Its been a while since Ive posted, the longest in a long time, haha!
I am still here, just been a little busy with life and all the things that go with it.
Ill be back soon, showing some things I have created, and with some news of my own 😀
Looking forward to getting back to it, and seeing what everyone else is up to 🙂
September is my favourite month 🙂
Spring (well, at least here in Australia!), my birthday, and this month.. my first pattern will be released.
So in celebration, for the month of September 2014, I am offering 10% off all purchases in my Etsy store Oak Tag Designs.
Just enter the coupon code ‘SEPT10’ in checkout to get the 10% off 🙂
I went to a shop recently that sells things to support a local jail (plus also selling furniture that is made by some of the inmates). Its an awesome shop. It has handmade crafts, clothes, and furniture, plus jam and pies and cakes, and second hand things like books and clothes, and toys…
I found some patterns, oh, I certainly did! They had a small package of assorted patterns which I paid $3 for. Some of them I will use for my daughters.
And then there was a box of new patterns without their envelopes, for only 50c each! It was hard to tell the fit of some of the patterns because the photo/drawing was gone. But I picked out what I thought would be handy in the future. Im very much contemplating the jacket for myself.. but I’m sure if I do, it will be spring by the time its done.
This pattern was a very happy find. I have a friend who has a new precious daughter, and in asking her what she would like me to make.. she said a poncho! I was going to draft the pattern, but finding this pattern will mean I don’t have to 🙂
And our last, but certainly not least purchase was this jewellery box. It hit my daughters eye from across the room the minute she walked in and I had 2-minute reminders about it the whole time we were there. At $3, I decided it was a purchase we could make!
Well, I did it, I opened up my Etsy store!
I have a grand total of 2 listings now!
And more to come in the coming weeks!
Check out my store, Oak Tag Designs, to see the very cool bibs and cloth wipes ready to ship 🙂
So really, I want to put about 10 exclamation marks on the title of this blog post. I’m terribly excited that I now have my own clothing labels. I have been sussing them out for a while, and finally ordered them.. to discover they take 2.5 weeks to come. The people at Gang Apparel Accessories were great though; quick to respond, answered all my questions, and delivered a perfect product.
So I waited patiently next to the mail box, and eventually they arrived. Hooray!
Here are the brand labels. They were made as a cotton weave.
Here is the care instructions label.
Can anyone guess what I will be selling soon??
Not sure how else to put this.. I got a business stamp. I love it!
I got it from Penrith Rubber Stamps, who were so responsive and did such a nice job. I also paid a little extra for a wooden handle, which made from Western Australian Jarrah 🙂
On the way back home after Mothers’ Day, I visited a fantastic handcraft shop. There is some gorgeous hand dyed, and handspun yarn there. And some delicious jam… amongst other things.
We are going away this week, and I need something to do in the car. Its decided that I will be using this gorgeous yarn. But what do I knit?? The pink yarn is an 8 ply (DK) and is 50g. The multicoloured yarn is 4 ply and also 50g.
Ive looked through some pattern books, but with the amount I have, its hard to know!
Any ideas??
A few years ago, I was trying to get in some stashbusting, with speed! I saw this amazing pattern (at least I thought so at the time) for pram blankets that used multiple strands. It had different pattern repeats for different looks. I choose mine, along with 8 (!) strands of 8 ply (DK) and away I went. It turned out lovely. Except that I didnt actually want to use it with my babies. It is quite chunky and I could just see them pulling the strands with their fingers.
In retrospect, I wonder, did I make it more strands that the pattern said? Maybe I was too eager to see that yarn disappear!
So it has sat in the wardrobe and I have pulled it out to scratch my head a few times, and then it has returned. Ive decided it has to happen.. whatever ‘it’ may be. So far my kids’ ideas are as follows, “WE will have it as a blanket!”, said very matter-of-factly. One of my ideas is to back it with a fabric and use it as some kind of knee-warmer on the couch. Another is to back it with fabric, double it over, and use it as a cushion cover. And thats it. Help me!
What would you do with this strange creation??
Well, I dont know about everyone else, but our Christmas break was full on! So I decided to take 3 weeks break from doing the blog. Now things are relatively back to “normal”, the weekly blogs are back!
I really havent had time to do much sewing and knitting. But I did help my daughter with this awesome little sewing kit for kids that she got off Granny for Christmas. Its made of felt and has precut holes to put the thread through. One side has felt flowers (and a butterfly!) to stack and sew on, and the other side has buttons. It has everything in the kit, including a plastic sewing needle. The only thing I needed to grab was the scissors.
The pack says Ages 6+ but I found my 5 yr old could do it fine. I did have to sew the flowers on for her after she had stacked them, because it was hard for her to line up all the holes through the layers. I also cut the lengths of thread for her, and did the knots, but really, I could just talk her through those bits.
Did your kids get any great craft activity kits for Christmas?
So theres this awesome machine in industrial sewing and it is called a cover stitch machine. This is what dreams are made of.. when it comes to making tshirts! I had a look around a few years ago, and found one for $300. Here it is.
When I got it, it was working ok, but was missing a few stitches and a couple of bits of it where they had improvised parts. Regardless I love it. Heres a close up.
Im not sure how old it is, but when I asked my sewing machine mechanic he just laughed… and he didnt laugh at my 25 year old industrial overlocker. He quizzed me many times whether it had been working before he got some parts for it. Hmmm…!
It has been put onto a Singer table and motor, and so has this cool pedal.
So most people I talk to have no idea what machine this is and when I describe it, always think I am talking about an overlocker.
It is the stitching you will find on the bottom of most stretch t-shirts. The fabric is folded up and this makes the hem. The machine doesnt cut at all, unlike the overlocker. While they have similar qualities; that they allow stretch fabric to stretch, they cant be interchanged for each other. The overlocker is for seams and the coverstitch for hems.
So now its working like a dream (admittedly the motor sounds a bit like a jet plane, in comparison to my industrial overlockers motor) and I have no time to make copious amounts of tshirts before we go away for Christmas.
If you want to step up your stretch sewing, this is the machine. I have seen a domestic cover stitch machine (with a price tag of course) that would take up less space, be more portable and not require your mechanic to go to 3 different shops before he could find the right needles.
Is there a sewing machine you are hoping is coming for Christmas?