Line up

No, my house isn't on fire, I think I must need to clean the lens on my phone camera.  I'm trying to do a quick post a day to take advantage of the fact that my phone and iPad both have cameras and it's pretty convenient, the only problem I'm finding is that most of my crafting is done by night.  While it's been sunny in the day time since the start of the year, I've been wrangling a toddler so taking photos is at best inconvenient, or when we're out and about, can be a bit dangerous.  This is a last set of notecards in this style and colour, which are on their way to London as I type. 

I don't have any more of this particular card stock left, but I do have more cards already made up in a postage stamp and security envelope patterns, made with this lovely grey card that came from deadstock in Arizona.  I'll have to get the security envelope bunting ones in the shop asap - another thing for the 2013 to do list!

Quilting for beginners

I had a little go at making a quilt today! My niece received a baby doll for her 3rd birthday, along with cot, pram, all the good stuff, but I got a call to say that her dolly was getting cold at night because she only had a tea towel to use in her bed. Well that wouldn't do at all, would it?

I grabbed a couple of vintage pillowcases from my stash (the furry sort of deep-piled cotton ones, what's that stuff called again? Is it flannelette? That doesn't even look like a word, does it?) and set to work. Luckily my sewing machine had just been fixed by Jen at The Life Craft, so I was all ready to go. I had a little bit of a fleece blanket left over from making a blackout blind/wall hanging so that went in the middle of one of the pillowcases, which I trimmed to tea towel size and turned inside out to sew up all the edges, leaving a gap to turn it back right side out again and closed up by top stitching all around. I then did a few lines of top stitching to keep the fleece in place, giving a very amateurish (but just fine for dollies) quilt style look. I then made a pillow out of a bit of old sheet, stuffed it with toy stuffing, sewed it up and made a matching envelope-style pillow case. The whole thing took me about two hours and was the most fun I've had with my sewing machine in ages! Not a swear word was uttered, something of a miracle.

Here's A's toy elephant testing it out! I have a feeling there will be many more photos of this kind to come and that makes me very happy indeed.

Unfinished business

Nothing quite focuses the mind like knowing you're back at your day job in 12 weeks, and your MSc dissertation is due just after Christmas. In the meantime, I have a ton of unfinished projects around the house, some for home, some for Girl Industries and I really need to pull my finger out and get them finished. One of the projects I've been working on for a while is a rag rug for Amelia's room.

In true upcycling style, it uses worn out t-shirts from all of the family that we really couldn't have given to the charity shop or popped into the Salvation Army hopper at the supermarket. I've just about finished chopping up all the t-shirts, and the next steps are:

Check there are no more t-shirts to use up.
Chop up all remaining useable t-shirts.
Decide on size of rug and cut rug canvas to size.
Use spare canvas offcuts for a bit of a practice.
Go at it on the main canvas.

I'm not knitting as much these days as I find most of my crafting time is in the evening and is often interrupted. Amelia is pretty good at going to bed and falling asleep, but occasionally is woken by the light-ish nights, noises outdoors (curse you, ice cream vans), or a runny nose, or the threat of teeth coming through. So it have to work on something that is easy to put down and even easier to put away. As she gets more mobile, the putting away aspect is going to become even more important, wish me luck! I'll try and keep you updated on the rug as it develops, but if it's anything like the still unfinished but in constant use curtain I made for our front door, you could be waiting a while!

Treating myself

picture by Lu Summers of Summersville

I decided it was time to behave more like an adult and less like a student so I treated myself to a wonderful matching set of mugs from Summersville. If you'd like to upgrade your mug cupboard, visit the Summersville Etsy Shop to buy a Bloomsbury mug or six!

Etsyversary and Etsy Holiday Sale

In a fun twist of fate, Etsy have announced a brilliant weekend of sales from 27 to 30 November! It doesn't just coincide with my planned etsyversary sale (I've been using Etsy for two years on 29th November), but it's also the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the US. It's a great time to get ready for the big end of year holidays, including Christmas and New Year, and gives everyone a chance to shop in plenty of time.

I have a great selection of special offers to bring to you - all my handknit and handmade holidays items will attract free shipping for the period of the etsy holiday sale, and commercial as well as upcycled supplies in my shop will attract a buy one, get one free discount. It works in the usual way, get the cheaper item for free when you pick two things out of my shop. There will be a 20% discount on every other item in my shop, as well! Woo-hoo!

If you convo me first (or email me at katy [at] girlindustries dot com) I can set up a custom listing for you to make sure that your discounts are included on your invoice. If you add the items to your basket, your discount will be refunded to you via PayPal. Most of the things I have available in my etsy shop are available in larger quantities, so if you want two reels of the same ribbon for your deal, just convo or email me so I can check stock levels and set it up for you.

Even better - once the Etsy Holiday Sale is finished, I'll be continuing with my own little sale from the 1st to the 5th of December - come back to the blog to check for more info!

Exciting times, eh?

Squirrels and rabbits and deer! Oh my!

I'm powering through my to-do list today, so thought I'd take some time out to show you something I've been working on just for fun.

Close.

Closer.

Closest.

Mmmmm, toast

We don't have a toaster on our (mainly handmade) wedding list, but if we did, I think we'd have picked one of these. They're available from Aria (where I've just been buying some early Christmas presents) and made by Bodum.

I can't decided between the red or the brown...

Out of season

Okay, so it's the middle of June, but bear with me! My mum's side of the family left us with a not-so-great legacy, Reynaud's Syndrome. You don't have to click on the link, the key thing is that we always, constantly, have cold feet. All the time.

We're big users of hot water bottles, and I promised my mum ages ago that I would make her a new cover for hers. I have the ideal variegated bluey purple acrylic yarn, super-washable, but I can't find a suitable knitting pattern. I'd like something with the opening on the horizontal, halfway down the bottle, made up on straight (not circular) needles and that costs less than $10 to buy - preferably free!

I've googled but don't like the look of any of the ones I found. Can anyone help?

Coffee kilts

In the midst of all my wedding preparations, it's been the fiance's turn for a treat. He's been along to the kiltmakers to get his own ordered up. We have six weddings on the cards for next year, so we thought now was definitely the time to invest in the old national costume.

While we were at the kilt shop, I was drawn to a basket of offcuts, and here's the result. I enjoyed working with the tartan, hand sewing is always so relaxing. I can see myself making a lot more bits and bobs by hand with this luxury fabric. I also might start stocking my own tartan offcuts in the shop - what do you think?

The first batch of tartan coffee kilts is now in the shop, one of which has a special prototype discount. Snap them up because I can see these being very popular, what with it being Homecoming year, too!

Wedding crafts

I've been fairly busy this last week or so with preparations for the wedding. I've started to make custom-sized handmade envelopes from plain brown kraft paper, which we'll stamp with our new personalised wedding stamp, before sending out with our invites at the end of the month.

I'm also getting stuck into decorations for the ceremony, which is taking place in a 17th century schoolroom. This huge wood-panelled room has floor to ceiling windows all along one side, with views onto a river and waterfall. I don't know how anyone managed to pay attention to their lessons with such a beautiful backdrop!

To complement the plain wooden chairs, I've been making pew-end decorations from nicely mis-matched sets of buttons. We'll hang them with brown ribbon on the near end of each row during the ceremony. Three down, eleven to go...

Something's hiding...

My latest etsy crush and now they have gone and made a video about how amazing and talented they are. I love their home. And their life. And their, ahem, mad skillz. *sigh*

Happy New Year

New Year means new products, and here are some napkin rings I designed and made, ooh about an hour ago. Made from what used to be a NEXT handbag, that served me well for five years until my ginger cat, Kipper, used the handles as a teething ring. Grrr. I'd love to hear your comments...

There are only 4 more days to submit upcycled projects to the Extreme Craft Creative Reuse project, so if you've been crafty and made some new stuff out of old stuff lately, click here and get involved. They are hoping to showcase 1000 items, and looking through the submissions folder, there are plenty of extra spots still available.

Get creative!

Look at me, I'm multi-tasking!

Right now THIS MINUTE I'm listing some of the products I previewed at Made in the Shade this weekend over on Etsy.com.

Here are some teasers....

Taking up the gauntlet

Yesterday was a very inspirational day! I came up with a couple of new product ideas, which will help me get rid of my fabric mountain. Recently I was given a pair of curtains, second hand, which I can't use as curtains because I tried that once, and my cats climbed them.

I had been toying with ideas of what to do with them for a little while, and in response to a call for recycled Christmas decorations on the etsy forums yesterday, I got myself into action and quickly sewed up a prototype to pop into my shop as a taster of things to come. Of course I started at 5.30 when I got home from work, and didn't finish until 7, by which time the light had gone, but I managed to take a shot outside which kind of works, and here it is:

I've put this one into my shop at a prototype price of $3. Next time I won't be so rushed, so future ornaments will be retailing at $4.

I'm delighted to share the following items which popped up on the same thread - handmade and reused by sosorosey, misscourageous and eastcoastkitsch.

Mugdock Makkers Christmas Fair

Now I've been on my hols and due back to the day job tomorrow, it feels like it'll be whooosh downhill all the way to the end of the year. I've prepared a to-do list, and being a bit of a procrastinator, coloured it in and taken a photo of it. Much more constructive is the application I've just filled in to take part in the Mugdock Makkers Christmas Fair.

The one I'll be at takes place on 13th and 14th December, in a marquee in the main park's courtyard, and I'll be selling edited highlights from the Girl Industries range, with a predominantly homewares theme, all made from upcycled materials to keep your home looking pretty and your conscience clear.

I'll look forward to seeing you there! I'll also be attending their next fair, on 18th and 19th October, as I've never been before and love meeting other sellers, too.