Friday shop update, and blog update!

Hello there!  I've just added two new dresses to my shop, don't they look delicious?  Head on over there to check them out if you are in the mood for a bit of Friday retail therapy.

In other shop news I have also just completed and sent a custom order for three t-shirts with balloon holding elephant appliques.  I was very lucky with these as t-shirts are starting to disappear completely from retail stores in favour of long sleeved things.  Ridiculous really when you're in t-shirts probably 9 months of the year here!  I managed to fulfill the request for colour and sizes of shirts and they are on their way to New Jersey, USA.  It always amazes me where my little garments can end up in the world.

And lastly, in case you hadn't caught up with this news already, I thought I would mention that last month I wrote a tutorial for the Imagine Gnats blog on recycling a man's shirt to make a pair of small boys' shorts.

I'll be writing a few articles for Imagine Gnats through out this year so I'll keep you posted here on when they happen.

Happy weekending!

Summer days :: a no sew zone, almost

Not much sewing going on here at the moment, I'm flat out just muddling my way through the summer school holidays with two little boys.  Trips to museums, galleries, the movies, a theatre show, a puppet show, swimming lessons and water play with friends at the local pool.  Mucking about under the sprinkler in the garden, Saturday afternoons on the beach, watching The Muppet Show on DVD, coping with the odd heatwave and a short but sharp runny nose thing that swept through our family.  I'm exhausted just thinking about all that we've done.

In my "spare" time I have squeezed in making a couple of pairs of pants for the boys to finish these outfits for my brother's wedding this coming weekend.

They are Made by Rae's Parsley pants pattern with pouch pockets and the tuxedo stripe options, in a charcoal quilting cotton.  I took a little bit of the flare out of the leg and also for the first time made a flat front pant.  The pants are an easy make even though there were lots of new little details I've never tried in pants making before.  The final fit is really great and the boys can't wait to wear them - win, win.  I'll treat you to a few pics of them in their outfits in due course.

I've also started to make what is possibly one of the easiest garments to sew and it's taking me the longest time ever to finish them...I'm making some sweet pillowcase dresses from some lovely embroidered pillowcases I've had in my stash for some time.

These dresses will be headed for the shop in a few weeks once school goes back and I have time to set up my photography gear sans seventy billion interruptions.

We are off to Melbourne tomorrow (eek, I've still got to pack!) and returning just in time for the first day of the new school year.  If you want to follow what we get up to just come and follow me on Instagram.

Wednesday shop update

Ah, the poor little Maika shop, so neglected! This week though I have been giving it a bit of love and care and have been tidying up some of the photos and info...and in the bargain I've found time to add three boys t-shirts into the offerings.  The elephant and yacht are size 2 and the fish is a size 3 - lovely and soft knit t-shirts with original design appliques using fabrics from my scrap bag.

And if I keep up the pace on my list of things to do there could be a new dress coming next week.

Spring sale at Maika

Spring is here, time to spring clean, blow out the cobwebs and all that.  To celebrate the return of my favourite season and the fact that I dusted off my sewing machine yesterday AND actually used it - I'm having a 10% off sale in my shop.

As it says, enter 'spring' as the coupon code at checkout, only through until next Tuesday.  There's a couple of cute spring dresses that could be snapped up...just saying.

Happy spring cleaning!

This is what it's all about

At 6am this morning, while I was hopping about on the cold floor boards waiting for the microwave to warm my son's morning drink of milk, I picked up my mobile and checked my email inbox.  There was an email called "A dress" and when I opened it my eyes snapped open and I was wide awake.  A lovely email from a customer, showing me pictures of her daughter enjoying an autumn trip to the beach, wearing a dress she bought from my Etsy shop last year.  What a lovely lady, she even agreed to me sharing these adorable photos with you.

This, my friends, is what it is all about for me.  My time, creativity and enjoyment of the making process and those customers who like what I do enough to make a purchase and share their enjoyment of my work too, whether by picture or word it gives me so much warmth and pleasure.  No fame nor fortune here, just keeping it small and keeping it real, just the way I like it.

Happy days :)

And back

Whoa, Easter school holidays - what a blur.

I feel like I had just enough time to post off some tutu skirts to a friend's baby, 

complete a custom order for my shop,

and cut out, stick together and trace a pattern for a Washi dress.

All sewing things were then packed away downstairs, the sewing table tidied and dusted and I got on with the business of eating too much (cheap) chocolate and too many hot cross buns, taking boys to the dinosaurs at the museum and trips into the city on the bus.  Then we all hopped on a plane for a whirlwind trip to Melbourne to celebrate my brother's birthday.  An intense couple of weeks that's for sure.  

I came back to prepare for a total waste of time job interview on Tuesday...and just when you were thinking things couldn't get crazier, well yes, they did.  We signed a contract and blokes started coming over to our house every morning at 7am to start a renovation.  

I tell you, sewing has almost, just almost, been the last thing on my mind of late.

Today in between the audio assault of the sound of angle grinders and steel beams and the olfactory assault of steel primer paint I'm alternating between vegging out on the daybed with coffee and Frankie magazine, attending to toddler needs and intermittently attacking tulle with my rotary cutter to make another tutu skirt.

I'm going to leave it there, I think I'm getting high on primer fumes....

Saturday shop update

One for girls and one for boys, both size 4.  I like to keep things even around here obviously.

Have a great weekend!

Making

Today I finally got caught up in some dressmaking.  

A quiet house and being on top of the domestic work gave me the mental release to spend some blissful hours in the sewing room.

Ah, so many projects, so little time!

Friday shop update

Time for a little end of the week shop promotion.  Here are the results of my recent spurt of sewing enthusiasm.  Two items for girls and two items for boys.  I would love to be able to bump up the amount of things in the shop so I'm aiming to keep on making over the rest of the school term (all bets are off once the summer holidays begin).

I've got a good weekend coming up - a new baby to visit, the Finders Keepers markets are here in Brisbane this weekend, and the local once monthly Farmers' market is on Sunday morning.  Yipee.

Happy Friday everyone!

For one week only

For just a week and only a week I had to move my sewing machine upstairs to the comfort of the dining room table.  Larger work space, better light, direct access to cups of coffee and biscuits as I work.  Bummer, hey?

It was too cold downstairs and there was too much sewing to do to spend time away from the living room during the day when there were also children to be looked after!  The crawling one had a fascination for the foot pedal and I had to turn the machine off for a while so he could make its acquaintance and get it out of his system.  It's not easy trying to sew when both you and your little one are pushing down on the foot pedal - its a bit of a run away stitching situation let me tell you!

Why all the sewing?  My friend Elizabeth from Nest Nappies requested that I make some baby pants for her cloth nappy shop and I agreed.

Three pairs for boys.

And three pairs for girls.

I even made my own swing tags from recycled materials!

Attached with kitchen twine along with a business card I think these turned out very presentable indeed.

The little bit of holiday pocket money I earned didn't go astray either.  I'm excited to see how there are received in the Nest Nappies store.

From the bottom of my stash

There's quite a lot happening at my place at the moment.  This week in particular is so hectic that it seems to have a life of its own.  Among all the "life" stuff I have a list of sewing jobs that I really, really want to get done in June - both for myself and for my shop.  I don't know why I have suddenly had such a burst of activity to make things for the shop right now, I guess I felt like it had been ignored for too much of this year.

So here's another little pinafore that I have just uploaded - again a size four.  A vintage fabric skirt with a denim and red cotton bodice.

You might recognise the fabric from here.  I still wear my skirt in this fabric, it's a summer staple in my wardrobe, I love it.  I'm so glad to have finally put the left over piece of fabric to good use (and if you've clicked on the link you can calculate how long I've had that fabric in my stash!).

Shop update

I've added a few new things to the shop lately that I thought I would share with you.  Mostly I seem to do my shop updates on the Maika Creations Facebook page, so if you would like to be more up to date than my rather sporadic updates on the blog, then you know what to do!

Size 4 pinafore dress in blue and vintage green daisy fabric

Size 2 gathered pocket skirt in blue

Size 2 gathered pocket skirt in pink

Hopefully I'll be getting a few more things listed, including some boy's long sleeved t-shirts, during the month of June so stay tuned!

Sunday shop update

It's a rainy weekend here in Brisbane, looks like its going to be a rainy Christmas, although the combination of warm and rain really isn't that bad.  As a result of the weather I've spent plenty of the weekend at home which has meant being able to finish off a couple of things for the shop.

A green and white size 5 sun dress made from a vintage sheet - I just love the way this fabric feels, so soft, floaty and summery.

And a blue and white size 3 cross back pinafore top - all new fabrics for this one.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend where ever you are!

It took me all day

All day to load this dress onto the shop today.

Everytime I sat down at the computer I had a baby in one hand and could only do reading using the mouse with the other hand (let it be confirmed I am doing a lot of reading on the computer while feeding the baby!).  Eventually I cut and pasted and finger prodded my way to getting the listing completed - phew, what an effort.

That said, I did get some great weather for photography this morning, overcast but bright enough, and enough breaks in the wind so everything didn't blow around too much.

And, (yes, there's more), I got some new sewing machine needles and another roll of black thread from the store.

Small work, but feeling satisfied I got some of the little jobs ticked off my list today.

Lemon-aid

The weekend's been and gone again. The weather here fluctuated between heavy black clouds bringing driving rain, and hot belting sunshine with airless humidity.  Yesterday we were sweltering and seeking any shade we could find at Brisbane's annual multicultural festival, today its back to grey skies and rain.

In an attempt to channel more of the sunshine and less of the rain I'm going for sunshiney yellows in the sewing room this week - first up is a lemon and mauve custom order.  This little pinafore was requested to have an Easter theme.  Yes, you read correctly - Easter.  I'm quite happy to pretend we skipped over Christmas and came out on the side of Easter for a few days while I am sewing with these lovely soft colours.

I'm also dying to cut into an outrageously yellow vintage sheet to make a little top, probably my brain is getting ahead of me there right now though!

Friday shop update

I've finally had time to add two more garments to the shop. 

The apple top has been a few weeks in the making (sooo many other things to do!), the wrap dress I made some time ago and just decided to list it.  Both are size 2, actually my most popular size funnily enough.  I've been battling non-stop windy weather and dull winter lighting in an effort just to take the photos - this shop caper can be time consuming! 



Red apple reversible cross back top - size 2

Vintage fabric reverse of apple cross back top - size 2



Garden party wrap dress - size 2



Garden party wrap dress - size 2

Coconut ice

I've just completed my first custom order for my shop.  I had a request to make a dress like this:

...but in a size six and with no doily feature.

I had the same main fabric to work with, but none left of the darker pink of the sleeves, so I went for white and pink florals on the sleeves and a white hem ruffle instead.

After talking baking for the kindergarten fair with the kindy mums in the morning all I could think about when sewing this pink and white creation was...coconut ice.  Strange, I've never even made coconut ice!  Its kind of appropriate though as this dress and another will be shortly winging their way to mid-summer in the UK.

Bunting to make you smile

Why do little strings of flags make you feel happy?  The colour?  The movement?  The fun of hanging them up?  Whatever it is, it's one of those suretys of life.

They're so fun and easy to make too.  All of these were cut out from the contents of my scrap bag, but strangely the scrap bag seems not to have shrunk as much as I would have liked!  At least it's back in the cupboard now rather than strewn over the floor.

Four strings of double sided scalloped flags in boy blues, girl blues, pinks and purples and lemon and white are now available in the shop.

Leaping off, diving in

When I first started this blog about two years ago I am going to outright admit that I did so because I fully intended to sew and sell.  I knew my way around a sewing machine and had recently re-discovered a love for sewing and I naively thought I could make stuff and folks would buy it and it would be a fun thing to keep a new stay at home mum occupied.  But not one to jump into anything until I am sure of how deep the water is (obviously) I quickly discovered that "out there" the handmade market is an entire ocean that needs careful and considered navigation, and that like real life I would much, much prefer to sit on the sandy beach in the sun rather than have cold waves breaking over me.  Its taken me a couple of years, many changes of mind and a heap of procrastination before finally deciding to wet my toes. 

Instead I have gone the long way around and spent the last few years at my sewing machine making my way first through things like bedding, simple curtains, cushions and bunting, moved onto making softies for the best part of another year and lately have been increasingly dabbling in clothing.  This whole time I have been gaining skills, self teaching, experimenting, amassing little bits of sewing equipment that make the job easier and the results look better. I have made and made and made for friends and relations and loved the buzz of deciding on what project to make, what to make it out of, the making process and of course the giving.  I have slowly slipped into an ongoing philosophy of always giving handmade rather than store bought.  I have given everything with a kind of shy and bashful "Yes, I made it" admission, hoping that nobody thinks I'm cheap or daggy for doing so and that they appreciate that my time, and my skill, and materials have been chosen and given by me personally to create a gift just for them.  I think I have done OK with it as I have continually knocked back suggestions from friends that I set up an online shop to sell what I make.  What exactly to sell?  How much time should I put into it? What kind of marketplace to sell goods at?  The whole question of originality and uniqueness bothered me, or rather petrified me for a good long while.  I didn't want to give up the pleasure of creation and give in to the (perceived) drudgery of making the same thing over and over again for the purposes of selling.  I didn't want my blog to become focused on a shop, or markets, or sales because I personally don't dig blogs that are an after thought to a shop.  I have instead been spending my time blogging to my hearts content, reading countless other blogs, and commenting and participating, making great friends and loving every minute of it. I have read the posts here and there about this online market place versus that online market place, the posts about copied work and original ideas, the posts about pricing, the posts about why some folks sell and others swear off it entirely, the posts about whether all the work is worth it...and after two years I finally feel ready.

At this moment I have time on my hands, I have better sewing skills, I have a better sense of colour, a better knowledge of fabrics, I take better photos, I have appreciation of the handmade market place, and I don't sweat the small stuff any longer - I have relaxed into a good head space to be comfortable about making a handful of items to sell. I've chosen a format that makes the most sense for me - two days a week dedicated to sewing work, creative freedom to make what I like when I like and the integrity to use materials and styles that sing to me and that I am proud to make and sell using a small shop platform where I don't feel lost and out of place or intimidated, I just feel like me.

So if you're a regular visitor over here you have probably noticed the little "shop" link on the sidebar. Its been there about a month and I haven't even blogged about it, I'm already hopeless about self promotion!  I do admit though that I announced it to family and friends first (who generously supported me and bought out half the shop necessitating an immediate re-stock!).  And now its your turn. What's over there?  I'm sewing some simple clothes for kids from sizes 1-6 under the label of Maika.  I'm combining new and recycled fabrics and trims, all items ready made, one of a kind or very limited quantities...and it feels great.  I'm having fun and am keeping expectations low key, going along for the ride.  And I'm still going to blog about whatever and whenever and not talk shop too much, probably once a month, and that will be enough about that.