Heel tags

I had an interesting order this week.  This customer wanted custom heel tags to go on the back of her wedding party's Converses.  With bridesmaids, groomsmen, a parent, and the happy couple, it was 14 people, so 28 labels! 

 I wanted to do double topstitching on the edges to match the look of the heel of a Converse, but it was hard to get it straight and consistent from label to label.  Those things were just so small! Eventually I set up an assembly line and topstitching all of my labels like this.  They ended up much better.  I hope the bride sends me a picture!

Here's a taste of my personal life.  We had the day off last Monday for Rosh Hashanah and headed to the beach.  The weather was perfect, the toddler and I made sand castles, and the older kids froze in the water with their dad.  Their grandparents came too. A great end to summer!

 I also started a new part-time job.  As someone who has employed herself since college, this has been more nerve-wracking than I expected. But since I am teaching at the school my kids have gone to for three years before this, I know everyone. I've taught two days of music so far and both have gone well.  I redecorated this whole classroom, which before had a bunch of posters with lots of words.  These are preschool kids ages 2-5, so I took everything down, printed and laminated a bunch of pictures of animals with musical instruments, and redecorated!

 My youngest started at the school today.  She loved school and seeing Mommy in music class.

I am finishing up testing on my first clutch pattern!  My testers are giving helpful feedback.  I have the other two framed clutch patterns almost finished, but am waiting on supplies.  I am offering those patterns in new sizes and need to test them myself before sending them to others.

Rockabilly purses

I love creative customers!  And this one was a great one to work with.  She decided on seven different purse designs, most of them Rockabilly inspired.  This was the concept collage we came up together.

 

I knew the hardest purse would be the one with the sparrows.  I was fairly confident that I could come up with something on my new Silhouette Cameo.  My ideas were to either use vinyl as a stencil and paint on the sparrow, or to use heat transfer.  This is the free sparrow vector graphic that I found online.  Adam (my husband) and I both have limited vector abilities, but our combined efforts worked well.  Adam simplified the graphic, and then I figured out how to make it compatible with the Cameo software. 

 Here is a progress photo of the purses.

 And after several miserable attempt at cutting out a sparrow, I finally figured out the vector program and got this to cut out successfully (with only a little hiccup on the tail from a lump in the vinyl).

 I experimented with both fabric paint (fail for several reason, mostly that the vinyl really liked being stuck to the glitter vinyl), and heat transfer.  I had to be really careful to not scorch or melt the glitter vinyl.

 Sewing a couple layers of glitter vinyl is tricky, so sewing these purses wasn't a walk in the park.  I'm really happy with the final order.

 Some close-ups.

I think my customer will be happy!

Welcome, September!

August was a record month for me and I have the pictures to show for it!

 

Here was a bridal order where the bride contacted me with less than a week until her wedding.  Her original clutch seller had disappeared and she was left in the lurch.  I was able to fit in this rush order and get them off to her with a couple days to spare!

 This was a large order with beautiful purple color.

 An order that combined my bow clutch with nautical embellishments.  The pearl brooch is removeable and she can put an anchor on that one instead if she wants.

 This one has a different embellishment for each bridesmaid.

 And embroidered initials with a little charm.

 Another gathered order (glad I introduced this style!)

 Champagne colored. Champagne has been a big color this year.

 Eight bright yellow woven clutches with gray interiors.

 Pink and champagne gathered.

 Chocolate and ivory gathered.

 This clutch was fun, if a little stressful at times.  After I ordered the applique for it, my supplier contacted me to let me know she couldn't find them in her inventory.  Instead, I had her send me some white ones, and I then dyed it to the right color.  The first time I dyed it, it wasn't quite the right shade, which was pretty depressing. Then I remembered that I still had yellow dye from an order last year, so I dyed it again with fuchsia mixed with a little yellow, and it ended up perfect.

 I have been cutting out purses like crazy in preparation for the holiday season.  I really want to have a full shop, and to make extras of popular products so that I don't have to worry about making items to order during the busy periods.  Anyway, I have a new shelving unit just filled with purses I've cut out, and I'm trying to work on those items and current orders simultaneously.  Here are a couple recent favorites.

September will be an interesting month for me.  My 4 year old starts preschool mid-month every weekday for three hours.  That means I'll have to drive my husband to work and back home every single day in order to have the car, which will make dinner prep interesting until I can get into the groove.  I'm excited to have my daughter in school, learning and making new friends.  And I'm also happy to have more one-on-one time with my 2.5 year old, who dearly loves his sister and may have problems with her gone everyday.  The afternoons and evenings will still be my sewing time. :]

Recent custom orders

I guess it's been over a month since I last blogged.  I've had quite the selection of bridal and custom orders since then.  Here's a boatload of pictures.

Nautical orders continue to be popular.  I love when a bride picks something different for each purse.

 This was actually not an order, but a quilt for my newborn niece.  Kind of busy, with lots of appliques.  Choosing complementary colors for a quilt is always difficult for me.  The important thing was that my sister loves it.

 Some woven purses. Have I mentioned this is my favorite of my designs?  I've been making variations of it from the beginning and still enjoy making it.

 Ivory with orange and pink insides (another thing I love doing--can you tell I like it when brides find unique ways to personalize their purses?)

 I had a bride ask for a red cameo, and I was about to decline, when I actually searched around and found one.  I decided to go ahead and buy a few and add it as an option in my shop.  I haven't actually gotten around to that yet though! I think I may have a section in my shop simply for nautical purses of different variations.

 This customer sent me two different fabrics .

 Bright green gathered purse with keyholes and chocolate interior.

 The funny thing is, the fabric in the above order was so difficult to work with that I decided to only offer gathered purses in silk.  Polyester fabrics warp when exposed to the iron, which I have to do in order to fuse the interfacing in this style of clutches.  I had a bride ask for silver and white silk gathered clutches:

 After that I added these to my shop with a few different variations: flowers, keyholes, and plain.  This was a little over a week ago.  I've already had three brides order them!  One chose different embellishments for each bridesmaid, which will be fun.

 A customer asked for a silver anchor or something with rhinestones, and I was pleased to find a rhinestone anchor!  I've ordered some plain silver anchors to offer as an option, and am considering adding these rhinestone anchors too.  I also had to clear out a drawer just to use for nautical embellishments!  I needed them easily accessible so that I can see at a glance if I'm close to running out of a certain style.

 Champagne satin clutches with cascading ruffles.

 Coral interiors:

 Seven silk pleated clutches in gray:

 With a peach cotton print on the interiors:

 Three ruffled black clutches for bridesmaids and a fuchsia (a color I recently finally figured out how to spell correctly!) clutch for the bride, and a woven clutch for MOB.

 Four green silk clutches with couched embroidery and bead leaves.

 Silver and scarlet purses for the bridesmaids and silver and ivory for the bride.

Whew!  That's my July plus a bit of August custom order round-up!  Coming up in the next couple of weeks, I have several orders of gathered clutches, a fun nautical/bow variation, and a large woven clutch order.  My work is cut out for me!

More bridal orders

I've had a series of bridal orders on my schedule for awhile.  These were all ordered around the same time, but needed various fabrics and frames, so they aren't completed until now. 

First of all, these six woven clutches.  Five are ivory, one chocolate brown. 

 The interiors are all different.  I love when brides want to personalize their clutches like this.  She also chose teardrop clasp frames, which really are elegant.

 Last night I glued 13 clutches.  My poor fingers are still aching this morning. 

 These six plain clutches will be going to a bride who will be putting her own lace on them, from her mother's wedding dress, I think.  I picked a lacey neutral fabric for the inside to compliment the lace that will be going on the outside.

 And these three different purses for another bride.  That bird fabric in the back took about 6 weeks to arrive!  Nothing like shipping stress to make you bite your nails.

 So that was my evening's work last night.  I'm really happy to be able to get these orders off to their new owners!