Red Riding Hood Glasses Cases

First of all let me start with an apology. I have had a very busy Easter and even though I had a little bit of childcare I totally underestimated how much time I would need to be making up orders. It's usually a fairly quiet time, but not so this year. I am obviously delighted to be so busy but unfortunately the blog has had to go on hold for a couple of weeks. Sorry about that, but I am back now!

I am filling up my etsy shop and the newest additions are my Little Red Riding Hood glasses cases. The case can also be personalised using a freehand machine embroidery technique. The handwritten style that this technique produces makes each case individual.

The cases are printed by hand using scarlet red acrylic printing ink. Each design is hand illustrated and then screen printed in our Northamptonshire studio.

Each glasses case is fully lined in red cotton fabric with soft batting to keep your glasses snug, there is a matching red elastic strap and a vintage button to hold your glasses in place.

Both versions are available from my shop, here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/evajeanie?page=1#save

Exciting Post!!!

I love getting post, especially when it's not just boring statements and invoices, I have had two really cool things arrive in the past couple of days.

The first was something I ordered from etsy US, it is a pattern for a dress, top and trousers. I have been thinking about making some clothes for a while but have completely bitten the Great British Sewing Bee bug and decided I need to buy myself a pattern pronto! The one I chose looks fairly simple and is made by Simplicity. I had a bash at making some clothes while I was at Uni but think I chose the wrong fabrics as I did look like a bit armchairesque in one dress I remember! So watch this space, I will definitely do a blog post when I have something the show for it! I don't want to make things too tricky but I'm thinking about screen printing the pockets....

The other exciting package was from Amazon and is a book that I have wanted for ages.

 

It is called 'I just like to make things' by Lilia Rogers. It is a beautiful spiral bound book, the tag line to the book says 'Learn the secrets to making money while staying passionate about your art and craft'. I don't want to spoil it as I will do a whole blog post on it soon, but I can see just from flicking through the pages that it's just what I need in my life right now, I hope the content is as inspiring as the artwork! I'll be sure to let you know.

One last thing I need to tell you. Tonight is the night (at midnight) when parents of preschool age children in our County can log on to a website to find out which School their child has been allocated. Now if you are not the parent of a pre-school age child, this probably means very little to you but for us Mum's and Dad's of little 4 year olds it's a bit of a curious time. On the one hand I don't want Eva to go to school as I want to keep her here at home with me forever, but as that's not an option I have to hope (along with all the parents) that we have been allocated one of our three choices. I have had nightmares that I receive a letter offering us a place at a School, but the school named is not legible. I really didn't think I was worried but I am now and will definitely be logging in at midnight if only to assist with crashing the website!

Vintage Inspiration

I have been searching for new inspiration, well actually it's old inspiration. I have been researching  vintage children's books and prints to help me with some new designs. I love using old textiles and embellishments and it just seems fitting to find some of these lovely old designs to help me create some new ones.

I am especially loving the colour palette and the fonts used by Tove Jansson for the Moomins comic strip. Although as a child I found the stories a little eerie!

For a long time us designers were font snobs and I felt restricted by typefaces, we tended to stick to a nice sans serif font, like Arial or Vervanda but in more recent years those rules seem to have been broken and it's okay to use interesting type at varying scales, to create interesting texture and tone.

I really love the blue typeface used on the PAAS Easter egg colour kit, I wonder what these were for I'd love to get my hands on one. It's probably for some cheap children's toy but I really admire the illustration and how on even cheaper products, time and attention was given to this detail.

I really like the colours in these two book jackets, especially the Sleepy-Time Rhyme book. The illustrations on all the artworks are beautiful and some very stylised, I wonder if we will look back on the book jackets of today with such respect.