Christmas Gifts & New Items

First, I find that I post much more on my Facebook Fan Page than I do on here, so if you are on Facebook, please come join us! I have been doing giveaways and and all sorts of good stuff!

Now on to the fun stuff! I was asked to do a shark applique for a nifty family in Georgia and I came up with this guy - he'll soon be added to my pile of appliques available! I've been adding tons of new ones to keep things fresh and keep me motivated!
I also was asked to do a larger sized bib for a local family with a special needs child. This bib has an extra 1.5" to the tab and 3 settings for the snaps so it should fit with no problem!
close-up of the extra length:
In case you haven't seen it, here is my new guitar applique! I put these on some dish towels for my brother who happens to be a guitar player in a band in Montana.

I have also been delving into my pile of adult t-shirts I have and trying to make some things out of them! Here is a fun fleece flower I've been using.
Finished product!

If you do happen to check my Etsy site, you will notice that I am VERY low on inventory! I almost sold out of bibs at my last sale (I sold 40+ bibs in 2 days!) and only have a few shirts and onesies left too! I have been so busy with my custom orders and personal gifts for the holidays that I haven't been keeping it updated. In the next few weeks I plan to get everything I have out on there, but I am taking the month of January off - my Etsy site will stay open but I will not be sewing. If there is something you were looking for - let me know!

Have a wonderful holiday!
jesi

Show Season!

Coming from a horse-showing background, Show Season used to mean SUMMERTIME filled with the scent of fly spray, Pepi (smells like strawberries!), and hours of bathing, grooming and RIDING!

Now, however, Show Season is the fall and winter and means craft shows in churches, at fairgrounds (ironic, as that is where I used to show!) and even ones at my house!

Last weekend I did the Molly McGee sow at the Boulder Fairgrounds. It was really successful - I met a lot of new customers and vendors and even got some of mt Christmas shopping done!
This year I also decided to have a Home Show. A lot of my friends can't make it to the craft shows (plus a lot of them are far away) and had been asking about things for Christmas gifts, so I hosted a Girls Night Out/Hip Violet Home Show! It was really fun - I was very thankful for all my great friends who have been my best customers all year and it was a fun way to say thanks! If you are interested in earning some free Hip Violet stuff (or cash!) let me know - I would love to do more of these in the future!

My items are also at The Giggling Green Bean here in Denver. You can see one of my bibs here:
This week I (for the first time!) hit some Black Friday sales! But I wasn't shopping for Christmas Gifts - but for SUPPLIES! I spent a few hours in the morning at Jo-ann Fabrics where they had their thread and buttons on sale, and finally took the plunge and got the big huge things of thread since I do tend to go through it rather fast. Here's my rainbow of new thread:
I also got a bunch of new fleece AND some great flannel fabrics which were $1.50 a yard. Couldn't pass that up! I also went to one of my favorite fabric shops, The Fancy Tiger, where they were having 15% off all in stock fabric. Designer fabric is very rarely on sale so I took full advantage! Speaking of the Fancy Tiger, I am very pleased to announce that I got into their "Holiday Handmade" craft fair this weekend! Check out the link above for more info and an awesome list of vendor's. I can't wait!

'Tis the season for Christmas Bibs! I snagged some fun holiday fabric early-on this year and made these cute bibs that are perfect to cover up those cute Christmas dresses and protect them from all the great Christmas food!You can order your's on my Etsy site!

I am also adding a new set to my collection: First Birthday Cupcake Sets! These are the PERFECT idea for 1st birthdays! You'll get a tee shirt with a cupcake and one candle as well as a matching bib. Have your little one-year-old wear the shirt for the party, then cover up with the bib for the Cake Eating Extravaganza! Available now as a custom where you pick the fabric. Contact me for details!

We've come a long way, Birdie!

Ah little birdie and owlie... how far you have come! I was just cleaning out some of my photo files and came across my first bibs and appliques and wanted to share.

My first bibs - I made these for my niece. This was the first bib pattern that later got reworked into the one I use now. It's not a whole lot different! I did use a lot of velour on the back of the bibs at first and now exclusively use anti-pill fleece.
Oh birdie. You were not very cute. Sorry to whoever has this one (Haley, is that you? I owe you a new one!!)
Birdie now...Owl before... I have since learned exactly where to put the eyes (between the wings!) and how to position the wings better. Thankfully!
Owl now!

And my newest little guy, the dinosaur! He is a QUICK seller on my boys tees and bibs, I can hardly keep them in stock!
I was also asked to make a 1st birthday bib for a sweet little boy with a cupcake. I wasn't so sure how a boy cupcake bib would turn out but I think it was super cute!
Check out all my upcoming shows on the sidebar - there are a ton of them coming up! If you're planning on coming and I don't post a coupon, e-mail me and I'll send one to you!

Craft Sales Galore!

I'm so excited about my new craft show tent (and banner!). It was so easy to set up and my bibs and onesies fit quite nicely inside.

Unfortunately the weather was less than wonderful - it was overcast, chilly and raining. We ended up packing up early in a downpour. BUT I still had a really good show. Since it was in my 'hood it was fun to meet people who knew about Hip Violet already. A bunch of my friends also stopped by and shopped - thanks guys!

In other news I have been embellishing some other things too... I put some birdies on my Moby Wrap the other day. Here is my super-professional bathroom-mirror photo with my sweet little Willa.

My sister-in-law Heather from Mani Celesti (awesome prenatal, postpartum and infant massage if you're in the Denver area!) wrapped Willa up at the festival this weekend (I know, you can hardly tell there is a baby in there, she was sooo comfy!). Soo cute! I am be offering to "jesify" other items too - let me know if you are interested and we can work out the details!In other news, check out the sidebar on the right for all my shows I have booked this fall. I even have two that I'm still waiting to hear about. I'll be BUSY but they are so much fun!

AND don't forget to become my fan on facebook by clicking here.

Till next time,
jesi

My first show of the year is this weekend and I'm SO excited! I'll be at the Sunnyside Music Festival in Denver. If you haven't been, it's a really fun, laid back event with great music, yummy food, a kids area and of course lots of fun and unique vendors. It's completely free - come on by, bring a blanket to sit and watch the bands and let the kids play!

This is also my first show since having my daughter Willa almost 3 months ago. Needless to say, it's a good thing she's sleeping a little better so I can get some sewing time in! It's been a bit more tricky to find the time to sew with two little ladies around the house, but we're getting into the swing of things slowly but surely!

First, here is a coupon to use if you do make it to the festival (click on it to enlarge, then print):
To prepare for the show, I finally broke down and bought a canopy tent. It arrived this week and already we LOVE it and I can tell we'll be getting a lot more use out of it than just the craft shows! Right now it's set up in our backyard in preparation for a BBQ tomorrow:
The Colorado sun can get pretty hot, and even though we have a covered back porch we get the afternoon (super hot) sun so I think we'll love having something to put up and get some relief! I got this one from Costco, it's called a Caravan Canopy and I've heard that they are pretty good and comparable to Ez-Up tents... but MUCH cheaper!

I am really excited to get all my stuff set up in here this weekend. I love that I can hang things from the bars inside and it came with sidewalls so it will look very bright and cheerful inside - and like its own little store!

I also had my dear husband build me a few more racks for clothes. These sit right on my tables. I would like to paint them but I'm not going to have time before this weekend. I'm currently thinking of ways I can bribe him to sand, prime and paint them too.

Speaking of my husband, he also helped me out this week by cutting up my fleece into bib-sized pieces for me. It was a HUGE help! Funny, this is only about 1/3 the fleece I have, but it's a start! After this show I'm definitely going to take an evening to cut up ALL my fleece so I can make my process more time-efficient.
And here is a little stack of brand new bibs awaiting their snaps. I am planning on having around 40 bibs and 10 bib and onesie sets, as well as a bunch of onesies and tees for the kids. Someday, I promise, I will actually get out my stash of adult tees and start sewing THOSE up!
I hope to see all my Denver friends at the festival this weekend! Check back soon for a play-by-play of how the show went and pictures of my booth!

Front Page & One Year Anniversary!

What a great one-year anniversary present! I made it on Etsy's front page just a few days ago!

My bib and onesie set was featured and the best part was that it was chosen by Etsy Admin which I feel like is a pretty big honor!

The funniest thing is that it was found by searching for the word "modern" - I had literally JUST added this set the day before, and had JUST decided to start using the tag modern on my items after seeing a few other people use it. How crazy is that? The Universe aligned for me on that one!

Over the one hour that it was on the front page I got almost 500 views, 23 item heart and 33 new shop hearts. That pushed me over the edge to more than 400 shop hearts! I was pretty excited about that!

And yes, the other part of this is that my shop has now officially been open for ONE WHOLE YEAR! Yay! It has been such a fun year - from learning the tricks of selling on Etsy (check out my writeup here about some of the Etsy Tips & Tricks I've learned!) and fabric/notions buying (I love sales!) and dealing with the whole CPSIA stuff, to modifying and designing a whole slew of appliques... it's been so much fun! My favorite part is hearing how much my friends, family and complete strangers like my stuff. It gives me warm fuzzies all the time!

I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things and sewing more now that Willa is napping a bit better. I still don't have nearly the time I did before and I'm hoping that can change for the better soon since I have SO many new ideas and SO much I want to sew! I'm trying to slowly build up my stash for my first sale of the year - I'll be at the Sunnyside Music Festival in Denver on September 12. It's an awesome neighborhood festival and it was really fun last year!

I am also happy to announce that Hip Violet bibs and apparel can be found at a great new cloth diaper store in Denver (the only one of its kind! How a city as "green" as this could not have a cloth diaper store before this is beyond me!) called the Giggling Green Bean. It's on Tennyson Street in Denver and besides carrying all my favorite cloth diaper brands, they now have a bunch of Hip Violet gear too!

Here are a few of my latest editions to my website too:


AND I'm now on Facebook! Search for Hip Violet and look for my logo (there is one other "business" called Hip Violet - raising money for a little girl). Become a fan and you'll be registered to win a FREE custom item!

Later!
jesi

My latest creation

I've been working on this one for NINE whole months! :) Meet my newest little lady, Willa. She was born on June 11 and is just the sweetest little thing! Since she was a "surprise" baby (we didn't find out what we were having) I wasted no time after she was born in making her a few "hip" onesies!
Now that she's a whole 2 weeks old, I think I'm ready to open my shop up to custom orders again. If there is anything you've been wanting, please let me know, I'd love to make it up for you! I do have to limit myself to existing applique patterns and fabrics I have on hand (check them out, I've added new ones!).

The Nesting has Set In!

Well folks, it's happened. I'm 8.5 months pregnant for baby #2 and the nesting has hit full force! We kicked my 2 year old daughter out of her bed this past weekend (okay, so she very willingly transfered to her "big girl bed"), I got the nursery kinda set up, AND I made the Going Home From the Hospital Onesies for this little girl or boy who is boppin' around in there!
We're pretty excited to see exactly WHICH outfit is going to be used! :) My daughter has said it's a boy from the very beginning and I'm starting to believe her. We soon shall see!

In other news, I am officially done taking custom orders until further notice. Mostly because I got THIS whopper of an order the other day and I think it will take me until my due date to finish it! A friend of mine ordered TEN custom bibs for her little girl who is due in July. I'm so excited to be making things for friends and she has great taste in her fabric choices :) I did throw in a couple of extras so hopefully I can update my Etsy site with just a few more new bibs before this little munchkin arrives!
I also did this hand-dyed twins boy set with elephants. Cute, huh? I have come to both dread and LOVE when my customers say "Do whatever you want!" which was kind of the case with this set (she knew what colors she wanted but that was it!). It was really fun to put it together and make them the same, yet different. Ah the fun of twins!
Even though I am not taking customs, I HAVE been replenishing my fabric supply (which is, of course, half the fun of making stuff - SHOPPING!). I have updated my flickr account with all sorts of new hip and trendy fabrics. Check them out here!

Have a great day!
jesi

I can finally feel my fingers again...

Holy Chilly Craft Show, Batman! We all nearly died of hypothermia. Okay, so it wasn't QUITE that bad, but it was cold (low 40's), rainy and just plain cold. But we survived! And we actually had a lot of fun despite the weather.

My friend Nicole and I set up our tent (it was probably a hilarious thing for others to watch since neither of us really knew what we were doing) and set up our gear. I'm actually pretty happy with how the booth turned out, although next time I definitely want to get a sign or something to hang on the front to say who we are and what we have.


And me and my favorite craft-show booth-sharer, Nicole. Yes, I have on a winter coat, hat, scarf and even had long undies on.
Unfortunately because of the "craptastic" weather, the turnout in Boulder was less than stellar. I did, however, get to meet a couple of people who came from Denver which was really great, and did sell enough to cover my booth space (and the 37,294 cups of Chai Tea I had to keep warm!).

So the bad news was that it was not that great of a sale. AND we didn't get in to any of the other sales at the Boulder Farmer's Market which is very sad as I really think it would be the perfect venue for us. We are on the waitlist and I talked to the director and told her we had a lot of people asking if we'd be back so hopefully that will help move us up the list!

The GOOD news is that I have an absolute TON of bibs (I was a sewing Mad Woman and made up almost 30 new ones in the last week), five adorable bib/onesie sets and a bunch of shirts and onesies. I will have them online within the next week or so and I think you're going to love them! I specifically tried to make some cute gender neutral ones (which, consequently, was what sold at the show) too!

So check back soon to my Etsy site to see the huge inventory I'll have soon!
jesi

Hip Violet is on the road!

Come and visit me at the Boulder Farmer's Market this weekend (April 25) in Boulder, CO! I'm so excited to be bringing all my bibs, onesies and tees! I have been VERY busy sewing and I have tons and tons of new fabrics and designs. Many of which will probably never make it to my Etsy site!

Click here for more info on the Boulder Farmer's Market.

I am also excited to be sharing a booth with my friend Nicole who makes the awesomely cute and cool felt barrettes that you've seen on here before. It's going to be a great day!

See you there!
jesi

Fun with Celebrity Gifting

Over the last few months I have been lucky enough to get accepted into a program that sends gift baskets to celebrities. It's a great way to get exposure, and if you're lucky enough to get a picture of your product on a celebrity kid - you're good to go! I'm just excited to get my products in the hands of some famous people who might help spread the word!

This is a bib and onesie set I did for Molly Ringwald. She is due in August for boy/girl twins. The onesies are custom dyed and they both come with matching bibs.

This is a shirt for one of Jennie Garth's girls. And this was for Brooke Burke's youngest son.This was was really fun to do! It was for Gwen Stefani & Gavin Rossdale's youngest son. I hunted down some black & white houndstooth to make a ska-inspired baby bib!And another black & white bib, this time with skulls for Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Pete Wentz's new son.And this sweet little birdie was for Jessica Alba's daughter.I'm not sure if I'll do many more until I figure out if these got me anywhere, but it was fun to do and very surreal to think about sewing up something for someone famous!

In "real life" news, we recently moved which is why I've taken a hiatus from sewing and blogging. This was how my sewing room looked for a few weeks:
I finally put it all back together yesterday. Ah... much better!
Eventually I will *gasp* have my very own ROOM in the basement dedicated to my sewing. I already have so many ideas for what I want it to look like! Luckily my husband is a carpenter so he can usually magically make things like cubby holes and shelves magically appear! Unfortunately it's going to be a while until that room is done, but I'm excited that it will happen eventually!

Happy Spring!
jesi