fabric suppliers, Saints and Pinners, who very kindly offered to donate the fabric to make the bag.  So following another discuss on style, this is the bag that will be raffled at the dinner on Friday evening:

I love the Amy Butler ‘Love’ Range!

The co-ordinated bright pink lining finishes the bag off beautifully!

I hope the lucky winner enjoys using their fabulous new bag!

Ballet Shoes or Doc Martins?

I have a confession to make… I am at heart a mathematician, well my brain was wired for maths.  I come from a family that is big on engineering and maths.  My sister is the only artistic one and a superb photographer.  She must have found it hard growing up in a household of people who could do maths so easily.

I do have an obsession with fabric that goes back 15 years when I saw my first ever patchwork quilt in a magazine.  I blame that magazine entirely for my inability to stop buying gorgeous fabric!  It was the maths involved in putting the quilt together that got me started.  2 years later and my first king size quilt was finished.

Now I am a fabric addict with an obsession about bags and quilts. I dream about new bag designs and quilts I want to make, but I feel like I struggle with the artistic side of crafting. Is it something a person can learn or is it in your genes?

I love looking around on the internet and reading other peoples crafty blogs.  They are all so delicate, pretty and artistic.  It feels like they are wearing ballet shoes and I am stomping around in my Doc Martins!

So my Sunday morning question is: Can a person learn how to wear ballet shoes, and be pretty and delicate? Or is better to just be yourself and keep wearing Doc Martins? 

Monday Mosaic

This week I am going to continue the world theme – we might be the only people taking a trip out of the UK at the moment! So I thought we would head to the other side of the world – China.

I have found some lovely shops on Etsy:

1 bytinster

2 akun

3 IbonDesign

4 zeng

5 Stonetalk

6 ChuanShuo

7 JingjingHandmade

8 Art68

9 smartartshop

Some really cute shops on Etsy based in China.

Hope you enjoy shopping!

Rainbow Adventures Part 2

Starting with the Monday Mosaic this week has turned into Rainbow Week! 

On Wednesday I blogged about the lovely bright fabrics I had sourced for my wholesale order for Cathy Dean, The Colourful Coach.  All I had to do was wait for a couple more fabrics from Fabric Rehab which arrived yesterday:

Here is the spread of the patterned fabrics that will form the top part of the totes and the handles.

I then had to decide which plain brights to put with which patterned fabric.  The design brief was bright and clashing (but not too clashing) colour combinations! This was quite a long process and I am still not sure about the combinations, so they may well change before I finish all of the bags.

I managed to finish 4 bags today, but you won’t be seeing them until all 12 are finished!

Going Green!

Monday has come around again and it is time for my collection of Etsy shops I love! 

The theme is currently colours and this week I am showcasing my favourite greens!  Again I have had trouble picking out of the many gorgeous green things so I have ended up with 12!

There is a mixture of items including some green fabric!  I hope you like it:

1  wonderplunder

2 paperplanet

3 Raceytay

4 fabricsilove

5 medusa 1307

6 taffyknits

7 redbirdjewellery

8 WinkArtisans

9 SeaFindDesigns

10 modestambition

11 preppypeach

12 AllAboutThe Fiber 

Every snow cloud has a fabric lining!

The only bonus of the snow that I have discovered so far is its reflective value!

After asking for some feedback on my Etsy shop, the main feedback was the dark background did not do my bags and the fabrics justice.  In an attempt to sort this problem out I hired a friends daughter and took some outside shots in the snow.  It reflects the light so well that the photos turned out quite well.

What do you think?

Gemma bag in Amy Butler fabric.

Cute little pink wristlet from pink corduroy.

New design Hilary bag in brown corduroy.

New Year, New Challenges

A lovely pic of the sand and sunshine to remind me it does happen!

I have decided that I need to set my self challenges to meet so that business will keep moving foward and being snowed in seem the perfect time to set them.

So here is the challenge list for 2010:

• Sell one bag a week – not a massive sales target I know, but it is a start.  After all oak trees come out of acorns.

• Try one new fabric technique a month – harder than at sounds when you are trying to get items up to saleable standard.

• Try one out one new marketing strategy each fortnight – going to be interesting to test out some of the ideas I have seen on the web!

• Design one new bag each month – going to the fun part of my challenges.

• Blog about my work at least 3 times a week.

A modest list of chellenges I know, but I think that if you set too many you are more likely to fail at them.

Here’s to a great 2010 with lots of sewing related adventures!

Some new Websites

I have been surfing around looking for new fabric websites and I found 2 fabulous shops in the UK.  They are:

Fabric Rehab is a wonderful shop with a lovely collection of quirky fabrics.  I adore all of their fabric and it has been hard to not keep buying things!  Actually 3 purchases in a week might be considered by some to be a bit excessive!

Here are some of the things I have made this week with my purchases:

Pretty little girls tote bag.

Gorgeous make-up bag!

Lovely pencil case with a lime green lining.

As you can see, I love the fabric from the shop.  Very fast delivery as well so it is a must!

The second shop I haven’t ordered from yet, but will be doing so in the next few days. It is Saints and Pinners  I just love the collections of fabric they have put together.  They are so lovely!  Still deciding which pack I want… might have to be a personal project for me!

Manic Times!

It has been ages since I managed to post on my blog.  I have had quite a few orders as well as stalls which have taken up loads of time, but the biggest time muncher was a sick toddler last week.  6 days of  hand, foot and mouth meant that no-one in the house got any sleep.  And believe me working without sleep is hard!

We are all back to full health now and I completed my last fair last Christmas fair last night.  I spent the last week preparing like crazy for the fair.  I wanted to have little stocking filler things on the stall so people could get those last minute (or first) presents!

  This is the cutting out stage.  I cut out 8 pencil cases, 6 make-up bags and 8 coin purses!

It was batch cutting in the extreme!

Here are some of the make-up bags and pencil cases.

I love the new fabric I found.  More on that in the next post!

And finally, let me introduce you to my work companion!  Our littlest kitten Tessie appeared to find the work load to stressful!

Hopefully now the last fair is over I can concentrate on my web shops, including my new Etsy shop,  as well as developing new designs.

Shopping Again!

I had to go to get some fabric for a custom order today and I found a shop called Get Knitted in Bristol.  Their website has loads of Amy Butler fabrics and given the state of the postal system in England at the moment I decided to go and have a look – that is my excuse I am sticking to it!

The shop is amazing!  And I mean amazing!  They had loads of Amy Butler fabrics and loads of lush knitting wool.  I wish I could knit!  There were so many examples of the wool in use as well as examples of the fabrics made up.  So much inspiration – including a glass top coffee table with themed colour boxes that had fabric, buttons and wool in. 

A really good shop!

The fabric I bought has already being used in make-up bags!  I just love feeding my fabric addiction!