Showing posts with label crafting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafting. Show all posts

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Pimping my hanger

It all started when I read this post, then I went and read this one.
I thought to myself i didn't have time to fool around with twisted wire, but then I got an idea... and I just had to make one. So there you go, a decorated coat hanger, not really useful for hanging things on anymore so it'll just have to find a place to hang out in the house. After checking other people's coat hangers, it seems my "creation" kind of defies the purpose, "hors sujet" like we say in french. Couldn't help it!




Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Working on a deadline

Being self employed can be great and is ideal for people who need flexibility in their schedule and find it easier to run their business themselves. This involves making your own decisions and overseeing the entire process your product goes through. It is very rewarding yet stressful at times.
While I was getting ready for the Baby Expo last week, I thought about all the steps I was taking to efficiently and productively sew some new stock (which sold very well by the way!). More often than not, we mums don't only have to deal with our business and time is very limited. I usually get about two working hours a day. Last week I stretched it to four, but felt exhausted on Sunday.

I compiled a list of hot tips for busy mums. It is a bit long, so I will split it into three or four posts. Here's part 1:

1- Get organized!
To me planning is crucial to successfully get through a big workload. It may seem like a waste of time when you sit down and brainstorm for half an hour but that half hour could save you so much time later on!

- To make sure I don't forget anything, I usually have a list written on a piece of paper lying around and just take notes during the day of anything I might think of. This way, I don't have to "block" some of my precious time and I can write things as they come (I have a terrible memory, the sort where you walk into a room and forget what you went there for!). I have to admit though, I'm a bit of a list freak!

DIY notebook by TalkoftheTown
- Clean up your workspace. A well organized workspace where all your tools are in place, nothing is lying on the floor and you have free space to spread out later on will also save you time and minimize the risk of mistakes. When you're in a rush, you don't have time to stop and think where you last saw your pair of scissors or where you threw that piece of fabric that would be so perfect for making that cute top!

"Keep Calm And Carry On" poster by KeepCalmPosters
- Be methodical. I've never been a big fan of mass production. I like making each garment one at a time but when I'm trying to get lots of stock made in a short amount of time, this method doesn't work. So I get out the fabrics and patterns I will be using and proceed to cut everything. I cut various fabrics and sizes. It may take me days, but doing it all in one go means I don't have to keep going back and forth between the sewing machine and the cutting table (actually the floor for me!). It also means I can sew all the fabrics that require one color of thread together, and once they are all cut I chain-sew (haha) everything. I end up with a string of bits of fabric, which I then pin together and keep going until they are all made. It's tedious and boring but much faster than making one or a few items at a time.


In the next post I will talk about how to use your time efficiently. I would love to get some feedback and hear how other people manage to get through their workload!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

My creative space

This week I'm updating from the past few weeks really, and I have been very creative, yes!
I made more singlets, this time out of the beautiful organic fair trade tee shirts KowTow kindly donated me.  This one is for a friend's little boy who just turned 3! Perfect for summer.
I also made some sun shading tops out of light cotton, but no photo yet, soon soon. My boy hates sunscreen...

Pop over to Kootoyoo for some creative goodness!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

A bit of catching up

Winter is an interesting time. Everything slows down, or hibernates even! I am reminded of this everyday when I go for a walk in my vege garden (I like to do a daily check!). Since the cold weather has set in, growth pace has halved and we haven't got as much as I was planning out of the garden. By the time autumn came, we were still harvesting our summer crops and by the time I got our beds ready for winter, well, it was winter! Good lesson for next year!
Winter has got me into the same slow pace as well, and I am far behind everything, including this blog.
So first catch up, the mini card challenge. I am three cards behind, eeek, I was dreading this since I started the challenge. I did make the cards though, and the camera finally turned up, so here they are!


Week 16's prompt was: "Get someone else to contribute". I asked my best friend of all times, my soul sister, who happens to live in Germany and just got married. I was very very sad I missed out on the wedding.
She made a collage, which we used to do a lot when we were teenagers. This one is about me (!) and how she sees me now. I quote: the wood for my vintage side, the chinese screen, my ethnicity. I make babies (well, one so far!), I am an artist (glad someone sees me that way!!!) and a talented musician and I plant my own veges. Thanks for your contribution sister!

Week 17: "Your bedroom". This is the card that has taken me the longest to make! It was a cold evening, and I spent it between the couch by the fire and my cold workshop. Bedroom have always been important to me, perhaps the most important room of the house. When I was a teenager especially, since that was the only room in the house that was really "me". The card represents my bed, because when it comes down to it, that is what a bedroom is for, and to me it was like the womb, my safe place, cosy and warm. When I was younger I could spend hours in bed, even days (no joke!). I could probably still spend all day reading in bed if I didn't have a little wriggle worm. The colors represent my favorite colors at the time: purple and white. Those were the colors of my basketball team, and I was obsessed with it! My whole room was two tone: purple carpet (yes), purple and white wall paper, purple and white bed sheets... What a geek!
I wrote under the blanket what the bed represented to me, and on the little "me" doll (Josh calls it my voodoo doll) what I aspired to in those days.







































Week 18: "Nature". We got given a swan plant last summer, which Monarch butterflies love, so we got lots and lots of caterpillars. Unfortunately most of them got eaten by wasps and praying mantis, but we managed to get some pupal cases from somewhere else and hung them on our plant. Hoe exciting to see the monarchs emerge! I took some photos of it, so I made a collage of these photos for this week's card!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The blogger is back

Josh was away for work in Wellington, and as he usually takes the computer with him I was blog deprived!

I have been wanting to blog about my secret project for a while... Here it is: earrings!
There is a story behind them: my best friend got married last Saturday in Germany. I wasn't able to attend (New Zealand is a far far away place). It made me very sad, and I wanted to make her something special.
I found a cool book at the library called Stitched Jewels. I made the "leaf" earrings, which were really simple, although it would have been nice to have more pictures of the different stages. I couldn't find one of the supplies (the "acrylic fortifier", used to stiffen the fabric. Pretty crucial) so I improvised and used paint varnish. Worked.
I was pretty happy with the result, sent the parcel five days before the wedding days and it still got there in time! (high five NzPost)

The best thing is that the tutorial was for making two pairs of earrings, one for my best friend and one for myself. I'd told myself I'd dress up and look pretty the day of the wedding, and I'd wear the earrings as well. That way it made me feel I was there in thought.

for some reason I also ended up with an extra pair of earrings, so I've decided to make it a giveaway for a lucky reader. The ways you can enter:

1) By linking (to your blog, facebook, myspace, twitter,..)
2) By leaving a comment
3) By following this blog

Make sure you leave a comment to let me know which way you've entered!
Entries close on the 15th of July.