Wedding pillow

I made a (clearly very late) wedding gift for Abby and Chris, and I finally finished it and mailed it off. The first time I saw this old transfer (which I got from Floresita's vintage transfers on flickr) I immediately knew that I would use it for a Chris and Abby wedding pillow. They are both cat lovers who also have the best collection of antique everything. I used the coveted bird and wave fabric for the back:

I think I have to use my last remnant of the bird/wave fabric for my very own pillow. I like using the black piping for the edges.

And that is all I have to show for my crafty old self right now. As I recently mentioned we have had illness after illness around here in 2009 (nothing serious, and I am always thankful for that) and our latest bout has been with THE CHICKEN POX!

My poor little guy came down with the chicken pox in the middle of spring break, during a big annual music festival (South by Southwest). Needless to say, I did not get to see any bands. There was a fever, and a lot of waking up at night, and not a lot of sleep for mom or dad. I had intended on getting Harlan vaccinated just before kindergarten, but in a way I am relieved that he got the virus out of his system, since now he will not have to re-vaccinate himself every twelve years. I can not imagine very many grown men remembering to vaccinate themselves, and getting chicken pox as an adult is really horrendous. While Harlan was sick I heard from many friends who got the virus in their teens, their twenties, and even during law school finals! Lucky for us, there were enough parents around who wanted their toddlers to get the chicken pox too, and we were invited over to their homes. Harlan is such a social butterfly, and he hates being cooped up inside (no pun intended). I know some of you may be floored by the thought of intentionally getting your kids the chicken pox, but I can definitely see the benefit of it. I had it when I was thirteen, and let me tell you, I was way more miserable than Harlan was with it at three (which was really no walk in the park either).

So, we are all in a period of relative wellness (I know it's just a matter of time before my allergies return. I just finished a second round of antibiotics for an ear infection) and I am trying to catch up on work. At the end of April I am going to be selling at the Funky Finds Spring Fling in Fort Worth, so come check me out!

3 is the magic number

Once again I've been a bit scarce around blogland for the past month. After Maker Faire (which went really well by the way, see here and here for a couple of shots that are better than my own) we had Harlan's third birthday to celebrate, and then I dove right back into production mode for the upcoming Blue Genie Art Bazaar, which is a three week long sale of items made by local artists.

With less than twenty hours a week to devote to working, blogging is put on the back burner once again. Here are a few shots to keep all my dear readers in the loop!

Harlan's third birthday on Nov. 1:
I think this is my only photo pose. Every photo of me since Harlan was born looks exactly like this. Here is the birthday boy being asked to pose:


We had a little party for Harlan and some of his pals at a place filled with inflatable jumpy houses. Some of them were so large that they had slides and ladders (inflatable too) inside them.



I updated my deer and tree applique designs. I'm now hand dying the blanks in vibrant, more "punchy" colors, that come out somewhat variegated. Instead of hand painting each shirt, Joe drew a deer that I'm silkscreening (and I added a small batch of a big bad wolf version). Silk screening goes a lot faster obviously, and it feels great to be able to produce the clothes a little faster than I was doing so before. Lastly, the tree appliques remain the same except that there is now only one tree per shirt.

I am making most of the trees with my traditional ric-rack, and leaving some with raw edges for a more "manly" look for little boys who don't rock the ric-rack.

This shirt is Kelley green, although it looks more yellow in the photo:


These little romper/dresses are new too, and come in a variety of colors:


Also new are these sleeper sets. The hats will be sold with the nighties (don't these things remind you of Sweepea?)


I really love the way blue dye came out, but it shows the most variegation of any of the colors I've tried so far. It's a bit trickier to work with and I had to scrap a pretty big batch of blanks unfortunately.
I'm hoping to put some of these in the shop, but that is pretty neglected these days as well. If you are interested in a particular size or design to purchase, feel free to e-mail me and I'll send it to you instead of putting in the upcoming Art Bazaar. I'm also making some great stockings with the woodgrain fabric, some Japanese import fabrics, and some linen ones with the deer. I hope to post again soon, but if not, please know that the comments you all leave and the e-mails you send really mean a lot to me.

Almost Famous

Rachel Hobson of Average Jane Crafter interviewed me for her column on Craft Magazine's website. Thanks so much Rachel, you rock!

The dress is a sample that I made recently, but there should be about twenty unique dresses in time for the Bizarre Bazzar at Maker's Faire. Each dress is made from a vintage hand-embroidered pillowcase, and is fastened with vintage buttons. This is my first step away from hand embroidering items myself, and moving into producting garments that can be made faster, but are still special and different from other items usually found in children's clothing stores. As many of you have probably figured out by this point, hand embroidering isn't exactly fast, and therefore is not very cost-productive. I hope the dresses are a hit!

What's old is new

I went to hock my wears on S. Congress today in the Guerro's outdoor area, along with my friend Jody who also sells hand embroidered and appliqued children's clothes. Unfortunately, today was one of the only super cold and windy days in Austin this year. The winds were so strong that our entire tables and garment racks kept dumping over, so we packed up and decided to have a mamas' day out. Luckily for each of us we sold a couple of items in the short time we were there, covering the cost of the spot, and we scored a free make-up day next Saturday!

After a tasty lunch and couple of drinks we checked out the new old-fashioned candy store and ice cream fountain shop: Big Top. I've been watching them decorate the shop with giant circus posters for a while now, anticipating their grand opening:


There were wall to wall candies- the hard to find kind that you thought you would never see again!

The ones that immediately grabbed me were these chocolaty morsels, filled with liquid marshmellow:

Because the store just opened I knew that whatever I bought would be super fresh and I was not disappointed one bit. This Valomilk melted in my mouth, and the chocolate was surprisingly good quality. As soon as I saw these maple peanut balls in the bulk bins I knew I was a gonner:

What they lack in aesthetic value they more than make up for in taste and texture. Again, they were super fresh tasting. "Num num num" as Harlan would say (and as he did say when he got hold of the bag I left on the counter). Less appealing for taste value, but more appealing for ha ha value were these:

I also picked up some cinnamon toothpicks for my mom since we'll be seeing her up in NYC very soon:

Last week I received a surprise book from a secret friend of mine who works at Conde Nast and always hooks me up.
The new Son of Stitch 'N Bitch book by Debbie Stroller. The patterns were overwhelmingly cool and very clever. My favorites include the Lucha Libre ski masks:

The High Fidelity sweater (look- the pattern across the chest looks like 45 rpm records):

Joe wants me to make him this hat:


I guess I'll have to add it to my super long To Do list. Luckily I'll be able to get at that list soon. I've begun the Rose & Duke 2008 collection and have decided that once they're up and the site is launched (early Feb.) I'm going to relax and only fill web orders until the summer at which point I'll begin producing for next year's Christmas fair season. I seem to have spent all my "free" time over the past year working on embroideries and other business related stuff and suddenly I have no time to make anything for myself or my family. Suddenly it's no longer fun, and surprisingly unprofitable for the amount of effort involved. I may keep up with one retail store in Brooklyn and one here, but otherwise I would rather try to concentrate on the Christmas season when I can do what I've been doing on a more frequent level (I missed the deadlines to apply to a bunch of good craft fairs here this past season) and on web orders. This way I'll get all the profit myself and will also be able to make the whole thing more of a part time venture than it has been so far. I want to keep it fun! That said, here is a sneak peak of some of what I'm making for next year. A few of the designs are expanded and more detailed versions of the appliques I made at the beginning of last summer (see some old pears here.) These old applique designs were the first to sell at Stitch and the most fun (and least time consuming) to create. Bingo!
Happy Cherry Hoodie:

Happy Flan Onesie:

Happy peach face shirt:

A pair of pears:


I have a few more in the works as well, mostly inspired by Japanese sweets that show up in my craft books or on bento boxes or Decole goodies. I've seen a couple of crafters out there make really great stuffed versions of these sweets. Check out Cutseypoo and her egg tarts, Cocokoala's needle felted critters, She Like's Cute's softie pins. I can't get enough. What did old people do before the internets showed up? I feel like when Joe and I one day tell Harlan tales of how we grew up with telephones that were attached to walls and no internet, that he will think of these stories the same way we thought of the ones our parents told of growing up sitting around a radio on a Saturday night, and what they watched the first time they saw a television. Joe recently had such a conversation with one of his classes of high school seniors. A particularly funny student asked him if they had cars when he was a kid, or they had dirt. Perhaps I should call Bill Cosby and tell him this "kids are funny" anecdote. Perhaps he's already reading it.

A Stitch in Time

I have been a horrible blogger lately because I have been working non-stop to prepare for Stitch Austin. The event was my first major vending experience, and it was a great way to get my feet wet. Stitch was a fashion show and guerilla craft fair that happened last Saturday down at the Austin Convention Center, and it showcased the talents of designers and crafters from all around.

I shared a booth with my friend Jenifer, and our load in time was at ten in the morning, although the show did not officially open until 2:30 P.M. I managed to pack my garment rack, over a hundred garments, and all the other accouterments into a giant suitcase and Rubbermaid box with wheels. I also had a folding chair, and a giant two year old (Harlan measured in at 3' 2" at his recent two year check up) in tow. My plan was to pull into the loading dock, strap Harlan into his stroller and make short runs with all of the gear into my booth inside. There were a bunch of volunteers working at the loading dock whom I had been told via e-mail would be willing to help vendors load in. The volunteers who stood by the entrance with clip-boards in hand were a bunch of barely-twenty-somethings with a Delia's aesthetic, who seemed to think that the woman running laps between the station wagon and the kid in the stroller was invisible. By the time I had gotten the suitcase past them and ran back with Harlan to the box and chair sitting in the middle of parking lot, an older volunteer approached me and asked if she could help. Usually I'm one to say, "No, no, I got it" even if I'm on fire and someone approaches me with a bucket of water, but on this day I happily handed my child over to a stranger while I ran back to pick up the box and chair. When I got back Harlan was surrounded by nice women all chatting with him, and he did not even notice my 30 second absence. The helpful stranger then helped me even more by dragging the massive box and chair all the way to my booth for me. Big thanks kind stranger!

The show was a lot of work but also a heck of a lot of fun, not only because I got to experience total strangers rushing over to ooh and aah over my efforts, but because I met so many cool, talented people who were all trying to do the same thing that I have been- earning a living by making things. I managed to do some great trades as well, but unfortunately I can not show you anything I received nor any action shots of Rose & Duke because MY CAMERA BROKE!
Great timing, as my father just bought me a micro lens for my birthday too.

Moving right along, I know I need to post something visual, so I'll mention some holiday crafting inspiration for any of you who don't have enough already:

Sew Mama Sew has a post each day this month with a different tutorial for something you can make as holiday gifts.

Anthro has some adorable hand sewn felt house ornaments that have inspired me to make some for some upcoming ornament swaps.

Alicia P. is going to sell some kits to make her famous Santa Lucia dolls. You better bet I need one. Speaking of Alicia, if you know any Corgi lovers you need to get a gift for, how about this book?

And lastly, I have a new Japanese fabric ALERT for all you fanatics out there:
LOOK HERE
Or don't if you like money and want to keep any.

Again, apologies for the lack of photos, hopefully the matter will be resolved shortly.