My Creative Space...

This week we are starting preparations for the Kustom Kraft market on May 23rd. It will only be the third market that we have done and we thought that it was time to spruce up the stall a bit.

First up some red and black felt bunting for along the front of the table.

Ironing bias binding, the epitome of excitement and burnt fingers

Pinned up and ready for sewing

Even though we predominantly sell fabric and buttons at our stall it is always nice to round things out with a few handmade items.

Some Voodoo Rabbit skins ready for Cloud to put together this weekend
(told you I would be cracking the whip)

Don't forget to check out Kirsty's blog for some more creative spaces.

Ky

Bubbles and Baubles and a New Showroom

We are very excited to be attending the Piece Together Bubbles and Baubles launch party tomorrow night from 7pm. It is to be a night of craft, art, design, food, wine and live music. There will also be a suitcase style market where you will  find Voodoo Rabbit, Kimono Reincarnate, Wimcee, Ties & Whimsy, Mad Weevil, Little Bubble and more.

Where: Piece Together - 33A(Upstairs) Logan Road, Woolloongabba
When: Thursday 17th November, 7pm

Piece Together is a workshop and market place where you can create things, meet people and purchase local handmade and vintage items. The studio is located in the antiques precinct of Wooloongabba which is  only a 5 minute walk from Voodoo Rabbit's new showroom.

What's that I hear you say, Voodoo Rabbit is opening up a showroom? You heard right, finally Voodoo Rabbit will have a permanent home where you can come to get your fabric fix! It's been a long time coming but we are super excited to be opening up shop to the public as well as selling online. It would be great if you could make it along to our Showroom Opening day!

When: Saturday, December 3
Time: 10am - 4pm
Where: Office 1 (Upstairs via Side Entry), 904 Stanley Street, East Brisbane
Phone: 0422 215 053

We will have new Alexander Henry fabrics, a huge selection of our own Voodoo Rabbit original designs, DMC embroidery threads, Sublime Stitching Kits, Funky Friends Factory patterns and kits all in stock. The best part is that you can BUY FABRIC OFF THE BOLT! We will always have precut fat quarters but if you want to sew clothing, you will now be able to buy continuous lengths at the showroom.

More details to come soon.

- Ky

Making Bias Binding

Occasionally you just cannot find the right size or colour bias tape (or all of the shops are shut because it is midnight and you just have to finish your project right now) required to finish off a project.

Bias Binding around bib made from red homespun cotton

Never fear, making you own is not too hard and a few minutes on Google will supply you with numerous tutorials. Here is one of our favourites as, unlike a lot of tutorials, it uses the entire piece of fabric instead of leaving you with two fairly unusable triangles at each end.

How To Make Continuous Bias/Binding Tape by Make It Modern

The link to this tutorial has been added to our Tutorials page.

Another niffty little device is the Bias Binder Foot for your sewing machine, I purchased mine here. It can be a great help and enables you to attach the bias binding to an edge in one go.

Bias binding can be used for more than just binding quilts, we have used it for binding bibs, armholes, neckholes and corsets, joining bunting flags and embellishing clothing. It can be a great was of using up a 1/2m remnant of fabric.

Bias Binding made from chocolate and tan homespun and a Japanese fabric
remnant. Used as embellishment on the bottom of a skirt

- Ky

Customer Project: Invader shirt

Daniel sent us these images of his awesome new Invader shirt, click on the images to go to Daniel's flickr page.

The black accents on the placket, shoulder loops and sleeves add a nice level of interest to the shirt design don't you think. I also love the little section of musical tape under the front placket. The very neat pattern matching of the pockets and shirt front is also to be applauded.

This shirt was made using our Gingham Invaded White on Black print. Available via our online store.

If you need a large amount or would prefer a different basecloth you can purchase it direct from Spoonflower.

Have you made something awesome from one of our fabrics, we'd love to see  it.

- Ky

BrisStyle Indie Designer Markets

The Bristyle Indie Designer Markets will held next Saturday in Hamilton, Brisbane. Once again we will be sharing a stall with Pauline from Funky Friends Factory.

Pauline will have a bunch of her awesome Funky Friends patterns and kits and we will have Original Design Voodoo Rabbit fabric, Voodoo Rabbit sewing kits, dyed buttons and a selection of handmade items. Our stall is going to located outside in the church grounds (see map below), here's hoping the weather co-operates.

The market will also feature local emerging and established artists, crafters and designers from Queensland's South East who specialise in producing quality handmade goods including handbags, sweet art, jewellery, children's wear and vintage re-creations.

Where: St Augustine's Church Hall and grounds, Racecourse Road, Hamilton
When: Saturday July 9, 2011. 9am-2pm
Website: http://www.bris-style.com/page/indie-designers-market/

 - Ky and Cloud

My Creative Space

Just a quick update on my secret garden cross stitch.

Over 3/4 of the crosses have been stitched.

Here is a quick reminder of what it looked like 2 months ago.

I'm not sure if I will make my self imposed October deadline but I think it will be pretty close.

Have you been creative this week, head over to the new home of our creative space to share.

-Ky

Customer Project: Geeky Business Shirt

Sorry that we seem to have disappear from the face of the Earth since our return from Japan. In hindsight booking 3 rather large markets in the week and a half after our return wasn't the best of ideas. We have been very tired little bunnies.

Things seem to be a bit more under control now so hopefully you will see us around here a bit more. Today we would like to share another awesome customer project with you all.

Rosemary was kind enough to send us a picture of the business shirt that she made.

She has used our very own Invaded Pinstripe fabric design, the great thing about this fabric is that it looks like a standard stripe until you get in close enough to see that there are actually little space invaders on the fabric. Sneaky Geeky :)

Do you have a project that you used Voodoo Rabbit products for? You can share them with us via email (sales@voodoorabbit.com.au) or our Flickr group.

 - Ky

My Creative Space

I made a cushion cover for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. It uses a crazy patchwork quilt as you go technique on the front which is a great way to use up larger sized fabric scraps.

Front made from fabric scraps of Ephemeral Antiquity, Send in the Crowns and Quatrefoils by Michael Miller.
As well as Leathergrain by Windham Fabrics

Back made from Leathergrain by Windham Fabrics

For more creative spaces pop over to Kootoyoo.

- Ky

Toy Making Workshop - May 14th 2011

Calling all Brisbane Bunnies!

Voodoo Rabbit, in conjunction with Pauline from Funky Friends Factory and Linda from Urban Sewing Lounge, will be running our very first toymaking workshop. During the class you will learn basic toy making techniques while making a Plattie Platypus. We will be offering this first workshop at a special discounted rate of $25 + Kit Cost.

There are only 6 spots available so contact us at sales@voodoorabbit.com.au before May 10th if you wish to attend the workshop.

Where: Urban Sewing Lounge, 5 Longlands Street, East Brisbane

Date: Saturday 14th May 2011

Time: 12 - 4pm

Cost:
Workshop - $25 ($15 discount)
Kit - $17.50 (includes pattern, fabric and recycled PET Toy Fill)

Requirements:
Students must have basic sewing experience on a sewing machine.
Sewing machine hire is available for $5.00 (limited number of machines available) otherwise you will have to bring your own machine.

We are very excited to be running our first workshop and hope it is the start of many more to come:)

- Ky and Cloud

Sewing Patterns

Hello crafty bunnies. I just wanted to let you all know that we have started a pattern archive on our blog.

If you click on the pattern link above you will go to our pattern page where we will be listing all of the free Voodoo Rabbit patterns we have made as well as links to a number of cool patterns we've found around the internets.

Here is the latest addition, cute bird wing costume for a child...

Bird Wings by Llevo el invierno

...found via Meet Me At Mikes. A great way to use up some fabric scraps.

There are also 3 patterns developed by Voodoo Rabbit available as well.

Happy Sewing
- Ky

My Creative Space

This week we have been transforming boring colourless buttons into new and awesome ones by dying them. They look so pretty, just like lollies, mmm lollies....

We will have packets of dyed buttons available at the BiTM tomorrow night in King George Square, we hope to see you there:)

For more creative spaces head over to Kootoyoo.

- Ky

BiTM this Friday...

If you haven't got any plans for Friday night then pop on down to King George sqaure and visit the Brisbane Indie Twilight Markets (BiTM). Voodoo Rabbit will be there and as an extra incentive we will be sharing a stall with Pauline from Funky Friends Factory!


Pauline will have a bunch of her awesome Funky Friends patterns and kits and we will have Original Design Voodoo Rabbit fabric, dyed buttons and a selection of handmade items.

Where: King George Square (in front of city hall)
When: 5 - 9pm Friday 29th April 2011

- Ky

My Creative Space

While I was busy making a pile of Gingham Invaded Cushions last weekend, Cloud was having fun making our latest Funky Friends Factory sample up. Facebook followers may have seen a picture called "Camel Foot". This is who the foot belongs to - Crissy the Camel!

Cloud needs to start planning for Christmas early (she's so slack) so it's a good thing she has made Crissy now. I think Crissy is pretty cute for all year round.

Pattern:
Crissy Camel by Funky Friends Factory

Fabric:
Holiday Happy Scattered Snowflakes by Happy Zombie for Lecien (body)
Holiday Happy Little Santa Red by Happy Zombie for Lecien (feet and inner ears)

Crissy is a fully jointed toy so you can make her sit down, stand up, stand on 3 legs, wave...

Funky Friends Factory will be sharing a stall with Voodoo Rabbit at the next BrisStyle Twilight Markets in King George Square on the 29th April. We will have all the Funky Friends, including Crissy Camel, patterns and kits for sale.

Voodoo Rabbit will have the kits for sale in our online store in early May.

The home of My Creative Space is taking a break this week but we thought we'd still play along.

- Ky

More Gingham Invaded Geeky Goodness

If you are in need of a geeky fix then look no further than this Space Invader mini messenger bag by Alipink. It features our Gingham Invaded White on Black fabric and has a vinyl coating to make it more durable.


- Ky

Cushion Making Extravaganza

We are both tired little bunnies today, on Friday night we were lucky enough to have our White on Black Gingham Invaded Cushion Cover was featured on two blogs:
Wonderland
Boing Boing

Our weekend became a cushion making extravaganza as we tried to keep up with demand. As a result we are now sold out of White on Black Gingham Invaded and will not be able to get any more for at least 4 weeks.

Never fear we still have the following colour ways still in stock:
Black on White
Red on Black
Red on White
Baby Blue on White
Baby Pink on White

Now back to sewing more cushion covers:)

- Ky

Customer Project: Revamped High-Chair

I love it when our customers share with us what they make with our fabrics. This customer's project is an absolute cracker and I just had to share it with you all!

Kim and her husband found an old 60's style chrome high chair by the side of the road and picked it up to save it from the dump. Good thing they did because they restored it and it looks AMAZING!

The chrome was given a thorough polish and the seat was stripped back. Kim tried to hunt down some "funky vinyl" to reupholster the seat -with no luck. Instead, Kim and her hubby chose Bonehead in chocolate brown by Michael Miller from Voodoo Rabbit and I recommended that they use Heat n Bond vinyl to protect the fabric.

Here is the finished result! I think that the glossy Heat n Bond also makes the fabric look a treat with all the shiny chrome work (hubby would have been working for hours to clean that up).

 

Do you have a project that you used Voodoo Rabbit products for? You can share them with us via email (sales@voodoorabbit.com.au) or our Flickr group.

Thanks Kim for sending us the pictures of your finished high-chair. With out doubt this the best bit of recycling that I've seen in ages!

- Cloud

Easter Charity Drive / Giveaway

Japan is a place that is very close to our heart so Ky & I have decided that we wanted to help the people affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. We are also aware that there are still people suffering here in our own backyard of Queensland too and we don't want to forget them either.

To help out, we are offering up our very special Easter Bunny (made using a Funky Friends Factory pattern) and eggs to raise money for the Japanese Tsunami Appeal (run by the Red Cross) and also the Premier's Flood Appeal.

Here's all you have to do to enter the giveaway & help people in need at the same time ^_^

Step 1
Donate to one (or both) of the following charities:
Queensland Premier's Flood Appeal
Japanese Tsunami Appeal

Step 2
Leave a comment on this blog post and include your receipt number from your donation (you do not have to tell us how much you donated.) You can donate to one, or both charities - it's your choice. Each donation enters you into the draw to win - please leave a separate comment for each donation you make. Entries without a receipt number will not be counted!

The winner will be drawn using random.org on Easter Sunday 24th April. Good luck & be generous!

- Cloud & Ky

March Market

This month you will find Voodoo Rabbit at the 9th Annual Logan Tattoo and Art Exhibition on the Saturday the 19th March. The exhibition will be held at the Acacia Ridge Hotel, 1386 Beaudesert Rd Acacia Ridge.

We will have a selection of fabric from Alexander Henry, Michael Miller, Kokka, Lecien, Voodoo Rabbit originals and more. We will also have a number of handmade toys, bags, badges and hand dyed buttons.

Don't forget that you can also find us every week at Coorparoo Market, Upper Level, Cnr Old Cleveland Rd and Cavendish Rd, Coorparoo, Brisbane. Thursday - Sunday from 7am to 3pm.

- Ky

BiTM this Friday Night

If you are in Brisbane and can make it into King George Square in the City this Friday night stop by and visit the BiTM from 5pm - 9pm.

Cloud and I will both be part of the co-op stall and we will have a selection of our handmade products and Voodoo Rabbit original design fabrics.

Who's going to stop by and say hi.

- Ky

My Creative Space

More Funky Friends Factory toys this week.

Baby Bunny in Bunny Goth Scatter Pink and ghostly White by Voodoo Rabbit (made by Cloud)

 

Mitch the Monkey in Early Bird Floral Stripe Chocolate by Cosmo Cricket with Gold homespun cotton

 

Look at his cute little toes!

Mitch's face was quite challenging to sew, I had to stay-stitch around the head piece just inside the 5mm seam allowance. I then clipped the curves around the eyes and cheeks, this allowed me to be able to ease the head piece around the curves on the face piece and avoid puckering. I then hand basted the pieces together before machine sewing the head to the face with the face piece on the bottom.

Even after this it was still quite difficult to sew the curves over the eyes. On my first attempt the fabric folded a bit over each eye and I had to unpick these sections and resew them. The rest of the pattern is very straight forward to sew.

Have you been creative this week?

- Ky