Frustrating

Don't you hate it when you get all enthusiastic and ready to work and then can't? FIL is extremely ill and has been given weeks to live so we will be spending a lot of time visiting interstate. Don't get me wrong, he is a lovely person and I'm extremely upset, but that's exactly when I like to get into the sewing room and shut the door. It's wonderful to visit people in general (obviously not in these circumstances) and have the girls see all their relatives, but I hate not being in my own house.

I got one of the side snap versions done for Midget before we left so she is currently testing it. It's fitting well so far, plus it fits Widget who's three and a half. And a good friend is due any day now, I might have to borrow her little one ... I cut out another as well but didn't get a chance to sew, this one is top-stitched. I love top-stitching and want to get this one to work, but I have a terrible feeling it will wick. So we'll see next time I get to sew.

And I don't even have my normal list of ideas here to add to! So:

• Cat silhouette on the purple minkee (girly)
• Snow leopard with paw print.
• Leopard face
• Ribbon nappy
• Spiral around shorts (boy)
• Play capes for boys (and girls, but there's not much out there for boys!)
• Kimono/Tie vest

Just because she's gorgeous!

These are of my little girl in the reverse dyed set I made for her. The nappy has a heart tie-dye design, and the same fabric was used to reverse applique the shirt (it seemed appropriate).

Survey

So now I have most of the re-organisation done and I have a survey up. It's interesting seeing people's responses so far, looks like the side snap design I gave up on the started again then put aside will be starting again.

It's amazing what you can find on the internet, this site allows you to set up a professionally formatted survey and does the analysis for you. All you have to do is not make mistakes with your questions (like I did, but it was easily fixed). It's good to know what people think, rather than guessing. In fact how else can you run a business?

Minkee!

So I've done a lot of the rearranging and getting things up, I think there are still some descriptions to write and things like the maxi-wraps to put up. I have also got the minkee organised, as well as just straight minkee I have a

Raspberry Cream

Raspberry Slush on the body of the nappy with Cream minkee for the wings.

Grapes and Lavender

Grape variegated minkee on the top and wings with lavender knit fabric for the body.

Red and Apricot

Red minkee on the top and wings with apricot knit fabric for the body.

2nd Collection

Australiana

There's a lovely fabric shop about 5 hours down the road that specialises in Aboriginal prints. They are all done by Aboriginal artists who have the choice of an up front payment or they can take royalties as well, then turned into fabric designs. These are just a few I got when I was there last time.

Step 1

So what's the plan?

First, I'm not stressing about trying to guess what people will like and completing a lot of nappies. So I'm doing all the fiddly bits and getting them ready to put together, but won't actually put them together until later if that makes sense.

I'm doing several collections of outers, here are some from the first,

'Reverse Dying'

Irony

Yes, it's been a long time.

I put a lot of effort into advertising the store last year, and with a(nother!) non-sleeping baby it was a hard grind. It didn't cause fights with my husband and he was completely supportive in giving me time, but it was obvious he wasn't happy and felt I was putting too much pressure on myself.

I had a great time over Christmas, I actually got some things sewn for myself and had a ball doing things like making hair clips and scrunchies for my girls. It was so relaxing and fun to sew different things for my family. So I announced that I was going to scale back - not shut everything down, but not push it either and just let it trickle off.

The next day I got an order through one of the things I pushed last year. Then another a few days later. Then someone else when we got back home. It's not a flood, but looking at that and the stats on my website I can see that things are starting to pay off.

The store is starting to look a bit bare so I was dithering about what to sew for it, and with the GDUNH coming up I'm wary of overloading myself again. So now I've been thinking again about where I go from here, and I've come up with a bit of a plan for now.

I suppose the moral of the story is it's a marathon not a sprint. So be patient and make sure you will be able to keep going.