September Etsy Update

It's been a super busy month or so behind the scenes at Riches and Roses. First up, I've been preparing for Etsy Australia's #makeforgood campaign. I've got two products listed in the campaign this year and will be donating 20% of sales of these to Plan Australia's "Because I Am a Girl" program. You can find out more about this in another post here on my blog.

I have also been sorting through my products in preparation for the pre-Christmas rush and updating fabrics for some products.

I'm currently busy cutting out and putting together a new batch of these little beauties, which will come out with three new cover designs in the coming weeks, stay tuned!

I've just finished some new cases for the Hungry Caterpillar sets in a new design - see the photos in the listing for details. The new case pictures the food on this page of the book.

I've also been updating the fabrics for all of my doll accessories. There are some really sweet prints on offer at the moment.

My two new car mats have been added to the shop and they are really cute. My son especially loves his version of the racing car mat and filling up his racing cars with petrol as they do their rounds of the track. You can see more on the racing car play mat here.

Another product that I've updated is the baby doll carrier. This new one matches in with the other baby doll products in my etsy store.

My newest product, just in time for warmer weather here in Australia is this cute little reversible kids sun hat available in four sizes to fit baby up to pre-school age.

Over the past few months, my best seller has been my cute little balloon covers which are available in two different designs. I've also updated these designs recently to include the bright owl prints and whale prints pictured below.

Busy busy busy, but never finished - stay tuned for a couple more new products that I'm working on!

Riches and Roses July Etsy Update

It's been a BUSY past month in the Riches and Roses Etsy Store!

Top 3 Viewed Items

1. Toddler Quiet Book

2. Baby Doll Diaper Nappy Carry Bag

3. Balloon Cover



Top 3 listing favourites

1. Toddler Quiet Book

2. Kids' Tool Belt - orange

3. Kids' Tool Belt - pegs design

Biggest sales

1. Toddler Quiet book

2. Balloon Cover

3. Reversible Whales sun hat

Back to the sewing machine

Life got busy. Since going back to work back in November, sewing and crafting had stopped. Although it's only been part time (2 days a week), there's been Christmas, holidays and two little children who've suddenly needed a bit of extra special care at bed times. Mr now 14 months has been going through some big separation anxiety, and Miss 3 has just been in one of those phases where she needs some extra stories and cuddles in order to go off to sleep.

But then I realised how much I've been missing it. A long list of projects was made and these hats became the first project to be ticked off the list. They're reversible which makes them so much easier to sew, and fun to mix and match the designs. I've made four different sizes in each design and they're all up in my etsy shop already.

I loved this jungle animal fabric when I saw it on sale ages ago but hadn't been able to think of any projects to make - too many little boys being born around here! It makes a nice contrast to the sea life print below, which is on the reverse side.

I first bought this dinosaur print to make a smart little collared shirt for my son to wear to his first birthday party, and ended up buying some more as it's just so cute.

I opted for robots on the reverse side. Cute, no?

My daughter had a pillowcase dress from this Hello Kitty fabric when she was just over 1 year old - I love how it looks made up as this hat!

Paired up with a nice quiet polkadot pattern on the reverse side.

Both of my kids have hats made from this collection of fabrics, although the caravan print is a new addition to my fabric stash. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I love the finished look.

A hat pattern and tutorial will soon follow!

Works in progress: Quiet books, toddler sun hat

The quiet books are coming along slowly. Miss almost three has had a few stays in hospital over the last few weeks after having her tonsils and adenoids removed and Mr 10 months has dropped back to two naps per day now so it also seems those quiet little snippets of time during the day when I could work on sewing have passed as there's always one child awake.

These are the bead counters that will go into the counting book. My daughter loves the bead counter page in her quiet book. It's so simple but looks so effective.

Also for the counting book is this shoe page, where little ones can practice tying a bow. My daughter is still at the stage where all she wants to do is try to put her foot into the open shoe, but I'm sure she'll catch on soon.

I love this dog page, which will go into the alphabet book. It's another simple idea that looks really effective. 

Three complete pages out of twenty four... there's still a long way to go! 

Although it's sun hat weather all year round here in Brisbane, after cleaning out my kids' clothes cupboards recently and noticing how much they've both grown in these last few months, I realised that Miss almost 3 needed a new hat.

I bought some of the yellow beach hut fabric last year and used it up in no time making baby hats, pants and shorts. Recently it was all on sale again and I bought some more, as well as the cute hot air balloons design above. My daughter loved it and chose it for her new summer hat. I used this Oliver + S free pattern http://oliverands.com/free-patterns/reversible-bucket-hat/. I found that it's a bit on the small side, so I'd go a size up next time. We'll try it out at the park tomorrow :)

Works in progress: newborn baby hats, baby in a pouch, dinosaur softie, quiet books

As always, I've got a bunch of projects on the go at the moment. I've been busy adding to my stock of newborn baby hats as these have been selling really well as the warmer weather starts to arrive on the east coast of Australia. I added this dinosaur design to my hat range this week - cute no?

I'm also working on this baby in a pouch. I found the idea here: http://www.colouredbuttons.com/2010/02/inout-or-how-monstery-triplets-can.html and thought it was just too cute. Since her little brother came along at the end of 2012, Miss almost 3 loves wrapping her babies and I thought this would be a cute and portable little surprise for her when she goes into hospital for surgery in a couple of weeks.

The dinosaur softie is still not finished for Mr 9 months. I'm still at the feet and have been struggling to sew these tiny little circles to the base so that it can stand up. I'd been very tempted to just sew straight across the feet to close them until my mother (to whom I owe all of my sewing ability) suggested running a gathering stitch around the circles and pulling them in to fit.

I've now put together all the designs for all four quiet book versions that I'm planning to make. I'm waiting for some supplies to arrive so got a bit carried away and planned them all out. I'm waiting for a few things to arrive, but the biggie is the Heat n Bond iron on transfer paper - it's central to the whole process as it's what I use to attach the layers of felt onto each page. I still always sew around each piece just to be sure that it won't budge (can't be too careful with kids' stuff), but it really helps finish things off nicely.

Lesley :)

Works in progress: quiet books, hats

This week I started on the new Quiet Books. The idea is to make four different kinds, each following a different theme.

I'm starting out on the colours and alphabet books, and will later add a numbers book and a shape book.

The colours book is turning out as also an animal book, as it will feature a yellow baby chicken, orange goldfish, green frog, red crab, pink pig and a blue whale. I'm planning on making each page interactive with either zippers, magnets, buttons, velcro, finger puppets or some kind of movement.

The alphabet book will go from A to F: Apple, Balloon, Cat, Dog, Egg and Fish, and in a similar way will also have interactive pages with velcro, buttons, bow tying, buckles, zippers and magnets.

So many little pieces go into making these books that the first thing I've had to do is order a few more supplies (such as magnets and buckles). I've also cut out all of the pages in cotton calico, using a cute three little pigs fabric for the front and back covers.

I'm in the process of drawing up the pattern pages at the moment and will make some of these available here soon.

With the weather warming up here on the east coast of Australia, my newborn baby hats have been selling quickly from my etsy and madeit shops, so I'll also be cutting out and making up some more of these in the next few days.

Lesley :)

Maternity leave projects

This time around I made it to maternity leave (yay!) and so I thought it would be nice to complete a few sewing projects. There's probably going to be little time for sewing for a while after No. 2 arrives.

I found this simple little pattern online for a reversible baby hat and made two, because I thought the monkey/helicopter design might be a bit loud for a young baby. On finishing the two though, I think it's the one that I prefer.

Sadly I can't find the website again to refer to it here, and it was in Dutch anyway. With lots of help from google translate, I worked out the main parts.

 I finished this bag this morning. I've been trying to decide on a new bag to make, one that's a bit summery. Now that it's finished I'm not sure if the colours are that great for summer, but it's cute all the same and good practical size for carting around those toy animals, snacks, drink bottles etc. I got the pattern from this blog: http://machenmachen.wordpress.com/2007/08/31/free-pattern-for-the-wasp-bag/. and I have to say that the adding the buttons completely lifted the look of the bag. I was actually a bit disappointed in it when I was done with the main sewing last night, but now that the buttons are on, I love it.

 Now to the felt food... Mia was given a play kitchen a little while ago and although being quite young, she was happy for a while to use anything to put into and out of the cupboards, I thought some felt food might be a nice addition. She had some plastic fruit and vegies, but these just look so much better. I found some great pictures online, but made most of the patterns myself through trial and error - there's also a steak to go with the broccoli and potatoes (the orange thing is fish, not an over-sized carrot!)




I'm also part of the way through adding to my backpack collection - just waiting on some supplies to arrive to finish them. And I thought I'd make myself a few new dresses for after this baby comes, but being disappointed in the choice of fabric in the stores around here (and the price), I'm waiting on some fabric to arrive by mail for those.