Wednesday 30 June 2010

Made By Louise Shop

Well I finally got round to setting up a Folksy shop to sell some things I've been making lately.  First in the shop is a personalised lunchbag.  I got fed up of having a restricted choice of lunch bags which are too small for water bottles, then they get ruined easily and aren't very hygenic IMHO so I sat down and designed my own which resulted in (drum roll.....)


Waterproof, washable, personalised lunch bags big enough to hold a water bottle and small plastic lunch boxes.  The bag measures 14" x 9" x 6" and is washable to 40 degrees. 
The fabric, name and images can all be personalised, see here for more details.

More items for sale soon!

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Monday 14 June 2010

Selling things.......

I've been a bit absent from blogging lately, I've been playing around with some garments that hopefully I can sell!  I have a friend who sells children's clothes through an ebay shop and she's going to sell them for me.  My idea is to see if they sell and then set up a Folksy shop to sell them and some other ideas I'm developing.  They are nothing too amazing or original but I think quite cute and hopefully someone else will too. 

They are babygrows of various sizes which have been decorated with appliques and had skirts attached to make it a dress.









and boys......


Here's my other plan......



....personalised lunchbags with waterproof lining!


What do you think?  Can you see anyone buying them?


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Wednesday 9 June 2010

What do I need to know?

I'm thinking of doing a dressmaking & tailoring course at college and went along last night for the Information Evening but unfortunately they had no information!   They are in the process of recruiting a tutor so they will have more information when they are appointed. 

What I was expecting was a syllabus of things that would be covered/achieved through the course but the details I have got are very vague - 'You will learn to understand a pattern and choose suitable material.  We will look at creating detail on your garment, including pockets and button holes.  By the end of the course you will be able to product a personalised garment from stratch.'  Now that doesn't sound very thorough to me, it sounds like you would choose your commercial pattern and then make it through the course (2 hrs/ week for 11 weeks) learning the things you would come across on THAT pattern therefore if you had chosen a simple pattern you wouldn't cover things that you would need for a more difficult pattern. 

So it got me thinking - what would MY syllabus be?  I grew up with my mother sewing loads of clothes both for me and other people and I would make dolls clothes as a child.  I later did sewing in school but at a very low level (pre - GCSE) and then did nothing until a couple of years ago.  So I have some basics but also lots of holes in my knowledge and definitely in my confidence level.  I have now improved lots of my skills (through blogs and web in general) but I know there are lots of things I don't know or am not confident about. So my question is what does a sewer need to know, I mainly make clothes and I'm interested in knowing about designing patterns so here's my brain-dump list of things I'd like to know or have trouble with:-
  • making button holes
  • fitting collars
  • fitting yokes
  • fitting sleeves
  • fitting pockets
  • handling fine fabrics
  • expected sizings (e.g. children, womens)
  • different fabric types
  • accurate measurement
  • drafting block/sloper
  • lining clothes e.g. a bodice
  • designing children's clothes, understanding proportions as they grow

Do I need to go to college to learn these things?  I guess not but I think the advantage would be someone to talk to about any problems I have as I don't have anyone in the real world that sews and could help me out.  Maybe I need to find a sewing circle or some other method to pick up this knowledge.  I live in Sussex if anyone has any information about sewing circles or course in the area.....



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