I promised...

...you some makes and some makes you will get.

Apologies for the long periods of radio silence. I have been working extra long hours lately as my shop has been moving to a new one and I have been absolutely knackered. Just out of interest and only if you are willing to share, how many of you out there in blogland work full time, part time (outside your craft) or craft/blog as a full time occupation. For those who work full time and craft after work how do you fit in the time to blog regularly too?

Onto what I have made recently. Despite being quiet I have gotten a few things made so I will show you a few at a time.

Some lovely Noodlehead 241 Tote Bags. I made these the night before a craft fair hence the pictures being taken at a craft fair in case they all sold that day. The black and red one did actually sell which I'm not surprised about because this is a beautiful design of bag by Anna Graham.







They all brought in a lot of interest from people so I am definitely going to make some more in the New Year.

Domestic Kat New Webstore

I have been selling the things I make at craft fairs for about 4 or 5 years now. For the last couple of years I have kept saying that I need to open a web store.

Finally I have.

Presenting the Domestic Kat store:

Domestic Kat Webstore

I will be adding more items to the store tonight.

Go on, take a wee peek.

Craft fairs

I will post some makes soon I promise as I do have things to show off.

However, I just thought I would show you guys my tables at my recent craft fairs.

First, was last Saturday in Rutherglen Town Hall. This fair was one I have done for the past 4 years and I really love doing it. The organisation is great and Karen always does a great job. They run this fair in conjunction with the Christmas lights turn-on and as a result, it is the official start of feeling Christmassy for me. There is also a good amount of people through the door so I always do a wee turn at it.

The second picture is from a fair in Rutherglen Shopping Centre and is run by Crafts Unlimited Association. It runs from 10-4 and because it is in the shopping centre you are right in the thick of people who are out specifically to shop.

This fair also taught me a valuable lesson about craft fairs (despite having done them for probably 4 years). How you are feeling and how you present yourself makes a huge difference in how many sales you get. I did this same fair a month ago. Looking back I was in the midst of a depressive episode and I was having a terrible morning (even managed to injure my hand setting up). I probably barely cracked a smile all day and did not get any sales.However, on Saturday I was chatty, bubbly, laughing, making jokes and despite having not made any sales by 2pm was still being positive and smiley and chatty. Because it was so quiet I decided to pop into Home Bargains and pick up some art packs for doing my art totes and I was craving some chocolate. I came back and noticed one of my bags was gone but had genuinely thought it had been stolen. Turns out my neighbour who was watching my table had sold 2 bags and a purse while I was gone. That was enough of a wee pick me up to grab even more sales before 4 oclock.

Therefore, I would say that your attitude at a craft fair certainly affects your propensity to get sales.

Maxi dress

Before I went on holiday, some of you may be aware that I was planning on making some of my own clothes to take with me. On my to-do list was 3 items. A dress using some nice blue fabric I had gotten on sale, a t-shirt with jersey I had gotten on sale and something with the fabric below.

I managed to find a nice maxi dress pattern (Simplicity 2692) and a pattern for a playsuit so I decided the blue fabric would suit the playsuit better and the green fabric would look nice as a maxi dress.

The actual construction of the dress was fairly straightforward and, dare I say it, enjoyable. Maybe the fact that I made it 2 months ago is blurring my memory. I didn't follow the pattern exactly as it would have came up too small but it was quite easy to alter.

I like it and it looks quite formal. I recently wore it to a friends wedding which is when I took this picture. What do you guys think of it?

The playsuit never got made. I picked a Burda pattern which stated beginner level on it and I started to make it with the size I thought I would need except the arm holes were MASSIVE on it and where it tells you crossover the neckline was down to my belly button. However the waist was the right size and i felt the legs werent baggy enough so I just gave up on it. I think it was too beginner for my liking also.

The t-shirt that was destined to be made from the jersey was never made however I have decided it is now going to be made into pyjama pants for myself as I LIVE in pyjamas.

Hope you are all doing well.

Remember when....

.... I said I might be the luckiest girl on the planet? Prepare to be even more jealous!

I have to say I felt very bad for Janet of Caribou Crossing Chronicles . Her parcel arrived a few hours after I left for my holiday (to CANADA no less!!) so she has had to wait until now to find out whether I received the parcel OK and that leprechauns didnt steal it and place it at the end of the rainbow. This also means that judging by her note to me she will have also spent the last 3 weeks panicking that I didn't like it.

Well you have to wait no longer Janet.... I LOVE IT!!!!! You are right....if you had posted the mug rug I probably would have guessed it was for me. I opened the package and straight away screamed "AHHHH it's me!!!". At least I think it looks like me. I love the fabrics you've used. Lovely.




I also got THIS beauty! The colours are sooooo bright and vibrant which I love and its a combination of my 2 favourite colours at the moment. They just work so well! I can't wait to start using this but at the same time I'm not sure I want to use because it might get wasted and I don't ever want to have to let go of this beauty. Can I keep it forever, pwease?



Janet also included some threads and buttons for me which was lovely of her. Ahem, there wasn't a bar of Dairy Milk Hazelnut included in the package, honest ;-) .

I may just be the luckiest girl on the planet....

.... and you are about to be the most jealous people on the earth.

I received the first of my packages from Cindy's Goodie Swap from Sarah (Narcoleptic in a Cupboard)

I am so proud to be the new owner of the Rotten Rug Mug. I saw this in the Flickr pool when Sarah posted it and instantly wanted it. In fact if it wasn't for me I was going to ask if I could have one made. What Sarah doesn't know about me (as I never told her) is that Bourbons are actually my favourite biscuit. I haven't bought them in a while simply because it's too dangerous as I would happily eat the entire pack in a day. I have to say though I doubt I'll be using this as a Mug Rug. I'm thinking of hanging it somewhere in my sewing room so I can look at it every day.



This is the point in the post that we need to take a more serious tone. I think we need to get our friend Sarah some help as there is clearly something wrong with her. It could be her eyes or her brain. She sent me the additional goodies in the picture below as an "apology".

You see I genuinely believe that there is something wrong with Sarah because she believes that she had to send these bits as compensation because she made "such a bad job of the needlecase". I sat and studied the needlecase for a few minutes and I can't find any flaws ergo there is something wrong with Sarah :-p . I love love love it! It feels soooo soft and I've never had anything like that before. It feels very luxurious and I plan to use it often.



Finally, Sarah sent me this lovely card which is very true for me. I'm going to use this saying in everyday use now!
*Ahem* *Cough* * Cough* Sarah also sent me a large bar of Dairy Milk Caramel that HONESTLY didn't get devoured with an hour of opening the package. Oh no, not me *cough* *cough* *ahem*




Thanks Sarah for making me an awesome Mug Rug and Goodie! I'm glad you were my partner!

P.S - Apologies on making you wait to see if I loved it. I have been up to my eyes in it the last week getting ready to go to Canada tomorrow!!

Remember my Sewing To Do list ...

I crossed something off on it!

I apologise for the pics being not great but it is extremely hard to photograph an ironing board and make it look good.

I am very pleased with this. I was worried that the fabric might not be suitable for a ironing cover or that I was supposed to be using a specially designed fabric for it but OH says it works perfect. He even said my fabric choice was genius because it he doesnt need to use any steam any more to iron his shirts.

I love inadvertant genius.

I also finished the mug rugs on that list and some 2-4-1 totes but Ill show them later. I now have ten days to sew a maxi dress, a t-shirt and a jumpsuit for myself for holiday. Thats not including all the stuff I have to do to ACTUALLY prepare for my holiday. I may have a breakdown.

But I don't care because in ten days I will be in my second home, Canada! I'm so excited!

Dangerous Combination

Hmmmm is sewing and Cava ever a good combination? Especially with THOSE scissors.

And yes, I finally started work on my Goodie Swap (Run by the ever wonderful Cindy @ Fluffy Sheep Quilting ) and that is an official sneak peek at the top ;-)


P.S - Excuse the blurry night-time pic.

My to do list

Pretty intimidating. This lot neff done within the next 4 weeks.

To my mug rug partners, the only reason ironing board cover is above you in the list is because 2 weeks ago I took our current one off, took all the string off it for the new one and them proceeded to leave it meaning we have no ironing board cover fort my partner to iron his work shirts on. Oops!

Time for a guessing game ...

So for the past 2 weeks I have hax to work prettg much everyday since my boss is on holiday. This has meant that I've not been doing very much of anything when I come home at night.

However, I managed to get this weekend off and I wanted to get some sewing done. Yesterday I cut out material for a project.

Can you guess what project I'm working on?

P.S. While cutting these out I named to cut my ironing board cover too so I need to make me one of those today too.

Prints to Polka Dots - AVOID AT ANY COST!

I've been holding off on writing this post for a while because to be honest I wanted to give them as long as possible to "make good" on this situation. However, I've accepted that its never going to happen and its irritating me to know that they continue to trade despite their awful treatment of me. So here goes...

I placed an order with Prints to Polka Dots on the 6th May for some metreage, 2 quilting rulers (which I had been waiting AGES to be able to buy) and a layer cake of Sherbet Pips (I never buy a really good expensive fabric like that but I decided to treat myself). The total order came to around £95 but I had a 20% off voucher as part of a recent competition they had run so I paid £75.

After about a week I received 2 bits of metreage and both of the rulers with an email stating that the other bits of metreage were out of stock but would be despatched in about 10 days. The Sherbet Pips was pre-order. I received the rulers (24" and 12") and fabric in a plastic delivery bag with absolutely no padding and no cardboard between the rulers so inevitably one of the rulers was snapped. I emailed via the online form about it and waited a week for a reply. After a week I also replied via the shipping email. The reply basically said "well RM will just say it was insufficiently packaged which it was so Ill either replace or refund". I asked for a replacement but stated that I would be happy if they put it in with the OOS metreage to save a bit on postage for them.

On 17th May (2 days before I got a reply about the ruler) I got an email saying the Sherbet Pips had been shipped. This didn't arrive but I waited 2 weeks from it being shipped before emailing the store to say I hadn't received it (1st Jun). On the 5th June I received an email to say my other metreage had been shipped but no reply to my email of the 1st about the non-arrival of the Pips. I replied to this on the 7th asking if the package included my replacement ruler and the Sherbet Pips layer cake as I hadn't received either.

By the 9th June I still hadnt had a reply (but received the metreage with neither of my missing items in it) and visited the web store to see a notice saying that the shop was going to be on holiday from June 11th - June 19th so I emailed again stating that I had sent two emails to which I hadn't had a reply and that I wanted an email from them before the shop went on holiday to confirm that I was either receiving a replacement package or a refund.

Still no reply.

I gave 3 days grace after the shop-owners returned from holiday to perhaps clear some backlog but then emailed them copying and pasting the 3 emails that I had sent them and the dates. I stated that I was getting fed up having to chase them about a £75 order constantly and being ignored. I sent this in reply to the emails that the store sends to which states at the bottom please reply to this email if you have any questions. I also sent it using the contact us webform on the store page.

After posting about this on the Crafteroo Forum for advice I also emailed the store owners personal email address (which I wouldn't normally do as I believe that personal and work life should be seperate but this business has £42 of my money for which I've received nothing and they don't provide a phone number so I felt like I had nowhere else to turn). Then they posted on their blog stating they were having email problems for a few weeks so I emailed again stating they had to get in touch with me or I would make a claim against them. However, I was being ignored long before any email problems.

So despite my repeated attempts to bring this to Prints to Polka Dots attention I am down a ruler which cost £17.50 (less 20%) and a layer cake of Sherbet Pips costing £35 (less 20%) that will probably be out of stock everywhere else now.

Im frustrated, angry and actually pretty upset. I have been shopping online for about 8 years and I've NEVER ONCE had a problem or been "conned" out of money so this leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. And you don't expect it from such a wonderful community that we crafters have. Whats worse is they still manage to get business.

I just hope that by writing this no-one gets stung as bad as I have been.

First attempts never look good

Behold.....

This is my very very first attempt at free motion quilting.

Tell me I'll get better?

This is the last of it...

... I promise.

Last week I went to visit my sister and family who live in Lancaster. I haven't been in nearly 2 years and it's beautiful where she says.

When she first moved there she told me about this fabric place called Standfast and Barracks. It is a fabric printing company but attached into their building they have a warehouse shop where they sell off fabric (mostly seconds at ridiculous prices).

So whenever I visit my sister I have to visit this shop. First off I got bump interlining for £3 a metre and they have told me if I need more I can just call them (01524 598222) and they will courier it. They offer this service for £7.50 for 25kg of material.

I definitely wanted to pick up some silk scraps. They do a bundle of 3 pieces of silk, which last time I got them made 9 jewelery rolls for the paltry sun of £1.50. I also picked up 2 metres of silk at £5 per metre.

I need fabric for the kitchen to make a new window blind and to cover a new cabinet we put in there. I found a fabric I liked at £5 per metre but then I found it in a 2 metre pack for £7! Bargain! I also picked up some other 2 metre packs, mainly to use as linings in bags and things. My stash is low on coordinating fabrics for that kind of thing.

And finally... I kept the best til last...they also do liberty. I picked up 2 metres for just £4! I also got a scrap pack for £1.50 and another piece for not so much.

I would genuinely say if you are in Lancaster or closeby and you like bargains in fabric you need to visit this place.

Right. Thats it. I am officially on a fabric diet and on stash-busting duty. My OH tells me I'm getting locked in my sewing room until it's all used up.

Want to know what £120 of fabric looks like?

.... And the best part of it? it only cost me £48.

Mandors is a fabric shop in Glasgow and a few months ago they ran an offer with Itison whereby you could buy £40 of fabric for £16 pounds. I snapped up 3 of those vouchers and the picture above is what I bought.

This is what I picked up on my first visit. I just love the new way they are displaying the fat quarter bundles. All of these are quilting cottons.

This is what I picked up on my second visit. My favorite is the blue, white and red dress fabric. They had some of this fabric made up into a dress on a display and it was hugely inspiring so a dress it shall be. The white with love hearts on it is a jersey/ knit so I am going to get that made up into a top/t-shirt. I also plan to maker a nice little jacket using the black cotton drill that is hiding in there. And finally the black with sequin flowers is to be made up into jewellery rolls and possibly some make up pouches.

I can't wait to get started!

Love!

I think that finally the time has come that I will actually become a more active blogger.

What has brought about this massive change you ask?

My new phone. I recently got a Samsung Galaxy s 2 on my upgrade and seriously the amount of things I can do on it is incredible.

I figured out this morning that not only can I post blog posts direct from my handset but I can put pictures directly into the post from the camera gallery on the handset. That was always the part I hated the most; getting my camera, photographing, trying to find a.camera cable, putting the pics into computer, then uploading them into Blogger. Now its just one fluid process and it is done.

Wa-hey! Are you glad to have me back?

Don't you just love free stuff?!

Way back in September I got a lovely surprise on Facebook. I received a message from Mandors, a fabric and crafts shop in Glasgow saying that I had won a £20 voucher for their store.

I did venture in near the end of October but I wasn't really inspired to buy anything. I put this down to the fact that it was the week before Halloween and because Mandors have a big dress fabric section it was pretty busy. I don't really do well in shops where there are lots of people because I constantly feel as if I need to keep moving if people are trying to get past me. So I gave up on this occassion with the promise to re-visit when it would be quiet.

Wanna see what I got when I did go back?

First off I picked up 2 of these FQ bundle of 8:



Then I saw this cute FQ bundle of 6:





And besides these cute bundles was this amazing FQ bundle of 6:





This fabric is going to be used to make something for ME!!!!! I'm not sure I ever make anything for myself, is that the same for all crafters?! Details will follow on what its going to be.

ETA: This lot didnt come to £20 exactly... I may have spent a little more that that ;-)

The Craft Book Challenge

Since I have been lacking creative motivation lately, I have been keeping up to date with my blog reading in the hope that I can garner inspiration from somewhere.

I found an interesting challenge on Liesl Made . Liesl has challenged herself and others to create at least one item per month from one Craft book thats already on your bookshelf.

The button for the challenge is on my sidebar.

Luckily for me, I have exactly 12 craft books in total: 2 are not pictured below, The Bag Making Bible by Lisa Lam and Son of Stitch and Bitch.



For once, I actually think this is definitely an acheivable challenge for me.

I may or may not have already started on a project from a book ;-)

Hiatus

Hi to all!

I have had a very long hiatus from this blog and also from crafting in general.

2010 was an exceptionally tough year for myself and my family and sewing was pushed to the side. I lost my mum in July after an 8 month battle with cancer. She was my inspiration, my muse and my very own personal tutor. She is the reason I started sewing and I idolised her for the way she could make ANYTHING. If ever I had a problem or needed to troubleshoot a problem or a concept just didn't make sense I would run to her for help.

Without her here to guide me and motivate me, I have been a bit lost.

However, to just give up on it because she isn't here would be silly. I love sewing and the idea of making my own things for my family and for others, just like she did throughout her life. I just need a little bit of a kick start again (she would have been the one to give me a kick up the bum!).

I have a few things planned which I will post about in the coming weeks.

Kat