I'm having a nice quiet week this week, after my mad flurry of action over the last week and a half, making handbags, clutches and coin purses for a stall I had on the weekend at a family fun day/markets in town. The rain-threatening weather kept a lot of people away, so it was a bit quiet, but I got to meet a lovely couple Bill and Judy - Bill is an artist who live just around the corner from me. They were really nice to chat to, and I also got to launch my new business card - and even gave one out! (Okay, the markets weren't overly successful, but I got to have a morning in the park, and husband even vacuumed the house while I was out - bonus!).
The fun day was Sunday, and I really wanted to wear something groovy and handmade, which it seems I don't have a lot of - so settled on a top I made last year. Which got me wanting to make some more clothes for myself...except I really didn't want to spend $20 on a pattern, and I really couldn't be stuffed doing the interfacing, pin-tucking, button-hole making, zip inserting etc. Which led me to finding this tutorial on the internet: http://www.thingsofcloth.com/documents/Adult-size_Peasant_Blouse_Tutorial.pdf I made it yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out! The next one I make I think I will "tweak" it a little to fit a bit differently, but there are no darts, interfacing, buttons, zippers or pin-tucking to be seen, just a lot of elastic threading which was easy enough! Here is the result (FYI - I am wearing a 3/4 sleeve top underneath):
I had to take the longer sleeve top off later through the day as it got quite warm, but the blouse turned out to be lovely and cool, not bunching up under my armpits creating a BO sauna, fab!
I decided on Thursday last week that yes, I would do a stall at the markets on Sunday. For some reason I was feeling very "I can do it!" and made the phone call to book a stall. Pull out my finger and get my crafting/sewing mojo back into action! Craft Power!Although I didn't have a huge amount of stock to sell, I still had some softies, hair-clips, finger puppets, singlets and bibs left over from the stall I had at the Cobar Public School fete. I decided to add to that, by making some kids bathroom bags. So off RMW and I went to Spotlight on Friday to buy some new fabric, zippers and plastic tablecloth. Except they were busy and I really couldn't be stuffed to wait around to get MORE fabric (usually after being overlooked by staff by serving other customers who hadn't waited as long as me - when oh WHEN are they going to get a number system like the Woolies Deli?!?). So instead I settled for zippers and the plastic, and got the hell out of there before RMW cracked it big time. We still had the groceries to do, afterall.I searched through my stock of fabric and (unsurprisingly) found some suitable material and by Saturday afternoon had made 8 bags for the markets and one for RMW (the prototype, which had a few bugger-ups on it - he does need a bathroom bag, really).
And they did quite well at the markets too! I sold all the boys ones, and one of the girls ones, so well worth the effort I reckon. The markets were fun, I sold a bit of everything, but best of all got to chat to other groovy stallholders, some nice customers, and got loads of good feedback and some new ideas. And my crafting juices are very, well, juicy! I was given some pamphlets from other organisations (schools, aged care facilities etc) for other upcoming markets, which I fully intend on going to. A jolly good morning out!Now, time to do some mending (ew). Husbands work-shorts have busted the crotch seam, and I'm sick of seeing a flash of undies every time he sits down! Why don't men care about that sort of thing? I'll have to change the thread in my sewing machine which will probably be the longest part of the mending process, but I will also be in the running for house-wife of the year, not bad!
