Sunday Fabric Finds

I am always in the market for fabric and here are some I have my eye on

Ruby Star Rising fabric

Glasses in pink

Foxy - 'Anika' collection by Monoluna

sausage dogs say hello to you 

New bags

Some petite baguettes have finally reached the shop.

I really love the short, chunky chains.

creme eggs

I love all things sweet, a little known fact about me - actually anyone who knows me knows well of my sweet tooth. My OH (he has a sweet tooth as well) & I  have been on a serious health kick since Christmas, it's been very successful so far, so can you imagine the horror of Easter, chocolate nightmare.... I am especially fond of Caburys Creme Eggs.

This year we have limited ourselves to only a few (ok yesterday a few too many) mini creme eggs, a truely satisifing little yum, but imagine my amusement when I found a felt creme egg by British Cream Tea

A calorie free option? As I ambled around Ouissi's Etsy shop, I admit I felt peckish, but that's only because her pieces are so life-like. Worth stopping by for a look. Now I'm off to maybe squeeze in another mini creme egg :)

A little handprinted loveliness

I ordered this delightful handprinted fabric from summersville. Lucie is based in England  and screenprints fabric using environmentally friendly water based inks. She was recently an Etsy featured seller, read her interview here.

I'm hoping to use this for the front of a glasses case for my mother, and a few other special little items. Updates on pieces made soon.

Mmmmm

Good enough to eat, oh someone has beaten me to it.

Angry Gingerbread Man by Bittersweets

My love of GingerBread men grows, nearly time to get Georgie out again.

Featured Shop - Sewn Natural

While looking at around Etsy for Christmas stuff I found Sewn Natural. The idea behind this store is that nice things can be pretty "while making the world a little bit better at the same time". What I really liked was the fresh approach they take. These lovely christmas trees are made from red vintage Japanese kimono silk. It has a beautiful balsam fir tree sachet in it which would leave that christmas tree smell in the room.

I really like these little trees as well.

When I looked on through the shop I saw some lovely other items. Here are a few other lovelies.

upcycled duck baby rattle toy

 

retro elephant baby

Etsy Finds - Christmas

Oh I can smell the cinnamon in the air, I even heard a Christmas song on the radio during the week. So I trolled around Etsy to look at the some of goodies on offer.

This little star is made by wordzoflife. I like the patchwork aspect in this decoration.

Stitchin sew prim has this pretty cushion in their store. It has a delightful country feel about it.

I have been looking at patchwork lately and I love this quilted wall hanging by Bound For Glory

New Bag

A new little bag with a chain. It is styled like a baguette, but meets the requirements of having a chain. I think this would be nice with a leather short handle. Something else to work on. Now just a new name needed....Petite Baguette?

Is it bad to want this bag for myself? Love it. Look out for it in the shop soon.

Treasury - Tropical Vampire

Thanks to samantha's art studio for the include in her treasury.

Craft Fairs

So far I have been to 2 Christmas craft fairs in the last 2 weeks. Neither have been fabulous but certainly worth going to. The big upside is that I have created loads of stock, which I will be uploading to my shop over the next few days. It also means I have good stock for my big Christmas Fair in Decemeber.

One of the things I love about craft fairs is the opportunity to talk to my customers. Etsy is great but you don't get the chit chat, regarding what they would like. It allows me to see what bags and fabrics people pick up and touch. Often after fairs I feel the creativity flow and new things appear, one of which I will post about tomorrow.

Here is a picture of one of my latest tables.

At a lot of these craft fairs the tables can be.... lets say petite. I really struggle to not overload the table with bags and organise them in a way that makes people want to pick them up.

Still working at it.

my own fabric

I have been doodling around making digital images. My OH started a little supply shop called Fat Frog Supplies and I made him a little frog.

I messed around with the image a little and made a Mrs Fat Frog as well. I really like her spots but I'm not 100% about the mouth.

I decided to get them printed as swatches by spoonflower and am really impressed with how it turned out. I will be ordering more soon.

This one needs a little bit more tweaking but I really like the spots, so I may also do another one with the frogs having rainbow spots.

My Creative Space

A little (!) pile of bags just waiting to be sewn round.

Getting my ducks in a row :0)

 This is some of my new stock for christmas and I am loving the pale blue dotty lining.

To catch up on other creative spaces nip over here and check them out.

What's new

I will be adding new zipper pouches. You can get them in my shop at the new price of $10.

Mushrooms

Here are just a few little mushroom lovelies to look at.
Here is a pair of mushroom softies from Manic Muffin Totes's. Take a look at the rest of the shop for some lovely softies.


Corrabelle makes some fantastic stamps, I especially like Melvin the Mushroom.

I really like this stationery from LittleTstudio's, just what every girl needs - fancy stationery printed at the touch of a button.

My Creative Space

About 2 weeks ago on one of our many recent Ikea runs we picked up this DVD shelf which happens to be just perfect for my fabric stash. Now as many of you guys may know this is not all my fabric however it does hold my most recent purchases.

I have posted it as my creative space for this week because I have spent alot of time organising it in colours and properly folding my fabrics.

For more spaces nip over to Kirsty's.

100th Post & Giveaway

Today marks my 100th post - go me. So to mark this special occasion I am doing a giveaway (my very first one).

To enter just make a comment about any bag in my shop.

The prize is a Polly Goes to Paris mini clutch and the closing date is next Thursday.

Problem with Fabric

I have more than a passing problem with fabric. The problem is I can't pass it. I have to at the very minimum touch it and usually I have to buy it. I had went through a period of trying not to buy too much, but a few weeks ago I just went a bit mad and spent a fortune. I did think I needed some new fabrics for the Christmas fairs but I think I went a little over board.

Here is a small selection of what has been arriving.

I bought the sock monkey fabric (below) a while ago from Modern Retro Textiles in Austraila, whilst I was ordering an Audrey and Maude pattern. I have been eyeing it up for a while and I got it at a complete steal. Not sure how it will work for bags but it will work for a few zip pouches.

I did indulge a little and buy some pretty Christmas fabric just for me. I intend to make some PJ shorts out of the pink snowman for Christmas and a Christmas shopping bag out of the blue snowman. I'm sure the left over pieces will make very pretty purses for sale or even as Xmas pressies.

Check out a few new arrivals in my store.

Softies

I have been doing alot of monitor shopping lately, just wandering around the Internet browsing. I think part of this has been because I am nearing of the end of my holidays. Well actually they ended last week :0)

I have been very attracted to softies lately but I do have a very weak spot for soft toys in general. I have purchased a few patterns to have a go with at some point in the future. I have been looking at fab softies made by some great crafters.

This little snail is made by cynicthelamb, there are some pretty little things on her website well worth taking a look at.

This lovely lady is made by Amy from badskirt. I love her hippos and her beautiful dogs.

These lovely Mini Dachshunds are by Alice Apple, based here in the UK. She works with very retro fabric and has been designing her own fabric that has a strong Scandinavian influences.

I will have to stop this self indulgent oogling at things. I have bags to make.

Oh do I hear those bells jingling....

While it is still August Christmas is just around the corner. Large shops, like Selfridges, have already started to launch their Christmas lines. As all crafters know, the festive season starts much earlier. I ordered some xmas fabric a couple of months ago for some limited edition purses, more of these in a later post, but it isn't just fabric me have to think about.

The big thing is supplies. The postal service goes nuts, so what usually takes 6-8 days can take 3+ weeks, this coupled with product demand means we need to start stock piling now.

My two big requirements are purse frames and fabric. One comes from Hong Kong and the other mostly from the US. So over the past few weeks I have been ordering in extra stock. I still have lots to order, but I like to do it in little bits.

The second big thing is stock. I have 3 confirmed big craft fairs between now and Christmas and lots of bags to make for them. It is always a dilemma of what type of item to concentrate on, experience has told me to makes lots of all types. My mini and medium clutches definitely are the most popular, so I am concentrating on them.

I also have to think about my shop. Last year I focused a little too much on fairs and custom work and didn't promote my store enough. As a result I didn't maximise my sales. Now honestly I'm not sure how I would have handled a truck load of orders last year, but things have improved a lot over the last few months as my business has grown. As a result I am confident that things will be fine this year. Now I just need to sew all those bags and maybe a few other little things :0)

Custom Work

I often read about artists complaining about how making their work to sell squeezes their creativity. I actually find working with customers and working up their ideas a great seeding technique. I have been asked for many odd and wonderful things and sometimes these lead to something fab. Here are two examples



The Bag-uette
A stunning little addition to my clutch stable. I sort of had this one in my head but just couldn't quite .... then a lovely customer asked me to make something to put their cards and cash in that had a snap frame and this is what arrived.


Custom Labels

Brides are great because they always want something that is just a little bit different. Making custom labels is not new to anybody but me. The big challenge I had was finding the printable cotton, but I did and it is very cool.