Happy New Year everyone! 

It's a funny old time, these first few days of the year, sort of limbo between two years, in a way, as we are still on our holiday. I will be reopening our online shop in a couple of days and then all is back to normal again.

This year I have a few things I want to do which mostly involve getting outside more, which since my boy was born, has been a bit less that it should. I need to do lots for work too, new collection up my sleeve, and window display for the shop etc etc...

I received these vintage millinery leaves in the post last month, and I had the idea to string them together. I think I saw something on Pinterest which gave me the idea. The leaves are beautifully made and probably date from around the 1940/50s. Some are from Germany and some are from Japan.

My mister gave me some jewellery for xmas this year, the gold chevron necklace is from our latest collection. The earrings were a scribbled sketch on a scrap of paper that I showed Nao as an idea a while ago, and low and behold, he had made them for me! I love the colour of the pearls he chose. I will road test them, and if they look good on and wear okay, we may introduce them online too.

sisters ↑😂

So here's a bit of pointless fun...a tiny weaving. Last time I was in Tiger shop (on every street in London all of a sudden ; ) I bought a pack of two mini looms for £1. Late one night I thought I'd give it a go. It actually took me the same time as it would for a normal sized weaving...work that out!?

I used silk embroidery thread and some black cotton thread and some gold metalic sewing thread for some dots...bit experimental!

I was thinking to make it into a necklace or a brooch...

or a plant decorations...or a ...

tiny room accessory? ha ha ; )

Amazingly, I managed to roll off the sofa and make this cape for the littlun. She has been badgering me about it for a while now, I did intend to make one for her birthday last October, but alas, morning sickness struck me down. 'but Mum, I NEED a super hero cape!!!'

I made it whilst she was out with my mister, it was a tad stressful to be honest because she is getting a bit fussy.

 

but, hooray! she loves it! She has been running around everywhere, saving slugs etc...

I don't have much in the way of plain fabric in my shed, only this cotton, which is a sort of chartreuse (?) colour, and I added some white cotton in between. It's always good to have some gold sequin fabric and colour felt handy I have discovered ; )

I lined the inside with some white cotton jersey fabric, and I added some little straps with poppers to avoid that strangling feeling you get from capes that tie at the neck. The ribbon is more for decoration.

The poppers are so that I can easily alter the size of the straps at a later date (depending how many years of her life she wants to be a super hero)

So I hope to have baby news with in the next couple of weeks (sigh...) until then I'll just roll around, moaning and trying to entertain a three year old! ; )

Mince pie season has commenced! ...and also, it's that time of the year when my brain turns into that of a five year old, I get so excited about xmas! This year I have mainly been making things for our shop, so I probably won't be making xmas pressies for everyone like last year.

Nether the less, I have really enjoyed making stamps and printing fabric and making candles AND cards for the shop too! I thought it would be nice to make a batch of stockings out of the same linen that I used to make the pouches.

I made some slightly different designs, and our tot chose this one for her, trees with white and gold snow ( I used fabric ink and fabric paint).

We decided it would be nice for the forthcoming baby to have a stocking too, as our tot already treats it like one of the family already. I put a temporary label on this one so I can stamp on a name next year! I'm hoping Santa will fill it with useful things like a natural baby sponge, wooden teether, bibs, hairbrush, pyjamas, bottle etc...(I may have already organised this ; )

I lined them with some spotty cotton that I have had for a while.

These ones have vintage pictures on them with gold glitter.

...and some stockings for the shop too. Not sure if any will sell, but they look nice and xmassy in the shop!

I will be focusing my attention on our very neglected house soon, as I have got lots of decorating ideas for this year!

Now that a few days of the week I sit in a shop all day, I have to keep myself occupied. When I'm not with a customer, I usually do some dispatching. But when that's all done, I sit there twirling my thumbs or staring at my laptop. Lately I started doing a little bit of stamp carving in the shop, which I found very difficult! I started trying to carve a squirrel (which is pretty relevant to the Isle of Wight!). I used a rubber stamp carving kit which my mister bought me for xmas a year or two ago. I then started carving some lino. Lino was easier to carve but not easy to print with, I had to cut out my tree design and glue it to a bit of wood to make a stamp. One day a little girl came into the shop with her mum, and came behind the counter to see what I was doing. When I said I was making a stamp, to print some fabric and them sew them into bags, she said 'wow, that's amazing, I want to do that!'. I think I always wanted to do it too.

I used a fabric ink pad which you can buy in most crafty places. Just iron it and then you can bung it in the wash. I used it before to make labels and it washes fine.

I used 100% linen and the ink took to it quite well.

This was the first sample I made, but I ended up using a different stamp.

The first tree stamp came out a bit weird, so I prefer the one below...

It really hurt my hands after a few metres of fabric!

I will call this pattern 'Mill Copse' as it is our local woods, that has sequoia and pine trees and red squirrels in.

So I made eight pouches, seven of which are destined for our Yarmouth shop. I want to keep these for shop stock only as we want some new items in the shop for xmas time. In the future I may ask an outworker to make larger batches for selling online...one day ; )

The printing is a bit irregular and the linen is a bit crumply, but I quite like the feeling it gives, y'know, hand made on the kitchen table and shed and all ; )

I'm going to make some smaller pouches later, when I next get a full day off. After xmas, I will focus my attention on sewing for the forthcoming baby, I got so many ideas in my noodle, I think it will explode!