Extracurricular Sewing

It's a brand new year and yet my Etsy shop looks much like it did in 2007. The poor shop has been a bit neglected because I've been doing a lot of extracurricular sewing this month.

First, I sewed up a passel of bags for my sister's birthday.


It was a particularly special birthday for her this year, so she got an extra helping of presents! I especially like this bag:


I call it "The Light Bright Bag" because it makes me think of the Light Bright toy we shared when we were kids. For those of the younger set, a Light Bright was a backlit panel with a grid of little holes over black paper that you could poke plastic pegs into to make glowing designs. Oh, here's the updated version. My sister picked the fabric for this bag and I think it underscores her excellent taste. If you ever see me wearing anything cute or hip, there's a 95% chance it was a gift from her!

I also made a bag for a Pattern Review I did for Sew, Mama, Sew. The review will appear early next week and I'll post some pics after that. It was a lot of fun to make a bag from someone else's pattern! It's so easy to follow my own well-trodden path and get into a rut. I've been thinking of doing some more pattern reviews here. What do you think?

Anyways, now that my extracurricular sewing is finished, I'll be working on my new handbag design this weekend and hopefully will have one or two for my shop on Monday.

Happy weekend!

So little time...

I have so many things on my to-do list including:

1. putting a new line of handbags for my shop into production
2. adding the PayPal storefront somewhere over there------>
   
3. proto-typing zipper pouches
4. spinning yarn for mitts for my sister-in-law
5. working on a pattern review for Sew, Mama, Sew

And yet I'm obsessing about sewing a new shirt for myself. My inspiration is an article from the Threads Magazine newsletter called "A Figure-Flattering Tee" (and if there ever was a figure that needs flattering, it's mine.)

photo courtesy of Threads Magazine

I love Threads and have been a subscriber for years. I love to go through old issues because there is always some new technique to learn or hint to try. The above article is by Marcy Tilton, whose patterns and techniques are wonderful. I especially love this article about t-shirt construction. Anyways, it's taking tremendous will-power to not run to the fabric store and buy patterns and fabric and dust off my serger.

What's tempting you lately?

Nifty!

Just a quick note to mention some nifty things I gleaned from the Etsy forums today:

1. Heart-o-Matic

This is a quick way to see how many Etsy Hearts you've garnered! You can find out stats for your shop or individual items. It's a much quicker way to indulge my ego than waiting and waiting for my spiral of hearts to stop spinning.

2. PayPal Store Front

You can use this widget to set up a little store-front on your blog! I just messed around with it and it is the niftiest. I'll be adding a little store-front down in the lower right hand corner later in the month when I have it all updated. Here's the Etsy forum thread discussing it. Thanks to Meringue and MagicJelly for letting us in on the coolness.


Also, I just discovered Flickr Stats. You need a Pro account to activate them, but it's another cool way to track views and where they're coming from.

Any cool tools you'd like to share?

Yarn

(Sometimes good post titles escape me. This is one of those times.)

Another activity during my hiatus was knitting up some of my handspun yarn into presents. That was a lot fun and deeply satisfying. It tickles me to no end to know that I took some lovely colored fluffy stuff and turned it into something durable and fun (I hope) to wear. So, let's see, what did I make...

My Sonoma yarn spun from roving from Maine Woods Yarn became these mitts, modeled by my pal (and mitt recipient) Case. I used Midnight Knitter's Potluck Wool Mittenettes pattern.

My Hyacinth yarn, also from Maine Woods Yarn, became a scarf for one of my sisters-in-law. The pattern is Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf - a quick and fun one to knit!

I had a lovely time spinning a chunky yarn from Knitspin's Felldew roving, which I knitted into wristwarmers for my other sister-in-law. I made up the pattern as I went along.

I also got my invitation to Ravelry which I am slowly updating. I'm MaiaL there (good user names escape me even more often than good post titles!) if you ever want to visit.

And before I forget, Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fun and safe one. We spent our New Years watching bits and pieces of the fireworks show at the Space Needle from our upstairs window. There was a computer glitch, so it was a haphazard show.

Lifesavers and Ketchup

Golly, I didn't intend to take such a long break, but my brisk Etsy sales (yay!) and holiday preparations kept me ensconced in my sewing studio and away from my blog. I hope your holiday season has been lovely and if presents are a part of your celebration, I hope you got some that made you happy.

I certainly did! For the "Lifesaver" portion of this post, I'll begin with a gift that saved me during my Etsy holiday rush:


It's a Yamata Iron Press that Chris gave me for my birthday/Christmas. I have no idea how well it presses clothing but for fusing interfacing it has no equal! Not to linger too long in hyperbole, this appliance reduces my production time dramatically. And it makes my least favorite part of sewing one of the most fun with its speed and cool sci-fi sounding steamer. Thank you, Chris!

Here's my second Lifesaver:


It's home-made chai that Chris' sister, Jen, made for me a few years ago. I rediscovered it in the back of a cabinet just in time to help me through some late nights sewing. It smells and tastes divine. Thanks, Jen!

And now for the Ketchup....or Catch-Up (yes, I am as word-geeky as that pun indicates). Here are some things I've been doing since my last post:

Making some new flare clutches...



...some custom order Passport Wallets...



...helping the oldest kidling with her school's craft fair...

...and making the Etsy front page!


(I missed the actual Front Page, but this is the treasury that made it. Thanks to you all who clued me in!)

I also hinted a while ago that a Rock Star might be visiting. Ann Wilson of Heart recorded a song in Chris's studio. Which is in our basement. So I got to answer the door for a Rock Star! She was lovely and kind and amazing to hear. The piece is for a production at Seattle Children's Theatre.

I have lots of yarn-y things to chat about, too, but I'll save that for another post.

Any presents you're especially happy about?

More On Photography

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my "Photo-phobia" issues. I have a feeling that taking good pictures, similar to doing laundry, will be a constant bugaboo for me.

Here is the set up I've been using lately:


Chris made the collapsible staging area for me - it's great. I set it up in the dining room on a card table where we get the most light. I've been using banner paper for a background. Banner paper pros: it is white, inexpensive, readily available and easy to store. Cons: it's translucent and very grainy in cloudy light. And as you can see, we get a lot of cloudy light here in Seattle...

...which led to more research about camera and PhotoShop adjustments. Here are some more useful tutorials I found on Etsy's "Storque":

Bright Light, Big Color: Using EV and White Balance to Make Your Photos True to Life

On the Level: Making your Photos Pop with Histograms and Levels

Knowing how to make these adjustments is very useful, but I've come to the conclusion that I need to reduce those adjustments in the first place with better lighting.

My new plan: use professional photography lights.

My inspiration: Jenn Maruska and her husband, Josh.

Jenn has some of the most distinctive and pretty product photos.

from JennMaruskaDesign.etsy.com

Go and check out her Etsy shop if you've never seen it- it's ok, I'll wait until you're back.

Isn't her shop just lovely? Her husband, Josh, takes the photos and Jenn noted on her blog that Josh posted this excellent description of his set up and techniques at his blog. Here is Josh's set-up:

from Josh Maruska's Blog

OK, now please go and check out Josh's post. It's very informative and the story of how he got his lights is excellent.

Wasn't that a good read? He's added some more information since I first read his post and now I have to go back to take some more notes.

Here's the crazy thing: after all my grousing about my photos, it all comes down to sheer laziness on my part because we OWN PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHTS! I used them at the beginning of my Etsy adventure but got too lazy about setting them up and taking them down all the time (keeping the lights up isn't a practical option with kids in the house). Also, they are very hot and I got really sweaty. But I am now committed to using them and hoping that my results are half as professional as Josh and Jenn's.

Whew, such a long post about photography! Having high quality product photos is so vital to an on-line business, though, that I'm sure I'll revisit the subject in the near future.

Thanks to Josh and Jenn for sharing their behind-the-scenes look!

P.S. Jenn recently got one my Brown Bohemian Handbags and said some very kind things about it on her blog. Thank you, Jenn!

Tutorials Galore!

Happy Post-Thanksgiving everyone! Did you have a good one? We had dinner at home and then hosted a Pie and Games party. I'm still trying to decide which pie I liked best, the Key Lime or the Chocolate Chiffon. Chris came up with the brilliant idea of taking our bounty of card tables (does anyone else own 6?) and setting up a clubhouse for all the kids. The kids loved that, but I think they were more intrigued by all their parents screaming at one another while playing Pit. So my Thanksgiving encompassed much of what I'm thankful for - family, friends, a home and good food (especially pie!)

And now that the feast is over, I can concentrate on getting some crafting done. That's something else I'm grateful for: all the tutorials on the net that rev up my imagination. Here's a few I've collected from blogs I regularly read:

How to Wire Wrapped a Briolette (messy on purpose style)

Photo from Mill Girl

This tutorial is authored by my pal, Liz. I have a pair of her earrings similar to these from her Etsy shop and they are gorgeous! I've often tried to sleuth out how she made mine and now I know (but I don't think my jewelry-making skills are nearly on par with hers!)

A Mini Wallet Tutorial

Photo from blissful

Isn't this adorable? This tutorial is from Quenna of blissful. I'm sure you've noticed her pretty wallets from her Etsy store and elsewhere. She's got a great eye for fabric and design. Aren't those kimono girls cute?

Make Fabric Labels

Photo from Allyson Hill

Allyson has an amazing Etsy shop. I'm entranced with her new Drop Sacs.

For the "Galore" portion of this post, check out Sew, Mama, Sew. This fun blog is posting tutorials every day for the month of November!

What are some of your favorite tutorials?

"What? What? Wait, that's me!!"

This is what I said to the youngest kidling this morning when I was reading one of my favorite blogs, CraftBoom! Once a week, CraftBoom's Lisa features three Etsy shops and this week one is mine! I've mentioned CraftBoom! before in my post about excellent photography tutorials. It's an excellent resource for marketing a craft-related business and I highly recommend spending some time there.

Lisa also owns a lovely on-line shop, U-Handbag, that is full of all sorts of bag-making supplies and fabrics I covet. And she has another excellent blog for that shop, U-Handblog, which I haunt every day. AND she is a bag-maker extraordinaire who shares her expertise with a wide range of tutorials.

Silk Pleated and Darted Purse of Prettiness (and tutorial!) from u-handblog.com

She is someone I highly respect and I'm honored she picked my shop to feature.

I kind of feel like Courtney Cox in that Bruce Springsteen video where he pulls her up from the audience to dance on stage. (Hmmm, does that reference date me as much as I think it does? Did you even know that Courtney Cox was in a video with The Boss long before she was Monica? Or that she was the ill-fated second girlfriend of Michael J. Fox on "Family Ties"? Perhaps I should just stop now.)

Speaking of rock stars, I might have one over to my house tomorrow for a recording session with Chris. I'll let you know who if the session actually happens!

Hello Old Friends!

Contrary to what my last posts would indicate, there has been more to my life than spinning and skeletons. I've actually gotten some sewing done!

I'm welcoming some old friends back to my Etsy shop this week. First is the Brown Bohemian Handbag:

So soft and cuddly. And also the subject of my very first blog post!

Next is the Blue Bangle Dot Wristlet Wallet:


This is one of my favorite fabrics but I couldn't find any more once I'd used up the 2 yards I purchased back in the days when I thought 2 yards was A LOT of fabric! Oh, the naive days of youth. I recently joined a fabric co-op and there was this fabric, just begging to be purchased. All those happy ovals of color never fail to make me smile.

I also have some brand new bags to add once I've taken some photos. (Which reminds me, I'll be doing a follow-up post about all the great tips and tutorials you told me about!).

PS. Here's a new Etsy related site to look at:

The Mini Blog

Sellers can post their Etsy Minis and buyers can browse by category. Go check it out!

Tools of the Trade Revisited

Last night I had the pleasure of participating in another home craft show at my friend Leigh Ellen's house. Just like last time, it was a treat to meet some other artists and to see customers interact with my wares. And I made a good amount of sales!

I had lots of fun chatting with the artist set up next to me - Alizah, who makes lovely hammered jewelry. One thing we discussed was the cost prohibitive-ness of starting a new craft. That made me think of my latest spinning obsession and that I'm pleased as punch to have spent very little on my spinning gear (which leaves more pennies to spend on lovely batts and rovings).

So here is another Tools of the Trade posting, but this time about spinning:


1. File Holder Lazy Kate (free)
This broken file folder holder was destined for Goodwill until I realized I can suspend my drop spindle between the sides to wind yarn into a ball.

2. PVC Niddy Noddy (free)
Using these directions, I made my niddy noddy from PVC pipe I scrounged from the basement. The pipe is from a display rack Chris made for me a long time ago (I spray painted the rack gold for festivity's sake).

3. Drop Spindle (free)
Another perfect gift from my uber-crafty mom.

4. Pestle Nostepinde ($1.50)
My nostepinde (ball winder) is a pestle I got from the fabulous Daiso shop. At least I think it's a pestle because the packaging was in japanese. (As a side note, I love to shop at Daiso and look at the great packaging graphics of angry sponges yelling at dirt and happy containers welcoming left-overs.)

Do you have any "Craft Gear on the Cheap" tips to share?

It's November???

Whew, we survived Skeleton Theatre! We ran the show on Halloween and the following evening. Technical difficulties prevented us from starting on time on Halloween but after that the shows went very well. Here's some pics:


If you are interested in some behind-the-scene pics, you can check out Chris' flickr stream.

I didn't have any time to sew during the mayhem, especially since my sewing studio moonlights as the guest room and our very good friends from LA flew up to partake in the skeleton fest. However, I did sneak in a little spinning here and there amidst the cooking of lots of food, making of t-shirts and figuring out how to velcro a light sabre to a skeleton's hand.

It's a lovely carded batt from Enchanted Knoll.

I have a feeling that I won't be spinning for a while, though, because I just looked at the calendar and it is NOVEMBER! I think my mental calendar stopped at Halloween. Now I'm in scramble mode to get ready for the holidays...and my birthday! My birthday is at the end of the month and I'm planning a little treat so check back later.

I hope you had a great Halloween!

Skeleton Theatre

There is a long tradition of Halloween productions in my family beginning with my dad's Percy the Pumpkin Man, continuing with my husband's many creations. This year we're doing Skeleton Theatre again.

It's a massive undertaking so I'll be busy with that for a little while, feeding lots of volunteers, making sure no one gets electrocuted and providing first-aid amidst all the kidling-related Halloween minutiae I've volunteered for. I'll be back to the blog once Halloween has passed and I've recovered from the excitement.

Have a happy Halloween!

Photo-phobia

Hurray! I just listed this "new" Passport Wallet in my shop:


It's "new" because I actually finished it 2 weeks ago but had been putting off photographing it. I'd been suffering from a case of Photo-phobia because my application to the very cool design site, trunkt, was recently rejected and I fear it's because of my photos.

After moping about it for a bit, I went in search of some help and the following tutorials gave me some excellent photography and Photo Shop tips:

Taking Professional Looking Photos Without a Professional
-by Lindsay Landis of Lindsay Designs, from The Switchboards

How to take and edit professional looking photos of your craft products-a tutorial
-by Lisa Lam, from CraftBoom

A Photo Shop Tutorial-Back to the Basics
-a You Tube Tutorial found at Etsy's The Storque

I also spent some quality time with the instruction manual for my digital camera and learned a lot about all those mysterious letters and numbers and white balance and such.

So, I don't know if my photos are any better than they were but at least I feel more educated about the process! Do you have any photography tips or tutorials to share? Leave them in a comment and I'll try and do a follow-up post with your suggestions!

Catch-Up

I've been playing catch-up the past few days. Catching up on bills, some Etsy orders, neglected emails, dishes in the sink. Now it's time to do some blog catch-up!

First, thank you to everyone for your input about a strap-line! I loved hearing your strap-lines:

"Handmades with style"
-Plumm

"Hatching Inspiration; Moments in Flight"
-Freckled Nest

"Handcrafted Limited Edition Jewelry"
-A Pretty Rock

"Vintage Inspired Designs Made for Today"
-Vintage-At-Heart Designs

(I'm still working on mine.)

Second, thank you for all the lovely comments about my Flare Clutches. I wish I were better at responding to your kind comments in a written form instead of chatting at my monitor as if you could hear me!

Third, here's an update on my spinning adventures. I've been squeezing in a little bit of spinning between sewing projects. I find spinning to be very restful and meditative. Kind of like what sewing used to be before I started sewing "professionally."


This skein is "Sonoma" from Maine Woods Yarn. This was my first attempt to spin and ply a large-ish chunk of wool using only my drop spindle. It's a little slubbier than I like.


Here's my second attempt-"Hyacinth". I like that the yarn is more even. And I love the contrasting colors! The roving for this skein also came from Maine Woods Yarn.

I think I'm going to knit up some scarves for myself and the kidlings with these skeins. I'll let you know how it goes.

What have you been catching up on lately?

Tutorial: How to re-thread a zipper pull

I love all the tutorials floating around the web. I fully admit to late night googling, trying to find out how to make your own niddy-noddy. In the spirit of giving back, I now offer this small tutorial on re-threading a zipper pull:

***************************************************

One of the most vital products in my sewing studio is "Make-A-Zipper".


Economical and easy to use, I just measure the length of zipper I need and snip it off. One peril of using it, however, is over-zealously zipping the zipper pull off the zipper!



After much forehead slapping and abandoning perfectly good zippers, I came up with the following way to rethread a zipper pull.

1. Separate the zipper tapes

Just pull the tapes apart - they should separate fairly easily.

2. Get 2 strips of masking tape

I usually make mine around 2 to 2 1/2 inches long.

3. Make masking tape tabs

This is the important step. Carefully line up one side of the masking tape along the outside edges of the zipper teeth, making sure to leave about three-quarters of the tape hanging off the end. Then fold the masking tape back on itself to the other side of the zipper, creating a little tab. Now do the same to the other side of the zipper.

4. Thread one side of the zipper

Thread the zipper tape through one side of the zipper pull. You'll feel the teeth click as they enter the pull. I usually slide 2 or 3 teeth into the slide.

5. Thread the other side

The tab is helpful for this step. Tugging firmly but gently, thread 2 or 3 teeth through the other side of the pull.

6. Start zipping

This is where you'll see the tabs in action. Firmly hold both tabs in one hand and pull on the zipper pull with the other. You may have to change the angle of your zipping hand slightly to get the pull to move. Try wiggling your hand around and soon you'll start feeling the zipper pull zipping.

7. Hurray! Your zipper is happily re-threaded!

Now take a look at your re-threaded zipper. Your zipper tapes may be misaligned a little bit. If that's not a problem, then sew away! If this is a problem, start the process all over again. But you're a pro at this now, so it will only take a few seconds!


Note: I've only tried this method with nylon coil zippers. I'm not sure if it would work for zippers with molded plastic coils. This technique also applies only to zippers without a zipper stop.

Let me know if you have any questions or if this tutorial is helpful. I know I'm thrilled with my home-made niddy-noddy!

Flare vs. Flair

Yippee! I've moved out of the prototype stage to the production stage for my new handbag! Here they are...the first three from The Flare Clutch line:



I've gone back and forth in my geeky English Major way between calling it the Flare or Flair Clutch. I decided on "Flare" since it is more physically descriptive but I'll call in "Flair" in my head for my own amusement.

I'm excited about the pockets in this bag. There are two exterior pockets accessed from the same zipper that can hold lipstick, credit cards or slim flip phones. Inside is a slip pocket that is sized to fit cash.



I'm hoping to start carrying them in my shop this weekend!