Wink Designs

Post-market post

I've been a little slow to post "post-market" - a week of R&R has gone down really well.  You've probably seen images and read accounts from some of the other ladies who were at the latest Mathilda's Market in Sydney.  It was really good to share a stall - thankyou Belinda (!) - I'd highly recommend it for anyone contemplating a market for the first time and a little unsure of going it alone.  Here is one photo taken by Belinda - the full set of her photos of our stall are over here.

What fun, also, to be right next door to Cass and Ingrid and it was great to meet some other ladies like Sophie for the first time. Overall, it was really inspiring to be amongst so many amazing crafters and to discover new designers like Elyse who was set up just behind us.  Her website is still not complete so unfortunately you can't see the full range online but her designs were a real stand-out for me. The way she boldly combined patterns and colours, both modern and vintage was amazing.  It made me feel like my fabric choices fall far too frequently in the "safe zone" and on the flipside made me also vow to try some "outside the square" combinations in future projects.

Also, as you can see, my little op-shop owl mascot has decided that we'll be having a storewide sale - everything has been reduced to under $30 USD for this week.  I'll then start listing items in new designs and fabric combinations at regular prices.

 

In other owly business, (and again on the theme of lateness) I never did get around to posting pics of my first attempt at an owl softie.  This one was for Baby Emmeline (her very clever, crafty mum is rather fond of owls, I had heard....).

It was wrapped in fabric and ric-rac for its journey.

 

That's all for now, I'm off to finish a little bit of "just-for-us" sewing now.  Pics soon.

Guys & dolls

Some more cushions and bunting - this time in matching sets.  I've been waiting for an opportunity to use this very cute Kokeshi fabric and love the way these came together:

 

And the cowhide print in this set is just fabulous.  It's a lovely chocolate brown on cream.  The cowboy fabric was fun to work with too.  Not too cartoonish like many of cowboy prints around:

 

I'll put some more photos of the back view of the cushions on flickr (because these things are important, you know!)

These sets will be making a showing at Mathilda's but I'm hoping to make up some more for the etsy shop after that.  This is probably my last pre-market post, so if you're in the area on Sunday drop in and say hi:

Festive, fabulous, fun....

What can you say about cushions & bunting?  Nothing much except that they are festive, fabulous & fun to make.  These are the last of the Matryoshka cushions that will roll off the Wink production line (can't find that little Russian doll print fabric anymore - let me know if any of you have a secret source?!) teamed with some bunting made from Prints Charming and other coordinating fabrics:

 

And some bunting for the boys:

Monday make-fest

This was the result of my little Monday make-fest yesterday with some more items for the Tuttifruiti/Wink Mathilda's stall.  Some little aprons in fun retro classic prints (perfect for Easter baking):

 

 

And these little Moleskin notebooks were just begging to be "Matryoshka-ed":

 

That's all for now, back to the old sewing machine mistress(!).

Good things, small packages....

We signed up for the Kids ATC Swap hosted by Erin & Blair and here are some of Cee's Cee's contributions:

It's magical watching tiny blank cards transformed into little works of art by a child.  The Artists' Trading Card is an artistic form which really lends itself perfectly to childrens' self expression.  Obviously a lot of others agree, because by all reports the swap had an amazing number of participants.

 

I'll post a pic of the ATCs received in return when they're all in.  The Flickr Group is here.

Sticky stuff

Thanks to all who left friendly, supportive comments on my last post.  I realise the whole copying issue is a very "sticky" one but there are far more important problems begging for attention at the moment so enough said on that one for the time being.

And if debating the relative merits of elastic waisted skirts is not enough to make me think I've lost sight of the big picture, today I've been taking photos of the front of my fridge.  But there is a reason for this.  It's to show you some lovely fabric kitchen magnets we made recently.

Last year we bought a new fridge and I've been on a mission to rid the front of it of those ugly promotional magnets in favour of something more attractive.  As essential as those small businesses are, Pete's Pest Control (with big hairy spider picture) and Paul's Plumbing (with large picture of toilet) are not what I want to be looking at every time I open the fridge.

 

We made these by ironing roughly cut pieces of fabric to some thin but stiff fusible interfacing, tracing random shapes on the back and cutting them out.  We then used a glue sealer ("Craft Smart Glaze Paste", which is available at Spotlight for Australian readers - but "Mod Podge" is the original, more widely used equivalent) brushed over the front surface with a paint brush. 

Note: the first attempt produced an uneven and bubbly finish until we followed the suggestion that the paste be watered down.  After mixing about 2 parts paste to 1 part water the result was perfect albeit less glaze-y.

The final step after they were dry was to adhere some flexible stick-on magnets (purchased in a sheet at a local art & craft shop) to the back of the fabric shapes.  You have to make the shapes proportional to the size of the magnets.  If the shapes are large, use 2 or more magnets or there won't be enough sticking power!

   

Love the promotional postcard for the Stitches & Craft Show shown above.  For lucky Melburnians the time is nigh....

Not such a lazy day....

I've been rapped over the knuckles by the craft blog police.  That shadowy band of self-appointed smarty-pantses who make copying allegations and then deny the accused the courtesy of replying because they have no return blog address and their email accounts are mysteriously disabled.

In short, I received an email saying that my Fat Quarter Baby Skirts look exactly like the Lazy Days Skirts from Oliver & S and did I "take the idea" from them?

Normally I wouldn't give this sort of thing the time of day but for other well meaning and polite readers who may have got the same impression after looking at my photos I thought I'd use this post to clear things up.  It's probably partly my fault because the ribbon trim on my skirts definitely does gives them a resemblance to Lazy Days skirts.  However, as I pointed out you could just as easily leave the trim off and use a simple hem or embellish them in a completely different way.  I think the ribbon trim is where the similarily ends.  Specifically:

• My skirts are made from a fat quarter cut into 2 pieces and require both side seams to be finished. 

• Lazy Days skirts are made from a full width of fabric folded from selvedge to selvedge in 1 piece and don't require side seam finishing.

• The whole point of my skirts is that there is no wastage from one fat quarter.  The skirt is intended to fit babies between 6 and 12 months. 

• The Lazy Days pattern is (I think) intended for older toddlers and larger sizes. The full width of most fabrics is far too much to gather at the waist for a tiny baby skirt.

So a big raspberry to you (whoever you are) and I just want to let you know that contrary to your intentions you've actually inspired me further.  At the time I was making those little skirts with exactly one fat quarter I thought it would also be cool to use exactly two fat quarters to make a skirt for an older girl.  So here it is: the "Two Fat Quarters Skirt" (again, I'm sure it's been done before etc. etc. yawn...). 

On my estimations it would fit girls between 3 and 5 (depending on how much you hem it and how tight you make the elastic).  This blue and green model was worn to a birthday party by my almost-5 year old with the little coordinating brooch in the top photo (which I'm making a batch of for Mathilda's).

P.S. As an interesting postscript, regular readers may remember this skirt that I made many moons ago, long before the Oliver & S Lazy Days pattern made its way into blogland.  I made it by folding the skirt from selvedge to selvedge in order to avoid having to finish the side seams.  When I first saw the Lazy Days pattern I jokingly thought, "Oh look, Oliver & S have used my idea!".  Of course they hadn't and I'm sure countless others before have had the idea of selvedge to selvedge skirts.  So you see, there really are no new ideas!

So next time you want to accuse someone of copying think again and spend the time making something yourself, contribute to a good cause or at least take a walk in the park and smell the flowers!  Have a nice week!