New baby gift set

Baby shower

Now days with the advent of baby showers and reveal parties, I was think of a new all in one present.

My idea was a parcel of hand made items wrapped up in a muslin and tied with a ribbon, in two different sizes.

These will be make from double knit yard from #Woolwarehouse and #Dearmore and will be made from #JamesCBrett, #stylecraft, #Patons and #knitsirdar yarns.

I was going to add baby wipes, but with the government, trying to stop the usage of these I've decided to add cotton wool and baby lotion instead. 

Size one

buggy sized blanket either plain or patterned.

1 cardigan

1 pair of bootees

1 pair of mitts

1 hat

1 bib / bandana

1 teddy

1 taggy/knitted comforter 

1 muslin

2 nappies

Cotton wool and baby lotion

Size  two

buggy sized blanket either plain or patterned.

2 cardigans in different patterns

2 pairs of bootees

2 pairs of mitts 

2 hats

1 bib

1 bandana

1 teddy

1 taggy

1 comforter

1 muslin
4 nappies

Cotton wool and baby lotion

The colours I was thinking of were, white, pale blue, a darker blue, green, yellow, pink, lilac.

I was then thinking of selling these at craft fairs and I was also thinking of approaching bespoke baby and children's wear shops to see if I could rent a shelf or a portion of the shop to sell assorted and knitted baby items 

Taking a break from craft fairs

Taking a break!

Over the past 2 yrs I've been doing a craft fair each month except to January, August and December, so as you can imagine this plus working full time has left me exhausted.

Taking stock 

After doing 20 craft fairs with virtually only weeks in between I was rapidly running out of stock, and so I took them momentous decision to take a year off from craft fairs, as I was rushing to make new items and really not enjoying knitting anymore.

So I've been looking for inspiration on the internet, and also I decided to  look at what were my best sellers and redesign a few items and look at designing some new knitwear.

Having a large stock of yarn I wanted to make more colourful knitwear, and I've been looking at updating some of my patterns adding stripes and motifs, and using different stitches, I rather like the double rib as this makes a super cuddly jumper without the bulk of chunky yarn on little babies, and it's also stretchy for longer wear. !!

I particularly like autumn  colours, golds, oranges, reds, greens, purple so I'm thinking of making this one of my jumpers, with think stripes on each colour, at #Woolwarehouse they have a large supply of beautiful yards as well as buttons.

Looking through my stash of yarns I found some rainbow yarns I'd forgotten I had, these are  #Paton, and I've also found yarn from #Stylecraft and #knitsirdar, and my imagination took off at a fair sped, I could see lovely dresses, tops and legging for when those dark winter days need cheering up.

I also have a large range of pastel yarns from #JamesCBrett, #knitsirdar and #stylecraft, which I'm going to use to make lovely summery knitwear to match with the dresses I want to make, and I want to try hand and machine smocking. So watch this space.

Super cute angel top

This weeks make is a lemon yellow angel top made from #JamesCBrett super soft baby double knit.

The body was all made in one. 

 

And the sleeves were added with the yoke and knitted as one, and has 5 buttons down the back.

This super cute little dress will keep someone lovely and warm with a pair of white tights 

Lockdown knitting

Working from home

Whilst the Covid19 lockdown has been on I've had to work from home.  (Shame) 

This gives me extra time in the evening as there has been no traveling involved and I get an extra few hours each night to knit.

So far I made 3 cardigans and 1 jumper using #James C Brett and #Stylecraft yarns both of which I purchased from #Woolwarehouse.

Two white cardigans, a grey cardigan and a pale blue jumper and this weeks work in progress is a yellow angle top 

Great Garnetts farmers market 

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I always look forward to doing these markets, they are the 2nd Saturday each month except January, August and December.  Julie the owner rally does a good job with the advertising and lots of people attend there are two barns each side of the yard, one is for the crafts and the other is for food and drink.

This is my stall.  

The Christmas one which is in November is always busy with the extra added bonus of live music and carols.

Photography Lessons

Since I last posted, I've been giving a lot of thought to the way I photograph my items for sale.  It's really important to have excellent photos of clothes as the customer can't get to feel, or see the clothes before they are purchased with online selling.  I've got some software I've been playing with, but I don't think that will make up for a natural lack of talent!  Luckily, I have a very talented sister in law and Im going to ask for her advice tomorrow.  Hopefully, I will have some better photos to share next time around!

One picture I was pleased with was this one:

I thought it showed the actual colours of the jumper nicely - which Ive been really struggling with, with flash and shadows getting involved!

I also liked this one:

 I was trying to get creative, and think of different ways to show off the blanket!

Looks Like Spring Is On The Way!

Well, our craft fair went really well!  We had a great time, and met some great people!  It was nice to get feedback on our items and we were well pleased - but exhausted - at the end of the day!

This is me, albeit headless, behind our stall.  I think we learned a lot of things that we can take along to our next fair.  We are already looking for a summer event.

Since the fair, we have finished up a couple of special orders, and I have been having a bit of a rethink regarding the online shop.  I've got a few ideas in mind for new products, and some are a bit different to what we have done before.

As usual, you can keep up with us on Facebook and also keep checking our store.

See you soon

Louise

Only 2 More Days To Go!

Our first craft fair is almost up on us!

We are now finished our preparations - everything is washed, ironed, tagged, priced and labelled in boxes ready to go!  We are really excited about saturday, it will certainly be a very sharp learning curve for us.  The other stall holders sell some amazing items so Im really looking forward to meeting new people and seeing what they do.

We've got a few new products which we haven't put in the shop before to try out at the fair, and Im looking forward to seeing how people like them.

We've also had a couple of special requests in the last fortnight, so we are still busy!

Hope to see you Saturday!

Our First Craft Fair!

After an eventful Christmas, we are now back to usual.  We've received the details for the craft fair we will be attending, I've attached the flyer below.  We are very excited, though there is still a lot of work to do.  We had a practise run at our table display today, and we are pleased with what we have decided on so far.  We have also got some new items which we will be offering for sale for the first time at the fair, so if you are nearby, drop in and say hello!  We will be really pleased to meet you.

A Big Step!

Well, we've finally taken the plunge and applied for a craft fair.  And we've been accepted!  I'm sooo excited about it, but at the same time, a little apprehensive.  It will be great to get out there and meet customers, but have we got enough items to sell!  I'm sure we will be ready by Feb and we are planning to have a few practice runs at designing our table.  We are hoping to be able to show for the first time a few new designs and products too!  So all in all, there's much work to be done.  We've got so many things to do and decide on, I'd better get going!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

With all the Christmas adverts on the tv the thoughts of all at Sunshine Baby Crafts have turned rather festive. It has set us to looking at what little knitted toys we can make at this time of year- Debbie used to make us knitted dollies each Christmas and we both still have our Snowman dollies, although 20 years on and my Snowman has no fluff in his neck where I dragged him about! I am looking forward to seeing Louise's crochet dog when he is finished, he will be an excellent addition to our growing teddy and dolly selection.

As readers will know we recently went on holiday to Norfolk and purchased some pretty new materials for our new designs. A new project that we are trying to get off the ground is bandana bibs for toddlers, and we have some fun and bright Christmas designs that we hope to get on our website soon.

We are currently working on a number of orders for different customers and friends but have been able to complete a selection of beautiful snuggly cot blankets, perfect for the current weather. They are so pretty and warm that we just love them!

As ever please take a look at our website and our Facebook page in order see our newest products!

Shop update

I've just added a new line to our shop - long tailed baby hats!  It's always a bit nerve wracking, putting something new up, but it's exciting to see who likes them!  I really like these hats, I think they are so cute! 

We've also got some more tiny baby items to go on sale in the next few days, little matching sets made of a cardigan with a matching hat and mittens.  We think they are lovely, and hope you do too!

To take a peek at our other newest arrivals, go to our shop - http://sunshinebabycrafts.folksy.com