Craft Fair, Here I Come!

I know that most of you have been wondering this for years, so let me put your minds at rest. Here, my faithful blog readers, is what a pile of fifty bibs looks like:
I am getting so excited for my big debut at a craft fair! Not only have I been sewing up the above bibs, but I also made myself an appliqued table cloth for my both:
My dear husband has been making me some great displays and I really think it's going to look great! I can't wait to see what it's going to look like all together!

I have a TON of new bibs that haven't made it onto Etsy yet, lot's of new things for boys, girls and in neutrals too. Plus I have some great holiday bibs that will be perfect for the upcoming season. I'll also have some bib & burp cloth sets, barrettes, and appliqued onesies for all those little munchkins on your list.

See you there!
jesi

On Cloud Nine!!!!

Holy cow!! I made it on the front page!!

I haven't been promoting my Etsy site much (usually I'm on the forums a lot, plus renewing my listings daily) this week since my craft show is coming up, but I checked my numbers this morning and I had almost 400 hits and EIGHT hearts on one of my bibs. Huh? I thought maybe I was featured in another blog, but nope - I was on the FRONT PAGE!!

My fellow Etsians know what a big deal this is - it's HUGE! And I'm beyond happy!! Yay!! Yay!! Yay!!

My "Extraordinary Equine" Bib is in the middle on the bottom. I think this was posted sometime yesterday evening as all my hits came between 4:30pm and 5:30pm yesterday.

:) jesi

Two Little Birdies

My bestest friend Kara is going to have TWO beautiful babies this winter. And this week she found out that she is going to have one boy and one girl. How PERFECT is that? I wanted to make her a cute maternity shirt (those of you with kids know how hard it is to find FUN CUTE not dorky maternity shirts, right?) so here it is: twin birdies. One boy. One girl.

Speaking of which, next time I'm pregnant (don't get any ideas!!) I'm getting this:
This is by a fellow Etsy seller MuthaCrafter. Click here see her shop.

I also made what might be my new favorite bib. You won't find it in my shop because I *gasp* made it for my own kid!! We have a wedding to go to in a few weeks and I wanted to make her a rather elegant but cute bib. I LOVE this floral pattern - there is something so untraditional about the colors that I just adore. And elephants are becoming my new favorite thing to applique.
Even though it's hard to believe, CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!! I picked up a few half yards of some holiday-like fabric and I hope to make up some bibs in the next few weeks. I'm excited to see how they turn out! I'm sure they'll end up on here so stay tuned!

And it's official - I'm taking my bibs to a CRAFT SHOW!! If you're in the Denver area, Hip Violet will be at the Adams County Fairgrounds on October 4 for their Fall Festival Bazaar. I am trying to get my inventory up to 50 (!!) bibs to take with me and hopefully a few onesies and some barrettes. I will probably close my Etsy store down temporarily around that time since I'm taking all of my online inventory with me. I'm really excited about my displays - I have some really fun ideas and I think it's going to look great. Don't worry, this blog should probably be retitled as "Hip Violet Prepares for Their Bazaar Debut" and you're all coming along for the ride!

Gifts for Grandma (among other things)

I've been wanting to make something to send my grandma since she seriously is such a sewing inspiration to me (see first past WAY down below). Since I don't think she'd appreciate a bib or onesie so much, I found these kitchen towels and appliqued some little cherry (and cheery!) birdies on them. She likes cherry/cranberry things so I hope she likes them! And hopefully she hasn't suddenly gotten internet access and is peeking at my Hip Violet blog to spoil the surprise! :)

Here is my first custom bib and burp cloth set. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although I have to learn how to sew on a cloth diaper a little better! I picked up some boy colors for the burp cloths the other day so I'm going to see what I can make in the next week and hopefully get a few sets on my Etsy site. I'm hoping to make a few new listings for customs - a bib and burp cloth, and maybe a bib and onesie or onsie and burp cloth. If you have an opinion on that or something else you'd like to see, please post a comment! Not only does it help me a TON to know what people might be looking for, but I feel special when I get comments. A warm fuzzy kind of special. And it's cold and chilly here today.
And this week I had a rash of customs sitting at my table ready to go out into the real world and get spit and drool and dribbled upon. Before they got defaced, I shot a bunch of photos of them all. Aren't they cute?And I KNOW my two (or three) loyal Hip Violet blog readers have been dying to know - Where, oh Where does the Sewing Magic happen? Why here, my child:

I get oh so much inspiration from my french Easy Rider poster. And there is Beatrice, my faithful sewing machine on the right. She's just a little Kenmore machine with NO bells or whistles, but all I need are a straight stitch and a zig-zag and those she has. However she has never been used so much and I think she may have to be put out to pasture soon. Poor little lady!

My wonderful husband built me this shelving unit (on wheels!) for my fabric. On the top sits my buttons and barrette-making supplies, and on the other side my pile o' bibs waiting to be sold. On the left are all my prints - girl stuff on the top two shelves, boy stuff on the bottom. On the other side is just SOME of my backing material. My overflow is on the other side of the room sitting on chairs (oh so professional!). It works for now! The black bag is where I store sold orders waiting to be picked up or sent out.
And that's that!

In other news, I am seriously thinking about taking my bibs and onsies to some craft shows this fall. I'm waiting to hear back from one juried show, and another one I just got the paperwork for. The second one is more of a bazaar so it's not too expensive but they say that over 4,000 people go through. Ahhhh!! Guess I'd better get sewing! I'll make sure to post dates and locations of my shows when I finalize them. I'm so excited! And scared! :)

Hip Violet... Not just for KIDS!

Nope. No way. Not just kids stuff over here! I made this shirt for myself the other day. I've been wearing it a lot and I love that it's been a good marketing too.. "Where'd you get that shirt?" "I made it!" or "I make bibs. Like this (points to shirt)" ;) I also made one for my sister. Maybe if she's feeling generous she'll send me a picture of her wearing it.
I made this one for Violet yesterday. She looked so cute in it and her chocolate brown sweatshirt!

Action shot! She's singing along to the band that was playing at our local music festival.I also decided that it was pretty silly of me to be handing out my business card out of a dorky business card holder. So I made my own. It's a prototype, but works great and I've already had a couple of people ask if I'm going to put them on my Etsy site. MAYBE! Check soon to see if I take the plunge!


Other than that I've been busy! I have been trying to make more horse bibs since my last one sold in a day, which was pretty exciting! I'm also thinking about doing some local art/craft fairs this holiday season so I'm trying to sew-sew-sew and get some inventory stashed away. Speaking of stashes, you can also buy my bibs at My Crib - it's a consignment store in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. The owner is super nice, has really cute kids clothes on consignment (read: I just spend whatever I make selling bibs on new clothes for Violet!) and of course now carries Hip Violet bibs. Yay!

Have a glorious day!
jesi

The Fun of Custom Bibs

One of the fun things I have been doing a lot of lately are custom bibs. They make awesome gifts for new babies, first birthdays, or just because! Which reminds me that although I have made quite a few bibs for Violet, I haven't made her a "V" bib yet!

Here are a few of my newest ones:



Those also happened to be two of my favorite fabrics! These are for a local mom. I'm excited to see how she likes them!

On Wednesdays my daughter is in daycare so I get to sew all day. Yeah, right! So far I usually have so many kid-free errands and projects to do around the house that I only sew half the day. Today I got two bibs finished and two about halfway. I have discovered that sewing bibs two-at-a-time is a great idea. I use the same fabric and the same color applique (although a lot of times a different animal on each one) and I can get them done quickly without changing my thread a lot and/or getting up and down 18,389 times. I'll have to take a picture of my little sewing area sometime. It's in the corner of our living room ;)

Here was one of the bibs I finished today:
My horse friends had been bugging me to do some horse bibs. There is a huge shortage in the "gifts for horse people who have babies" that aren't totally cowboyish OR too cutesy. Isn't that the case with most things? Anyway, I had used this horse head outline in some of my logos I used to do back when I was a graphic designer (okay, I still am I guess!). See, mom? That pretty college degree isn't going TOTALLY to waste! :)

This is the other horse-related bib I have:

It's got tiny little bucking broncos on it, and the horse shoe has little silver nail holes. Aren't they cute?

I also made my first bib and burp cloth set the other day. It's now listed on a site called HyenaCart that is similar to Etsy in that it's a lot of handmade goods. I'm a guest vendor in one of my friends shops. Here is the set:
Oh, sorry such a small picture! Check out the HyenaCart store here:
The Giggling Guppy
My stuff is waaaaaay at the bottom.

Speaking of which, I made up a few of these super hip peace sign bibs. I LOVE them!!! I can't believe it hasn't sold yet! It is a "double the peace for just one price" bib - peace signs in the back. Peace sign in the front. You can't go wrong with Junior dribbling watermelon juice down this one!
Peace out -
jesi