a quick note to tell you there are new diggers and a couple bears are for sale in my shoppe.  The sale went well, thanks for asking.  It’s hard to sell handmade things right next to a secondhand sale, but I made more than I spent (at the sale) so we’ll just call that a success.  And it was such a treat to see how people react to my stuff, so I’m sure I’ll do it again.  There will be pillowcase dresses and kiddy messenger bags and toy bags in the shop as soon as I get my shit together, which I’m guessing will be tuesday.  see you then.

I making bags like crazy over here.  All, of course, for the sale that you are sick of hearing about.  It’s this weekend and I’m actually getting a little nervous.  I’m sure all the self doubt will all go away when someone buys something–if someone buys something!  I’m used to selling pastries and breads and chocolates that I’ve made, where if you make a mistake it gets eaten anyway.  But someone will own these bags and use them, and if they fall apart their mother will be cursing me.  Or maybe they will be used and loved and come out of the washing machine in one piece.

You can see I finally made the toy bags I was talking about and though I wasn’t excited about them while I was making them, or even after I was done, but they are growing on me now.  Simple muslin drawstring bags with some applique (and stamped labels? yes? no? still can’t decide anything over here). The other bags in the picture are kiddy messenger bags.  I made one for my daughter just like it for christmas.  She got so many compliments on it, I thought they would go over well at the sale.  There are pictures of more bags over at my flickr site, if you are interested.  Have a good day.

I finished sewing a few things for the sale and I thought I’d pop in and show you. The bears are made from felted sweaters and printed cotton. I drew a simple bear then stitched, stuffed, and sewed on the features. Easy peasy. The denim and cashmere one is my favorite. I think it would be perfect for a little baby boy, but I have no idea if people will even buy these. I’m not much of a shopper (except for thrift stores and target) so I don’t really know what people buy or how much they pay for things. So how much would you pay for a bear like this ? They are a little under a foot tall (1 foot = 30 cm), machine washable, and super soft.

These are all the pillowcase dresses I’ve finished so far, but there are a few more cut and ready to go in my studio. I wasn’t going to make so many, but a showed a few to my friends and they were quite taken with them, so I whipped up some more. It doesn’t hurt that they are dead easy to make. And you can make them to fit girls from 6 months to 5 or 6 years old. For these I’m thinking 16 dollars a pop, what do you think? I haven’t sold stuff from a booth since my lemonade days, so I’m a little nervous about all of this. Tagging, pricing, talking up the things I’ve made. And this sale is the first of it’s kind so there could be a couple people there or hundreds. Nobody knows.

I may be gone on and off from this little blog for a few weeks.  I need to spend my time sewing (not blogging) for this sale.  So, I’ll leave you with 7 random things about me.  Christine from sewchristine tagged me with the 7 things meme and though I’m still on the fence about these meme things (brings back a crazy chain letter obsession I had in fifth grade) I thought what the hell.

1. I’ve been to Syria

2. I only have one bobbin

3. when I use scissors my jaw moves up and down

4. I am the youngest of six

5. I love a good turkish breakfast

6. I majored in philosophy

7.  I made this cake and it was much better than a ding dong.

there are rules to this whole thing and here they are:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. 2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. 3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. 4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So I am tagging

1. shiso mama

2. hyena in petticoats

3. five green acres

4. write mama write

5. beetlegirl design

6. domesticali

7. dear meagan

My whole family was struck with the flu this past weekend.  It was pretty crappy and we are finally crawling out of the dark flu hole.  Luckily there was one 40 degree day where we could open all the windows and get some fresh air, but now it’s back down to 10 where I now believe it will stay forever.  The flu was just another thing that got in between me and my mobile–february was just packed with those thing, dammit.  It’s now officially half done and as soon as I get my hands on a glue gun, I’ll finish it up and pack it off.   It’s four tiny houses: a cottage, an ice house, a barn, and a plain ol’ house.  I knew I wanted to do houses and I was first inspired by a sardine box .  I was planning to make them all out of packaging, but after an hour wandering through the grocery store I discovered there is a lot of ugly packaging.  Then I thought I could use the fusible timtex I had and the houses would have looked really nice in all natural linen, but they had no windows which was a little weird.  I could have embroidered all the details on, but I was late with the mobile already.  Then I found this amazing site and was back to thinking about paper.  So after another hour spent in the foreign territory of decorative paper, I thought I have books coming out my ears at home why don’t I just use one of them.   I found a great old Dr. Spock baby book which is perfect because my partner just had a baby (hint! hint!).  I mod podged the pages to either side of poster board, then cut out the details and folded it up.

I feel bad that I’m late on my own swap, but my creative process is particularly slow and I’m happy with how all the houses turned out.  There are more pictures on my flickr account and be sure to stop by the mobile swap group to see all the procrastinator’s mobiles (they are my people) and just the amazing variety of work that’s there.  I’m for sure going to host another mobile swap next January, so if you missed this one don’t worry.  I should probably start working on that one now just so I finish in time.