custom baby bedding and gifts

Quite possibly my favorite project to date.

Shannon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:23:06 +0000

Look at these beautiful throw pillows. I made them from Patty Young’s Andalucia line. OMG I just adore them. French seams inside (of course), envelope closure across the back. 16″ pillow forms fit perfectly. I don’t want to sell them.

Fun Fabric Buckets

Shannon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:12:27 +0000

I have been wanting some neat looking storage bins for my living space. I have experimented with a couple of different methods of making fabric bins and buckets to varying degrees of success. I think I finally developed a neat bucket, and with the help of a nifity circumference calculator I can make buckets of all sizes.

Here are two that I made this week, the first has handles which are cotton webbing, and the second is an oval shape without handles. Believe it or not the oval one looks great on the back of the toilet! As is the case with most of us crafters, I am not using any of this stuff for us, just making it to sell! John wants to know if I am ever going to make anything for us and I always say “of course dear…just as soon as I finish…insert project here”

market tote

Shannon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:20:40 +0000

Another project from last week was a simple market bag with petal tie handles. I modified a Pink Fig pattern and made this super cute, roomy, reversible tote. I used two of my favorite Art Gallery fabrics. I really should consider carrying that line.

how not to make a reversible pinafore

Shannon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:14:43 +0000

I am in love with french seams, I use them on everything. It takes a little extra time, but you just can’t beat the finished product. That being said, today I tackled a reversible pinafore. I would like to make a bunch of them to bring to Quaker Arts and today was my first attempt.

I guess I just wasn’t thinking because I started to make french seams with this dress. French seams in a reversible dress, which has no exposed seams to begin with, is pretty much just dumb. Further, it causes too much fabric to be turned in the curves that are a part of this style. I don’t know why I kept sewing it since I realized as soon as I did the first part that the seams weren’t going to work. Then it got to the point where I thought “hmm, maybe I can pass these wrinkles in the arm and neckline off as pintuck pleats“. HA! get a load of these pictures!

I will have a do-over tomorrow and will post the much better results.

gearing up!

Shannon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:04:31 +0000

I have been torn whether or not to participate in this years Quaker Arts festival. I did it last year and it was fun, but it is a lot of work. Seeing as how I am in the midst of launching babypeasfabric.com I am concerned about stretching myself too thin (oh, and there is the matter of the 5 kids I chase around all day).

I decided that if I could make 5 projects a week, for the next 6 weeks, I would have enough to sell. So, my plan was to post each daily project, but that didn’t work, so now I have five (5!) projects to show you. Hold on tight folks, we’re going for a ride (really, I can’t say that with a straight face, this is sewing we are talking about it isn’t that exciting).

My sewing room

Shannon — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:29:46 +0000

Many people have asked me how on earth I manage to sew and create with 5 young children at home. It definetly helps that I send the 3 oldest off to camp until 2:30. I won’t reveal my whole studio here, because I am in the process of redoing it to make room for, oh, 27 bolts of fabric and I have a whole post planned around that. But, here is a picture of my supervisor.

Oh these look like so much fun!

Shannon — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:58:41 +0000

The Melly & Me patterns arrived today. I am having a very hard time deciding whether or not I should sell them all. I won’t be able to list them all tonight, but here are some thumbnails of the ones I am stocking. How CUTE are these! If you want one, you can get it here!

Here’s what is tough…

Shannon — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:31:18 +0000

I, obviously, only have limited start up funding to stock baby peas fabric. Pattern selection wasn’t too tough and I think I got a great variety stocked now. Fabrics are a whole other ball o’ wax. Each textile house represents a number of designers that I LOVE. Amy Butler, Sandi Henderson, Patty Young, Paula Prass, Heather Bailey…the list goes on and on. Each designer has several lines on the market, each line has several patterns, each pattern comes in several colors. How on earth do I begin to choose?

Hey, if anyone actually reads this who is a fabric type person, tell me your favorite designers.

real quick, because it is getting late

Shannon — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:52:09 +0000

IT’S LIVE!

www.babypeasfabric.com

No fabric, just patterns, and even those have not all arrived yet. But it is getting there, one step at a time.

I know that the header is stupid on the site, and it is not the crisp, clean navigation and cross selling that I envisioned, but for now it’s a start.

lookit what came in!

Shannon — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:54:02 +0000

hey, head on over to my etsy shop and check out my newest patterns. 14 different patterns from pink fig arrived today and I am so excited to start selling them.

For right now they are just on the etsy shop, but I am hard at working getting the real live store set up and live. More on that later.

And, because there wasn’t a picture last time, I leave you with this.