February already??? Must be giveaway time!

My goodness, look at the date! January is almost gone and so has summer (although it’s still quite muggy and hot here in Brisbane today). It is a welcome change from the wet rainy, flooded weeks we’ve just come through though.

Bloombub headquarters shows up on the flood maps as a big blue puddle, but the park at the end of our street (where many of the Bloombub photos are taken) soaked up the majority of the overflowing creek and we were spared from the horrible murky water in our home. Houses opposite the park and just around the corner from us weren’t so lucky though, and as soon as our power was reconnected (3 days after the water started rising!) I held my own mini-Baked Relief and took muffins to the workers who were emptying out the damaged homes. They were gratefully received, but it felt like a small effort compared to those complete strangers who were walking and riding their bikes from house to house offering help. What a great community spirit has surfaced in Brisbane over the last few weeks.

But on to happier thoughts – Valentine’s Day is now just around the corner, and though Mr D and I have now been married for 6 years and the most effort we go to for Valentines day is to go out for dinner or lunch, I do still love the concept of giving your loved one a gift, a token or a hug. Lil C is still too young to really know what it’s all about yet, but her big brother and sister (in high school) may come home with a card or a tale of unrequited love.

We thought we’d spread some toddler love with a giveaway!

There was a great response to the survey I held in December of current and future products – it was very helpful to me when choosing fabrics for the next ranges of Bloombub dresses, tops and tees (the most popular items as per the survey). I’m already looking at lovely corduroy fabrics (I know!) for an Autumn range – beautiful florals, birds and fruits.

Autumn corduroy fabrics

I’ve also go a mini-range for Valentines Day coming – the Lollipop Halter Pinny has already been debuted on the Facebook page, and our giveaway prizes will also be available, plus one or two other sweet little tops and dresses I’m thinking about over the public holiday tomorrow.

But on to the giveaway!

Just leave a comment on this post
telling me a sweet thing your child has done or said, and you could win:

A Sweetheart Mini-Pinny; matching bloomers; and coordinating Lovebub singlet

all made to whichever size your sweetie wears right now. That’s $40 value!

So get thinking and commenting! The competition will be open until February 7th - tell your friends too – it’s open to anyone!

Good Morning Spring!

Can you tell I’m just a little bit excited about Spring???

Not that I don’t love winter (as long as I can stay in bed under the covers, or drink lots of coffee and eat chocolate), but I think my favourite Brisbane season is Spring. Warmer weather, here I come!

To celebrate the arrival of my favourite time of year, I’m going to have a sale!

Simply purchase any Mini-Pinny from the Bloombub Etsy or MadeIt Store, or order directly via email at bloombub@optusnet.com.au, and you can choose a Daisy or Tree singlet to add to your order for just $5! Just type Spring Sale into the Message to Seller box/email subject then tell me the size you need, and whether you’d like a Tree or Daisy.

*Terms and Conditions

- Offer valid for orders made between Wednesday September 1st through to 6pm Sunday September 5th (Fathers’ Day)

- Offer only valid for payments made via Direct Deposit, or private invoice via Paypal (ie. don;t pay instantly at the Etsy or MadeIt checkouts so I can add the $5 for the singlet…)

- Offer valid on Mini-Pinnies in stock or fabric shown in the Facebook gallery only, and in sizes 6m to 3T ONLY. (sorry parents of 4-6 year olds…)

Bring on the warmer weather so we can all wear our Mini-Pinnies and singlets!

etsy love

The lovely Cari from hybrid handmade was very kind to pop me a note to tell me she had featured our new Aqua Mini-Pinny in one of her etsy treasuries!

Very excited! To my knowledge, this is the first treasury we’ve starred in and I’m feeling quite chuffed. I have no idea how the treasuries differ from the handpicked items on the front page, but I live in hope that one day we’ll make it to the front page as well!!

Be sure to stop by Cari’s etsy store too – she makes the most beautiful jewellery (and she lives in glamourous France – I feel so chic just reading her blog).

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!

A room of my own

This week, while Mr D and the Large Fries were on school holidays, we moved the home office computer upstairs into the (not very) old dining room. This is significant for two reasons:

1. Mr D will no longer be absent for hours at a time formatting websites and writing movie reviews in the depths of the garage (where it’s freezing this time of year).

2. The empty room has now been taken over for my sewing!

Oh! The joys of having your sewing machine and overlocker in the same room! And being able to roll your chair from one sewing desk to the other! Never mind that the moving process has left it looking like a complete bomb site, and I haven’t set up any storage for all my fabric. There will be no photos until I’ve sorted that out I’m afraid – it’s just too embarrassing for public viewing.

The convenience of co-location meant I was able to finish this Etsy custom order for Kylie.

And I fully intend completing two pairs of lounge pants for Susan’s boys later today. I hope Mr K like bright colours….

In other news, the CHA craft swap has been in full swing. This morning, we received this lovely parcel from Lana.

And this is what we sent to her earlier in the week.

I’ve never participated in a craft swap before and it was so much fun! Waiting to see what lovely surprises would arrive for us in the mail. Claire has been getting stuck into her AromaPlay Clay, although she’s not quite sure what to do with it. At the moment she scoops out a bit with her finger and then flicks it on the ground, where it’s cuurently making a lovely pattern against our polished wood floors. Oh well, at least it’s all natural colouring!

Don’t forget to pop over and see what Lou is doing this week too.

Dreaming of spring

It’s very, very cold in our part of the world this week so to warm myself up, I went searching for spring inspiration in my favourite online fabric stores.

This is what I found:

Blooms, trees and leaves. Which one is your favourite?

I can see lots of groovy lounge pants and mini-pinnies in this lineup. What do you think?

I think the spring Bloombub collection will focus on Garden Party Dresses, Mini-Pinnies and unisex singlet/ lounge pant sets. I’m happy to make other items on a custom order basis, but these three are Bloombub’s signature garments, so we’re going to stick with them for now.

Leave a comment to tell me which of these fabrics inspires you (or if you’d like to order an early slice of spring for your bub).

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?

new fat quarter mini-pinny available in these fabrics

$12.50 – introductory price for April