Expanding my Greek Market

My anchor pillows have been a fairly successful item in my etsy shop and I have sent quite a few of them to sorority houses across the US. Being an alumni of a sorority myself I thought that I should create a pillow for the ladies of Phi Sigma Sigma, the sorority that helped my 4 years in college to be some of the best years of my life. I have more plans to represent more sororities in my shop but I think that these will be the last two pillows posted in my shop until February as I have two ribbon rose bouquet orders to fill.

In addition to the pillows I am also participating in a block of the month quilt project hosted by Jennifer over at Sewhooked called Paper Piecing Vintage. My background fabric is Kona Solids Bone and my fabrics are all vintage inspired. Here are my fabrics and my finished January block, it’s called The King’s Crows.

   

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Aarrrrrr! There be a pirate pillow in the shop!

I have been working on getting this fabric combination in my shop for quite awhile. Other orders and projects kept getting in the way, but it’s finally here!!

Perfect for a little boy’s nursery or bedroom!

I am really happy with how it turned out. My anchor pillows have been such a fun part of my shop and the color and fabric combinations are endless. I still haven’t gotten tired of stitching those anchors so it looks like there are still more to come!

This IS the shirt you are looking for…

My husband works at a Tiki bar, I work at a tikiish restaurant and we have recently adopted a lot of tiki decor for our home so when Michael requested a new aloha shirt I wasn’t surprised. This year Jo-Ann’s released quite a few Star Wars prints over the last year or so and this print is my absolute favorite. I had brought home the blue blueprint version to make something for myself and my husband was a little jealous and requested a shirt made from it instead of making something for myself. I told him I had another fabric in mind for him. I went back to Jo-Ann’s and picked up this fabric along with McCalls Pattern 2149 and some super cool coconut looking buttons and got to work.

I was a little apprehensive to use the pattern as the pictures on the front of it seemed a little “early nineties” and I was worried that it wouldn’t fit him correctly or that it would be bulky in odd places. I used his measurements along with some other shirts that he has at home to make sure that the size I was making would fit him well. Michael requested that his shirt be ready for our anniversary trip to Las Vegas so that he could wear his shirt to one of our most favorite tiki bars, Frankie’s Tiki Room. This pattern was actually really simple to make and I easily finished it in two days. I will definitely be making more with this pattern. Michael’s one complaint is that the slits on the side come up a bit high so I will be shortening them on the next shirt.

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Mustachio!

Wow! It has been almost 5 months since I last posted here. I really need to learn not to neglect my blog. I had a really busy (well, busy for me) season with my etsy shop. I have quite a few ideas in the pipe and will be posting at least one new fabric combination for my anchor pillows in the next month. After that it will be new designs! I can’t wait!

This holiday season I only handmade ONE gift! I cannot believe that was all I managed to get completed. Luckly I wasn’t planning on too many handmade gifts this year so I didn’t stress myself out or disappoint myself. What I did manage to make though, was this awesome mustache pillow for my teenaged niece. She loved it and I had a blast making it. The three mustache patterns are included as part of the TWELVE different mustaches that Jennifer from Sewhooked created for her Mustachio pattern.

Brick and Mortar

My pillows now have a new home. They can be found in A Little Known Shop in a really awesome retail space called Community in Anaheim, CA.

The shop is not too far from my home and filled with pieces from a lot of amazing local artists. In addition to the retail space that I have they have a lot of craft fairs/events which I will also eventually have an opportunity to participate in. I feel like this is such an important step and experiment for me. I am moving in the exact right direction that I want to be moving. The space is affordable for me and will really be a fantastic testing ground for my products.

I hope to figure out a way to display my onesies in the shop as well, but for right now it will just be the pillows that I am selling there. I have been searching and searching for a way to display them in smaller spaces. They do have a larger space available now… but I just don’t know. I have so many onesie designs and so many different sizes. The retail space does not have a place to stock additional sizes to have on hand so I would have to really pick through my designs to figure out which to feature in the shop.

Stocking my retail space had me cleaned out all of the pillows from my home/etsy shop inventory, so I spent an entire day sewing like mad trying to get some more pillows made up. I managed five pillows in three different styles. They will be posted in the next week with the new month being here and with my “Daily Listing/Re-listing Challenge.”

HAPPY JULY!!!

Re VAMP!

Thanks to my lovely sister I have a brand new logo! Check it out! I could not be happier. This coming month should show some new and exciting things for me including selling in an actual brick and mortar store.

I’ve already got some new items ready to go for my etsy shop as well.

In January I attempted a new listing every day. I only made it with 10 new items. That was sort of disappointing, but I think it was too big of a step to fast. This month, with my new logo, and new shop, I am going to give a daily listing challenge another go! This time I am going to allow myself to count re-listings as well, mostly on days where I am not able to get a new product placed in my shop.

In addition to my new etsy posts I am committing myself to 2 blog posts and 2 facebook posts each week! So please expect to see a lot more of me around these interwebz!

Much love to all of my fellow crafters!

The White Rabbit

Its been far too long since I have posted here, but today I have a wonderful excuse for my return. I have designed a new bunny pattern… a white rabbit, as a tribute to our bunny that lives with us here.

This block is part of the Spring Fling Blog Hop over on the Whims and Fancies Blog.

The White Rabbit

If you would like to see more pictures of our lovely rabbit mister Lucius Dracula, you can find him at his facebook page.

I hope you enjoy this adorable pattern!

All sewed out…

I’m 3 for 3 with the first days of my monthly challenge to post a new item every day in January. I spent today (almost all day) sewing. I finished off 5 new items, one was posted today and then I have items ready for the next 4 days! I had to stockpile a little bit today to make sure that I would be able to post because I picked up an extra shift at work this week.

So while I was sewing I had the TV streaming CSI Miami on netflix, I am almost all the way through the series, but when it ends… what should I sew to next? I am thinking to moving on to audio books. What do you listen to/watch while you craft?

Here are the items posted the last two days.

Daily Listing Challenge

I’ve decided to really focus on getting my etsy shop to a more successful part of my life! To jump start it for the new year I have decided to participate in a daily listing challenge on etsy. I will be listing a new item EVERY day in the month of January. I started off on the right foot with a new VW Bus onesie in grey. I love the fabric that I used for colored part of the bus. I also use it in my construction onesie set.

I have big plans for this daily challenge which includes at least 2 new bouquet arrangements and also at least one new baby quilt. Along with posting daily on etsy I also hope to be posting at least twice a week on this blog. I am hoping to create some decent foot traffic on both my etsy and here at my blog. I plan on posting my experiences with the craft business world while balancing a full time restaurant management job.

Getting items ready to post on my days off is going to be a huge part of this challenge, so far I have tomorrow’s item already completed, I just have to take photographs and get it posted up on etsy. On Thursday I should be able to get at least three more items completed. I am really excited to test and challenge myself this month.

Three More Days

Three more days until the first of the year. I have made a decision to begin to increase some of my prices and I wanted to give my current followers an opportunity to purchase at the price they are at currently.

The only items that will be increasing in price will be the VW inspired ones. This isn’t a decision that I came to lightly. I’m excited that these products have been selling well, and the VW inspired onesies are a completely hand sewn applique which is the main reason why the price is increasing.