TinkeringTimes

Hurrah for sewing

It's been a while but I've managed to find some more time to get back to sewing.

Partly because I've had some ideas I wanted to try out, partly to get my hands on some fabric that's been waiting for an outing, and partly to get ready for a craft market I'm selling at in December.

So here's a little taster of what I've been up to. It's all in the shop and I'll be adding more over the coming weeks.

Graphic Space stickers

Just a little post to share these amazing wall decals I stumbled upon by Graphic Spaces.

I have seen so many of this sort of thing lately on etsy and in real live shops. Some of great quality and aesthetic, others just purely mundane. Of all those I've seen I think these are by far my favourite so far. And they ship internationally.

If only we had any wall space left to put things on...

Come visit

For the first time in a long time I'll be selling at a craft fair. It's in a gorgeous corner of Manchester surrounded by lovely cafes, independent shops and other good nooks and crannies. So if you fancy a Bank Holiday trip out do pop down and say hello.



Of course I'll have the full range of bags, purses, brooches, soft toys and textile canvas work available, and am always happy to chat. And look up there - there'll be cakes!

Sunshine and sewing

It's Thursday. It's sunny. I am on leave.

I am printing off a new pattern and going away for a full weekend's sewing to a gorgeous place in North Yorkshire. I am leaving any troubles behind me to stitch, cut, press and turn to my heart's content. Around me will be 12 or so other friends feeling exactly the same way.

I cannot wait.

And so I thought for the first time in years I'd try and make something for me, that I really want, that I never have time to make otherwise. No little purses, tiny brooches, half made soft toys sitting in corners waiting for a snatched half hour here and ten minutes there. No, this weekend I will be attempting to make this blouse. From scratch. Just for me.

For as long as I can remember, probably about 15 or so years, I have had some vintage silk given to me by my mother. I never knew what to do with it, until a couple of years ago I thought, what it really needs is a lovely blouse pattern, something stylish but contemporary, yet with a vintage twist to honour the fabric.

Incredibly I found just the pattern this morning, in the first place I looked. Burda Style. Even more incredibly this pattern is absolutely free to download, so you can help yourself to it too.

This is the fabric I'm working with.

I am terrified it will go wrong, and I will be left with no blouse, and no more beautiful vintage silk...

stats geek

Now that I've freed up a bit more 'me time' I've been catching up with my etsy shop. Taking new photos, renewing expired items, listing new things. As I was glancing through the shop to see which of the newly listed items people were looking at I remembered the marvellous Heartomatic tool which churns some glorious stats out for etsy sellers.

In my freelance work one of the things I do a lot of is evaluation so I do place quite a lot of faith in stats. I know they're only part of the picture but they can be a useful starting place to decide where to look in more detail.

 

So I started looking through the heartomatic list to try and work out which items are most popular. And here's where stats get tricky - you can pretty much use them to demonstrate any theory you like, which is not so helpful when you need a clear result.

 

For example - are my most popular items the ones with the most views? or the ones which most people have marked as a favourite? Or the ones which take the least number of views to mark as a favourite? I'm sure there must be other ways to cut this up too so you can see my confusion.

 

I don't know what the answer is so for now I'm pitching in the middle and looking at which take the least number of views to end up as the highest number of favourites. Still with me? So that's what you're looking at in these pictures.

 

All that having been said, it still doesn't tell me why these are more popular. Is it that the images are good? the pricing's right? they hit a trend at the right time? No idea. Yet still I feel the heartomatic is incredibly useful, perhaps one day I'll figure out why!

Stats:

• Green birdy decoration: 1 heart per 10 views (newly listed so only 1 heart /10 views in total)
• Blue vintage fabric dachshund: 21 views per heart / total 12 hearts and 246 views
• Liberty fabric & mustard sleepy birdy brooch: 26 views per heart / total 1 heart and 26 views
• 60s vintage fabric badge: 28 views per heart / total 3 hearts and 84 views
• Apple 60s vintage fabric dachshund:  36 views per heart / total 3 hearts and 107 views

treasury

Etsy has a lovely feature allowing it's users to 'curate' collections based on any theme at all.

I was lucky enough to have one of my bags (bottom row, middle) included in this one.
The treasuries are often pale, muted, subdued so it was heartwarming to be included in one so vibrant and rich.

It's live until Weds 24th Dec so *click through* and have a look what else is there.
Oh and *this*is the bag.

Lu Summers

I love green, as you know. I also love the work of mixed-media artist Lucie Summers. I've bought a few of her pieces and this one sits over my desk to keep me inspired and refreshed every day.

In celebration of her blogger-versary, lovely Lu is giving away this new piece 'lowercase' to some lucky person. If you love her work as much as I do and fancy your chances, pop down and visit her here

denim patch dress

denim patch dress, originally uploaded by Highland Fairy.

Just because I do really rather like this dress a lot, and for no other reason at all it's in the blog.

It just looks like it would fit a real woman with actual curves, has such simple but gorgeous decoration, and is a work of sheer construction genius.

If someone hasn't beaten you to it you can snaffle it up all for your very own at http://www.heidimoon.etsy.com and if they have, maybe you'll find something else there you like.

s h o p :: II

Another sneaky plug for the shop. This time - Rosette Brooches
Because it seems like a great way to use up some of the many many metres of grosgrain ribbon and hundreds of vintage buttons I have lying around...

All available in the shop

s h o p

It's not like me to blatantly give my little shop a plug, but I have been working hard sewing like a demon, and it is coming up to Christmas so I'm just going to sneak in a teeny series of posts sharing my work (and obsessive collection of vintage and Japanese fabrics) with you - indulge me...

I have just uploaded a beautiful batch of bags

You can find them here.