Bunting is a style icon!

Has anyone else seen this in the Guardian yesterday?
The latest style advice is that bunting is the new cupcakes!

Who knew I would be surfing the wave of a new trend... there is no wonder there has been a flurry of sales :-)

alice says hello!

Thought I should really make note of this as yesterday was another first for says alice - a stall at an event.

I have been selling online and through shops for a while, but this is the first time I have put together a table of wares for en event. It took a bit of a flurry of activity to have both stock and samples of things to sell and order, but it was also really good to get a bit organised and crack on with lots of jobs that have been part done for a while.

I'm really pleased with the way it went. There were some sales, some orders and a lot of chatting with the folk running other stalls. Over 2000 people attended the event on the day and all of them had to come into the marquee at some point to shelter from downpours, so it was a fun and productive day!

It was almost like being back in an old job where I used to go to exhibitions on behalf of the college I worked for, recruiting students. I found myself putting together the 'events kit' of everything I might possibly need, from paperclips to blutac and pegs. And then there was the last minute panic about paper bags - what if someone wanted a bag to take things away in...??!

I must say thanks to the Pre-school Learning Alliance for inviting me along and to Donna from ecosnackwrap on the stand nextdoor for making me welcome!

Pretty as a picture

This is a bit delayed really, as I seem to have been making nothing but these for days and am surrounded by frames full of applique!

But this is the first and so the one that is responsible for the start of the avalanche. It was a wedding gift for a couple whose initials are V and A, so the design was an obvious choice. But still a bit of a challenge with all those twists and turns in the ampersand.

It came together far quicker than I thought it would and, after a bit of a play with designs I now have a growing repertoire of flowers, butterflies, fish, boats and even dinosaurs. If I can draw it, I can applique it with my own shabby chic style!

It's also a fantastic use of the offcuts box, where I keep little bits of leftover fabric that is too good to throw away, but too small to use for bunting or bags. Everyone is a winner!

I have seen other crafty bloggers take part in 'bits box' swaps and now I understand why!

I made a changing bag!

The sharp eyed among you will notice that this is already on the pages of things I have made and will be making more of.

There is no other excuse than being a bad blogger who makes stuff and then runs out of time to write about it. I meant to put this up as a work in progress sometime back in April but suddenly it is nearly June and the bag has been with its new owner for weeks. Luckily I snapped a few shots first.

This is the first time I had used the pattern, which I downloaded from here. It is a sew4home.com pattern which has some lovely bits and pieces on it. I didn't really know what to expect from a pattern pdf and had huge fears that it wouldn't all fit together. But I was careful with my measurements (chanting prep prep prep in my head to stop myself rushing forward and making mistakes) and it all came together perfectly.

In fact the only real issue I have is that the bag is described as a small bag for when you only need a few bits and pieces. Honestly, if you tried to carry a bigger bag you'd need to put wheels on it.

I have already pinned up the pattern pieces to make a couple more for the fair coming up in a few weeks and then the shop. After several million strings of bunting, it is also nice to make something three dimensional.

Hope you are all making progress too!

Folksy Friday

It's good to see that the creativity is still going strong out there! The theme this week is rosemary, which I have just spent this morning taking cuttings from. Our last one didn't last the winter and I am determined to have many before we face the next...

This first is from Alexis Southam and is properly beautiful. A real statement piece.

This soap is from Handmade Soap by Caroline and looks so pretty in the picture. 

And finally, this one from Caractacus Pots. It's a bit of a cheat, but the product description recommends baking cheese with rosemary, which I have every intention of trying, very soon!

Returning hero

Possibly overstating the case a bit!

I feel I owe apologies for blog neglect over the past few weeks. There should be a word for that - idleblog maybe, or soggyblog.

In all honesty, I'm not sure where the time has gone to, other than I have had a pile of stuff head out the door and little time to take stock. While that's great, it is nice to come up for air every now and again. With the long easter and royal weekends now on the horizon, there is still lots to be getting on with too.

All that said, I thought it was high time I reported back on a couple of recent projects. I have had a flurry of requests for 'name' bunting and have made four or five strings in the past couple of weeks. Plus I have made another batch of royal wedding bunting, some big bunting for a bedroom (big to me in comparison to all the mini bunting, normal to everyone else I suspect!) and a changing bag as a gift for a friend (pictured). This last one owes a big credit to the pattern I downloaded from sew4home.com which has a real treasure trove of free downloads. They can also be used commercially as long as they are namechecked, which seems eminently fair enough to me. I may make a couple for sale, as it went down very well with the mum-to-be.

Next up it is gardening - no income here, but the rewards when looking gazing over the brim of an iced G&T are infinite!

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the sunshine :-)

Folksy Friday

This is my first Folksy Friday and I hope you like these things as much me.

We had a lovely drive through the countryside yesterday and we were lucky enough to see a partridge standing beautifully by the side of the road. They are really stunning birds and it is great to see some people doing them creative justice :-)

This is a lovely one isn't it? There is something almost Christmassy about it (although not a pear tree in sight).

It is by Dee Beale and she has a couple of other in her folksy shop"
http://www.folksy.com/shops/deebeale

This is a beautiful brooch too and looks almost like a biscuit...
I rarely wear brooches but as this doesn't have hugely strong colours I can imagine it being  very easy to wear.

It is by Jude Allman:
http://www.folksy.com/shops/judeallman






Last but far from least is this beautiful cushion from Helkatdesign. I love the little flock and the purposeful step!

Helkatdesign can be found here:
http://www.folksy.com/shops/helkatdesign

Pincushions

I am doing a craft fair in the summer and hope to book a few more for the Autumn, so I have started to stockpile a few of these. I have spotted them in quite a few Folksy shops so I don't think I'll put them online, but hopefully they will go quite easily as a low cost option at a fete.

I have a couple of ideas for slightly different ideas and I hope these will get on to Folksy in due course.

In the meantime, these have proved fab for doing something productive on the days when I feel uninspired. A bit of sewing, stuffing and buttoning later and bingo, something is finished.

Packaged and ready

This week has been a busy one getting everything organised for a new venture, working with a lovely local craft shop and gallery here in Norwich:  Grapevine

I popped into the shop earlier this week (which is well worth a visit by the way, lots of lovely goodies) and asked if they thought bunting would be of any interest to their customers. After being very patient with me having no idea about how all this works, they were generous enough to give it a go! So you can now find a range of Says Alice mini-bunting in Grapevine, which, for me at least, is very exciting indeed :-)

Luckily I had quite a few strings ready to go, but I did have to think about the packaging a bit. I had some cellophane card wrappers which worked perfectly for the mini bunting, but I played with other ideas too. It would be nice to rely less on plastic, but as I had these and they fitted well, I ended up with the cellophane and will review it when I have more time (and inspiration).

The big bunting wouldn't squash stylishly into anything that I have at all, so I have ordered some new wrappers which will hopefully fit them better. Fingers crossed for Monday.

Hope you all have a fab weekend! I'm off to bake a birthday cake for a party at the weekend...

You don't have to look far...

... to find something lovely at the moment.

These were tightly, tightly closed when I got them last Friday and now look, they are blowsy, big and beautiful. Didn't take them long to get going.

I have them on the windowsill for this photo but they have been sitting next to me on the sideboard, close to where I do most of my sewing. Thinking about it, I ought really to have some extras beside the computer which is where I seem to be spending a fair percentage of my time, but that would require forward planning...

I have just noticed that if you look very carefully you can see a black tub of daffs outside the window too, which are still just spikes of small leaves. They were planted in tubs last year and then buried, as they were put in a bed which needed a 'big dig'. We finally got the energy to do the digging last week, so the daffs in tubs are awaiting replanting. I'm thinking the view from the desk might just need cheering up.

Lots of sewing to do today plus some exiting things for Says Alice. I'll report back!