art tote giveaway

Goodness-where did March go?  It was a busy one for me, filled with birthdays, lots of sewing, and even a little travel.  But now I'm ready to get back into the swing of things--and what better way to do that than with a new giveaway!

I will be giving away one of my Beeps' Peeps art totes.  Should you win, you will be able to choose boy, girl, or gender neutral color schemes.  The tote comes with a coloring book and crayons, ready for creative fun?

Who can enter? Anyone 18 years or older in the US or Canada.

How do I enter? Simply use the Rafflecopter entry form below to enter.  You will see that you can enter a few different ways.

When will I find out if I won? I will choose a winning entry within 48 hours of the contest's close at midnight on April 17. I will notify you via email and will also announce the winner on Facebook and Twitter. I will get your mailing address at that time.

Good luck!

right on, ribbon!

Last week, I was working on a Market Tote in some very wonderful retro-prep Lilly Pulitzer fabric and I had a moment where I realized it needed a little something to really push it over the edge--you know, give it some real prep gravitas.  What better to give it that oomph than a snippet of grosgrain ribbon?  It did the trick.  I often forget about ribbon, though I love it dearly.  Like paprika, ribbon makes everything better.

So, in a turn of ribbon serendipity, I stumbled upon a type of ribbon that is entirely new to me only days after my Market Tote revelation.  In my last post, I discussed my love of narrative fabrics.  Well, how about narrative ribbon?  Farbenmix is a German brand, previously unknown to me but clearly quite famous.  I have always loved woven ribbon with animals or some other repeated motif, but these designs from Farbenmix are just so detailed.  The lovely Petra of Chickadee Supplies has recently moved to the US from Germany and has an excellent selection of this ribbon in her sweet Etsy shop.  Take a look at this Helga the Happy Owl ribbon, for instance.  I feel like you could build a whole bedtime story around the conversation the two little birdies are having while Helga swoops overhead.  Thanks to Petra,  I now have this wonderful Little Red Riding Hood ribbon coming my way.  I am thinking of a little girl's handbag in red polka dots, with this ribbon as trim.

The moral of the story is, sometimes fun little details make all the difference.  Happy crafting!

loose ends

Since you endured my kvetching throughout the month of September, I thought you might like to hear how a couple of things have panned out.  On the Crafty Bastards front, it went swimmingly!  Our booth was a mad house, due in large part to the lovely ladies of Coralilie with whom I shared my booth.  Our tent looked like it had been sacked by the Huns by about 1 pm.  It was a very affirming First Craft Show experience.  I followed all of the advice I could dig up regarding clearly marked items, varying display heights, a neat and tidy presentation, and I really felt good about how things looked.  One of the things that I read pre-show said that seeing your customers respond to your work first-hand is one of the most valuable outcomes of a big show, and I have to agree.  It was fascinating to hear people talking with their friends as they handled the merchandise.  Particularly intriguing to me was the response that men seemed to have to my offerings; one dad even asked me to make him an adult-sized t-shirt with a rocket ship on it since he did not think he could wedge into the 2T I had for sale.  That left me wondering whether men have been left out in the cold a bit on the handmade front.  Maybe not every man interested in handmade wants to be ironic or punkrock.  Food for thought, anyway.

Regarding the lion costume for Cal's preschool, I was finally able to check that off my list.  It was waaaaaaaay harder than I thought it would be!  Observe the original lion costume.  Cute, but doesn't it look simple?  Well, I knew right off the bat that I would not be using the curly faux fur that was on the original mane and tail nub.  I wanted to figure out a way to do the whole thing in polarfleece, keeping it simple enough to toss into the wash frequently since it is destined to live its life in a nursery school dress-up corner.  I started by tracing the parts as best I could and cutting out new pieces.

I then began sewing.  My machine would not sew anything correctly.  It was jamming, knotting, dropping stitches.  A montage of my entire sewing machine's life was flashing before my eyes.  Even my husband was worried, and not just about the nervous breakdown I was having.  Finally, I switched to a stretch needle.  Magical!  It fixed everything. 

My next hurdle was the mane.  I wanted to keep it simple and stylized, but I also wanted it to be immediately recognizable to the children.  My original plan was to create several rows of loops and attach these to the hood.  But when I went to attach the first loop, it seemed like there just wasn't that much room with the ears already in place.  If I had proceeded to attach several rows, it would have not only looked crowded, it would have also been very heavy and caused the hood to fall over the child's face.  Instead of following my original plan, I went with a fringe framing the face.  I used a simple loop for the tail.

The final product is cute and serves the purpose.  It won't be used to outfit Simba for The Lion King on Broadway, but my son insisted on wearing it to school, so I think it will do just fine.