this is not a sewing blog, is it?

Nope, no much sewing around here, although I’m in the middle of 2 custom orders which need finishing asap. I am not sewing anything new but managed to open 2 more shops (dawanda and folksy) in which I will only list ready to ship items (which I don’t have much of at the moment so these shops may look quite empty till I have an urge to stock them). My fabric stash however seem to increase so I have started selling some of them.

After months of wanting a walking foot, I finally managed to grab one (along with a custom fit add-on quilting table) at a bargain price on ebay. Now, I can finally think of making a quilt for our sofa. I bought the following book to teach myself as I have never made a big quilt in my life.

I’m still in the process of settling in the house. No much progress inside but I managed to do plenty of planting in the front and back garden, I’m working with what was already there (gravel and patio in the back and lawn in the front). I planted a japanese cherry tree in the middle of the lawn (front garden) and surrounded it pansies, then various flower bulbs and more pansies, I’ve also planted the 3 sides border of the lawn with flower bulbs hoping to have them as cut flowers for the house in summer.

I have always wanted to grow some fruit and vegetables and this year I am giving it a go. So far, these are what I’ve planted in the front garden, some in the ground, others in containers:

* fruit trees: cherry, nectarine, fig

* soft fruit bushes: 3 types of  berries

* strawberries

* vegetables: tomatoes (cherry, plum, hildares and marmande), bell peppers (green, yellow, red), french beans, jalapeno chilli, salad

* herbs: thyme, parsley, mint, basil, coriander

* flower plants: camelia, jasmine, geranium, petunia, pansies, impatients

* lots of flower bulbs/seeds (peony, dhalia, harlequin, freesia, gladioli, anemone, geranium, gloxinia, mirabilis, chinese lantern physalis,  sweet peas).

Links:

* picture of my gravel garden here

* my sewing room featured on shaby chic (a fab UK home deco/design blog) here

* my sewing room featured on apartment therapy here

New sewing room

I’m back. The house purchase took longer than I expected but we finally moved to the new (old) house last month. It’s a small 2 bed bungalow (well small compared to our old house but roomy compared to a typical bungalow). So my sewing area is also smaller and is a part of our living room, it has a french door which leads to the garden, but the garden is still a messy work in progress so no pretty view from my sewing corner yet.

This  time, I’m trying a layout with the table against the wall, but when the garden is prettier I may put the table in the middle as before so that I can enjoy looking at the garden while sewing.  I also want a separate cutting table so am open to ideas on how to incorporate one without making the space look to small and crampy.

If you are looking for more sewing room ideas, check out the ones in the links below (all from my favourites folder in flickr):

Pink sewing room by chaletgirl13

Cube storage in a sewing room from decorology

The new Studio magazine from Cloth Paper Scissor also has lots of ideas, but I have not seen it sold in UK yet (you can buy it via equilter.com who delivers to UK).

Happy times

I got my first press exposure this month in Quick & Crafty magazine (christmas issue, page 71)! I’m so delighted about that, especially because I love that magazine. I was contacted by one of their editors a few weeks ago, they were working on a special russian dolls feature and asked me if I wanted to be included. The whole issue is actually very good (with free templates and step by step projects to make russian dolls inspired items), and several etsy items/etsy sellers were featured. There was also a recent article in the Times Sunday magazine about buying from etsy, which is really great because etsy is still not that well known in UK.

The other happy news is that I just bought my first house, so things have been hectic recently. We are currently living in a temporary accommodation (staying with friends) for a few weeks till we can move in the new house, so I’m bound to continue being super busy till probably beginning of next year. I am looking forward to setting up my next sewing studio and am dreaming of building a conservatory to be used as my studio when I can afford it. These are the last pictures of my studio in the old house, the little house box/basket is something that I have coveted for a long time from Rice.dk but when I found out their price I’ve asked my dad to buy me some direct from Madagascar where Rice manufacture them.

Review of Seams to me book by Anna Maria Horner

I love Anna Maria Horner, her fabrics, her blog, her creativity and was very excited to hear that she wrote a new sewing book. Now, other fabric designers before her already published some very nice books so I had very high expectations for Anna Maria’s one (you know, wondering if she was going to offer some fresh new projects, and if I will learn something new from the book). I was delighted, I love it so much I had to write this review even though I have millions more urgent things to do right now. You can click on each picture to see a larger version of it.

What I liked:

* The spiral format of the book makes it easy to use

* There are 24 projects, most of them are fresh (not a rehash of projects already in other books or readily available online), there are 10 paper patterns (ready to be cut as they are printed on one side only). The projects are varied: for your sewing room, bags, home deco projects, women clothing, kids clothing, quilt, wall hanging art, baby toy, even one project for your pet etc

* The book is a visual feast, very enjoyable to browse through with lots of bright and cheerful colours

* The book is very comprehensive. You will learn how to set up your sewing space, what tools are really worth having, she offers useful tips that I have not seen in other similar books, there is even a lesson on colour combination based on saturation. I love this book because Anna Maria somehow, through what she is generously sharing in this book, has inspired me to be more creative in my sewing process. She is inspiring me to think/act/create as a designer/artist and not just a seamstress.

* I like the fact that she used other designers’ fabrics in addition to her own, so the book is not a marketing book for her fabric lines.

* The tutorials are very well explained, and for each project she add a litte “color notes” where she explains why she chose that print and colour (it’s like an insider tip on how designers select fabrics for their projects)

What I didn’t like:

* A very few projects are already familiar to me (like the cozy cube)

* I would have loved to see full pictures of her studio

To recap, it’s a very good book, worth having even if you already have all the other fabric designers books (Amy Butler etc).

Fancy sewing something from the book right now? Click here to to go to the publisher’s site where you can download (pdf format) the free tutorial for the doodad pillow project from the book.

New matryoshka russian dolls tote bag

Thanks for those sending me emails asking me when I’m going to update my blog. I have been busy since july with custom orders, went to Paris, needed time to recover from all the walking in Paris, still busy with sewing. I also have some exciting news that I don’t want to talk about yet but it means I’ll be even more busy.

I’ve open the new fabric/supply destash shop which you can find at www.frenchdesign.etsy.com I’m not really ready to dedicate time to it yet as I would like to focus more on stocking my main shop and making it ready for the christmas season.

Below is the newest tote bag I made using the super rare russian dolls fabric by Shamash and Sons, which I’ve listed in my etsy shop. And if you fancy seeing a picture of me, head over to my flickr pages.

Thinking of opening a second etsy shop

I’ve realised that I’m very good at sourcing items at a good price, it’s a very useful skill as things in general are expensive in UK (well expensive compared to France and US where I do most of my online shopping in regard to fabric, notions etc). So, I thought it would be a good idea to open a second etsy shop just for supplies. It will be a small shop offering japanese books, japanese/french and us fabrics, sewing notions and maybe some jewellery findings supplies. I’m planning to open that shop sometime in september after I’ve been back from a buying trip to Paris.

One of the things that I get from Paris (that I seem to find impossible to find anywhere at a good price) is a fabulous woven interfacing that I use in my bags (interfacing that does not make the fabric look wrinkly as the texture is more of a cotton fabric rather than the paper/card texture of non woven interfacing), it’s more expensive than the usual pellon interfacings for bags so I’m not sure if it’s worth selling it in the new shop. And, I plan to transfer all of the japanese books and fabrics from my current shop to the new one, but for now I am doing a weekly promotion where you can BUY ONE YARD OF FABRIC and GET ANOTHER YARD HALF PRICE.

Below is a recent custom order I sewed, the fabric is the bamboo cotton blend that I got a while ago. This fabric is so soft and silky, it is much better to use it in clothing, but if used in bags and accessories you need to interface it in the same way as you would a Liberty lawn fabric.

I also got some new organic bamboo velour fabric that would be great for baby products. I have so many ideas for new products but my time seem to be all taken by the sewing side (I wish I had a sewing fairy to help me out!).

Buy one get one free

I’m still very busy with custom orders at the moment so no much blog posting.

Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve decided to do a weekly promotion in my etsy shop, and this week all passport covers are BUY ONE GET ONE FREE, the free one can be a different design to the one bought but must be the same price or cheaper. Check back often as the promo will change every week.

Below are pictures of my latest project: a multi use bag with a detachable strap that can be used as a shoulder bag/wristlet or pouch.

Fab giveaway from Lila Tueller

Just a quick note to let you know that a fabric designer – Lila Tueller - that I just recently discovered is having a fabulous giveaway, the prizes are an adorable purse and some of her patterns, to enter just leave a comment on her blog.

3 months review since selling on etsy

I’ve been back from my holiday for a couple a weeks now but was overwhelmed by custom orders on my return. It was quite a nice surprise but I wish buyers would let me know where and how they found out about my etsy shop as this will help me with my marketing later on.

As mentioned in my previous posts, some of my products were featured on several blogs, and then while I was away my Liberty pouch was featured on Thelongthread blog (thanks Ellen), and on my return my matryoshka messenger bag was featured on Smidge blog (thanks Kat). For those wanting to know how I ended up having some of my products being featured on some blogs, well I didn’t go out and ask the blog owners about being featured , it was rather them who just went ahead and featured my products (some informed me beforehand, some didn’t, but either way I’m super happy about it and very grateful).

So, I’ve been on etsy for 3 months now, and overall I’m very satisfied with my sales. Sometimes it’s quiet, and sometimes it’s busy. It’s not giving me a full time income but it does help recoup the cost of my materials. I found that I have a mix of UK and international buyers (from US, Australia, Russia, Italy but not much european buyers). I also offer the possibility for UK buyers to pay in UK pound but no one seems interested yet so I assume they are all happy paying in dollars. I do appreciate being paid in dollars as I then can use this currency when buying my materials from the US, thus avoiding any exchange rate fees.

There is no specific item that sells more than the others at present, but recently I tend to have more and more custom orders which I love but the problem is that while I’m busy with those orders I tend not to make anything new which results in less frequent listings and less people finding my shop. So I will now make sure to list new items regularly even when I am also in the middle of tackling several custom orders. I’ve been watching some successful sellers in my category and learned that they all list new items nearly everyday, they offer entry level price items (usually less than $10), they blog about their products and their shops, they do regular promotions, they come up with new products every so often. So I’m off to follow those tips.

My shop has also received 100 hearts, so as a thank you gesture I am offering one FREE GIFT of your choice (any handmade item in the shop up to the value of $20, custom order included, books and fabrics not included) with any purchase over $20. This is valid only for the next 5 customers, so hurry up go and buy something from my shop. EDITED: thank you for all those who took advantage of this offer. The offer is now closed.

On another matter, I am very sensitive to the sun and usually burns very quickly despite applying sun block. I also usually gets a bad reaction from the chemicals in sun blocks, but while I was in Barcelona I found a wonderful sun protection range that is all natural and organic and very effective, it’s by Apivita, a small greek brand.

Featured on Sweet Figments

My travel organizer has been featured in Sweet Figments blog (thanks Connie).  Sweet Figments only features handmade items so if you fancy a chance of being featured in the site, submit your items in the Sweet Figments flickr group (wonderful free marketing!).

I have been busy with custom orders, this one is for a lovely lady who wanted a compact organizer that incorporates a purse/wallet and pockets for cheques.

I am planning to make another one that is big enough to carry a whole cheque book. But for now I have to finish a portfolio organiser for Kate and then I’m off to Barcelona for a well deserved break.