An afternoon at the Museum

I worked Monday morning and in the afternoon we hit the road and ended up at the Melbourne Museum in Fitzroy/Carlton. Taking the 96 tram down to the museum was an exciting adventure!

Tori is going through a stage of not wanting to be in the pusher, but that is ok, because we have a back pack. Probably a better workout for us!

At the museum there is a children's section where the kiddles can get all dressed up like a dinosaur and parade around in front of a mirror.

A very large sandpit, which is secretly an archaeological dig site ...

Of course afterwards we had do do coffee and cino once again ...

It was such an exhausting day that Tori fell asleep on the tram on the way home ...

We somehow managed to get her into the backpack for the walk home ...

And then we carefully lifted her onto the couch where she slept for another hour!

Ahh, that's the life!

Tutorial: Reverse Applique

This is the technique that I used to do some of the signs for our last market.

I used a data projector and projected the lettering that I needed onto a wall, hung the fabric on the wall and then traced the outline onto the fabric. You could easily just draw your shape or lettering freehand or use carbon for this step.

Cut a piece of fabric a bit larger than the lettering. Make sure you have enough room to pin around the edges for sewing.

Attach to the underside and then straight stitch the two pieces of fabric together using a straight stitch. I found it easier to pin from back to front and then front to back, remove the pins and then sew. Of course removing the pins before you sew over them.

From the back you can see what the stitching looks like when finished.

Trim the threads and then trim the backing fabric using a sharp pair of scissors, make sure that the trim is nice and close to the stitch line.

You might have to go around the lettering a number of times before it was nice and close to the line. Once you have finished the back, cut out the middle of the front letters. Use a stitch unpick to create a rip and then get your scissors in there to finish the job.

Again, don't worry too much about how close you get on the first cut, you can always go back and trim closer.

Once you have finished your trimming, zig zag around the outside of the letters to get a nice finish.

And here is the finished product with a messy work bench as the background!

Voila!

Largest Pin Cushion in the World

The other morning, I let Tori watch Playschool as I ducked upstairs to have a quick shower. I returned to find that she had taken every pin out of a blanket I was binding and stuck it into the sofa.

I present to you the largest pin cushion in the world ..

Now it is a sport for her. Find something mum is working on and put the pins in the sofa.

Cheeky girl!

Learning to smile

Taking pictures of my daughter is pretty much hit and miss at the moment. If she is in the mood then beautiful photo's happen, if not it is a struggle.

I have been trying to teach her to smile on command. We are nearly there!

We had lunch with Tori's God mum and she is enjoying her yummy cino!

Present for Trudi

A good friend of mine turned 40 last week and so I decided to make her something using some of the techniques I have been working with for my diary covers and it was a chance to try something new as well.

She likes to paint and draw, so we decided to make her a compendium that she could take with her. I love the fabric, I should have asked what design it was, because when I got it home it didn't have anything printed on the selvage.

I like working with the round elastic for securing, nice finish.

Inside the compendium I had a chance to do my first pencil roll ... just a little bit fiddly!

A close up of the pencil roll.

To make sure the pencils are protected, I put a flap over it and secured with a custom button.

A fun project, that probably took a bit long to sew. I might do a few packs for my stall for christmas, but with more "kid centric" fabric.

Love Vintage Book Launch

I am sure that I broke every speed limit last night on the way home from Mums. Yesterday was one of those days where I did the Northcote to Dandenong to St. Kilda drive into work and then back again. Tori spent half a day at Nanna's while I taught Year 7's about Greek Gods ...

When I got home I only had enough time to change my top, and then I zoomed back out again into the city to the Order of Melbourne for the "Love Vintage" book launch.

We have known Nicole for years, so it was with great pride that I bought a copy of her book, got it signed and had a celebratory drink.

In true Jenkins fashion, she not only had a book launch, but also a fashion parade of 30 of the most beautiful vintage pieces highlighted in her book. The MC was wonderful had us giggling at his references to "blown" glass buttons and rayon ...

I only managed to get a few pictures of the beautiful dresses on my humble camera, I am sure that there will be better ones floating around on the Circa Vintage site before the week is out and of course they are all in the book!

If you want a copy, pop into Circa Vintage or harass your local bookstore to get copies in for you and others.

Black Market Madness

I really should have taken more pictures, but I was kept busy for most of the day. When I wasn't tending the stall, I was chatting, drinking or grooving to the band that played.

The Black Market on Sunday was fabulous. Unlike other markets, this is actually a really big garage sale on someones double block in Northcote.

So it has a different feel to other markets. Sausage Sizzles, a Band and more importantly beer. Slap Cosmetics came along and shared a stall with me, but I didn't get any pictures of the lovely Nikki and her wares.

I had been fretting for days as to how to display my new fridge magnets and then I found myself thinking of a martini and voila ... cocktail shaker to the rescue!

I had a good day and there were lots of other crafty peeps, including the Melbourne Alternative Crafters. My fabric journal covers sold well, people liking the fact that you could exchange the insides for a diary if you wanted to. Probably a bit early for peoploe buying diaries, I am also glad that I made them a standard size.

On my stall I had a family of softies from Little Cooties keeping me company and people loved them! The lovely Angelica was there, or "Jelli" as Tori calls her from Jellibat with her delightful creations. Angelica is a Northside chick.

Angelia

Duncan from DunxWerx was there with his leather bits and pieces. Head over to his facebook page and give him feedback on what he is doing.

Duncan

But the best thing about the day was coming home to some home made chicken noodle soup, made by the hubby .. we are all down with the snots and coughs at the moment, so this hit the spot.

New Konstant Kaos goodies

Here are a few things that I will have at my stall on Sunday at the The Black Market.

Date:	Sunday, October 18, 2009
Time:	12:00pm - 6:00pm
Location:	By the banks of the Merri Creek
Street:	7 Eunson Avenue
City/Town:	Northcote, Australia

My crime scene pillows will make an appearance ...

And I have been slaving away at the ol' Janome to make some 2010 diary covers out of my usual fabrics.

It took me ages to find a diary insert that I finally liked. I ended up going for a day to a page with space for a priority list.

Here is an arty farty shot showing the different linings.

*grins* After a week of doing school reports, marking and Year 12 practice exam marking, it was good to get behind the machine and create something unique.

Northside Makers Market Wrap Up

Now that I have time to think about Saturday ... if you visited the market, give us your feedback on the day. The survey is open until the end of the week.

From a Konstant Kaos point of view, it was a good day. I introduced a number of new products and they did well, adjusted a few prices up and down. It also helped that I could spread all my stuff out and I loved my corner spot.

My button badges were quite popular and almost everyone who visited my stall walked away with at least one on their lapel. Someone actually bought every design, 10 badges! The big question is whether I do another run, or completely new designs ... along with a proper sign!

When I went ahead with the badges, I had Jennie's advice in my mind, to make sure I had a range of products at a range of price points. So whilst not everyone would want to buy a bag, a button badge might lead to customers staying longer at my stall or someone might pick buy a button badge when buying something else to make up a whole number.

I really enjoyed doing the crime scene pillows and I had a few more ideas for home decor in that vein.

The other thing that went well was my little flex wallet pouches and my padded media pockets. So I might make a new batch of them for the next market.

My next gig is next Sunday at the Black Market Garage Sale in Northcote, a little bit more low key than the last one and more of a casual feel with a band playing and a sausage sizzle.

I have organised a marque for this one as well and I am sharing the space with SLAP Cosmetics with Little Cooties contributing her wonderful cat and bat softies to my stall. I'll have Northside Makers application forms there for anyone interested.