My Sewing Blog

I have so many photos to upload and edit. I really hate that part! This is a week's work. It doesn't seem like very much for a week though. I embroidered on Sunday, cut pieces out on Monday, put snaps on on Tuesday, sewed things together on Wednesday, sewed casings and put some elastic in on Thursday, put more elastics in, topstitched and put the last snaps on on Friday. Today (Saturday) I prewashed them all and took photos. I need to get faster at making things, or more efficient. I actually considered closing my shop this week because I have no support here. I had wanted to do something like this when my kids were small, but I knew I wouldn't have the time to do it. You'd think now, when your oldest is almost 18 you'd have the time. But no. You'd think that maybe you could go and work in your workshop and leave one of your older kids to take care of dinner so you'd be able to get a decent chunk of work done. You'd also like to hope that your p...

I was talking to my mum earlier last week, she's just started making and selling baby hats, so we were talking about how business was going. My shop hadn't had a sale since the beginning of June. I think my mum has sold two of her baby hats. I said that I didn't expect to sell anything at the weekend as the weather was supposed to be nice (yes, we've actually been having summer here in Scotland!). I thought everyone would be outside enjoying the weather. I think I jinxed myself, in a nice way! On Friday two of my favourite nappies sold, then during the weekend I had two sales of the cloth pads I uploaded. I sold ten items altogether and now there's almost nothing left in my shop! I haven't been doing much shop related stuff lately, but actually selling stuff gave me a boost. I spent yesterday embroidering some nappies. I embroidered an owl which could have been amazing, but just didn't work out. For some reason the bobbin thread kept showing, especially on...

I haven't been working on much shop related stuff this last week. It's a bit blah really. Etsy is making some changes to their site, and their fees, and it seems to have been a very quiet week. I don't know if it's Etsy or if it's just me. Views in my shop have dropped. Like practically all week, they were next to nothing. Since I opened my shop people have been complaining on the Etsy forums about how their views and visits have dropped. People are saying their shops are much quieter than they usually are and they're making less sales. Maybe Etsy isn't the right place to sell on? I sold some sewing magazines and patterns I had (not on Etsy) and I was going to use the money to buy more fabric to make stuff for my shop, but now I'm not sure. I have no idea what I should work on. I was planning to get some more PUL for embroidered nappies, but I haven't actually sold any of the ones I've made so far, so maybe it's not a good idea. But then ag...

According to Blogger, this is my one hundredth post! Things are looking up since the last time I posted. The problem of the leaky nappies has been solved. They just need slimmer fitting inserts. I'm really glad! I think maybe I jumped to worst case scenario, especially since other people I asked about it were suggesting maybe the suedecloth was repelling or the PUL had de-lamination issues and pretty much every single thing in my shop was made from the same fabric! I'm think I'll have to make some inserts for the remaining Rocket Bottoms nappies so that no one else has the same problem. Inserts really aren't difficult to make, but the fabric to make them seems more expensive than gold! I just bought a metre, thinking it would be enough for several but it shrunk, dramatically! It's just under 80cm now, so it's shrunk by 20%. I also ended up talking with a certain unsupportive person in my life, who claimed that they never said anything unsupportive to me. The...

Things have been very busy here lately. E passed her driving test! We bought a new car (well, an old car, but new to us) and M started a job doing nightshift. The boys have all had man flu. I have done some sewing though. Mainly just finishing off the things I've started. I've had to remove all the Rocket Bottoms nappies from my shop because a customer who bought some contacted me to say that they were all leaking. Eek! I need to figure out what's wrong with them. It could be the design, or it could be the fabrics. Or maybe it's something I did wrong. I must have sewn around 200 nappies in my time, so I'd like to think I wouldn't have made some kind of stupid mistake. I'm sending one to someone else to check out and see if it leaks for her. I'm remaking the customer's order using the Opulent Monsters pattern, which is wider through the crotch so should work better with the inserts she has. Hopefully I'll be able to salvage the Rocket Bottoms napp...

Yesterday I had a terrible day with my embroidery machine. I embroidered an adorable little cat, but the fabric seemed to end up puckered. I think it was because it was a spaced out design and every time the thread jumped to a new section it pulled the fabric tight. The eyes had so many different colours layered over the top of each other that the fabric became solid and the thread kept breaking. At least the needle didn't break. Oh, I started off by embroidering it upside down and ended up unpicking around 1,000 stitches. I'll probably sew up the nappy and then give it away. After that I thought I'd try doing the 'wild' design again in more boy-ish colours. I managed to get it the right way up but I don't like the colours I picked. Sigh! I did make this though and I love the way it turned out. I think it had around 21,000 stitches and it took about an hour and a half to stitch out. But I think it was worth it. Okay, moths aren't exactly the first thing yo...

I finally finished the embroidered nappies! These are from the Opulent Monsters diaper pattern. Of course, I'm not happy with them! The designs are all too high up, and I messed up the PUL pocket for the embroidery. I layered it up wrong, but the backside of the embroidery is fully enclosed inside the PUL pocket, which is probably the most important thing. I'll sell them all at a discount though, since they're not perfect. After talking about how great the design for the pocket in this nappy was, I re-read the instructions and realised that I sewed it wrong. Here's how it's supposed to look. I'm not sure I like it this way. One of the advantages of sewing it wrong was that you could hold the nappy by the wing and the insert would just slide out. This way you actually have to open the pocket and rummage around to pull the insert out. I also think the PUL panel is a bit too large. The whole front section of the nappy is now waterproof, which isn't much good ...