Saturday Shopping Day

With the new addition to the family unit arriving in just a couple of months (!), babies are definitely on my mind. Sorting through my daughter's baby clothes, checking that I have enough bedding for the crib, tracking down the maxi cosi. Baby fever has also reached my studio and I spent yesterday making new baskets:

Not only are these adorable but they are 100% environment friendly, from the organic cotton prints to the interfacing, to the upcycled soft leather handles! You can find them in my shop.

For more Saturday shopping ideas, check out Zsazsazsu's blog!

DIY Gift Bag and Bow

A few days ago, while making the rounds of my favorite blogs, I came across two very useful and fun tutorials.

Jessica from the blog How about orange, shows us how to make a stylish bow and gift bag from a magazine and a newspaper. Not only the result is very original and striking but it's super eco-friendly and economic!

Whether because you find yourself suddenly with a gift to wrap and no wrapping paper or because you like to present your friends and family with an originally wrap packaged, these two tutorials can come in very handy. 


Making a gift bow from a magazine page:

Get the tutorial here.

Making gift bags from newspaper:

Get the tutorial here.

So the next time, instead of panicking and rushing to the store to buy some overpriced wrapping paper and ribbon (which will end up in a landfill), head on over instead to the newspaper and magazine basket and give it a try!

b*lota now available at Shak-Shuka!

I am so pleased to announce that the new b*lota sandwich+snack bags and eco wet bags are now available at Shak-Shuka, an über cool eco boutique. You can find them under the Out&About section!

Shak-Shula has a wonderful selection of clothing, toys, decor and care items for babies, kids and mamas, all environment friendly and stylish.
Check out the shop here!

b*lota is Going Wholesale!

Well, not exactly. I do have a wholesale order for re-usable snack bags and wet bags on which I have been working in the last few days. I can't wait for it to hit the virtual shelves of this super cool, eco-friendly boutique! 
More details to come soon.

Making your own fabric labels

When I started thinking about setting up my business and starting to sell my bags and pillows, one of the things I started looking for were labels. Labeling your work will help people recognize your products, making it easy for them to find your shop or website and refer you to their friends.

I wanted something simple and smart looking, with my logo and shop url. I wasn't ready, however, to invest a lot of money and end up stuck with 500 labels. What if I want to change the logo, or the colors?

So I turned to the Internet and found a few tutorials on how to make your own fabric labels!

I ended up using a combination of this tutorial by Allyson Hill and this one by Bonnie from Going Home to Roost:

First I created my logo/label using Photoshop. Then, with Word's Envelopes and Labels, played around with the format, number of rows and columns per sheet. It's important to know how you are going to used them so that you have enough space between them. I wanted to be able to use them individually or double sided.

When I was happy with the format, I hit print. You may want to test it first on paper, to check the size of the labels and make sure the image is sharp enough. I had to go back to Photoshop and adjust my logo a few times until I got it right.

 

Finally, I was ready to print my labels onto fabric, cut them up and following the manufacturer's instructions, apply them to my items. Easy peasy!

For the eco-conscious crafter, check out this blog post from Crafting a Green World. It has some good ideas on how to make your labels greener!

There are tons of tutorials and resources out there so  take your time, have a look and choose the one that works for you. 

My blog is carbon neutral!

As I was scrolling down my reading list on Blogger, a post jumped up from a blog: "My blog is carbon neutral, is yours?". Well, no, I thought. Can it be? I clicked through to read the entire post and found out that, with just a few clicks, yes, yes it can.

How it works:

Just write a short blog post about our programme “My blog is carbon neutral” and include one of the buttons below on your site (ideally in the sidebar). Send the link to your blog to CO2-neutral@kaufda.de and we plant a tree for you, neutralising the carbon dioxide emissions of your blog. The trees will be planted in the spring of 2010 by the Arbor Day Foundation.

So, this spring, somewhere in Germany, a tree will be planted for B*lota, making the world a little greener!

To find out more about this initiative and how to participate, click here.

Celebrate Earth Day!

Earth Day is coming up! And what better time to make your personal commitment to sustainability and climate action? From small steps to a greener lifestyle to a call for action from your local community and government, this is the time for change! 

For tips and guides on how to go green, head on over to Planet Green and check out their list of resources.

Guerilla bagging!

The 4th International Morsbagging day is this Sunday and I am very keen in participating! The idea is that you "sew like mad to make as many lovely morsbags to hand out as possible - perhaps organise a local group for courage, support and joy, and handout free morsbags to locals wherever you are in the world......"

I have set aside some funky and sturdy fabrics and I am hoping I will have time this weekend to make some pretty cool Morsbags which I will give away to assorted friends and family members. 

If you are interested in joining, head on over to www.morsbags.com and read more about this initiative. You can also just download the pattern and start sewing!!

(image via: www.morsbags.com)

Last sewing projects of the week!

These have been two incredibly productive weeks and I have managed to produce quite a few things that have been on my to-sew list for a while! 

The last two projects to be ticked of my list were a camera cozy for my new camera and a eco-friendly make up case.

The Camera Cozy: 

My brother gave me, a few weeks ago, a camera as I had been complaining that ours was too bulky to carry around with me all the time. As with most cameras, this did not come with a case!  Have you noticed how the cameras are always so cheap but then you have to get the memory card, and the case and in the end you spend double the amount you thought you would!o?
Well, this time, instead of buying an ugly generic one, I decided to make my own.

I went online and found this tutorial from Sew Mad and was all set!

The instructions are very detailed and easy to follow. I skipped the quilted look and replaced the velcro closure with a snap and I have to say, I really like the result. It didn't turn out perfect but it makes up for its faults by being super cute!

The Make-Up Case:

I know I keep tooting my own horn, but this make up case turned out adorable! And environment friendly, no less!

It's a basic zippered pouch, with boxed bottom and hot pink Michael Miller fabric. The lining is made from an Oeko-Tex certified waterproof fabric that will allow me to wipe it clean with a damp cloth when it gets make up smudges all over it.

As a final touch, I added one of my brand new labels, fresh off the printer. But more on that later...

This closes my sewing week. Now I need to start planning as there are presents to be made and not much time to do it, before we head out to New York and Lisbon!

Somebody stop me!

I have somehow managed to make another pillow this week, this time for a friend who's having a little girl, Maria, in a few weeks. I am so pleased at how it's turned out, it's the cutest one yet!

I used some leftover Red Letter Day fabrics by Lizzy House and remnant white canvas. The insert was made out of repurposed curtains and 100% polyester filing.  

  

 I followed the same method as before but this time I decided to make a separate insert and add a zipper to the cover so it's easy to wash.

 

As a final touch, I used one of my very first Moo minicards as a tag! I hope they like it!!

Mimi, the rabbit

I have been really productive this last week, a happy combination of extra babysitting from Oma, long naps and lots of creative energy! And I have channeled this energy towards finishing projects that hanging around for weeks, sometimes months. One of those projects is Mimi, the rabbit:

 I am so pleased with how she turned out! Not only is she super cute but she's made entirely from eco-friendly materials: I used an off-white flannel remnant and scraps of cotton fabric as the "skin", upcycled sweater sleeve to make Mimi's top and the tweed shorts came from a stash of old fabrics my mother in law gave me and had no use for anymore. Finally, the filling came from an old pillow insert I already had.

Here's Mimi's happy owner:

I'm afraid she won't last very long! I am already planning another one, this time a boy, with bigger, floppier ears, pants & suspenders and a neck tie. I will have to think of a name. Any suggestions?

Elin&Jim

I have been experimenting with applique, in the last few days. It is really cute and makes the most simple project interesting and fun. Two of the most successful projects finished are these two personalized pillows. I have made them for friends' kids with birthdays coming up: Elin and Jim.

They both turn one in March and and they both moved/will move to a new house, so what better present than something for their new bedroom? I think they turned out really good and even the applique borders look acceptable (please don't look too closely!).

For Elin's pillow, I mixed and matched four different cotton fabrics to create the letters and patchwork frame. The back is off white cotton. For Jim's, I used Alexander Henry's Zoo in blue to create the frame and a simple dark blue checkered cotton on the name. The back is heavy weight green cotton. I used 100% polyester as filling.

Now the challenge for future similar projects (and there will be tons of them as these are so much fun to make) is to make them environment friendly. The fabrics are the easy part, I will be able to use scraps, remnants and repurposed materials. The filling, however, will be trickier - using old pillows for kids and babies is out of the question, so I will have to look into organic or recycled fillings which is more difficult and more expensive to source. I have found some options at Hart's Fabric but finding closer to home will not be as easy!

Handprinted Down Under

Lately I have been looking into eco-friendly materials and using them in my bags and crafts. It's easier said than done. Not only there isn't a lot to choose from in the mass-produced fabrics but they are also very expensive! While searching the internet for options, I came accross handprinted fabrics and immediately fell in love. They are pricey too but the fact that someone designed them and them actually made them, by hand, makes them really special.
Below is a sample of my favorite ones, all from Australian designers:
Ink & Spindle

Umbrella Prints:

Pippijoe:

Daisy Janie

A few weeks ago, while surfing the net searching for fabrics and new ideas for projects, I discovered Daisy Janie fabrics. I was immediately taken with the cool designs and zingy, fresh colors and organic, no less! The only downside is that they are a little pricey but, for the right project, I call it an investment! Her new line, Geo Grand is coming out in just a month or so, so I will definitely stay tuned.

In case you can't wait that long, there are plenty of funky prints to choose from, so head out to Daisy Janie's shop and snatch yourself some organic cotton goodness!