Personalised Child's Library Bag on Etsy

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine had her Little Man start Kindergarten. So she approached me about making him a bag that he could use for their library visits.

Being a Librarian, and also keen to make things, I jumped at the chance! The other great thing is that the Kindergarten Teacher had suggested I make up a flyer in case any other Mum's were interested in having one made for their child as well.

Well, after having a bit of a think about what would look really cute, and also be practical for the many Library visits, I came up with this:

What do you think?

Tyson had requested "Blue with spots" and also to have the Dinosaur (as you'll see from the picture below, we took the liberty of changing Dudley the Dinosaur to Blue for this special occasion).

Dudley the Dinosaur is one of Ash's creations from a year or two ago that I've been busting to use, and this seemed like the best way to introduce them. So let me introduce you to Dudley's friends - Florence, Geoffrey, Katie and Harry. Harry the Horse is only 1 week old, but has been accepted very kindly into the group by the rest of the animal bunch.

Aren't they just so cute?!

I have added this to my items on Etsy, so if you're reading this and thinking "Oh my, I wish I could have one!" then this is your golden opportunity. Just click on my Etsy link, or go straight to Personalised Library Bag by Spot of Colour.

By the way, Tyson was delighted with his new bag and I believe he will be using it today at Kinder.

I'm on Etsy!

I'm a bit excited, because I now have an Etsy shop and some cute skirts for sale on it!

It's been something I've been considering for a little while, and I've got lots more ideas for the future that I'm currently sorting out. Hopefully you'll see some of them at the beginning of the year, if not before.

Thanks to the two cute little princesses who helped to model my skirts, and to their Mum's for letting their little girls get dressed up for the camera. And a massive thanks to my husband Ash for the wonderful photos, and of course my wonderful shop logo!

I'll add a link to my Etsy shop on my Blog page, but you can check it out here: Spot of Colour

Spot of Colour Labels + My Hooded Tunic Top Design

Can you tell it's been busy in our house lately? I can't believe I actually finished all of my sewing projects before we head overseas tomorrow!

The first thing I am really excited about is that, a few weeks ago, Ash designed some clothing labels for me so that I can get cracking on making things and selling them on Etsy. I'd heard really good things about World Sale Label on Etsy, so I decided to order some labels through them. I bought the standard type (see the pic below) and also some folded over labels that can be sewn into a side seam. They arrived in the mail last Friday, just as I was finishing off some items for a friend of mine, so I just had to sew in a label. And I can't believe how great it looks, it really finishes it all off I reckon.

The second thing I'm a bit excited about - proud even - is the hooded tunic top that I've made. A few weeks ago, I made the rash decision that I would design and make a top for myself - probably not the smartest idea, when I had a list of projects to finish and an overseas trip just weeks away.

So I sketched out what I would like in a top, found a tank top in my wardrobe that fitted me well, and started drawing a design out on tracing paper from that. I'm not sure what my Mother in Law thought when I turned up that night to sewing class with my design and a couple of pictures off the internet as inspiration, but she helped me along those few weeks and now I have an awesome top to take overseas with me!

Here it is:

I actually didn't have quite enough black fabric for the hood, so I used some leftover red and used that for the tie as well. I'm so glad I did, I think it really makes it.

(P.S. Sorry about the pasty white skin - I'll try and remedy that in the next 6 weeks! Also, don't look at the messy bookshelf - I've run out of room!)

See you in a couple of months everyone :)

Girl Skirts

I've been wanting to try out these cute skirts for a little while, I've seen them on quite a few blogs lately professing them to be the easiest skirt to make. So I was happy when I got a chance to make these for some friends.

The blog tutorial I ended up following was this one: Simple Skirt Tutorial by Dana Made It. As you can see, there's not much to it - plus the pattern is just one big rectangle! I decided to line both of the ones I made, which meant I could also hide most of the seams. If I get to make some more, I'd like to play around with doing a two-tiered one, and also using bias tape. There's just so many options with a skirt like this!

So, here's the two that I whipped up:

The purple one is actually made from leftover fabric from another skirt I made for my Mum's birthday last year (Simple Skirts) that I ordered from www.fabric.com, and the green one was part of the "All Star" Riley Blake half yard set that I ordered a couple of months ago.

Obey your parents

This post isn't really related to sewing, but it is craft based so I thought I'd share it with you all.

I've been teaching Sunday School to 3-5 year olds for the last couple of months and last week we all learnt what the word "Obey" meant. So, seeing as this week is my last one, I wanted to do something a little special for them to take home so I had this idea ...

Cool right? I got the idea from the gift that Ash gave me (see here), so I explained to Ash how I'd like it to look and this is what he created! The idea is, that the kids are going to colour in the letters of "Obey" and then I will laminate it and they can take it home.

I think this is one thing that their parents may take pleasure in displaying at home ... !

(Anyone is welcome to use this, just leave me a comment and let me know how it was enjoyed)