Grafton Legacy Markets

  After booking an outside stall, I was very relieved to wake up to a clear sky after a rainy day before! Here are some pictures.

 

The husband doing the usual, taking a picture of me without telling me. One day he might remember to tell me to look and smile!

Notice the wet bitumen left over from the day before? Very glad it cleared!

 

The nappy table.

Fitted nappies and my nanna’s knitted toys. They were extremely popular.

Nanna’s knitted kids clothes, and my tie-dyed towels and facewashers, with a rack of more dyed clothes above.

 

  And although you can’t see them clearly here, the front of the table belongs to my entrepreneur daughter, all of nine years old. She’s been selling sewn treasure bags at markets for a year or so now, and branched out at this market into crocheted dishcloths. Sadly, there were no dishcloth buyers this time although dozens of people complimented her on her crocheting (she made another while we were there).

  Although I had a good day, I felt wrecked by the time I got home. Markets are so much work! Up at 5.15am getting ready, milking goats, driving, setting up, being on my best behaviour all day, packing up, driving, unpacking…………..it was such a huge day. Luckily the crafty markets are not very often up this way-it’s a blessing in disguise!

October Orders

  Well, luckily I had three very lovely customers who were quite understanding of the delay caused by my son breaking his leg, then falling prey to every germ going around! I had only listed two packs, thinking that would keep me busy enough, but agreed to a third thinking I had plenty of time-then of course, Murphy’s Law kicked in and they took me over three weeks to complete.

  First up, there was a pack for a mum-to-be, who wanted the basics to begin with and will add to this when she has her babe and can see whether she can buy pink……….a dozen Easyflats, four OSFM covers and a pack of mini wipes.

  Next up, a pack for a terry flats user (who has apparently heard that Pepper covers are the best ones to use over flats-flattered!) Eight covers should do it for her little boy.

  And lastly, extreme girliness-five OSFM pockets with trifolds.

  More custom order slots will be available during my November sale, which will run from the 12th-19th of November. And hopefully this month things will run a little smoother!

Library Markets

  I had a ball-this market has one of the best vibes of any i’ve been to. The visitors and stallholders were friendly, I met lots of lovely new people………and I even have photos of my teeny stall.

And me…….I actually managed to force the husband into taking a photo. In public. Because that’s such an embarrassing thing to do, isn’t it husband? (Hence lack of looking at camera etc-he snapped and ran.)

  I haven’t booked in for next month, as i’m in sew-for-winter mode so we don’t all freeze to death in this new climate. However, hopefully i’ll be there-and if I am, I may have my twirly-whirly-girly skirts finished up. But I am known for being optimistic about how much time I have, so maybe not too!

Busyness.

   I realised the other day it has been over a month since I posted here. That’s somewhat intentional, for the last few months i’ve been sewing as much as I can, and blogging about it has taken second place to actually doing it. And as I keep packaging up and posting off orders triumphantly, and completely forgetting to photograph them to prove that something is actually happening in my workspace, here is my busy room.  Two orders waiting for topstitching and labels.

The neglected scraps pile-sorting and tidying has also taken second place to working.

The fantastic cupboard, my pride and joy-this used to be my shelf for outer fabrics. Note there are none anymore-all of this is cut, reinforced and snapped, and the bottom halves of the piles just need elastic and topstitching. Hundreds of nappies, all at least half done, yay for us! I still have a few metres of random fleeces and minkys, but virtually everything is on it’s way to being something rather than sitting gathering dust.

The last of the order rack-this had eight bags on it last week. Now that was a juggling act, and I did drop a few balls in the organisational sense. Nothing major, but phew, i’m glad it’s manageable again!

More?!

  And with the awesome generosity of her friends, we were able to add these to this order

To bring the total up to nine OSFM pockets with trifold inserts. Cool present, huh?

They should have been opened by now today-I hope she adores them and gets many hundreds of uses from them.

Preparing for nighttime

  This is the first time i’ve made night covers for a long time. It was a request from a regular customer, who i’m always happy to accommodate. Three covers to go over the three Mandy Mac Purple Nights purchased on crazy-sale. These are minky or fleece outers, with an inner of Malden Mills 200wt fleece-so not waterproof but water resistant. I’ve always found this preferable to PUL overnight-the fleece breathes much better, and i’d rather it compression leak if sodden than have my child wearing the equivalent of a water balloon on their bum.   

Rear view on my two year old, with the MMPN underneath (and yes, of course he had undies on, and is completely toilet-trained!)

  

And to show just how big they go, the side view on my 17kg six year old. Yes, 17kg-I have petite girls!

  

I imagine these would easily fit from at least 6kgs until five years of age-and I may just have to test them to find out. If you have a child of about 5kgs and you’re interested, or a child of 20kgs+ please get in contact with me!

Baby shower time

  It’s times like this I think maybe I should have had at least one baby shower-look at the presents!

I haven’t posted much lately-orders have generally only been smaller ones, and standard print nappies lately so there hasn’t been much to put up. But that seems to be a’changing so I should have a bit more action now!

New fabrics

Most PULs with one minky-available to order over here right now!

 

Fairy time

I had this fabric given to me to make these two. My six year old fell in love with it. I have extra pocket half-made in it, if anyone else loves it as much as my daughter.Apologies on the poor colour quality, I think my camera is going to die soon. It’s actually a medium, candy sort of pink.

And yes, the labels are on the wrong side (for those of you playing at home). I couldn’t whack it on her face, or on her magic kitty, could I?

Boy + Girl

For someone who gets to have one of each in nappies at once. I had two girls and one boy in nappies at once, but seeing as there was no bamboo, no minky and virtually no patterned PUL at the time it wasn’t this exciting!

I love these two-i’m a fan of paisleys.

Next stash, done

24 Easyflats, four pockets, four covers, and a bonus pack of wipes. And possibly another order i’ll have to drop off late, if the Mary River keeps on rising!

Rumble in the Jungle

Well, the cow wouldn’t last long and the zebra looks like it’s been hanging around a nuclear fallout zone, but other than that it’s sort of jungle-ish!
 
I was told ‘She’s weird like you, so you choose the prints” (they were a present for a pregnant daughter). Luckily I take that as a compliment! But then she gained access to my FB albums and chose these four. Hopefully they’re well-used and loved once the baby arrives.

My bigger, better sewing room (aka showing off again)

My little room was getting a bit crowded, and the kids toyroom was getting too messy. The solution was obvious-swap to give me more room and the kids less. In Queensland terms this is a sleepout-a long narrow room that’s sort of like a boxed-in veranda. I’ve been in here for about six weeks, and it’s made a big difference to the amount I can make. I’m an organisational freak, and everything here has a place and it’s in it (if the kids haven’t raided my stuff), so I can relax and just get on with it.

I just need a corkboard for that lovely bare wall-and the husband has nabbed some leftover cork tiles from his work to make me one. Isn’t he a dear?

Cutting/snapping table-our old dining table. This has been the husband’s domain as he’s taken over cutting. I would have a waiting list if it wasn’t for the useful man, I couldn’t keep up with all the orders lately by myself. 

A bare curtain rail has become the designated order area-orders in progress are hung here, labelled with all of their details and filled with the current progress. This is the best system, as I can see at a glance what’s the most urgent. Really big orders still need to go in the cupboard though-I tried to hang 30 EasyFlats up there and the rail nearly snapped.

A desk! It’s been on the to-buy list for a while because I really need a designated office area (rather than shoving receipts in a drawer and having drifts of paper covering the kitchen bench). A friend gave me this one as she didn’t want it anymore, and it’s awesome. Thanks Shelley! Maybe I can begin my bookwork for this financial year soon………. 

I’ve also commandeered a couch from the lounge room-this way the husband will sit and read and chat with me of an evening, which makes me happier to stay in longer and get more work done.

And when he wanders off there’s always Ralph-but he doesn’t talk much.

Nappying a mini baby

****I hope to develop and test this pattern more to cater for the rather specialised group of babies born -however it can be hard to find testers of this size in time to get the cover to them! If you may be able to help (for example you’re pregnant with multiples or have a history or a high likelihood of small or premature babies) contact me to discuss testing this pattern for me.****
I have trouble getting my head around just how small some babies can be-after all, the smallest of my five was 6lb 2oz, and she’s a twin!
When Skye was born, weighing in the low 5lbs range (full-term and single, just petite), it was obvious she didn’t qualify in the ‘most’, in my one-size-fits-most sizing. They didn’t come close to fitting snugly around her little chicken legs!
So first up I made a cover using a pattern i’d drafted for my newborn son. With him being  what we called an ‘instant toddler’ at 9lb 6ozs even this was too big for her.

So this one was even smaller-the sort of thing I look at and think would never fit a real child, surely they don’t come that small?!
But they do-it fitted her beautifully until she reached about 6kgs.
Gorgeousness.
If you have a child this small and want to cloth them, it’s still doable. And can actually be much better than disposables, based on discussions i’ve had with parents of premmie and multiple babies who have found extra small disposables almost impossible to come across, prone to leakage and extremely expensive. Flannelette flats can be folded trimly and are bought very cheaply, to get you through the first few months. And hopefully in the near future i’ll have a dependable, fully tested cover ready to go over them.

Funkadelic!

I couldn’t really think of anything more suitable to call this velvet lycra PUL-i’m a fan of bright colours and anything remotely hippy-ish so I adore it. I bought it specially for this order but made sure I got a bit extra, luckily too as i’ve already had an order for another one!

William!

Well, here they finally are-Will in his covers over terry flats. Thanks for the pictures Saminda!



As you can see, he’s a solid boy at around 18 months, but still has plenty of room to grow.
And, after all that excitement, a much needed rest. Awww!

There’s also a bit of a review here at Saminda’s blog, Ferns by the Fireside.