Help me be creative again ...

I remember when Tori was Nicholas' age, I could sew with her playing on the floor of my sewing room. We had a game, she would put the pins into the pin cushion and then take them out (and then repeat). Unfortunately Nicholas puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Different baby, different habits!

What this means is that I have to be a bit more inventive about how I create things. I've been playing around with putting some of my ideas down into patterns. Playing around in inDesign and illustrator.

I've created a PlanBig identity to go along with this mini project, hoping that it will be the kick up the bum I need to get one finished and get some feedback from some testers.

I love sewing and creating it keeps me sane. But I am discovering through my Librarianship work this year that I also love enabling people. Guiding and mentoring them. In an ideal world I would be confident enough to go into mentoring for small businesses, but not quite at the moment. So pattern making allows me to do this in the crafty world and I am in awe of friends who have ventured down this path and have kicked some serious goals.

So what can you do?

• Head on into PlanBig and give me the kick up the bum that I need or some advice to keep me going ... volunteer to be a tester when I *eventually* get this done.
• Give me some feedback .. good idea to market these patterns under "Pin, Cut, Sew" or should I do it under "Konstant Kaos"?
• Any additional advice?

Have you checked out PlanBig yet? There are some great charity organisations that need your help!

Camberwell Market

This morning we wandered off to Camberwell Sunday Market after having breakfast in North Fitzroy. There were many treasures to be had. Andreas got himself a library of books on model trains (his current obsession) and I got some sewing goodness. Picked up a collection of french curves for when I draft patterns for $1 and some buttons for a few more dollars.
The sewing book I got was called "The Concise Sewing Book", a lovely 70's version of "how to sew" with a pattern for a Caftan in it (this was the clincher).

The thing that I love about buying old sewing books, isn't the techniques, but rather the fashion ideas. There is a section in this book that talks just about flairs on pants and how to alter straight legged patterns to make them more flairy *giggles* ... The pictures are also fabulous, with fashion of the day clearly shown. I thought of Curlypops when I saw this picture .. go handbags!

I am unlikely to make what is in this book, but the images might provide some inspiration for something for my shop. Might have to extract the finger and return to Camberwell Market on my own for some retail therapy some other Sunday.