Handmade Floral Union Jack Bunting

This week you have not heard from me as I have been locked away in my sewing room making an order for the lovely people at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle.

The Biscuit Factory is one of the UK’s largest independent contemporary commercial art galleries, showcasing two floors of contemporary arts, crafts and design, offering a refreshing and sumptuous space and they wanted my bunting to sell in their shop, woop woop, how excited am I?!

I decided to take some photo's as I went along for you to see the amount of work (and fabric) that goes into making a wholesale order. It's a visual diary, the photo's are self explanatory...

So that's it, all ready to be packaged, wow that's a lot of bunting.

Carrier bag holders

Over the last week I have been working on orders and new designs for my shop. I have also been trying to remove some of the older items to make way for new ones and sometimes it's nice to have a complete change.

But I have one product in my shop that is and always has been popular. These are my free machine embroidered and appliqued carrier bag holders It's funny as I made them initially as a bit of a joke, but I think it has been one of my most popular items. Earlier this year I changed the fabric options, to keep things fresh and up to date, it was also to simplify things a little as my initial listing offered 8 fabric choices most of which were vintage and it was a bit too complicated on the stock control as each one uses a fair amount on fabric and I tend to buy vintage pieces in small sizes I almost had to buy more fabric every time I got an order. But that's all part of the learning curve and product development, I have plan now and a big stock of fabrics that are modern but in a vintage style.

I guess this bag holder has been popular because people are a bit more conscious of the environment and the importance of not just throwing plastic bags away, but re-using them each time we shop, the downside to this of course is a cupboard full of plastic bags, but they do squish down quite small therefore this carrier holder can hold loads.

 I think this is one item that is going to stay in my shop for a while yet. It is also available without the embroidered panel on the front. I make these for craft fairs in smaller quantities from the vintage fabrics I originally used so if you would like one of those you can message me, otherwise they are available from my notonthehighstreet shop

New makes from some old things

The new ipad cosies are proving to be popular. Here is some photo's of the latest order, made using gorgeous Tanya Whelan fabric with a mirco red and white polka dot, the cosy has an integral pocket on the front and is finished off with a vintage button.

Talking of vintage, I had an most super time at the northampton vintage fair on Saturday, here are some of my finds. As anticipated most of these lovelies came from shabby polka dots and Ticking Stripe. 

They both had such a fabulous selection it was really hard to choose. In fact I was actually walking out the door when I decided I had to go back for the floral bark cloth (pictured on the top of the bottom photo). I am so glad I went back for it I wouldn't have slept!! I also really love the old wooden reel Sylko threads, especially the ones with the descriptive names on which are the earliest versions (before everything was given a number). They are really beautiful and great for props in photos but I have found they are completely rubbish for using in my modern sewing machine. Maybe that's a good excuse to invest in an old beauty, I'll have to see if I can find one at my next vintage fair!