Bust London Summer Craftacular

Firstly, Sarah Elizabeth arrived on 16th June weighing 9lbs 14 ozs (4.5 kgs)! She has a long body, funny wee legs and a shock of dark spiky hair.

So we've been settling into life as a family of four. Big sister has been great with the odd blip. She has nick named her little sister 'the gosling' and it has kind of stuck!

On the littlechook front I have cut some new templates such as a horse and a lobster but they are not yet on tees. I found a new organic cotton supplier aswell so have some really lovely new tshirts to work with.

Lastly I applied for the Bust Craftacular in London on 22nd August and was accepted. Help! Got to get busy making......

broadband hitches

I've been trying to put this post up for 5 days now, hopefully it is now fixed. We will see when I try to upload the picture....

I got a new digital camera , a fuji finepix, as an early birthday present and it is fantastic! I keep wandering round the house taking random shots of anything and everything. I did manage to persuade the little lady to model one of the new tshirts (bribed her with a biscuit) so she struck a pose and I think they turned out really well.




I'm hoping to set up a new etsy shop soley for the tshirts but need to get a few more decent pictures first. I'm glad I went for the organic cotton ones and they are washing and wearing really well. I did print onto a couple of the really cheap fruit of the loom ones and you get what you pay for.....

babygros aka 'onesies'

I really liked my singing bluebird from the Howies/Folksy comp entry so I re cut the flock shapes again and used them on a babygro (onesies as the US etsyians call them) and also tried the rabbit and love heart designs on other babygros and they are just cute as a button!

I've been thinking about other garmets that I can use my designs on as t shirts will be more seasonal and just now everyone is thinking about keeping their little ones warm. So I am trying long and short sleeved babygros and long sleeved toddler t shirts. It's been hard to find organic cotton ones so I think I will have to go with the american apparel long sleeved t. It's not organic but at least I can be sure it hasn't come from a sweatshop or been made by children....

Sew Long Good Buy

The east london craft guerilla are holding the 5th and final outdoor craft market this saturday in the garden at the back of the Penny Fielding Beautiful Interiors shop in Walthamstow village and littlechook will be there. It is organised by the lovely Deborah Daniel who is also busy organising the E17 art trail on 10th September.

I managed to staff the pop up shop for the final saturday after a wee mix up here and there so I will be taking a selection of my lovely organic cotton children's t shirts along for my stall. I may possibly squeeze in a small print run of the linen/cotton tea towels - maybe!

More info on the market at http://www.eastlondoncraftguerilla.blogspot.com/

new designs

I've been working on more print designs and am thinking now about printing them onto some vintage fabrics as well as the organic cotton. I've been incorporating the paper cut outs with hand drawn images mainly of beetles and moths with some cut outs with text on them.

When I get some time that is! Between Urban Craft Stars shop, blog, my blog, little lady's molars, and a flurry of etsy sales I am knackered!

The little lady is in a nursery play today about all the different countries the children in the nursery are from and they are dressing in national costume. Her's is a bit lame - all I could find was a tartanish dress. Did manage to score points though by taking hubby's sporran and kilt pin along for the kids to see.

New Kids Tshirt Design

made this one quite girly with a red heart and one of the pigeons is singing away. The little lady has taken to rubbing her nose against the flock shapes! I used the moo cards as the washing instructions label as the flock needs ironed on the back (although who the heck irons kids clothes!!!)

The tshirt itself is organic cotton and I was surprised at how soft it is. It is so different to the fruit of the loom t shirts that I think it does justify the higher price tag. I got some new t shirt samples today including some red organic ones from Mantis and some long sleeved unbleached ones.

I also got some Fruit of the loom v necks and I ordered a Large and X Large and I cannot believe how small they are! I can barely fit into the XL - it is sooo tight accross the chest I looked like I should be headed to the Playboy mansion. So I have scratched them as the tees for the 'plus size' collection.

I'm having more luck with tshirts from the supermarkets but the low price does make me worry about the conditions of the workers who make them.

Ideally I will buy two overlockers on ebay this weekend and will make my own t shirts eventually. My mum will be helping so we will be a two women sweatshop!

Stylish T Shirts for curvy girls

Thankfully the heat press is fully functioning so I cracked on with making a couple of baby tees today. The organic cotton tshirts worked really well and they feel so lovely and soft.

I also noticed a while back on the etsy forums that lots of etsy ladies were saying how they couldn't find any tshirts to fit them. They were looking for the type of cool, funky prints that many etsy sellers have in their shops but they weren't keen on the usual American Apparel fit. Presonally I find AA really teeny tiny even the XL size! The cut is not particularily generous for a proper bosom....

So I've been trying to source wholesale 'plus size' (I hate that term) tshirts but it's been really hard to find anything half decent. I have been shocked though at the negativity towards so called 'larger' (e.g. normal!) sizes even from companies selling plus size clothing. ("our cuddlier customers" as one put it).

So I'm trying to create something stylish, fun and beautiful for us curvy girls. I used some flock shapes today as I think the deer and birds work well and I just love stars!

insomnia and creativity!

I didn't get to sleep last night until about 5am. Hubby bless him let me lie in till 7.30am. I had hours of fun on the etsy forums and had a chat with my lovely web designer Jen about her baby bump.

I am cursing these steroids I am taking. Side affects include insomnia (thanks) and weight gain (and I worked so damm hard to shift the baby weight) and hungers pangs (hence the bowl of rice crispies and a glass of port at 3am).

But have managed to get myself working today while Katherine is at nursery. A grand total on a cushion cover made from some screen printed fabric with rabbits and squirrels in flock popped onto the cover. I'm not sure about it to be honest.....

Secondly finished one of my flower circle designs and am pretty happy with that one so hopefully can get a screen made up soon to start printing some of my lovely organic fabrics.

Think I will be napping with the little lady when she gets back from nursery. In fact got to pick her up now!

organic cotton kids tshirts

My samples arrived! They are 100% organic cotton t shirts and are also fairtrade. The only drawback is the sizes only seem to go up to 18 months. Colourwise they do white, unbleached and red. Somehow I have managed to forget to order the red ones! They feel lovely and soft. No chemicals or pesticides are used on the cotton. I am interested to find out more on their fairtrade aspect though and how this works. I am really aware that I don't want to be printing tshirts for kids that are made by kids. Not right in my book.

The manufacturer is Mantis World and their website is http://www.matisworld.com/ The website on the label though is http://www.tenderlovingclothing.com/ but it doesn't seem to be working???

No chance to add any printing as yet. I have decided to stick with the littlechook name but go for FlockStars by Littlechook. I am thinking of having a second etsy shop for the vintage cushions and using the littlechook on for all the printed, organic cotton cushions, t shirts and tea towels. So far my designs have rabbits, squirrels and deer. I am about to add pigeons, woodpeckers and foxes.

That's it for now, off to eat chicken fajitas an drink pear cider for dinner.

Pulse 2008

Spent the day at Earls Court at the Pulse 2008 trade show. It has exhibitors covering jewellry, gifts, home furnishings, bath and body, cards etc. It also has a launchpad section for new designers. It was intersting wandering round and seeing the types of products on offer from a variety of companies. My particular favourites were thornback and peel and snowden flood. There were alot of real 'cutesy' stuff which is not me at all and I did think it would be more 'design' led.

Afterwards we zipped up to Kensington High Street and went to Wholefoods Market which is just unbeliveable. Floors and floors of organic, fairtrade, fresh - you name it they have got it. So tonight we feasted on loive bread, manchego cheese and quince paste and I have hidden away some white chocolate with poppy seeds. Mmmmm

littlechook goes fairtrade and organic

Currently I use non organic tea towels and I am finding the quality a bit hit and miss and I keep reading in papers such as The Guardian about the damage cotton growing does through the excessive use of pesticides and it worries me.

As a designer I expect to be able to charge a fair price for handmade handprinted items so why shouldn't the whole supply chain expect the same?. So today I decided to use only organic fabrics but also to ensure they are fairtrade so that the makers get a fair wage.

Google came up trumps and took me to http://www.organiccotton.biz/

I ordered samples and the very nice Phil replied to my email straightaway saying organic fairtrade cotton tea towels were available. Yay!

They are a family firm based in Powys and their site has some fantastic pictures of the cotton being grown and made into fabrics by the local people.

I have ordered sample fabrics in a range of colours and weights. The range is brilliant with calicos, denims etc and many are handwoven. I got nostaligic for my weaving days thinking about handlooms. I miss my weavebird!