Winter product highlight: wristwarmers

I thought I'd spend the next few blog posts giving you some more details behind some of my "off the peg" products that are perfect for the winter weather we've been having, starting with my wristwarmers!

These come in two styles: with thumbhole, and slightly shorter without thumbhole. The shorter style are actually the ones that came first, starting off life as a personal solution for keeping my hands warm on the freezing cold front edge of my sewing machine and then put on sale after people kept asking me about them. They've been a good stalwart but have definitely been overtaken in popularity by the second version I made.

Version two is the (currently more popular) longer version with a thumbhole. This version got added to sale after requests from friends, and has two advantages over the shorter version: they're longer and thus warmer and suitable for wearing instead of gloves on autumn days, and the thumbhole stops them from twisting round under your top while you're wearing them.

I tend to have the longer version ready-made up in a wider range of colours that the short ones but as always I'm happy to make you a custom pair in any colour you chose. Both are available to purchase from my online shop, and there is a basket full of the longer version for you to try on and buy in Fabrication in The Light, Leeds. 

New Etsy shop listings this week

As I've listed a few new items in my Etsy shop this week I thought I'd do a brief round-up of them for you.

First, two ready made wraps, both £15. Perfect for the changeable spring weather we've been having, and for days when you don't want to wear a coat but it's not quite warm enough for going without a top layer, these are made from soft high-quality fleece. If you'd like a different colour then see my listing for made to order wraps instead.

Black fleece wrap:

Charcoal fleece wrap:

I also listed two beautiful one-off capes. Both £65, and both with my new-style pointed hood (the rounded hood version is still available, but now you have a choice on custom capes).

First, dark green crushed velvet with a brown lining and a bronze clasp:

Second, black fleece with a red lining and a bronze clasp:

If you're local and would like to try any of these on just let me know, otherwise you can buy them through Etsy and I'll post them out within 1-2 working days.
 

You don't have to sew it to de-stash it

Ok so I know the plan for this weekend was to spend more time sewing through my stash, but I decided instead to take some time to dig it all out (yes, this took up most of the surfaces in my workroom to do!) and have a good look at it and work out what I wanted to keep and what had been added at some point in the past but no longer fits with what I wear at the moment / projects I'm likely to be doing.

In the end I decided to get rid of 10 lengths of fabric. You'd think this would make a big dent in my stash but the drawers are still groaning under the weight of their contents! The fabric is up for sale on my eBay shop and there are some absolute bargains to be had, including 4m of lightweight cotton, 2m striped crepe and 1m of loose-weave fuschia fabric which is perfect for a bright spring skirt! 

Present for a creative person?

I know it's always difficult to find a present for a creative friend. Do you buy them something ready made, or would they prefer to receive something they can use to make something for themself? And if the second, how do you know you're buying something that will be useful for them?

With this dilemma in mind, and having listened to people coming to my stall and commenting on how they'd like to learn to make some of the things, I have put together some 'make your own corsages' kits for the coming round of Christmas craft fairs.

Each kit contains pretty much everything you need to make 2 corsages of your own - all materials, thread and even a needle. All the recipient needs to have is a pencil, mug/glass and a pair of scissors, all of which most people are likely to have easily to hand at home!

The colour of the fabric and buttons inside the pack vary from those pictured on the front but I have coordinated so that you do get contents that will match not clash (well, I think so anyway). And the price? £5 a kit, which I think is reasonable considering what you get for that.

They're currently for sale in my Folksy shop or on my stall at forthcoming fairs