Lilac Lime Studios

It has been slow going here. With pretty much everything. I have been in the middle of report cards and trying to deal with a couple of things at work and so my time to work on making things is feeling really restricted lately.

However I have made a couple of things and I will have to get busy and get these into Etsy.

Two new purses

One thing that I do notice about these photo’s is that the lighting makes a big difference in the pictures. The first picture was taken in the early morning and the lighting is really hard. Where as the second picture was taken later in the day and the light is softer. I think I still need to work on the lighting a bit in both the pictures but I like the spot where I am taking the pictures.

The next pictures are of some oven mitts that I am still working on. They are the prototypes and I am a little unhappy with them still and I really need to work on making sure that I am making  left and a right mitt not 2 lefts or 2 rights.

I do enjoy sewing these and I will have to figure out a good way of producing them to make it more time efficient.

I think that I am going to start working on my time management to figure out how to utilize my time more productively. I have lots of things that I want to do but I feel like the 5 hours I have int he evening when I get home from work is not enough time to do everything I want to do for the business and do all the “life” things that have to be done.

Ah well. It will all get figured out.

While I love the new idea I had for a purse I am ultimatley disappointed in how it turned out. The fabric was a bit to flimsy, even though I liked the colour. However I know how I am going to fix it so it looks good.

This is how it looks right now. Cute but not to my standards.

as soon as I fix it I will post the version 2.0

I just finished taking an online course called Indie Biz 3.0. It was great fun and I learned a lot but I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know a bunch of new people.

To celebrate we are having a launch party all of next week and I will be featuring and showing you some of the interesting people that I have met during this time.

Also I will be having a special discount for my Etsy store during that time so check back Monday for more details!

Well I started experimenting with materials for making purses this weekend. I was looking around my fabric bin and saw…burlap and thought what can I do with this?

I did this

I think it is CUTE!. I lined the burlap with a pink cotton and pulled some of the horizontal and vertical threads (weft and warp i believe) so that it gave the burlap a bit of pattern. The pink is a nice girly touch to counteract the …well…rusticness of the burlap. The burlap is about the texture not the burlap anyway. The top and strap are made from a heavier linen and the interior is bright girly pink.

I hide the snap closure under the button flap. I have been have trouble with the magnetic clasps so I had to stick with a snap clasp but as soon as I find a good magnetic clasp I will buy a bunch.

So I will be posting this one on Etsy later this evening. I have another purse I was working on earlier but I still need to get the strap completed so I will probably finish that one tomorrow.

Good night/day/morning wherever you are!

Introducing my new babies. I spent a significant amount of time working on these this week.

You can buy them here

So it has been hard trying to decide what I am going to spend my time focusing on for selling in my easy shop. My first thoughts were to focus on making prints or painting. The problem with that is that I lack focus. I have no particular theme or speciality and since I have been an art teacher I had to learn how to do as much as possible in as many different ways as possible. I think part of my problem now is that I see too many possibilities and I can see too many directions that I can go.

Also with the drawing, painting blah blah is that I do it everyday already. it is what I spend my days doing and I want something to do for Etsy that is outside of the normal day for me. Don’t get me wrong I love making art everyday and teaching teenagers how to draw but I think that part of the mystery and specialness of it has worn off for me. I like to paint and draw for me but I don’t think I want to HAVE TO draw and paint for other people.

I did however hit on something that makes me excited. Makes me sleepless half the night thinking about the possibilities of fabric and design. Brimming with ideas and dreaming about texture and designs.

It started with this.

I wanted a new purse but I did not want to pay the stupid prices for one so i made this purse out of an old jacket. Here is a close up.

So then I needed a new pair of even mitts. And the only nice ones i could find were $25 per mitt. Yes PER MITT. So i made some and love them

So then I thought I could make these again.

So i did

And now I am onto making many, many different thing using this technique. I am excited about that possibilities and look forward to making them…

Excitement is important isn’t it.

I made a purse using this same technique but it is too late in the day to take a decent picture of it so I will post one tomorrow!

Off to sew!