Category: Uncategorized

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Looking for lamp shades?

Hello

 

 

 

It’s been so lovely to meet so many people at markets recently, and to hear such lovely feedback about my lamp shades.

A selection of my lamp shades at Made It.
Some of my lamp shades at Made It.

I don’t have the ability to put them up for ordering online yet – I’m still working through the logistics of packaging and sending them. In the meantime, if you’re after one of the lamps you’ve seen at a market – or a custom order for a lamp shade in a different size – you can pop me an message using the contact form you’ll find here.

If you’re in Wellington, you’ll also find a good range of my lamp shades at Made It, at 103 Victoria Street. If you want to pop in to chat about your lamp shade needs, you’ll usually find me there on a Monday or a Thursday.

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It’s spring knack time!

That’s right, the days are getting longer, the daffodils are blooming, and market season is getting under way. This Saturday it’s the spring knack, so I’ll be back at Berhampore School from 9.30 – 1.30.

Spring knack
Spring knack poster

This time there’s a retro and vintage theme, so I’m going to be digging through my stash to find what beauties I can. Some will be retro or vintage fabrics, others will be offcuts from other designers’ workrooms… I’m going to be busy this week!

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Nothing to see here…

Oops, today was supposed to be my turn on the WSBN Sewing Room Blog tour, but I had an unfortunately long day at work today, and I’m not going to be able to finish it all up tonight.
The wonderful Maryanne from Sent from my iRon has offered to step up and add her post a day early, so that you won’t all be left hanging today, and all going well I’ll be back with my post tomorrow.  She’s also rounded everything off very nicely with a full list of ALL of the stops on the tour, in case you’ve missed any, or are totally new to the tour!

 

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Introducing: Fabric of the Week

Isn’t it funny how doing something very routine or repetitive can spark the most creative thinking?

I have one of those brains that never switch off, unless I’m asleep (although sometimes I’m not sure if it even does then).  I do tend to find though that if you’re consciously trying to think of a solution to something, inspiration doesn’t necessarily strike.  On the other hand, sometimes when you’re not trying to think about it, the best ideas pop into your head.  I had one of those moments a few weeks ago.

I was focused on tidying at the time – working out how I was going to organise my fabric collection downstairs, and I believe I was actually vacuuming the lounge when the lightbulb moment occurred. Continue reading Introducing: Fabric of the Week

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Friday Night Makes

I’ve been working on building my business for a few years now. I’m pretty good at getting on bursts of sewing when there is a deadline – especially if there’s a market looming, but I was starting to get to the point where I was feeling overwhelmed with making things for others, and never making anything for myself. This was enhanced by the fact that I was working in the shop every Saturday, and so never really felt like I’d had a proper weekend.

Tamarillo Daquiri
Tamarillo Daiquiri – Lampshade from Zamm Lights

So for the last 6 weeks or so, I’ve been dedicating my Friday nights to making something for myself.  Continue reading Friday Night Makes

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Happy Dance!

I got the all clear today on my wrist!

Happy little blue penguins!
Happy little blue penguins!

 

While I’ve known for a few weeks that it wasn’t broken (phew!), they were concerned about tendon damage, so I’ve had to be very careful, and using scissors was absolutely out.  But now I’m allowed to start cutting again!  So I made these wee fellows to celebrate.

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New ways of performing existing skills

I thought I would see how I go with making a wallet tonight (let’s not start with the easy stuff…). I only got the interfacing and outer cut, and that took longer than it would normally take me to totally finish one. *sigh* This is going to be slow.  No pics tonight because I haven’t done enough to be interesting yet, and it’s also not really that easy to take photos at the moment.

 
On the upside, I get my follow-up x-ray tomorrow. I’m being treated for a suspected scaphoid fracture, which is a common injury if you’re silly enough to stick your hand out to break your fall.  The scaphoid is a very small bone, apparently so fine that fractures don’t necessarily show up on x-ray straight away, but can be seen after 10-14 days once it starts to heal. Tomorrow is almost 3 weeks, but it was the first free appointment with the wrist specialist at the fracture clinic. So there is a chance that it’s not actually broken (and I’m praying that is the case).  At the very least I’m hoping I will get this cast off and a new, lighter one instead, and that will allow me to manoeuvre my right arm more freely.

X-ray Image from Wikipedia
Image from Wikipedia, not my wrist

To start with, doing anything required a huge mental effort.  I found that working out how to do everything left-handed was about on par with going and living in France. For the first couple of weeks it was a case of knowing what was going on, knowing what I wanted to do, but having to go through a mental process of how to achieve that which would normally come easily – whether that be ensuring I spoke in French that was correct enough to be understood, or making myself a snack with one hand.  I needed so many naps in the last few weeks! Continue reading New ways of performing existing skills

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Flat out

Dear Reader,

Please believe me that I have not forgotten you nor my blog.  Life just got a little busy for a bit, then I got to be the other sort of flat out for a little bit, and then it got busy again…

In late February and early March I had quite a bit of contract work on, and I decided to do Newtown Fair with about 10 days notice. So I had a stint of about 3 weeks without a day off. Was that was done though, I got to have my summer holiday with my lovely husband. We headed off for a week in the Coromandel. We ended up spending most of it at Hahei Beach. Originally we had intended to move around a bit more, but once we got there it was so lovely, and we were feeling a bit lazy, so every couple of days we sauntered over to the camp office and paid for two more days.  In between we basically swam, laid around, and occasionally went for a walk.

Continue reading Flat out

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Burning the candle at both ends and random acts of kindness

Progress has stalled somewhat on the workroom makeover – early starts, lots of admin, and needing to sew have taken their toll, but I am happy to report that things are definitely a lot tidier now, and I can indeed turn on the iron and the elnapress without risk of burning the house down.  Which is very important on two counts:

  1. Pressing/ironing is an incredibly important and oft repeated step in the sewing process if you want good results.
  2. I like my house. It is a wonderful home, and it would be a disaster if ironing created a fire hazard. Continue reading Burning the candle at both ends and random acts of kindness
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Shopping with The Sewphist

It suddenly occurred to me that it might be a good idea to talk about where you can buy my wares!  I have two online stores (felt and etsy, click on the tabs above to be directed to the shop), but sadly I am notoriously bad at keeping them up to date!

If you’re in Wellington, you can come visit me at Made.it.  You’ll find me behind the counter most Fridays and Saturdays, and of course you’ll find my notebooks, visual diaries, purses and wallets there everyday (apart from Sunday and Monday, because those are our resting/making days).  You’ll usually find satchels and cushions there too, but just at the moment they’re sold out – feel free to request a custom item though, as I love making to order.

I’m still managing to do the odd market in between running the shop and various contract jobs.

Whoops, blurry phone camera shot!

Next out of the starting block is Craft2.0, on November 3rd.  There’s a new venue this time, the St James Theatre, and I think it will be fabtastic!  The designer line up for November has just been released today – you should nosey on over and have a look.  It’s pretty!

Craft 2.0 – Saturday 3 November in Wellington

I have a couple more fairs that I’ve applied for before Christmas too, but I’ll keep those announcements for another day – gotta give myself something to post about regularly!