Exciting news!

Hey guys, I have some exciting news for you all...

I'm designing a small collection of women's clothes to be sold in The Corner Store in Evans Head and in my soon-to-be-launched Etsy and Made It shops! I can't say much about it yet, but it should all be completed in the next two weeks, just in time for a photo shoot with my good friend Amira Moore who is currently trying to get her photography business off the ground. She is an amazing photographer and an all around top person, so look forward to seeing her photos up here on this blog!

As you can imagine with a two week deadline to complete a whole collection of women's clothes, I am super dooper busy over here picking fabrics, drawing sketches and drafting patterns, so blogging may be a little delayed until this whole thing is complete, but that will only give you more time to build up your anticipation for the big reveal that will most certainly happen once I am all done and dusted!

Well, I'm off to "pull my finger out" and get things rollin' like a rissole! Wish me luck!

xx

When things don't go to plan - refashion!

Ever had a day when absolutely nothing goes to plan? Including your sewing projects? Being the "take it and run" girl I am, I always rush into projects without fully thinking them through or reading the instructions properly and quite often this is when a disaster will happen!

Luckily, we have our good old friend "refashion" to come to our rescue at times like these, and that's exactly what she did the other day when the fat quarter pillowcase dress I made turned out uneven and unsellable.

I was trying to combine The Mother Huddle's Fat quarter pillowcase dress with their knot front pillowcase dress and didn't read the whole way through the instructions before starting to sew. I thought the way I did it would work, but I made the diagonal cuts for under the arms too big and when I put the split in the material for the tie, it was not centred and didn't allow for the dress to gather enough to look good. Luckily, I had an idea up my sleeve!

I just chopped the top off, re-hemmed and ran a few lines of shirring across the top and -voila! A cute, shabby-chic skirt to use up the gorgeous fat quarter bundle I bought from Always Knitting and Sewing on Ebay.

 

 

 

 

 

This skirt is on sale now at The Corner Store. If you're in North-Eastern NSW, drop by Evans Head and check it out!

The Corner Store

Remember how I told you I joined a craft co-operative which has started a shop for handmade goods?

Well yesterday was my first shift working in the shop and I thought I would share a few pictures of the shop itself and all the beautiful handmade things it sells. Seriously, who would have thought there were so many talented and creative people in little old Evans Head?

It is seriously such a beautiful shop and I encourage anyone on the far north coast of NSW to take a little trip down to Evans to see it. While you're at it you might enjoy a walk along the beautiful Evans head beaches which Jade from JadeCoral Photography captures in her postcards.

Evans Head is a beautiful little beachside town and this shop, full of unique, handmade goods is exactly what it needed!

Even the shelves are handmade by a local furniture maker!

Can you see the carved dolphins in the supports?

Look at these fabric sculptures! Aren't they awesome? Yvonne, the lady who makes them also runs sculpture classes. She is so talented! The picture doesn't show it very well, but the clothes are draped so beautifully and realistically and the detail is amazing!

See if you can spot anything I've made in these pictures!

It is such a surreal feeling having the things I have made sold in a shop! I still can't believe it! I hope you've enjoyed all the pictures of these beautiful and unique handmade goods!

Crochet Necklace Tutorial

Look what I've been making!

Aren't they cute? And so easy too! if you know the basics of crochet, you will have no troubles with this tutorial, and even if you don't - grab a crochet hook and watch a YouTube tutorial on basic crochet techniques and off you go! If you have any troubles, just leave a comment and I'll get back to you, or if you're not keen on crochet but still want a cute little necklace, I may just put some on Etsy for you, if you ask nicely! I will also be selling these little beauties at The Corner Store in Evans Head.

I am self-taught at crochet and therefore may not be using proper crochet terms (any that I do use will be Australian terms, more than likely, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying!)

Sorry that I haven't taken any photos of the process... I usually crochet at night and my camera is super crappy at this kind of thing. Maybe now I've entered the blogging world it's time to get a digital SLR? I know the thrill-seeking boyfried wouldn't mind me having a good camera to catch him in action!


You will need:

• A crochet hook
• Some yarn
• Fabric stiffener
• A length of chain (I use about 50cm, but just make it however long you like your necklaces to be)
• Four jump rings
• A lobster clip
• Scissors 

Instructions:

 

1. Start your crochet however you usually start it (I make a loop then pass some yarn underneath it and pull it up with my hook, making a slip knot). Chain a length of yarn to the width you'd like your finished panel to be. I usually chain about 28 with the thin yarn I use, if you're using thicker yarn, chain 20. Make sure the amount of chains you do is a multiple of four.

2. Chain three and turn your work. Now treble into every chain you have made, skipping the first three chains. 

3. Chain one and turn your work. Chain three, then treble into every fourth stitch you made. Continue this along the entire work, chaining three then trebling into every fourth stitch below.

4. At the end of the row, chain one and turn your work. Now you need to treble six into each chain four gap to make a scalloped edge. If you wish to make the smaller of the two necklace designs, once you have done this, fasten your work and you are finished your crochet panel. Move on to step 6. If you wish to make the larger, fasten your work and start your crochet on your hook again. 

5. Chain into the first gap between your groups of six trebles to attach your new piece of yarn to your work again. Repeat step 4, trebling six into each gap between the groups of six trebles. Fasten your work when you have trebled into the last remaining gap. 

6. Sew your end threads into your work and cut short so that you can no longer see them. 

7. Stiffen your crochet panel with fabric stiffener. Most labels will give you directions to follow with the choice of dipping your panel into the stiffener or working it in by hand. I find working it in by hand to be most effective and less wasteful. To do this, pour a 50c piece worth of stiffener into your hand and massage it into the panel. Make sure the panel is completely saturated. If it is not, pour a little more stiffener into your hand and work it into the drier areas. On the bottle, it should say to leave your panel in a tray to dry overnight, however, I find this makes it a little too stiff, and am extremely impatient, so I zap mine in the microwave for 30 seconds instead. Don't leave it in for any more than 30 seconds, because you will burn it! 

8. After your panel has been made stiff, open your jump rings and push one into each side of your crochet panel. Cut your piece of chain in half and thread an end loop of each piece into the opened jump rings attached to the crochet panel. I just use crappy scissors to cut my low-quality chain, but if you're using a good quality chain, use pliers. Attach another jump ring to each end of the chain, adding a lobster clip on one side for fastening your necklace, and voila! You did it! You made a necklace! :)

 

I love making these gorgeous little necklaces. They are relatively quick, look super cute, and you can knock up the crochet panels while sitting in front of the TV - and who doesn't like craft projects which can be done while watching TV? It lets you be lazy and productive at the same time! Happy crocheting everyone, and I hope you love your necklaces as much as I love mine!

Big News!!!

Sorry it has taken so long for me to write this much anticipated post, but I was kinda hoping that I'd have a climax to this story a little sooner.

I've been making these little hair clips out of vintage scraps of material and buttons for quite a while now, occasionally mixing it up by using lace instead of fabric, and that is how I came by the idea to make my own fascinator for race day. The pile of clips has slowly been getting larger and larger, and as I don't often wear hair clips they have just been sitting in an old make up case in my wardrobe completely untouched this whole time. I've often thought about selling them, but then I have argued that the price of market stalls would outweigh my earnings and I don't have enough stock to make an impressive-looking stall anyway, but over the last few months while I have been on the pension and have had so much time on my hands, my craft projects have become more diverse and more frequent.

First off, I started sewing again.

Then, I started this blog.

Then, I started to crochet necklaces (I will be posting about this extremely soon, I promise)

Then, something amazing happened! A craft co-operative opened up a store in Evans Head, my hometown! The shop is called The Corner Store and it is filled with wonderful handmade goods. There are currently 12 members of the co-operative and my big news is...

I've joined it!

Freshly printed labels! (how exciting!)

I went to their monthly meeting the other day and sent samples of my work to the shop for them to look at before they evaluated whether or not I would be a valuable addition to their team and my products would fit in with the products already in the shop. I bribed them just a little bit with loaning them my peek-a-boo dolls to use as mannequins in the shop, and finally it has happened - my membership has been approved!

For me to be accepted into the co-op all the members had to approve me, with no objections. Most of these ladies are mature, sophisticated crafters who have been doing this for an extremely long time, and here I am - a nineteen year old who mucks around without patterns on her sewing machine knocking up things she hopes will fit someone. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous about this, and eager for them to make their decision!

Are there any craft co-ops where you live, and would you consider becoming a part of one? I think they are a great idea.

For the price of a small joining fee and 20% commission coming out of your sold products to run the shop (electricity, rent and insurance) you can have your products on display all the time, just waiting for customers to buy them! It certainly works out much better than paying for market stalls and market insurance, and you only have to volunteer one day a month at The Corner Store, rather than spending every Sunday at the markets!