What's Up: Wallets and Rest

Whew, the Urban Crafter's Trunk Show is over.  It was good fun and a great learning experience.  I learned a lot more about what sells at these shows (items under $30) and what doesn't.  The best part was that I got to meet a group of lovely, creative ladies and I have some great connections going forward.  I was so tired at the end of the week that I didn't do any sewing over the weekend - not even the promise of a new skirt could lure me back to the sewing machine!

My main project last week was finishing up these wallets:

I'll be putting up the wallets and other items that didn't sell in my Etsy shop this week.  I'm glad to be able to stock it up again as it's been looking a bit empty!

There were so many great items at the show that I thought I'd highlight some of the things I liked best.

Berwyn Betty's Bath Shop
Stephanie Miller started Berwyn Betty about a year ago.  Stephanie started making soaps because she has a daughter with autism and one of her OCD behaviors is needing to use up an entire bar of soap in the shower no matter how long it takes.  After a lot of experimenting, Stephanie found that she doesn't do this with felted soap because she can't actually see the soap.  So Berwyn Betty became a way to make soaps and a future job opportunity for her daughter.  I bought a felted beer soap for myself and a set of her lego soaps for the girls.  The girls love them!

Custom Cookies by Jill
Jill Wagner is another Berwyn lady and she found her cookie calling when she needed to bring dessert to a party.  I am awed by how meticulous she is with her cookie designs: she projects an image onto the cookie to get the perfect shape and every color has to dry completely before she adds the next one.  All this for an item that will eventually be consumed!

FormWork by Amy Struckmeyer
Amy makes anything and everything from pillows to bags to bracelets to t-shirts.  I particularly love her t-shirt designs and I was glad to read on her blog that she intends to start making them for grown-ups.

Alix Mikesell
Alix creates her jewelry out of unusual materials: laminate countertop and vintage swizzle sticks.  I loved almost every piece of jewelry that she had in the show.  Maybe (hint, hint) someone will buy a piece for me one day . . . .

This week I plan to finish Jen's wallet and Johnah's skirt and hopefully have the time and energy to work on a skirt for myself next weekend!

Have a great week!

Urban Crafters' Trunk Show!!!

The day has almost arrived.  Maybe I am overly excited for the craft show, but so be it.  I'm not even primarily excited about the potential sales (although that would be nice); I am mostly excited about the experience of doing something with a group of other crafty ladies.  While I was working hard finishing up my wallets and handbags and tags and inventory list this week, I knew that there were a bunch of other ladies in Berwyn and Oak Park and River Forest doing the same thing, and it felt good.

Here's the info:  Saturday, May 12 from 9:30am - 5pm at 411 Park Ave in River Forest.  Liita owns this space and offers afterschool, weekend and summer classes to kids from age 6 & up that allow them to experience the joy and challenge of crafting, sewing, crocheting, and knitting.  I love love love the vibe of this place.  You can check out all the participants here and Liita's classes and camps here.

Now here's where I admit to an act of absolute dumbness.  I took a bunch of photos of how everthing looked in the space and completely forgot to take pictures of the six wallets I spend about 20 hours on over the course of the last few weeks.  And I didn't take any photos at home, either.  And they are super cool: upholstery swatches and scraps transformed into wallets where even the inside of the zippered coin pockets have their own statement to make.  Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.

I do have a picture of my flower pin display with my info scattered around it, so that will have to do.  And there are absolutely lovely things on sale that are NOT by PoldaPop tomorrow.  Take a look:

Aprons and owls t-shirts and various and sundry by Amy from Form Work

Cool soaps from Berwyn Betty . . . I think I will have to get some lego soaps for the girls

Felted soap from Berwyn Betty

My fabric scrap flower pins - notice the 15% off custom order vouchers . . .

Paula Knits

Apple Cozies from Liita of Little Bits

Jill Wagner from Custom Cookies by Jill (another Berwynite) also has some artsy cookies for sale.  I am floored by what she does to create these, and I wish I had a picture to show (another dumb moment - I'm going to blame my distraction on the fact that I had to wrangle a no-time-for-a-nap Maisey while I was setting up & taking pictures).  I'll be there from 11am - 1pm (and maybe later) so stop by and say hi!

What's Up: Work on Skirts, MaiseyBelle Reversible Bags, Flower Scrap Pins, Yet Another Cowl Neck Jersey Top

Greetings and Salutations!  I'm in the middle of finishing items for the Urban Crafter's Trunk Show on Saturday, so today's post is going to be fast and furious so I can get back to getting things together.

Marides' skirts are next on the list for client work.  The first skirt is one of my bias trim skirts and it is coming along nicely.  Marides chose navy twill with Amy Butler Midwest Modern II Fresh Poppise in sky, and the colors work well together:

Marides' second skirt is a yoked a-line from Joel Dewberry's Tile Flourish in Amber.  As the print is large and striking, I wanted to match the print across the center back seam and join it in a thoughtful way between the yoke and the skirt.  Everything was going well until I forgot to fold back out the center back seam allowance after matching the print so one half of the back was 1/2" wider than the other.  If you had been in my neighborhood you would have heard the long ARRRRGGHHH I let out.  I didn't have enough fabric to cut a new piece so I had to order more.  I tried to console myself with the knowlege that this is only the second time I've had to go out-of-pocket to fix a mistake, but it's still frustrating - especially since my mistake was so, well, dumb. 

Devon's aunt ordered another MaiseyBelle Reversible Bag for a friends' birthday (she's a great supporter - see my Seven Bags in Seven Days post) and since it only takes a bit longer to make two v. one, I made a second one for the show.  I still love this bag!

I've also been putting together some flower scrap pins to have a small, less pricey option on offer at the show.  These are easy because I can work on them at the kitchen table with the girls while they are doing crafts. 

One of the things I've learned about myself over the years is that I'm not very good at keeping a slow-and-steady pace.  I tend towards more of a go hard-crash-go hard-crash pace.  For a long time I thought that this was a flaw that I should fix, but I've learned that I'm much happier and more creative this way.  I have learned to see the crash coming so that I don't completely run myself into the ground so that it takes a whole week to recover.

And that's what I saw coming as I contemplated what projects to do this past weekend.  I wanted to do a corsetted pencil skirt - I want one for myself and it would be a good thing to have as a sample at the craft show - but it requires a level of effort and concentration that would have just sent me crashing into a pit of exhaustion.  So instead I did some mindless cutting out of wallet pieces and a couple of quick cowl neck tops (one for myself, one for a friend's birthday).  I changed things up a bit by adding a 6" band to the bottom of one top and contrast thread on the other:

And then I went out on the town with my friends Candice and Kristen for an evening of cocktails and laughter and stories.  Here I am posing with Cora and Maisey in my handmade outfit (and the girls wanted to get in on the action by also wearing things that I've made) as I head out the door:

I'll post later this week with more info on the trunk show and pictures of the set up.  Have a great week!