Gingercake

Show Hangover but it was worth the Party!

I have pictures to show you of my shows!  They were so fun and exhausting.  I loved talking to all the people and meeting the vendors.  It really takes months to prepare for these and now that it is over I feel like I have a bit of a hangover!  I am sorta dazed.  I had a great day yesterday doing almost nothing and today was not much different.  

(warning!  these pictures are mostly from my phone and not the best but they are better than nothing!)

Here is me at my first show in Atlanta, Marist Holiday Traditions...

I went to Marist for high school and it was so funny to set up my booth in the old gym.  It still smells the same!  This show was big- 240 vendors in 4 different areas around the Marist campus.  My Mom, Linda (on the left) and my Aunt Mary Ann (on the right) were so helpful and patient!  

My mom helped me sew on buttons and finish up carolers.  She took me shopping for something cute to wear and took me Micheals for last minute price tag making.  She also helped me at the booth almost the whole day along with my sister Katie and my niece Sarah Kate.  Thanks Mom!!  Aunt Mary Ann also took me to Micheals (a second trip!), helped price everything and helped set up the booth.  It was so fun to do this with my family and have them be a part of the event since I do the Handmade Arcade without them up here in Pittsburgh and besides my sister, they have never seen my sewing items all together in a booth.

We searched through Mom's basement and found baskets, a trellis for my owl purses, and all sorts of useful props.  My sister (thank you Katie!) arrived with more baskets and cute props and in the end, we put together a really cute booth.  Inspite of the yellow cinder block gym walls!

The usual suspects were the best sellers at the Marist show- crayon folios & owls!   Thank you so much to my family and friends down in ATL for all their help and support.  We had a great time together and the show was fun and successful.  

After that wonderful weekend with family and friends, I came home and sewed liked crazy.  My poor children.  Cal would ask for a snack and I would say " you're a big boy now!  You can look in the pantry for some crackers!"  He watched more TV last week than I have ever allowed any of my children to watch.  I had some major guilt happening.  Of course, the weather was also beautiful and warm for November in Western PA last week and  I was kicking myself for not getting outside to be a part of it!   I felt like I had made a commitment and an opportunity and I couldn't go into the Handmade Arcade without a full booth.

 Last week I made 14 crayon folios, 4 colored pencil holders, 3 owl pillows, 6 owl purses, 10 gnomes, and 7 iphone holders (a new thing I am working on).  I felt like I was running my own personal sweatshop!  All of the crayon folios sold, all the owl purses sold, most of the owl pillows & colored pencil holders.  

Last week I had serious concerns that all of this wasn't worth it.  But in the end it really was worth all the work.  It is great to have your work on display.  It's great to talk to people about your craft and great to push yourself.  My neglected children came to visit me with my husband and the booth was crowded and I was talking with people about Gingercake and my kids were proud of me.  I love that they could see how hard I worked and that it was a success.  The work on the computer and taking pictures in front of white foam board just doesn't give the same affect!

My lovely sister in law Jenny came to visit during the show and she took the follwing pictures of the booth.  At first we felt bad that when she came it was so crowded but now I am glad since these pictures really capture the action of the day.

That tall person on the left above is me blabbing about my shop and finishing up one of my owls.  

My sister, Katie, sent up her cute bottlecap magnets, scrabble tile pendants and fabric covered button hair bands.  People loved looking through all the cute images she has found.

II 

Before the Marist show I worked on a sign for my booth.  My first try was on a canvas.  I made a drawing and then cut out the shapes in fabric and then modged podged everything onto the canvas.  This would have been great if I had read the instructions for modge podge!!!  But it made bubbles and I was not pleased with the affect.  So I quickly sewed the same picture onto duckcloth and made another sign.  It's cute but not fantastic.

Like with so many projects, after a couple weeks that modge podge bubble didn't seem so bad and I decided to bring the canvas sign to the Handmade arcade too.  Having both signs was a help and it seemed to make them both look better!  You can see that modge podge one in the pictures above sitting under my branch with birds hanging from it.

My good friend Karen helped me set up and stayed almost the whole day.  Like my sister Katie, she is much better at staying organized and took inventory like a champ!  This really helped me to able to talk to people and be more concerned with how the booth looked than collecting money and keeping track of what was selling.  Thank you so much Karen!  I couldn't have done it without you.

Here she is with Jenny's ADORABLE baby Augusta.  Karen also held the neighboring vendor's baby for half the show.  She is such a baby hog!

The handmade arcade is a great show.  It is so well organized and they really get the word out.  I loved meeting the other vendors and looking at all their creative and different crafts.  No painted snowmen!  I admit that a painted snowman can be nice but it's fun to be part of something different and special.  Look for indie crafts shows in your area to get a feeling for the flavor!  

Hopefully today or tomorrow morning I will list the things that didn't sell in my gingercakesews etsy shop.  For now I am relaxing, finally doing laundry, and I am about to take a run to the grocery store since you could call me old mother hubbard over here since my cubbards are so bare!  Hope to be back this week with new projects to share.  Hint, Hint... did you see those christmas trees on the shelf a few pictures back?

Kitty Cat Princess Hat and Show Details

Anne chose to be a kitty Cat princess for Halloween.  Suuuu weeet!  Dress up bin accesories, thrifted pink taffeta gown (which was so pretty and well made!!) and I made a cute fleece kitty hat.

This hat was so simple.  I am planning to make a couple more for my baby nieces as christmas presents.  It is basically a rectangle of fleece with the sides sewn together and then the ears are made by sewing the curve of the head.  I also put a dart in the middle to make it more head shaped.

I am hoping to get a quick tutorial made for this after I am finished with my shows!  Who is intersted in making more kitty hats with me???

This coming weekend I will be in Atlanta for Marist Holiday Traditions.  Marist was my High School and they do a really lovely show every november.  I get to visit my parents and sister while doing my show!!  Please come and see me if you live in the Atlanta area!  

Next weekend, Novemeber 12th, I will back in Pittsburgh and doing the handmade arcade again.  LOVE the Handmade arcade.  It is so cool and I feel so fortunate to be involved again.  It will be their biggest and best show yet so be sure to come if you live close by!

Whoo Hoo!!  Novemeber here we come.  Everybody ready to sew up some cute stuff for the Holidays?? 

Hooped Bird Ornaments

Sheesh!  I know it's been a while.  I haven't felt too inspired to write about my work the past week.  But this morning I made these mini embroidery hoop ornaments and I am in love with how fun they were to make and FINALLY I was interested in doing a blog post!

I have been thinking and thinking about these hoops that I found at a thrift store.  I love all thes cute creations people are making with embroidery hoops (examples are this, this, this, and this!)  

I used scraps and I tried not to think too much about coordinating fabrics.  I have discovered that I like my fabric combinations better when i just go with my gut quickly.  It is interesting what you come up with when you trust your instincts (of course I like some better than others!).  I played around a little with some different bird shapes and then finally decided on this one.

I added wonder under to the bird shapes.  That was the first thing I did and then composed the branch and background next.  I used all cotton fusible interfacing to make the background fabric more sturdy.  The branch fabric is just a simple brown, without interfacing, that I free motion sewed on.  I wanted to get that sketched look and I knew the edges to fray a little for extra texture.  I backed the hoop with thick brown craft paper that I glue gunned on.

I am anxious to try this with my bigger hoops.  Maybe a triangular tree that is kinda reminiscent of Christmas but also wintery?  It's really a fun little canvas to work on if you are looking for something different to do with your sewing machine!

Email me if you have more questions about how to make one yourself.  The cool thing about this project though is that there is no right or wrong way to do it!  These will go in my booth at the Handmade arcade in a few weeks!

 

Zippy Bird Pouch

Hi all.  I have been spending my time sewing away to get ready for these shows I am doing in Novemeber.  This means I am not doing too many new things to share with you here on the blog.  I don't like just showing pictures of things of that you have already seen!  BORING.  But I do have something new that I spent a couple days trying to figure out and that turned out to be really cute.

Zippered pouches made from the Katie Bird Pattern.  This was a suggestion made to me by a person I met at the handmade arcade last spring.  I loved the idea and have been waiting for the right moment to make some.  They are so cute.  THEY WERE A HUGE PAIN TO MAKE.  I don't know if I am missing something basic or what but the lightbulb that usually goes off in my head and translates a project into easy instructions simply did not work this time.  

My seam ripper worked really hard for me the last few days.  Thank you seam ripper!  Why would this project be a pain in the neck?  For some reason, it was hard to keep the shape of the bird looking good while still putting in a zipper and a liner.  

I may come back to this project over the winter and see if I can make it simpler!  It should be simple, right?  I did love the way I made the wing this time around.  People asked for the big Katie Birds at my last show so I made a couple and did the wing the same way as I did the pouches.  These big ones are so fast and easy!

Here is a picture of Katie Birds being love birds.  AWWWW.  cuteness.

And again from a different funky angle.

The wing is cool, huh?   Of course the cute AnnKelle and Joel Dewberry fabric always help too!  

Sewing a Stack

I wish my mystery project was a pieced quilt (I wish I knew how to do a pieced quilt like that!) but it was just a big batch of crayon folios and mini folios.

I have decided to do a couple more shows this fall.  I feel conflicted about this since I much prefer creating patterns and sewing new things but a good craft show experience is pretty helpful also.

First of all- it is a nice bit of cash before the holidays!  Also, it is wonderful to meet people and see their reaction to my sewing.  I get a really good feel for what people like and through talking to them I get some great new ideas.  My sewing skills get an excellent work out and I find all sorts of ways to improve my patterns and how to simplify instructions.  Those things are more valuable than any $$ I might make!

Plus, my sister(yeah!  she is going to help ma again) and I get to hang out for a whole day together without our children :)

All that said, I am not really set up for heavy duty sewing over here.  But I have learned to get pretty well prepared with what I do have and I thought I might share a little about my process.  To start, here is my sewing machine...

My mom bought it for me when I was 15.  My friend Jennifer and I decided we wanted to sew a dress for ourselves and my mother took me to the local Hancocks fabric Store and we bought this together.  It was not the most expensive but it was pretty nice.  I can remember feeling excited and happy that she would get me such a nice gift on just an ordinary day.  Jennifer and I never completed our dresses and I felt like I had let my mom down by not using the machine enough.  I didn't use it again until I was 28 and we bought our first home.  I'm sure she is happy with the investment now though!

Back to the sewing machine...

It only has a few stitches and I really only use the straight stitch (mostly 6 unless I am doing a ruffle and then I do a 7), and the zig zag.  I have made enough in pattern sales to justify purchasing a new, fancy sewing machine.  But I like this old gal - she is simple and reliable.  I feel like I can explain sewing in a simple way on my machine and that is important to me- If I can sew and create on this machine with just my few stitches than anyone can do it!

Before I begin sewing for a show I always take my machine to get it cleaned and oiled and the tension perfected.  Mr Strobel takes care of it out his basement shop.  He rocks.  He hates new sewing machines and we bond over my devotion to my old machine.  This is KEY to being able to sew a bunch of items well since your machine runs like butter after being fixed up and it gives you the extra confidence to create nice items.

The crayon folios are not my favorite to make since I have made like a THOUSAND of them.  They are big sellers though and really bring people in to look around at your items.  They are also simple and satisfying to make.  This time around I decided to forget the special rick rack and trim, forget the effort of coordinating special prints, even forget the sticker pocket!   I just grabbed my stack of kid friendly fabrics and started cutting.  This helped because I made my fabric selections quickly and cut out about 20 folios and 12 mini folios in just a few evenings.  I ran out of interfacing though so I only have 11 folios and 7 mini folios made in the first picture!  

I then fused interfacing to all these pieces.  I set aside the large outside and inside pieces and then I chain stitch all the pockets and the handles at one time.

That part is pretty fun (especially when you let your kids play with it in the yard!).

Then back to the sewing room and putting it all together, sewing on the velcro, sewing down the crayon dividers, and finally sewing it all together and turning them all inside out.  You feel like you are doing all parts of an assembly line!  And your sewing machine just purrs away since you just had it cleaned and oiled.

It's nice to have this stack of crayon folio on the shelf.  Now I can make something fun and finish up that Lola Pattern!  Last week, before I committed to doing this show,  I did sew another Lola bag which turned out pretty darn cute... 

Maybe I should make some of those for the shows?  Do you have a special trick to sew a lot fast?  Part of deciding to do this show was a commitment to myself that I was going to be organized and prepared.  Fall is full of fun family stuff with the kids and I don't want to miss out by spending all my time slaving away at my sewing machine!  Help me blog friends!!!  I know some of you have some good experience out there!

Productivity and the LYLB Winners

The pattern winners are choosen!  They are Leah, thewench, & Charlotte.  I'll be emailing you with the pattern later this morning.  Did you all read all the great info about packing lunches in the comments section the last post?  I loved it!  I am going to try packing some tortilla rolls, hummus, veggies & dip, and leftovers this year for sure.  You guys are MUCH better lunch packers than me!

Now, don't be overly impressed with my productivity but I have opened another etsy shop that will feature my items that are already sewn up and ready to go.

 The following pictures may lead you to believe that I can rewrite patterns and sew up 16 new items with little effort and 3 children in tow but, sadly, this is not true.  The items were done months ago (for the handmade arcade!) and now I am finally putting them in this new shop.

I realized that when I posted a sewn item in my regular etsy shop, it was hidden by all the pattern action, so I thought this would be a better solution.  No sales yet but I have gotten several requests to make special orders.  I am such a grump though that I hate special orders- all that emailing back and forth and then being under the gun to get it done in a reasonable amount of time.  I know, I am such a baby!  Anywho, if you want to make special orders of my patterns, email me and I will send these fine customers your way and then everyone will be happy!  

To give myself a little pat on the back for opening the etsy shop (that I was supposed to do months ago), I decided to make a new pillow for myself!

Pretty funky , huh?  I basically copied Erin's pillows from her PIllow week.  I have been thinking about those pillows for months!  Mine is not a dresden plate though like hers, it's a sunflower pattern which I thought was fitting for this time of year, no?   My living room is really in need of some sprucing and this is now a bright spot for sure!

I really struggled with finding a good color combination and then just finally stopped fussing and chose some fabrics.  I find that telling myself " Stop trying so hard and just choose some fabric you ninny!" helps when I am struggling with fabric combination anxiety (otherwise known as FCA).  How do you all deal with FCA?

Guess how I was able to open the new etsy shop and make this pillow for myself this weekend?  Where were my 3 children you may ask??  Well it was 95 degrees outside and they were making some big bucks at the end of the driveway.  Don't worry, I didn't let them out there until after 4:00 or so.

I am thinking they need a cutesy lemonade stand like this.  They drink A LOT of their product though, so usually the little one is sent in every 20 minutes or so for refills.  We live on a country road and almost every car stops and visits.  I can watch from my computer and sewing machine inside.  It is so stinking cute to watch them talk to the neighbors.  

Lastly, I made the front page of etsy this week!  Don't mean to brag but my mom really needs to see this since I am her daughter and I know this will make her feel all proud and happy.  Plus, what a beautiful treasury and the colors just make me happy.  I have never done an etsy treasury but I always admire people who can do them well like this lady!

Thank you Vanessa for finding the image since I missed it!  

Stylin

UPDATE!  The Lola Pattern now includes instructions to make this bag!  

My almost seven year old pays a lot of attention to what she is wearing and has very specific opinions about how clothes look.  I try to be supportive of her style in my own controlling sort of way.  When she needs new clothes, instead of taking her with me to the store, I shop for a whole bunch of things that I like and bring them home for her to choose what she likes out of MY choices and then I take back the rest.  This is questionable freedom but it is working for both of us right now!

I made this owl purse as a special order from my show a few weeks ago.  The adult wants it for herself but I like how it looks on a child too and with the strap across the body.  I wanted to get some pictures before it goes in the mail today.  Elsie was excited to model before school this morning.  She is also wearing my new scarf which she has claimed as her own.

My tulips are in bloom!  It was her idea to pose by the tulips.

 I made the purse the same way as I did the mini purses back in this post.  I made it a little shorter since it seemed really long when I had it done.  The strap is about 30" long.  I made it by sewing together 2 pieces of 2" x 30" long pieces of cotton.  I used all cotton fusible interfacing on the printed fabric that is on the outside of the strap.  It took me several tries to get this strap on in a good way.  In the end, the simplest way worked best!  I wanted to make sure I kept the shape of the owl, so I just folded the strap under and sewed it on.  Then when I did the final top stitch, I secured the strap again.

She wants a bag like this for herself now of course!  

 I am so happy spring is finally here!  All the april showers we have had here have made everything so green and beautiful.  Email me if you had additional questions about how to make Lola Owl Pattern into a purse & I will try to help out.  Now the pattern is updated to include the bag instructions!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

 

A Fresh Start

Phew!  The Handmade Arcade is finally over.  I have to admit all that production sewing wasn't my bag.  Things went well- not awesome but well and I am happy to have the experience.  

Part of the reason I feel a little let down is that my focus is so different now than it was 16 months ago when I did this show before.  I like making patterns now and sewing for myself.   I loved seeing all the people looking and it was so fun to talk to people about my sewing.  It was so cool to see all the mothers and daughters, sisters and friends together.  I got a great feel for what people like to buy at these shows and I handed out almost all of my 250 postcards that I made.  People like the.... Crayon Folios!  Not a huge surprise on that one.  I made 15 and sold 15 but I could have made 30 and probably sold most of those too!  

My sister (pictured above!)came up from Atlanta to work the show with me.  It was a big help.  She owns part of a  store in Atlanta and was really helpful with display, organization, & talking up the products.  We want to do another show together and she will be in charge of merchandising, display, business cards, etc.  That would be HUGE for me since I get so focused on my sewing and creating that the organization is an after thought.   Accepting some help from my sister would be wonderful, especially since she is actually much more stylish than me in the first place! 

On Sunday we (the WHOLE family) took her to the airport.  On the way home we stopped at the Pittsburgh Incline.  It was so fun.  Sunday mornings are a great time to see your city tourist stops!  Almost no one was there and it was beautiful.  By some miracle, I remembered my camera.  But the only lens I had was the 50mm which I thought would be a mistake since you wouldn't be able to see the scenery but the pictures turned out great!  That 50mm lens is such a gem.

 WARNING!  HISTORY LESSON TO FOLLOW...  Sorry friends, I was a history major so you are going to get some info that I learned yesterday which I think is really interesting.

As some of you may know, Pittsburgh used to be a huge industrial city.  The big boom happened in the late 1800s and as so many people (mainly European Immigrants) moved to the city, housing became a big issue.  The city is situated in a valley and surrounded by 3 rivers.  The only place for the workers to live affordably was up above the steep hills surrounding the city- namely Mt. Washington.  They had to walk up and down the hills after exhausting long days of work in the factory.  The German immigrants suggested building an alpine incline like they had back home in the Alps to make the commute easier. 

 2 inclines were built here on Mt. Washington to help the workers get back and forth to work at the steel mills on the Monongahela River.  They are still used for people to commute to work who live up on Mt. Washington.  They are made on a pulley system-when one goes up, the other comes down so their own weight pulls them up and down the hill.  Genius!   

There are beautiful overlooks of the city on top of the hill.  The kids loved running around up there.  It seemed like the top of the world.

 

I kinda look like a bug in my movie star sunglasses, huh?

Here is a close up of my boy.  He loved looking at the city, the buses, the bridges, EVERYTHING!  Yesterday evening he used some kids craft scissors and cut those bands WAY back.  Happens to every family at least once, right?

On the way back down the incline, I took this pictures of the girls.  The lighting was so pretty & they are wearing some new headbands from a vendor I met at the Handmade Arcade.  Cute!

I can remember my Mom picking us up in the middle of the school day and taking us all to the Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta.  It was such a treat to be tourists in our own town.  I had that same feeling yesterday.  I can't believe I have lived here 11 years and never done this fun outing before!   I'll have to be better about doing new things in the city AND bringing my camera along.

 

Almost There!

If you have ever done a craft show, maybe you have felt the way I am feeling today.  I have only 1 day left (tomorrow!) before the show and I have decided NO MORE sewing!   I want to make sure that I have enough but also don't want to waste time making things that won't sell.  I also need to work on getting organized (YUCK), on pricing (DOUBLE YUCK), and on my display (PRETTY FUN).  Here are some pictures of what I will bring to the Handmade Arcade on Saturday.

There are a couple of new things that I did this past week that I haven't shown here on the blog yet.

I made birds at 65% size like I did the elephants and owls.  I did a loop on the top to hand them which I think will be useful- errr, depending on how useful you think a stuffed fabric bird can be.

I also made a fast and small version of the crayon folio.  I have seen lots of this size on etsy but since I am such a DIYer, I made my own which is very similar to the regular size crayon folio but even quicker to make.

 

It holds only 5 crayons and is 1/2 the size.  I think this will work well for mom's just to throw in their purse.  I like the wallet size and these were fast to make!  Good for a show like this where people may just want to buy something small and less expensive to support handmade.

Here is my list of all the things I made.  

Phew!!  I hope it's enough.  It was cool to make so many of items from my patterns and now I plan on going back and making some small adjustments to the PDF patterns.  I made an easy template for the crayon art folio, changed a few things on the Love Your Lunch Box, and made the On the Go Organizer a little different.   I will be offering these changes for free if you have already bought the pattern in the past.

Wish me luck on Saturday!  It's going to be fun there- live music, funky craft demonstrations, 120 indie groovy crafters, and gourmet cupcakes!  Come on down if you live near Pittsburgh and say hello to me!