Wednesday, July 28, 2010

In Los Angeles!

The Snookums & Me store on Etsy.com has been temporarily placed in Vacation Mode. That means our items can't be browsed or purchased until we return. The store is scheduled to re-open in late August. After the store re-opens, we will be stocking it with lots of new & adorable items for your little ones! Mermaids, baby dolls, super heroes! :)

I'm in LA right now visiting friends and enjoying the beautiful weather! I have a trip planned to the fashion district and several fabric stores. YAY! I'm excited to buy new materials for us to create plush toys with. Hopefully I can find a few fabrics that will inspire something new, too.

Hope your summer is going well! Thanks for checking in with our blog. I'll update later with some pics of what I find on my shopping trips.

-Brook

Friday, July 23, 2010

Soaking up the Sun Instead of Sewing!

Hello! The shop is getting empty because we've gotten lazy! :) Too much Florida summer sunshine calling us out of the house and away from our work. But, as our shop is getting emptier and emptier we decided we'd better get out butts back in gear. You will be happy to see what's been going on with Snookums & Me this week.
I (Brook) sketched out a quick and simple baby doll pattern a few days ago. I was looking for a dolly to make using a great piece of salvaged fabric I found at a local thrift store. The fabric is so adorable... it was a baby changing table pad cover from around 1980. It had a few pale yellow-ish stains on it that I worked hard to remove, but didn't budge, so I cut my doll from the un-stained areas of the cloth. Then I gave her a little oval patch of a face from peach velour, a cute removable elastic waist skirt, and endearing polar fleece blue pig-tails with rainbow satin bows.

The pattern wasn't the best from the beginning... her head was a little flat and wide, her legs were wider apart than I expected, and her arms were too narrow. This is always how it goes when I draw a new pattern. There's always the "victim" plushie that I make to test it out. Sometimes there are two victims (in this case... I didn't get bothered by the legs until I made the second doll). But, thankfully, the victims are still cute and my daughter will love her baby dearly... flat head and all! :)
Here is the second doll I made from the pattern. The arms and head are corrected in this doll, but the legs are still too much like a wrestling or football stance. LOL! :) The skirt covers up the legs so it's not that big of a deal. This doll is being sewn for a friend's daughter. I love the blue bird fabric and matching blue hair. Once she has a face she'll be the sweetest dolly friend. Like her? I hope you like her because I have two more cut out to sell in the store. This is such a simple and easy pattern, so the plan is to eventually sell it in the shop so you can create your own dolly from whatever fabric you love. Fun, fun!
 Seeing stars? I have something SUPER planned for this fabric! Just wait 'til you see it... I have to thank my friend Katrina for the idea. ;)
Mom (Joan) above working on our second mermaid doll at my house today. Wow, we have labored over this mermaid pattern! Editing it, tweaking it, enlarging it, figuring it out. And, if I don't say so myself, it makes a LOVELY doll. Unlike any other mermaid doll we've seen on Etsy! We finished our first mermaid and sold it the very next day! She is here: Mermaid Dolly (sold). In fact, she sold so fast we didn't even have time to properly photograph her or list her in the shop. Hopefully our upcoming batch of mermaids will steal people's hearts just like she did! :)

Hahaha... just noticed that Mom's pincushion is in the photo above. See it? It's this HUGE rectangle of felt covered with an assortment of poorly attached buttons on the side. I made it for her when I was a little girl. She has always used that pincushion from that day on. It's great... it holds a billion pins. :)

Anyways, off to play Beatles Rock Band with my hubby. I recently bought a microphone so I can sing along when he plays guitar. It's hilarious!

Later!
-Brook