Pretty!

Ohhhh I scored my first Etsy treasury (as a curator, not something of mine in one) today!

Since it expires after a couple of days, I thought a screenshot was in order:



I wonder if it's good enough to get on the front page? That would be very cool!

And someone just asked me about a wholesale order for my Travelites. They want to sell them in Singapore. It will be interesting to see what comes of it!

I am sooooo supposed to be working at the moment, but seem to be having another one of those horrible need to sleep phases. One good thing - I took the sheets off my bed to wash this morning and so I can't have a nap until I put more on!

Oh and Happy New Year everyone!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I. AM. SO. TIRED...

I can't wait for Christmas to be over! I'm sorry to all those who enjoy it cause I sound like a big fat meanie, but seriously it just means crazy times regarding work and then a few days visiting my family which involves a lot of driving and quite a lot of stress. This year though, instead of having a few days after that to myself, when I get back I'll have 3 nappy bags, a wallet and a tote bag to get made, and a visit from my little brother so I'm going to be busy for about the next month.

There is some good news though - I was starting to panic because I couldn't find any showerproof nylon for the nappy bag lining and I ran out a few days ago. I got some samples sent from a company in Melbourne which helped me work out exactly what I needed. The problem with them was they have a 50m minimum and it would end up costing me nearly $500 which is a huge outlay, so I kept looking and around 3 o'clock this morning I found a website for a relatively local company who had what I wanted. 5 hours later I called to ask what their minimum was and OH MY GOD they don't have one and OH MY GOD yes I can pick up 5m this afternoon. They were so incredibly helpful and it's just what I was after. I am very very relieved!

And now I need to go make a nappy bag ish version of The Adorn Handbag which needs to be posted to its new owner tomorrow. The embroidery is done (except the handle), but that's all so far. YIKES!

Ohhh coffee first. Which will hopefully help my headache.

More Adorn(ed)

I'm really supposed to be working on other things, but I was very patient and had the purse kit for a whole week before making a purse! I've had the embroidery done for days too.

What am I talking about? The cousin of The Adorn Bag is here - The Adorn Purse! The basic purse is made using the brilliant purse kit from Nicole Mallalieu Design. It is such a great kit! I tried making little purses a few months ago and it was one of the most frustrating and infuriating things I've ever done. It was impossible to make it all work properly and look good. But the kit is perfect - simple instructions, great shaped pattern and it was EASY! No mistakes, no fiddling, it just all went together exactly as it should. I'm definitely going to make more of these!





And now I've ALMOST run out of distractions and can get back to the work I'm meant to be doing!

Adorn

I've been wanting to design a new bag for awhile now. I've also been asked to make some kids hats. So yesterday I bought some red embroidery floss which I thought I'd use to embellish the hats. Then I stopped at the curtain shop and found a remnant of the PERFECT fabric for the new bags. It all kind of came together, and the new bag is finished and I love it! Hopefully someone else will too and it will go to a new home soon.

There's been lots of different talk of patterns lately and I thought while I was making the pattern for the new bag that I'd talk about the process a little and include a few pictures.

I don't know how other people work, but I start with a very rough sketch of what I want to make.



Then I use whatever paper I have that's big enough to start cutting out the pattern pieces. Most often I end up using greaseproof paper stolen from the kitchen because it's easier to manipulate than thicker paper and the see-thoughness is handy. The new bag has pleats, so it took a few goes to get the pattern for the bottom piece right.



But in the end it looked like this:

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Then I got kind of carried away and forgot to take more pictures of the pattern making/cutting process. What distracted me, was the red embroidery floss that I'd bought for the hats. It seemed like a perfect match for the fabric, so the next few hours were spent embroidering.



The rest of the bag went together very smoothly and the end result is The Adorn Bag!









If you love it, it can be purchased here.

New work

A few months ago a new friend asked me to make her a wallet but she couldn't decide which fabric she wanted so she left it to me. I couldn't decide either, so I thought that the best thing to do would be take some of the emphasis away from the fabric. My wallets are normally one fancy print on the outside, so they're kinda hard to miss. I thought something a little more subtle might work. It really did and I nearly kept the wallet that I made her. Since then I've meant to make more and introduce them into my shops, but haven't had a chance.

Then last week another friend who is art director at a magazine said they were doing an article on handmade gifts and that he would try to include some of my things in it! Very exciting! So he chose a handbag and asked for a wallet to go in as well. I thought this was a good opportunity to make another of the more subtle wallets. So this is it: