Girls Germs

After modelling his cousin-to-be's outfit at my sister's baby shower on Sunday, Jack came down with a fever. At least he looked cute.



I used Butterick B5017 and added pleating into the front bodice, then sewed the pleats flat because who's got time to iron pleats in cotton baby dresses?



Gorgeous cupcake cotton prints from good ole Spotlight. The hat is reversible - I prefer it to have a yellow crown and white brim, to continue the yellow-white-yellow pattern the whole way down. There's also bloomers in white. The bodice is lined with white - I saw the contrasting lining trick on a designer baby dress someone gave and filed it in my memory for future use.

I'm applying!

I emailed Mum to ask if she could help me fill a craft market table. She replied saying she's got a plastic tub of quilty market stuff ready to go and I can pick out what I think might sell. As she won't be (wo)manning the stall with me she's going to pay the registration fee. Wow, $10! Thanks Mum!

I'll fill out the application and post it today. I guess if they were already booked out they wouldn't have been distributing stallholder applications.

Deadline

Yesterday Jack and I went to the Made'n'Thornbury market run by the Thornbury Women's Neighbourhood House. It had been promoted in The Melbourne Times (I love my local paper) as a quarterly opportunity to promote women in small business with around 25 stalls of craft, jewellery and fresh produce. I wasn't sure if it was going to be quirky alt.crafty or hennad menopausal hippy or perhaps overlooked by people who weren't into either of those things.

The first surprise was that there were tonnes of people there. It looked like a lot of young families had made it part of the Saturday morning walk - it got a bit tricky navigating all the prams around each other. The stalls were a mix of indie craft, AWA-style knitting and cupcakes.

I talked to a stallholder whose nursery papertole art I'd noticed at the Northcote Kris Kringle market in December. This was the first time doing Made'n'Thornbury and she had similarly had her doubts whether there'd be a crowd. But not only were there lots of people, but they'd come prepared to spend. While we were chatting a number of ten-year-old girls pawed through her basket of $1.50 button brooches and made purchases. Good idea - a market stall should have something kids can spend their pocket money on. I remember being that age, there was nothing as disheartening on a Saturday morning than not being able to exchange my pocket money for some trinket or other.

There was a table of surveys and stallholder application forms by the door. I wasn't the only one who grabbed one. The good news - stalls are only $10. The less good news - the next two markets are 2nd May and 5th September. I would either have to be ready in five weeks or wait five months. In one spot on the application it says it needs to be in by 30th Jan, on another 24th April. I'll assume the second one is correct, otherwise they wouldn't be handing out application forms. :-)

So I don't have to decide today, but I do have to sit down and plan how much stuff I could get made in five weeks.

Or fish around for a stall buddy?

[ETA] Maybe I could get some stall-filling stuff from Mum.

I picked up a flyer for a craft group called Loophole, which is first Thursday evening of the month on High St Thornbury. I'm going to make an effort to get along, although it'll depend on how Jack's sleeping that night. And also on me ordering some felt on eBay, and it getting sent out on time.

Tickets Please!

I'm a bit in love with myself today.


This is just the prototype - the roof fabric isn't right, it's got the black single stitching instead of caramel double stitching, and I haven't cleaned off the chalk marks. But I lurve it!



If it looks a bit bald that's because I still haven't found the right buttons for the headlights/ brakelights/ indicators. Might have to try Buttonmania.


The machine embroidery isn't too hard after a bit of practice. Yes, this is my best effort at doing it neatly!


Originally the route number was going to go on the main body of the cushion, but then I realised it didn't have to. I was going to put it on its own puffy little cushion but then T suggested making it a 'hook'. I was confused for ages until I figured out he meant 'loop'. I think this really makes the difference in it looking skilled rather than homemade. My Cravings Frocks label is on the other side, at least until I think of a good name for the cushions.


I love invisible zipz! (I like that typo too.) On the real thing the zip and backing will be black.

And while I'm bragging,



His fuzzy ginger hair was going to fade into the old leopard-print liner too much.

I also reorganised the sewing room so it looks more like a sewing room with a spare bed in it than a bedroom with sewing equipment in it.

Crafty Opinions Needed!

Which one of these is best for a tram destination sign?


Paint, machine 'embroidery' or hand embroidery?


Close-ups.


Paint


Machine


Hand


I'm leaning toward the machine embroidery, done more neatly of course. But the paint's okay. I'm just more comfortable with a sewing machine than a paintbrush. I think with the right stencil (and a zero instead of an O) the paint could be quite good though.