Trying My Hand at Felt Toys

Well, I gave in and tried making a felt toy. I loved it! It was so fun! On Tuesday night I went over to hang out with Lori of thebirchperch.etsy.com. We cut out some felt birds to give to a friend's little girl for her birthday.

This little guy came from my hard work. Such a fun little peacock puppet. Can't wait to hear what she names him! :)

6 Purse Project Warmup

These two purses were created strictly for my own use. They're pretty simple, but that's the way I like it. :) The grey fabric was a 2 dollar per yard piece I bought on a whim. I don't think I'll be using that fabric to send to anyone but myself. It frays horribly.

The bag on the left is a massive bag (27 inches wide), created to carry swag that I got from the HOW Design Conference this last week. The conference was fantastic! I'm creatively recharged and raring to finish my 6 bag project. :)

The bag on the right was created as a daily walking around bag. It's about 15 inches wide & perfect to carry around books and my daily items. :)

Project! & Bonus unfinished studio pic!

Well, those patterns that I'm drafting have turned into an all out project. From now on, I'll refer to them as the 6 purse project. I've got some lovely beta testers who I'll be shipping the bags off to once they're complete. The lovely fabric in the picture above is what I'll be using for the bags.

The way I'll be doing the beta testing is: Once I get the bags finished I'll send them off to each of my testers. I'll ask them to wear the bag for a week or two if they don't find it completely repulsive from the start. Once they're done wearing it, I'll ask them to send me the answers to a questionnaire that I'm putting together. It'll have questions like, "How did the bag hold up?", "Was the size of the bag practical for it's use?" and so on and so forth.

I'm pretty excited about this project. I go shopping for final notions and start cutting out pieces this weekend.



Also! I have a picture of my messy, unfinished studio. Here you can see my paint colors. I'll be getting curtains some time & hanging up a ton of useful shelving on the blue wall. My most exciting plan is that I'll eventually paint my lime and aqua logo right smack dab in the middle of the green wall. :)

Drafting Patterns

Just to let you guys know, I'm in the process of drafting a few patterns for me to eventually start my etsy shop. I'm loving my new studio so much. There's just so much room to craft! I've got to put together some curtains & shelving, but it's well on its way. :)

Last night I put together a cute little tote to send off to my four year old beta tester for durability testing. :) It's in the general shape of the bags I'll be making & it has the same stitch setting that I'll use. I just want to make sure it holds up to some heavy duty play time. :) I didn't include the fancy pockets or detailing that I will when I make these for actual profit. It's strictly for testing. I'll post pics of it this evening some time.

*edit* I got so excited about giving the bag to my little beta tester that I completely forgot about the pics. Sorry!!

I'm Back-ish

It has been almost a year since I posted! Ridiculous! I'm terribly sorry for that. It won't happen again, I promise! A lot as happened in the last year. I've kind of been slacking in the craft department. But I'm back!

In the last month, we bought a house and moved in! Well, the moving in part is slowly happening. It's a cute little brand new house on a quaint little street. We have a yard for the pups, but at the moment it's a big pit of dirt.

Anyway, this is the current state of my craft studio:



I'm picking paint colors and furniture now, you can bet the studio will be a nice shade of grassy green and cool soothing aqua. I wouldn't have anything else. I'm thinking I'll throw in some sunny yellow to make me happy every time I'm in there.


Oh! On the craft front, I've been collaborating with a new friend who does play felt food. Her felt vegetables and food are adorable! She's got such a great style. You can check her out at http://thebirchpirch.etsy.com. We'll be doing some crossovers on both ends. She's going to create some awesome felt accessories & I'll be helping with some cute bags and baskets for her fruit. I'm so excited!

Last but not least: I'm getting published! If you guys remember my Vintage Tie Coffee Cozy, it'll be in a 2010 Page-A-Day sewing calendar by Accord Publishing. You should be able to purchase it later this summer. I'll let you know when and where. :)