Sneaky Peeky

Ky has ordered quality control samples of the new colours for her spiderweb fabric on Spoonflower - it should be available for sale early December! In the meantime, here's a sneaky peeky look at some of the other new fabrics coming into stock before Christmas for listing in our Etsy store.

There's new buttons on order too - including steampunk inspired compasses, more of our popular brass riveted buttons, mini-skulls and  anchors.

Kustom Krafts - 08.11.09

I know it's a little late, but here are some pictures from our first market, Kustom Krafts.

So much stuff for one little market stall! Good thing my car has a big boot - there's three tables in there plus all our stock.

We set up in an L shape - below is the back table which had all our fabric bolts and our cushion covers. The sign on the wall looks a little bit too temporary for me - I'd really like a professional banner done but I think that will require some saving up. It's more important to spend our money on new stock!

On the left side, in the corner we had a small table with our cutting mat. The last side of the L shape was a table with our precut fat quarters, vintage fabrics and our button board. I did take photos of the whole stall but they came out blurry - maybe I was shaking with excitement / anticipation?

We made a board to display our buttons and badges on by covering MDF with foam and then stapling some velvet panne (leftovers from Ky's sewing) over the top. We put a little hinged stand on the back so it wouldn't fall over.

The button board was in front of the open window - it would have been better on the other table because it was hard to see the buttons (especially in the afternoon) because they were in shadow. It's little things that can make a big difference I think.

Ky & I spent a fair amount of time sewing our little buttons onto their cards but I think they look really cute packaged up that way - a lot nicer than just grabbing them out of the tube and putting them into a plastic bag!

We also designed and made aprons for the stall - we worked out how big change bags were for the pocket divisions, had a pocket for our rotary cutter & i-phones, and a super secret pocket behind the front one for putting our notes into. Here's Ky in hers...

The fabric for the front pocket is 'Fifties Kitchen' and it was one of our most popular fabrics that day. We used our red cotton heading tape for the strings.

And of course, we can't forget the cars! I love the red & white one best...

We didn't make a lot of money or sales on the day - the market venue was changed from the last time so maybe people couldn't find it? We did get a great practice run for our stall setup, we met some really lovely people and we were given lots of feedback about what we should stock more of.

The next Kustom Krafts market is tentatively scheduled to happen in January, 2010 and we'll be there again.

Let us know if you have any suggestions about how we can improve our stall by leaving a comment :D

Brand New! Voodoo Rabbit Fabric: Spidery Web Black

We have a new fabric available for sale on our Spoonflower shop - a simple black spiderweb pattern over a plain background (the colour of the base cloth). We showed the sample of this at Kustom Krafts last weekend and it received a good response so we decided to make it available for purchase.

It is based on my orange and purple spiderweb Halloween design (also available on Spoonflower).

The initial orange and purple design came into being as an entry for Spoonflower's Halloween themed Fabric of the Week competition. I've always liked spider web patterning and one of my favourite fabrics is a black spiderweb lace. I bought it from Spotlight once but have never been able to find it again. As soon as we track some down we'll be stocking it though.

I plan to make a few more colour variations of the spider web design soon - we've had a request for the black web on a fluro zombie green background. Leave a comment with any other colour combinations you think would look good or just let us know what you think of the design.

Sucker Love - A Tentacular Treasury

I made my very first Etsy Treasury today! There are heaps of Etsy Dark Team members in this one. The next one will be a DUSTer bonanza (I'm already planning it).

 The treasury will only last until Wednesday so click here to give it some love while it's still around.

Kustom Kraft Market

Lots of rockabilly, retro, gearhead goodness on show & for sale. Hot babes with sexy tatts, high maintenance hair & fabulous clothes. Oh, and Voodoo Rabbit will be there too :P

PS: If you come you can also see for yourselves that Ky isn't just a figment of Cloud's imagination...

Writers block

God - twitter has ruined me! I knew this would happen. I can't write anymore because everything is now compressed in my mind to 140 characters or less.

Pictures speak a thousand words right? Then here's a 5,000 word essay...

Red Pandas by krisblues

Antarctic Experiment by Ettadiem

The Peckish Moon by Meluseena

My Captain we've reached the end of the world by HidenSeek

 

Vocab Series Wooden Plaque "Atwitter" by somnambulant

Gosu Rori Jacket - Finished

I finally managed to finish my gosu rori jacket. This is possibly one of the most complex sewing projects that I have undertaken and I must say that I am quite pleased with the results. I think that the finished item looks awesome and the fit is pretty good as well. I actually finished the jacket and then decided that it was too big around the bust so I took it in another 2cm on each side. Luckily the lining is not attached at the bottom and I had fairly easy access to the side and sleeve seams.

On the front there are 7 x 15mm Skull and Bone buttons with another 3 on each sleeve.

The back is by far more interesting than the front of the jacket. It has been laced with velvet ribbon and I have used 2 x Skull and Bones 22mm metal buttons on the back waistband.

What I have learnt is:

if you think it is too big when you are constructing the garment there is a good chance that you are right and perhaps this is a better time to re size it than when you have finished.

• make sure that the sleeves are the right way around before you sew them in, unpicking black cotton from black fabric is quite difficult.
• always use pinking shears on lining fabric to stop the fraying.
• read the instructions as you go so that you don't have to unpick the back seam, waistband seams and top stitching to add the loops for the lacing.

It's almost summer here in Brisbane (31 degrees Celsius today) so I won't get to wear this jacket until February next year when I head to Japan with Cloud. It will be the end of winter in Japan then so this jacket will be perfect!

Quilt Block

A friend of mine from work is going to a wedding and one of the other guests decided that a wedding quilt would be a lovely present to make for the happy couple. So she sent out a letter to each of the other guest requesting that they make up a quilt block for her to sew into the quilt. My friend and his wife have no idea about how to make a quilt block (I'm sure a lot of the other guests will also be at a loss) so they asked if I could make one up for them. This was quite a challenge as I do not know the couple getting married and all I had to go on was the theme of sculptures by the sea and a swatch of some truely horrendous colours (I forgot to photograph this).
First up I am not a seaside person and I don't as a rule use yellows, blues and greens, so even coming up with a design and then choosing fabric was difficult. In the end I used this sculpture as inspiration...

Jorn Ronnau. return ticket to sydney. Sculpture by the Sea, bondi 2008. Photo Matthew O'Sullivan

and came up with the following.

It is a 9 inch square with a 1/2 inch seam allowance added. I sewed the main sections together on the machine and then added the bias strips on top. The sashiko lines and appliqued hearts are all hand sewn. The colours are slightly more subdued versions of the ones on the swatch. Hopefully it will work with the rest of the quilt. If I get a photo of the finished quilt I will post it up after the wedding early next year.