Mini-Pinny madness

Apple green spots, Antique pink (SOLD) and Seaside blue

If you’ve been following Bloombub on Facebook, you’ll notice we’re on a bit of a Mini-Pinny marathon over here. It’s time to de-stash our old Fat Quarters to make room for the fabrics I’ve chosen for our Spring range. I’ll be steadily sewing away at the OOAK de-stash Mini-Pinnies throughout August, so join us on Facebook to keep updated, or check the Madeit store regularly.

The new Spring Mini-Pinnies are now all trimmed with broderie, and feature a crochet flower at the back (so your bub looks gorgeous from all sides!).

NEW Spring Mini-Pinny in Lilac. Print also available in Green

Here’s some of the new fabrics we’ve ordered in.

from Patty Young’s Flora and Fauna

Darla, Amy Butler and French General

Only 4 Mini-Pinnies will be made in each fabric, so there’s still an element of exclusivity and you won’t have any doppelgangers at the party… a custom made, exclusive outfit for less than $20?? I must be mad (or, I can’t do maths. More likely). If you would like a matching set of Mini-Pinnies for a special occasion, be sure to let me know and I’ll set the fabric aside for you.

I’m also eagerly awaiting some detail on a new market to start up here in Brisbane, organised by the fabulous ladies at The Mummy Tree. Depending on the cost of participating in the market, pricing of products may differ at our stall, so to make sure you get the best possible price, head over to Madeit or Etsy!

Any Mini-Pinnies from the stash that don’t sell online will make their way to these markets, as well as some embellished t-shirts for boys and girls, and some groovy lounge pants. I’ll also have a few Garden Party Dresses on show – I will continue to make these as cutom order only though (because they take sooo looonngg to get perfect). If you’re interested in a Garden Party Dress for spring, or for the festive season, let me know so I can schedule you into my production line!

At our house

This week, we have been crafting up a storm for our part in the CHA Craft Swap. My partner is the lovely Lana from AromaPlay Clay, which seems to be the hottest new kids product in town! Gluten free, bright colours and infused with aromatherapy scents to invigorate/clam your little people – what’s not to love! Our task was to create something for our PARTNER, not their children (!) so I had a lovely time freebasing some crochet goodies, trialling a few tutorials from Craftster and I couldn’t resist adapting some of the Bloombub catalogue for a grown up. Here’s some sneaky peeks of what Lana can expect in the mail later this week:

I have also tried my hand at patchwork this week. What. A. Frustrating. Art. I hope the Merry Church Mouse’s skirt turns out okay, cos I’m pretty sure it will be the last time I attempt any kind of piecing work. I won some lovely charm squares from the Lily and Will bunny range at Sunshine and Stitching, thinking: I know, I’ll make a lovely little skirt for Claire. The lovely Ally was also kind enough to throw in a cute spotted fat quarter to coordinate, and another spotty FQ from my stash rounded out the lineup. And then the pattern matching debacle began. Three days later, this is where I’m at:

Oh, and I managed to thread my overlocker wrong and snap two needles just as I was about to begin, so no doubt that dampened my enthusiasm for this project as well! I’ll do the gathering tonight and MAYBE finish of the layers tomorrow (if the terrible two-yr-old doesn’t go on another sleep strike). I admire all you ladies who quilt and patch regularly – you must have the patience of a Saint!

I had some Mummy-time-out on Saturday and took a wander through the Matilda’s Market at Eagle Farm Racecourse. I hadn’t been out to the new venue, and was impressed by the scale, though it is still difficult to manouvre through the room with all the prams and baby bellies. In wonder if maybe MM should investigate designated ‘No Pram’ visiting hours so shoppers can get up close to the stands. I had a chat with Stephanie from Mon Petit Poppet, who was a stallholder for the first time, and talked about joining the BrisStyle team and attending their markets later in the year. BrisStyle have a new twilight market in King George Square on a Friday evening, which sounds like a much more civilised way to shop, especially during summer!

To cheer ourselves up we made some brownies this afternoon. YUM

Claire has clearly enjoyed the batter and the finished product. The sugar high continues….
And tonight we’re taking her for her first haircut – the Albert Einstein look is no longer becoming. Stay-tuned for neatness and (hopefully) girly curls.

Check out what everyone else is doing this week, at Lou’s blog!

World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day. An while we’ve not been particularly ‘green’ this week, what with sick children and car trips to the doctor and various soccer, school musical and work appointments, I have been thinking about all the ways Bloombub tries to be sustainable. We seem to be right onto the ‘minimising waste’ stuff – maybe there are other things we can do to reduce our carbon footprints?

Firstly, if you’ve ever purchased a Bloombub item, you’ll notice I’m not big on tissue paper and ribbon wrappings. Our parcels come in a zip-lock bag (which of all the plastic packaging options, can at least be re-used as it’s quite durable); I use real ribbon to attach our tags; I post in ‘tough bags’ wherever possible to maximise recycling efforts.

The first-ever mini-pinny

Secondly, I hate fabric waste, so my scrap bag is actually more like 3 scrap boxes. The Fat Quarter Mini-Pinny was dreamed up one afternoon after finding some perfectly shaped ‘yolk’ pieces came from the scraps after cutting out a pair of bloomers. A few more rectangles stiched together and some elastic (or a button for bigger sizes), and you’ve got a perfectly cute little summery top or pinafore. While I’m only selling the sewn up items at the moment, if any of my blog followers would like to see how a Mini-Pinny is formed (for private use only), I’m happy to share. Now I just have to take up quilting to use up all those smaller scraps! I also have mad dreams of one day creating a Selvage bag like these fabulously crafty people.

As regular readers will know, the remnant bin is my favourite part of a fabric shop. Lil C is still small enough to fit into an outfit made from less than half a metre of fabric, and I am always coming h0me with scraps of beautiful fabric only large enough to make something for a child. On the odd day that I find something big enough for an adult garment, it usually sits in the bottom of the fabric drawer for months before I get around to doing something with it,

Thirdly, I find crochet to be the least wasteful needlecraft. A Bloombub crochet embellishment has often been made from the last metre or so of a ball of wool or cotton. My initial attempts at embroidery were patchy and i was constantly covered in cotton/thread scraps;  for some reason my childhood longstitch/tapestry never seemed to work out particularly well either. I haven’t cross-stitched for a long time – perhaps I’ll be inspired to re-look at my embroidery or cross-stitch by this talented person.

Lastly, we’re sticking to ‘digital’ and marketing and sales for the time being. Apart from our business cards (which actually double as our swing tags by printing them on both sides), Bloombub hasn’t printed flyers or posters, or even whipped up very many ‘samples’ to shop around at real bricks-and-mortar stores. By keeping the majority of our business to custom orders, I’m not making lots of items that take up space and are potentially wasted if a buyer wants a garment in a different size and I don’t have enough fabric. Our Facebook, MadeIt and Etsy stores allow us to minimise waste, continue to purchase small amounts of fabric so your purchase is always a one-of-a-kind, and save me time to spend with Lil C.

Did you celebrate World Environment Day? What kind of ‘green’ things do you do at home or in your craft business?

Northern Adventures

Today I was super efficient in the morning, so at lunchtime decided to embark on an adventure to The Northside (fellow Brisbanites will recognise the significance of this trip, since I live on The Southside. Never the twain shall meet.)

My primary mission was to stakeout the shopfront for Funky Fabrix at Mitchelton, whose online store funkyfabrix.com.au I have been eyeing off for sometime. After navigating my way via all the main roads, i was surprised by how quickly I made it to Mitchelton. The shop is set at the back of a horseshoe shaped row of stores, and I have to say I would have walked straight past it had I not spied a fairly plain sandwich board amongst several others placed on the footpath.

Once inside, I was again surprised by the small scale of the shop. It must be the spotlight / Lincraft shopper in me – I always expect massive, cavernous shops piled high with fabric. And while Funk Fabrix was most definitely piled high with fabric, they were stacked neatly by designer in white ‘bookcase’ style shelving.  I’m glad I didn’t take Little C with me as there’s not a lot of room between shelving, and she would have wrecked/knocked over something within minutes. I did see a little basket filled with toddler toys hiding under on rack, so clearly the owners have encountered this issue before!

I had intentions of buying an Anna Maria Horner bag pattern (the sidewalk satchel) to use up my laminated Marimekko fabric, found in the remnant ‘bin’ at I Just Love That Fabric. However the prices inside the actual Funk Fabrix store seem to be higher than their website (which, of course makes business sense given the overheads etc) but gave me a bit of a fright. It may also be that the website prices are listed by the half metre/half yard, and the pricing on the fabric rolls in store is listed by metrage. Regardless, my $25 would have been blown in an instant, so instead I picked through the (very small) remnant bin – my favourite place in any fabric store, online or real life – and picked myself up some pretty designer scraps. I think one may be Amy Butler or Anna Maria Horner, and the other looks possibly Michael Miller? Will have to cross-reference later.

So the Sidewalk Satchel will have to wait for another day – Funky Fabrix are the cheapest online listing I have found for this pattern anyway, so might be sneaky and wait for another free shipping sale they announce on their facebook page an order it then.

I scored some bargains at the OpShop across the road too – Seed designer pants for Lil C, pajama pants and a wool skirt for me, plus a cute remnant of white fabric with a raised gold pin-spot pattern.

I got majorly lost traversing my way from Mitchelton to Everton Park (really – just the next suburb over and I think I made 4 wrong turns…) and had an absolute SPREE in the Spotlight remnant bin. It must have been my lucky day. Why would I buy a fat quarter for $3, when I can get remnant fabric at $2/metre. I picked up three different coloured spot prints, two groovy stripes, a really loud orange/pink geometric pattern that will look fabulous as a Fat Quarter Mini-Pinny plus some beautiful rose print stretch cotton that is just the right size to trim a little gathered skirt for Lil C.

I had a birthday voucher from spotlight, so the end price just kept getting better – I ended up with 8 different fabrics suitable for baby or toddler projects, plus a light bulb for my scrappy sewing machine (please Santa, bring me a new one for Christmas) and some overlocker thread for less than $20. Hooray for me!!!

Tomorrow’s project – sort, stack and re-arrange the sewing room to get myself back into the Bloombub groove. And stop swamping the ironing board and study desk with pins and fabric scrap.

Brag post – Look what I did!

New Mini-Pinnies ready to ship

Now for sale directly via our Facebook STORE tab, as well as on Etsy.com & Madeit.com.au

Pink Neo Geo Tiles – size 1-2y

Green Daisy – Size 6-12 months

Mustard/Choc/Yellow Check. Size 3-6months

Fat Quarter Mini-Pinny

Peppermint Patty & the new FatQuarter Pinnie Top

I love fat quarters.

All the prettiest designs come in a fat quarter, they’re usually the smallest (& cheapest) way to buy designer fabric, AND, as I’ve been discovering, are exactly the right size for Bloombub’s revamped swing top, newly entitled the Fat Quarter Pinnie.

When one 'bobble' is not enough...

As modelled by the cheery Miss C in our favourite Tiffany Blue with chocolate spots, the Fat Quarter Pinnie is perfect for spring, summer, autumn (with a cardi) and winter (over a long-sleeved top).

I’ve also made some matching peppermint  flannelette trousers for her, but we’re saving them for when it gets a bit cooler.

So, what do you think? Soon to be added to the MadeIt and Etsy store catalogues, and always available for you to custom order. A fat quarter will cover sizes 000 to 2 – any larger and we would have to look at different straps (but of course, that’s never a problem.

I’ll post some of the fat quarter fabric I already have in stock on the Bloombub Facebook page for you all to peruse…(don’t forget to become a fan so I can offer you all a free embellished singlet with every order…).

If you order this weekend I can express post to you to have in time for Easter! Don’t you just LOVE spots!