The second annual FabMo Textile Art Boutique is coming up in just under two months. When I did last year’s show it was my first foray into selling crafts, and I was very nervous about the whole thing. I wasn’t sure about the quality of my work, the types of items I was making, and so forth. But the event was incredibly fun and the crowd tremendously supportive, and I’m looking forward to doing it again this year.
Most of what I remember from the month preceding the show, and the month preceding the Craft Happy show I did in March, is just craziness. Think about it: if I’m to have thirty items to sell (which isn’t even a lot), I need to make one thing a day for a month, or some permutation of that. Eye pillows go quickly — I can make several of those in an afternoon — but bigger items take much longer, and daily crafting wears me out in any case. On top of that, there’s display planning and pricing and packaging, and the rest of my life, which in the case of both these shows, I pretty much ignored for the month and a half beforehand.
This time, I’ve decided not to worry about quantity at all. I’m just going to play with my FabMo materials, and things can flow from there. Today I experimented with making my own “fabric” from scraps of FabMo cloth. I think I was inspired by seeing these vertical-striped plant pots at the Ferry Building yesterday! I stitched squarish scraps together, adding pintucks (sewn-down bitty pleats) for texture, until I had two rough rectangles of patchworked “fabric” about the same size. I totally forgot to take any photos while I was doing this, but these raw scrappy rectangles didn’t look like much. I wasn’t sure I could make anything of them, so I quickly mocked up a pencil case to see how they’d look. Basically, I made a simple lined zip pouch without the zipper.
I’m quite happy with how the pouch looks! And I’m pleasantly surprised that it only took me about an hour to make. Now that I know it works, I’ll try this technique to make other items. I was originally thinking clutches, but I wonder if there’s any way I can do sashes/belts, or even wallets. I could make bigger things too, but I like that the patchwork effect only runs in one direction (a single row of rectangles rather than multiple rows stacked atop each other). I suppose I could use a large piece of fabric and then add this patchwork thing as a trim. And I could add embellishments to a small piece like the pouch above — maybe some beads or a yo-yo. So many possibilities!
Tomorrow: I realize that I need to reprioritize my writing yet again. See you then!
As always, I love the fabrics you have to work with — the colors are gorgeous! Sounds like you are in for a busy two months…..
Thank you, Sherry! I love the fabrics too. They’re really training me to use color in all areas of my life and art. π
oooo! i could see that patchwork effect being really cute for wallets π
PS: the india trip was postponed 1 month so i should be able to make it to the fabmo event after all! π
YAY! π
It’ll be fun to give wallets a try. π
LOVE the patchwork and i agree with tamgerines. i think that would be super cute for wallets π
Every time I say a new design shouldn’t be hard, I go back on my word, so I won’t say wallets will be easy… but I’m looking forward to trying them out. π
i imagine new designs are always tough… but maybe one nice thing about wallets is how many different types there are. different shapes, sizes, layouts, number of pockets or pouches, etc.etc. so you can really play around and not worry so much about conforming to a “typical wallet” look (since there are so many kinds of wallets these days!)
π Thank you for the encouraging thoughts! I’m very particular about what I want in my wallet, so I imagine other people might be too. Maybe it’s time for another survey π
I love that your stuff is so colorful. I’m sick of brown and black! I want to try and make it to the the boutique this year. It looks like fun!
That would be so much fun if you could come! π
I’ve been trying to colorize my wardrobe too. Even though I love colors so much, years of being overweight have made me reach for dark colors first. I’m tired of them too. ;b
The pouch is ubercute!!
Why thank you! π