The Beast in my Sewing Room!

Hello and welcome to my monthly blog post! Oh actually this is my second post this month..yay a record for me!

Things are busy in the land of Selkie Smith which is how I like it! This week I was happy to take receipt of the “Beast”, my industrial sewing machine. To do so I had to swap rooms, I had to move all my sewing stuff and the million yards of fabric into my daughters playroom, and she moved her millions of toys into my old sewing room. Surprisingly it all went off without a hitch, not a tanty from either I or Little Miss Selkie Smith.

Now compared with my other sewing machine, which forever more will be referred to as “Beauty”, the threading of the beast required me to write up a detailed and numbered list of where the thread had to be looped up, under and around..see pic below, I even had to put the numbers on the machine..lol

Anywhoo, it purrs like a kitten, and i’ve got it set on a slower speed at the moment but it’s still fast! Now I can start making my Deluxe Porkiepie Laptop bags!

Here is a few pics of my new sewing room, it much more organised that my other room.

With the Beauty in the foreground.

and my corner office..

In market news I will be at Mathilda’s Market at the Park Hyatt in Canberra on the 12th of Sept, I’m looking forward to going, I haven’t been to Canberra in about 10 years!

And one more thing, please feel free to comment, I promise I won’t bite! ; )

Selkie xo

My First Mathildas

Yes, hello, it seems that I am consistent with my monthly blog post..sorry!!

Well Selkie Smith had its first stall at the beautiful St Ignatius College Riverview last Sunday.  What a well oiled machine, this market is super organised.  We had a great corner spot so we could get both our trees fully laden with Bags!  Pity our photos aren’t so fantastic..   This pic was a little overladen and had to be pruned a bit, but we had a lot of bags!

We have decided not to take the lattice panels with us anymore but Wall Art and Memo Boards can still be custom ordered and will eventually be available on our website..(more on that later..)  That left me needing another way to let people know who we are.  The lovely Christina of Billy Mac and C&C Design Management made us a fantastic pop up banner! We love it and its so much easier to take to markets! Christina had a stall as well, and it was great to catch up with her and also with Dianne from Little Fish Creations who has some beautiful mobiles and tutus, and is the wonderful admin of the Handmade Cooperative, which we are proud to be a part of!

We had our new eftpos machine on hand, and it was worth its weight in gold, and a lot easier for us to use than we thought it would be! Our Hairclip Boards sold well as did our hair clips, which at first I was reluctant to start making but I’m determined not to waste fabric and these are a great way of not doing that. 

Anyway all in all a great day, and we hope to be at the next Sydney Markets in October.

Next up for us though is Poppyseed Markets at Bulli on Sunday, and I can’t wait to meet the lovely people of the Illawarra!

Then we will be focussing on trying to get our website up and running, the bones are there, check it out www.selkiesmithdesign.com.au  we just have to make it look pretty and fill it up with stock!

Last big news, I got me a Industrial Sewing machine! I hopefully should have it by next week, I’m know that it will be great for my Deluxe Porkiepies (Laptop Bags) and it gives my other machine a rest and I can do more embroidery on it.  Now I just have to figure whether I should move my studio into the playroom and move the playroom into the studio..I think Little Miss Selkie will have alot to say about that!

Selkie xo

Day to Day Ramblings

Phew! My double market days are over. I now have four weeks until my next market Mathilda’s at Lane Cove. I will try to have some new items in stock, brain is brimming with ideas! We had a good weekend, but I suspect that it was quieter than usual due to school holidays and people waiting for tax cheques, I know i’m one of them!

My Stall at Poppyseed Markets on Sunday

Just making up my first wholesale order with Little Yon Yon! Michelle stocks some fantastic WAHM’s creations, so please check out her website!

I also couple of custom orders, and alot of people over the Market weekend were asking if I make Messenger Bags. Well I think that will be the next main focus. A Deluxe Porkiepie Satchel, which can be used as both a laptop bag or a well stocked nappy bag. I’m excited about this as I will probably use a few different fabrics for each bag. I’m also thinking about the straps and whether they should be Polyprop like my other satchels or straps made out of the fabrics i’m using…hmmm.

So I will be chipping away at getting my stock ready and I’m very excited that I have bought another tree, a slightly smaller version, for my Caitycoo Totes, as I don’t think they look their best on the table!

Anywhoo not much else to say except I have listed my two of my Saffron Craig (as featured on her webpage) Elk Landscape Porkiepie Satchels on etsy

Purple Elk Landscape Porkiepie Satchel

Aqua Elk Landscape Porkiepie Satchel

Ok, that’s it for now,

Take care,

Selkie xo

Double Market Weekend!

Hello!!! This week I have been super busy getting ready for the two markets that Selkie Smith Design will be at this weekend! Some people call me crazy…lol…

On Saturday I will be at Allie’s Attic at Cronulla Leagues from 10-2 and on Sunday I will be at Poppyseed Markets at Ador Ave Rockdale from 10-3.. check the exact details on the right side bar.

This time I will have some Saffron Craig Porkiepie Satchels in stock as well as my standard fare of Large Totes, Yorkiepies, Caitycoos, Memo and Hairclips Boards, and a few other bits and pieces.

Apologies for my madeit shop looking a bit bare, as I haven’t listed anything due to the amount of markets that i’m doing! But I hope to list more shortly, and Mr Selkie Smith is working on a website for me, so hopefully we will have that up and running in September! Just in time for Christmas orders : )

Ok that’s me done, I need to get back on the machine.

Take care,

Selkie

2010 Craft Trade Show and Magnolia Square

Hello Everyone, I can only seem to manage one post a month at the moment..terrible!!!

I have been busy as usual making market stock for some upcoming markets. I have 6 markets over the next month and a half…(insert an eye bulging smiley here!)

A couple of weeks ago my friend Margie and I braved the floods and checked out Magnolia Square at Randwick. It was great to finally meet face to face the lovely Helen from Ensparkle Ceramics. She makes some absolutely fabulous plate, bowls, tumbler, cake stands, and they can be personalised.. I bought this cute tumbler. I love the colours in it… There was also the talented artist Nikki, who has been featured in Frankie..check out her website!

Ok last weekend me and my tree went down to the 2010 Craft Trade show at Rosehill. After months of emails back and forth it was a pleasure to meet Saffron Craig face to face. She had a booth at the fair, and it looked absolutely fabulous. It was the best one there hands down! My tree looked fab laden with creations from both myself and others. I also met the talented Kate Conklin of Kate Conklin Designs who makes beautiful quilts (see below) and quilt patterns. Also on show was a beautiful quilt by Tamara St Remy from Bernina Patch. It was magnificent.

Saffron’s Booth

Kate’s beautiful quilts

Saffron and I standing in front of Tamara’s Beautiful Quilt

I also made a few trade orders as I have made the decision to sell fabrics as well as my creations. I have ordered a couple of bolts from the new Patty Young range “Playdate” and also ordered some of the beautiful Alexander Henry Willow range.

Ok must go, it’s Mummy and Daughter day here..have a great day, week, month..ok I hope to post more regularly…teehee..

Selkie xo

In a Bind!

Oooh i’m using Windows Live Writer! Thanks to the tips from the Australian Contemporary Handmade Alliance I would never had known about it!! Check them out if you are a crafty like minded person for some great tips!!

Ok well it’s been a bit quiet in Selkieland, My little puppy has been sick, but she is on the mend, thank goodness! I have completed some custom orders over the last week and now i’m going to spend some time getting stock together for Billycart Markets on the 26th June. I’m working on an idea I’ve had for a while. I’m designing some binder covers for both “Kids Art Portfolios” and also for a “My Recipe” Binder. The covers will be removable for washing as we know a) kids are messy and b)chefs are messy!! Well i am! I also want to have a detachable pencil pocket for the art binders and the same for the recipe binders for a notepad and pencil.

I also used my embroidery part of the sewing machine last weekend with a bit of trepidation, but it was much easier than I expected. Although from the pic below you can see it doesn’t have much flair, i’ve bought lovely coloured embroidery thread for the real thing, so I can personalise the binders! So if you want it personalised then you can place a custom order with me!

Ok well for the moment I only have a very cryptic photo of my idea but I will post it to give you some idea!

Of course I have some great fabrics in my stash for both styles of binders and I can’t wait to use some of my Retro 50’s inspired fabric for the recipe binders! I hope to have the Recipe Binders ready for Poppyseed Markets in July!

Take care,

Selkie xo

Selkie Smith's First Market Stall

Hiya,

As usual I've been super busy. Over the last couple of weeks i've been making stock for my first market stall at Poppyseed Markets. I had a great time and met alot of lovely people who made some lovely comments about my bags and boards and a few sales too! I learnt alot on the day and greatly appreciated help from my lovely friend Kylie and Mr Selkie Smith. He built the lattice work for my memo boards and the tree I bought was great for hanging up the bags.

I'll be back at Poppyseeds in July, but coming up next will be Billycart Markets in late June. Before that I will be looking at making a few new bag styles, a laptop bag, a nappy bag and a clutch, wish me luck!

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet, and will post up a pic of my stall, I'm pleased with my mini tree on the table that I was putting together at 1am the morning of the markets! To say i'm exhausted is an understatement!

Selkie xo