Monday 29 March 2010

Little Catch up!!!

So I havent been very good a posting on my Blog, my original aim was to post something every few days and to feature some fabulous things that I have found but unfortunately my time has not allowed such fun!!

But I thought I would catch you all up on what ive been doing, I had a very interesting email from a very interesting person but I will tell you all about that another day when I know exactly what is happening with it, but it will be quite exciting if it all works out ok.
Ive been concentrating on keeping my shop stocked above 50 items, hence the lack of blogging, creating has taken over my time!!!


Ive been buying lots of new fabric to feed my serious addiction!! The problem I have is that I cant just buy the fabric I need, I always end up with heaps more new stuff aswell. Here is the first lot I have waiting to be washed:









I got these from a fab Etsy Shop called The Supply Stash, if you click on the picture you can go check her out!! She has many lovely things!! I list the other fabrics Ive got waiting be used another day when ive got a bit more time!



The final thing ive been doing is sorting out what items I want to put in my Spring Sale, so here it is:

All sale items have got 20% off! To start the sale of with a bang ive taken 10% off the rest of the shop aswell for 1 week only.

And to apologise for neglecting my Blog im offering free shipping on all orders placed by Blog followers for this week only 29.03.10 - 04.04.10! Just type Blog01 in Notes to seller and I will refund the shipping via paypal.

Thursday 18 March 2010

100 Sales!!!

So i finally did it!! It was a bit over my original goal of 6 months from my first ever sale but that doesnt make me any less pleased!! I must admit the last couple of sales before 100 felt like the longest hardest wait ive have ever felt!! I guess its like that old saying "watched pot never boils", the main problem being that I was literally watching my computer waiting for a sale, not creating new things or promoting just watching!! I seriously dont know how to help my own cause do I?????



Im not sure what to make my next Goal, I wanted to average a sale a day in the year since my first sale but Im not sure that is very achievable, that means i have to sell 263 (i have now sold 102 things) in 5 months. Im gonna keep positive though because you never know what might happen!!



Well my 100th pair were this pair:

I absolutely love this pair and really wanted to be able to make more but the supplier i brought the beautiful wooden buttons from is no where to be found anymore :( I was sooo disappointed!! So if anyone knows where I can get similar wooden buttons please let me know!



As I always do when I list a new item I rearranged my shop so that it is surrounded my items that are similar colours, while doing this I found that i have a new love for all things yellow/citron/mustard!!! Check out the few other items I found while indulging in this fab colour:



Yellow Harris No More Bag

Mustard Felt Flower Clip

Reclaimed Mustache Mug

Dandelion Necklace

Dandelion Original Limited Edition Print

Polopolo Large Tissue Box Cover

Monday 15 March 2010

Satin is Not my Friend!!!

So ive been a bit absent from my blog this last week or so,this is due to a few reasons, busyness, camera and weather conditions not co-operating to help me produce half decent pictures and also a very testing custom order!!


A few weeks ago a lovely customer contacted me asking if I could make some ballerina booties, one pair in pink and one in white satin. We discussed the details and off I went to my local fabric shop to look at the satin and get some ribbon samples etc etc. I had in my head how I was going to make them and thought it should be no problem at all. Off i went home ready to make a test pair, secretly hoping the test pair would turn out so perfect they would be able to be one of the pairs that she would have, how little did i know!!! A whole afternoon later and rapidly losing the light to take a photo with to show the customer I was getting a Little worried! I finally managed to make one shoe that was vaguely acceptable, took a quick snap and emailed the photo along with the various things I knew that I would have to change to the customer.


Still not 100% put off I started to make the real things ready to send. Well satin is not the easiest thing to sew, it frays, its slippery, it catches and you cannot unpick it without it leaving a lot of holes! The hole that needed to be in the side was yet another issue, in my head I instantly thought EASY, i will just pop a small button hole for the ribbon to thread through and it will be fantastic, how wrong I was again!! The button hole looked horrendous on the satin, it was impossible to get it in the right place and the same size on each shoe and the satin did not appreciate it at all!!


By this stage i was starting to worry, i did not want to disappoint my customer and i did not want to be beaten, but one very long afternoon and late night later and i was beginning to think about giving up, there seemed no way that i could make the ribbon thread the way the customer had asked it to thread without it looking terrible! But in a last ditch attempt and some strategically placed ribbon later and i finally did it!! I could not have been more relieved!!!

So here is the finished article:


I was so pleased I managed to do them and I hope my customer is pleased and maybe in a few weeks when I finally get over my hatred for satin I will use what i have left over to make some that I can sell in my shop!!


Just to give you an idea here is a sample of my tried and failed attempts:



So my lesson for the week is to think things through a bit more before I agree to them and to trial things properly without rushing!!

Friday 5 March 2010

A Place for your thoughts!!

So recently i have been trying desperately to organise myself a bit better. Hubby brought me a Filofax for our anniversary and i LOVE it, so that has definitely helped in keeping on top of orders and deadlines etc and it looks fabulous, I still get excited every time I open it up!!


My problem is every time I start to get organised I get sidetracked into thinking how wonderful it would be if I had a sewing room and how beautiful it would look and how much fabric I could store etc etc. These thoughts obviously do not help me to organise the sewing space that I have right now!!


So today when I was trying to sort through some paper work I thought that maybe what I do need is some kind of Notebook/journal/Memo board. Something I could use to jot down thoughts or designs, inspiration, fabric and generally anything i at the moment just sling down on a scrap of paper and leave everywhere! But you guessed it, inside of getting sidetracked dreaming of the beautiful sewing room, i got side tracked shopping for my new journal!! I found some fab ones though, take a look......







Make A List Upcycled Plain Paper Notebooks- set of 4 Special Price

6 x 4 Spiral Bound NoteBook - For The Birds

The Goods in Magenta Steel Memo/Dry Erase Board

Red Berry Branch Notebook

Windowed Robot Moleskine Notebook with Book Plate

Set of 3 Recycled Pocket Notebooks

Lucky Red - Handbound Leather Journal

Charles Dickens . David Copperfield quote . handbound leather journal (320 pgs.)

Tuesday 2 March 2010

My Brain no longer functions!!

I had my babies ive lost brain cells etc etc" that is until I had my own baby and tried to use my brain and found that they were in fact all completely right!! Now I studied fashion at college, ive sewn a lot of things and been taught how to do them from the basics up, but that was 8 years ago!! Do you think I can remember any of it??? No is the answer!!

In looking to designing and making my nappy bag, I thought I would start small! The aim was a useful purse, that would fit a few coins, maybe a credit card, mobile phone etc. I also wanted it to have a key chain attachment so that you could keep everything you need all together and when I start on my actual bag I wanted to be able to attach the purse to the inside because nothing frustrates me more than pulling 1 item out of a bag and 20 other things falling out after it!

Now me being me (and possibly a little over confident) thought this process would be easy!

I brought some interfacing and some fusible fleece so it was nicely padded to protect various objects you might want to include, I decided on sizes etc, I made a little pattern piece and I sat down to start....... It was at the point I realised that I could not for the life of me remember how to insert a zip in a decent manner!! Every attempt I made ended in disaster looking like my 2 year old son had made the purse! I was so frustrated!!

It wasnt until I stepped away from my dishevelled piece of battered fabric and Zip that I realised what to do and from then on things were a bit a smoother!!

So this is it, the first pictures of my new purse:



It main seem small, but trust me it was a mammoth undertaking!!!

I was also really excited to sell my first pair of womens slippers to a lovely customer from Australia! So with the good weather, new challenges, fabulous customers its been a good start to the week!!