I was checking my Facebook page a few months ago when I noticed my cousin had liked a Local business called TINK Handmade. . There was a photo of a beautiful little dress that I thought would look gorgeous on my niece. I clicked on the link and immediately fell in love with handmade clothing. I put in a custom order that day and browsed through her photo album of available fabric nearly everyday, imagining different fabric co-ordinations. This was my introduction to Facebook's big, wide world of handmade clothing businesses. I purchased from one and then another and another before I discovered Etsy.
Etsy is an e-commerce site for sellers and buyers of all things handmade, vintage and art and craft supplies. I bought a few things for myself, my niece (I do tend to spoil her) and also for my boys before realising my bank account was getting rather low in funds. In a bid to save money whilst still indulging in my new obsession I did a search for fabric supplies and fuelled my addiction even more. I fell in love with the fabrics of Riley Blake, Michael Miller and Robert Kaufman. Noting online prices I took a visit to my local Spotlight store and came back with 5 metres of fabric and a pattern for boys lounge pants. That same night I purchased another 4 yards (as they measure them in the US) from an Etsy store.
All excited about my purchases and my visions of the end products I now had to figure out the how! I don't own a sewing machine! My mother has one but she was away on an overseas trip so I would just have to wait. As I waited, somewhat impatiently, I purchased more fabric from Etsy and took another trip to Spotlight. After such a big amount of cash laid out on supplies I was praying that my sewing wasn't going to suck!
After what seemed like weeks (in reality only five days) my Mum arrived home and I borrowed her machine. That evening I had made two of my boys a pair of lounge pants each. I was very impressed with myself, even though I had neglected to put dinner on the table and went on to make two appliqués for matching shirts. Two days later and the boys were running around in their new favourite matching sets and I was trying to re-organise my limited free time to focus on my new hobby (maybe the more appropriate word is obsession).
Stay tuned for future blogs where I will show how I tackle a smock for my niece, matching sets for my baby and baby nephews and ideas I have for upcyclng!
