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

The Monsters are HERE!

I posted about my new monster applique a few weeks ago and now they have arrived on BIBS!
They are so much fun to make. I love that they all have their own little personality and I love figuring out which buttons are going to make the best crazy eyes! :)

I have also tried making a few bibs out of "upcycled" material. I found this great skirt at Goodwill a looong time ago that I just KNEW would make an awesome bib (or two, or three) plus I love the idea of reusing and recycling fabric. At one time I thought this was going to be my niche in the bib-making business but I'll admit it - I love buying new fabric too much! Anyway, this is my upcycled bib:
I am actually thinking about offering a new kind of custom on my Etsy site where customers can send in their own fabric to be made into a bib or an applique for a shirt. Maybe a nifty old concert tee of theirs, a piece of fabric from their favorite old set of sheets, or something like that. Maybe I'm just a weirdo in that I keep stuff like that... I have an old R.E.M. concert tee from 1985 Fables of the Reconstruction Tour (no, I did not go. I was 9.) that I got back in 8th grade and thought I was sooooo cool. I still have it. I think it would make an awesomely cool and hip bib. I also kept 2 cushions worth of fabric from the fabled "orange flowered couch" that at one point lived in my parents old bedroom. Then in our basement forever, then in my college dorm rooms, then in our first house. It is really obnoxiously bright but also wonderful. I have been wondering why I still have it and what I should make out if it. Maybe a bib! Or a cool applique for a shirt for Violet although I hate that she grows out of stuff so quick. Maybe mommy needs a new appliqued shirt!

ANYWAY, my point being if anyone has something like this laying around and they wouldn't mind being a guinea pig for my new idea, please contact me and let me know! You'll get a discounted rate on teh bib and you'll be able to say that yours was the prototype! :)