Cover page design for facebook

I discovered the pic monkey site today !!!  It’s fantastic for doing Facebook cover pages J 

Here's how easy changing your Facebook cover page can be :

• Going to the picmonkey & select 'Create a Collage'

• Select the FB cover Layout and select a particular layout

• Now just upload some pictures and drag and drop onto the collage
  
  
  

Once you are happy with it, you can save it to your laptop J

Now I can create these cover page in advance :)  

Facebook & Twitter for business workshop

I went to the Facebook & Twitter for business work shop at St George & Sutherland Community College over the weekend at Jannali.  It was an interesting workshop as the tutor was able to give meaningful advice and ideas on :

• How to do stay active on FB.   There’s nothing like scheduling a few things and then add 1 or 2 adhoc pieces during the week.  The schedule option will only appear after you have put in the dates for when your page was founded.

• Increasing exposure in FB – either by ads or just being active in both your page and other pages you admire. 

• Be positive – a little compliment goes a long way in this digital world. .  A little like goes a long way.

 

• Listen to people with questions and be prepare to give it your 2 cents. 
• Be relevant  :)

Now i just have to find the time :(

Handmade Daisy flower

I went through the Handmade flower book the last few days and was kinda disappointed that most ( eg 90% ) of the flowers needed a flower iron to assemble.  Just what is an electric flower iron ?

Anyway I thought I’ll still try my hand at the remaining 10% of the flowers.

Here’s my attempt at the Daisy:

After gluing and then cutting the fabric, (yes I think I could improve on making all the petals more symmetrical for next time)

After assembling it here’s what it looks like:

Not quite as refine as the one from the book but it’s not too bad for a 1^st time J  

DIY light boxes

I've came across so many articles which says having great photos can help to improve sales.  Many of the articles mentions the use of a light box.  Having no photography background or understanding on that subject what so ever, I decided to give this light box thing a go.

So I found this article on a DIY Light tent.  It's great.  Very easy to understand.

After going through all my baking paper, sticky tape and A3 paper I finally made this:

I made it from an old DVD player box.  All in all it probably cost < $5 ( for the baking paper )

 However I was quite surprise and impress by the difference it made to our photos !!!
 This is a photo of our top with a very standard point and click camera

  This is a photo of the same top inside my new light box with the same camera.

Now it's time to redo all my pictures on our etsy site so that i will show up nicely in the new browse section.

Handmade fabric flower book

My Handmade fabric flower book has arrived !!!  So excited :)

Having flipped through it very quickly, it looks like there's plenty of pictures and step by step instructions... Aka - dummy proof :)    Well I guess I'll find out in the coming days / weeks as I try to experiment with all the different types of flowers.

Grayed Jade

I was checking out the colour report for spring 2013 and I came across a stunning colour palette call: Grayed Jade.  I love this colour - it’s a pastel colour with an attitude !!!    It’s got shades of winter and spring all rolled into 1 colour. 

Checked in the rit dye site and the closest colour is :

Might try to test this one day. 

I’m thinking it will be very striking for a dress with a thin apricot colour waistband.  

Design Diary 21 Sept 2012

While still pondering how to finish off the top from yesterday, I got side tracked after seeing women wearing tops with a draping effect of some sort.

Hence I decide that I wanted to create a soft romantic look for spring with drapings.  Something soft, edgy but delicate. By cutting the fabric in a circular flounce, I was able to create a beautiful draping effect from a few little pieces of a sheer fabric.  I added flowers to complement the top :

Love how it just so flows naturally.  This is still work in progress for me as I think the flowers is coming through a little too bold for the look I’m trying to create …  

Design Diary 20 Sept 2012

I was actually cleaning my place when I got inspired to create this trim.  I wanted a little peek a boo look with the trim.  The red and metallic color goes so well together.  

The red in the trim is kinda hiding behind this beautiful metallic fabric creating a bold statement.  I think it would look great on a black top.

     Now I just have to finish it off. :)

Likes from pages on facebook...

Been working on my facebook tonight…   Here’s my observation so far, we get notifications that other facebook pages has liked our page but our ‘like’ counter doesn’t move at all. 

After 1 or two I just thought - oh well it’s a bug and having worked in IT for so long I have a soft spot for bugs.  However as I got a few more like notifications, it started to annoy me a little…  I did a few searches and found that 'likes' are only counted from people not pages.  Silly if you ask me but that’s facebook.

Creating custom tab in your facebook page

I decided to create new tabs in our facebook page today.  Gosh it was more complicated than I thought for such a little thing.  I initially just thought there was a place I could just stick a URL in and it will redirect the user to that URL when they click on the link… Boy was I very wrong.

After searching for while ( and a lot of trial and error ) I found a really good article which explains this.   

The key is in the Step 6 !!!  Read it again if you don’t understand it.  You need to change the URL below to reflect your app before you can add the custom tab to your facebook page :

http://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&next=YOUR_URL

If you have issues with tab after this, check all the URL reference as well as the app domain value as one of these values might be incorrect.

Hope this helps someone else out there J

Design Diary 14th Sept

Ok I’m still obsessed with the pink and white lace from before.  I've decided today to try and decorate a singlet top with it.  I love the colour of the lace and the structure it has.

Here’s what I’ve came up with :

I love the whole 2 tone effect however I’m still tossing whether it needs some buttons or something at the top to really finish it off.  

It feels like something is still missing .... 

Candy Bow top - baby top in 30mins

I have had these 2 cute trims for a little while now.  It’s too small to do anything with alone. 

So I thought I’ll intertwine it and make it into a little bow.  Firstly I cut about 45cm of each of the trims.  Then intertwine the 2 color trims for about 10 cm before I started sewing through the center :

I found it easier to intertwine the trims while the needle is holding it down.  It allows me to apply some pressure to stop it from curling up as I intertwine it.  

Once the trims have been sewn together, I made it into a cute little bow before pinning it onto a baby top.  ( I love how it's got attitude on 1 side of the bow )

It's a great baby shower gift basket filler.

Markets stall tips

We survived our 3^rd market stall yesterday.  :)

It was a good experience.  We had a great chat with the Market manager on how to improve our setup.  Unlike a shop, a stall display is about maximizing the 3 metres of wall space behind you.  Doesn't matter what is on the rack if you can't draw people into your stall to browse.    

Here are some tips we picked up from the market manager :

• Instead of using clothes racks, use wood rods to hang clothes around the tent.
• Display your key designs all in all eye catching areas
• Don’t over stack your clothes racks.  Less is more
• Make the stall look inviting.  eg don’t have the table at the back of the tent
• Make the most of the color schemes inside your tent

Fabric shops in Sydney

I had a wonderful girl’s day out yesterday checking out all the fabulous fabric shops in Sydney.   We started the day at the Studio Fabric and it was a truly beautiful place.  Full of really amazing laces and gorgeous fabrics.  Ok the price does reflect the quality but still…    If you are designing a wedding dress or a high end fashion, this is the place to be.  It’s a place to go when you are running low on inspirations.  Oh and check out their immaculately dressed mannequins. 

Next stop was Saigon Fabric. This place was very interesting.  They had a lot of out there laces.  Very small place but enough lace to blow your mind.  It wasn't as elegant as the place before but it's more edgy and the laces are designed to be noticed.  

After a few glasses of bubbly, we arrived at our final destination : Fabric shop at Surry Hills.  I love the amount of Lisa Ho fabric it stocks.  Really reasonable prices.   

If you are looking for something to inspire you, these shops will do just that :)    

Handmade tags

Today was another production day for me - putting all the finishing touches on all our designs for this Sunday’s market.  One of the last things to go onto the design are our tags.  As some of you might know tags can get quite expensive for a start up so we decided to make handmade tags for our designs. 

Here’s how we do it :

Need :

• Handmade recycle paper.  ( we get our from our $2 stores )
• Print outs of you label, care instructions and web site details.  I like my printed out in color
• Glue
• Hole punch
• Straw  

Steps :

1.  Fold the handmade paper into the size you are happy with.  Our ones tend to be ¼ of an A5 piece of paper.  ( cos it's easy to cut and you use every inch of the paper )

2. Cut out all your labels, care instructions and website details

3.  Apply glue to the back of the your labels, care instructions and website details and attach it to the folded handmade paper.

4.  Punch a hole into the handmade paper in the position of where you would like the straw to go through

5.  Pull the straw through the hole. 

There you have it – handmade tags.

Social Media - is it for the better ?

Tonight as I surrounded myself with my usual gadgets after dinner ( eg telly , laptop and etc ) I found myself wondering what life was like before all these gadgets were part of every life.   Before social media people had to either call, email or meet up to catch up on their lives…  Now the ‘catch up’ is often replaced by checking the news feed in facebook.  

Do people still swing by each other’s places for coffee after dinner?  Do people still flip through catalogues in the junk mail instead of looking things up online ?  I still remember the days when bullying was only something which happened on the play ground…  Has social media really improved our lives for the better?

Tough times ahead ??

As I was walking home tonight I noticed there're more and more local restaurants closing for good.  ( another 2 shop closed this week)  I’m a real sucker for local restaurants where they know what you want the moment you walk in.  It’s such a shame that when a local place closes a chain restaurant will take its place.  But in the climate of increasing cost due to the carbon tax, lower consumer spending and the success of shows like Master chef in encouraging people to cook more, it's no wonder local restaurants are going out of business.

Is it really the end of an era where local restaurant are becoming extinct ?  Will families give up on their dream of owning a cafe or a restaurant ?  

Production day...

Yesterday was a very productive day by all means…  ( ok we did take like 2 hours to warm up and then another 2 hours for lunch and maybe an afternoon snack as well but hey we are gals !!!   We still got the job done J  )    

We completed all the designs for baby tops for this Sunday’s Market stall.  They are so cute…   now all I need is to find a baby …  J  

Here are some of our achievements from yesterday :

Giving hope

Yesterday I did a volunteer tarot card reading for someone.  I love reading for other people.  It’s been an amazing experience because it’s really all about giving hope to people when they are in a lot of doubt.  As a reader it gives me perspective on life and it makes me think that my own struggles in life ain’t so bad after all :)

Here’s the card from yesterday:

The message behind this card is – Don’t give up.  At some point in everyone’s life, there will be some unexpected struggles.  While we might think in that moment there’s no hope but it’s all in the mind as hope is all around us.  Persistence sometimes is the key to weathering through life’s little storms.  

To feather or not feather

I’ve been trying to come up with some new designs for our t-shirt recently and the idea of feathers on a singlet top has been popping into my mind quite a bit…   ok maybe it has something to do with my little creative zone ( see the mirror feathers ) :

Lately these feathers have been falling off :(  So after picking up the the 20th feather that has fallen off the walls, it had me thinking about using feather on tops.

While I love the idea of the softness of the feather against a solid colour top, I’m just not sure about the washability of this top.  Not sure about everyone out there, but I’m the type that would put a top down if it had – ‘dry clean only’ on the label.

Maybe I will try to create the effect on a piece of felt to give it structure or with lace to preserve the softness of the feather.  stay tune...

How to make a fabric leaf

After putting through a zigzag stitch on each of the leaves it really started to emphasized the contrast.  Also changing the flower attachment helped to brighten up the over all look of this design. 

To make the leaf here's what i've done :

1. draw the shape of the leaf on some interface paper.  A rough drawing is fine as we want to create a rough look
2. Pin the pattern onto some satin fabric
3. Cut out the fabric.  You don't have to be too delicate with the edges
4. Do a gather stitch on your leaf and then gather it slightly to give it a bit of body
5. Once you are happy with the leaf, do a zigzag stitch in the middle of the leave 
6. Over a small candle, slightly seal the edges

Now your leaf is ready for you to use !!!

Fabric Leaves ( cont )

I finally came up my first version of how the leaves would look like in real life :

I'm not quite happy with how the red thread isn't giving the contrast.  I do like how the leave is coming into shape though I think I need to rough up the edges a bit more to give it more depth.

Here's what i'm thinking i'll try tomorrow, add in additional red threads once i'm happy with the gather.  Burn the edges a bit more to give it the uneven look and also maybe find something red to go at the top in place of the rose.  I might add white netting fabric between the leave to give it more body.  Stay tune...

Baby tops

I caught up with my partner in crime on yesterday to come up with a few designs for our latest baby range for our markets in Sept. :)  It was an fun afternoon of playing with lace, lace and more lace !!!

Here’s some of them : 

now back to cutting out my leaves... hopefully it will look ok.  stay tune...  

Fabric Leaves

Here’s a sketch of what I have in mind with the fabric leaves.  

Not sure whether it’s going to work but I’ll give it a go tomorrow and put it into a top and see.  Can't hurt trying

Fabric Flower

I’ve always been very fascinated by fabric flowers.  When I’m alone in my little zone I try to turn any scraps of fabric into a flower.  This morning just before I had to get ready for work, I found myself staring into a piece of left over chiffon.  Here’s what I made before work with little pinning and lots of curling:

Not quite sure what I’m going to use it for yet but hopefully it will come to me or if you have any suggestions let me know :)  

Anyway this had me thinking – I’ve never really seen a fabric leaf being used on an embellished top before.   I might draw something tonight… stay tune...

The start of my very special journey

Here I go… 

Like many of you out there, I spent much of my twenties trying to find myself.  I’ve been lucky as my work has allowed me to travel to and work in many different places.  Through constantly living out of my suitcase and endless dinners on my own in remote / exotic locations, I decided I needed to grow up and stop finding excuses to run away from life.  So in my thirties-  I decided to try something new : starting with staying in one place long enough for my friends to remember me J. 

Staying in the one place has also allowed me to re-discover the art of sewing.  About 18mths ago I decided I really wanted to learn how to make lingerie…  (to this day I still have no idea why that thought just popped into my head !! )  So with that thought in mind I signed up for some sewing classes.  After various attempts and lots of unpicking here was my very first piece of lingerie J

I can’t tell you how delighted I was to be holding something which I've made…    Not bad for someone who hasn't touch a sewing machine since yrs 7 in highschool !!!   It just shows its never to old to learn something new...  my journey in the art of sewing only just started...  

Elsie...