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.