This is what I have done today!

In preparation for the Thames Festival on the 10th/11th September - my nearest tube will be London Bridge - I have been making some lovely one off outfits which will be for sale there. It means I get to let my imagination wild and you can buy something really special!

Kappuke-ki Kidswear

Kappuke-ki Kidswear

OOoh look, what a lovely green listing site this is, and doesn't my entry look nice!

New how to blog...

I have written this on Squidoo - if you sew you may find it interesting as it has tips on how to make a waistcoat with a professional finish.

Go see!

Cup cakes ahoy!

As well as having my Kappuke-ki children's wear collection at The Thames Festival with the lovely 'We Make London' craft collective, I will also be putting on my apron and running my 'Kappuke-ki' stand. Kappuke-ki is the Japanese word for Cup Cake, and where the name for my clothing company came from, as my designs are inspired by traditional Japanese costume, and each is small, sweet and delicious, just like a cupcake.So, if you come on down to the Festival and enjoy a weekend of amazing free events, save room for a cup cake and pick up some beautiful handmade clothes for the little people in your life.

Always take a ball of string...

...and a carrot for the minotaur!
Ok, we didn't find any minotaurs - but we were the best dressed maze followers in the Saffron Walden turf maze.
This maze is laid out in brick work and is based on the ancient Celtic mazes which were inscribed on mirrors, jewellery and stone carvings. Their true meaning is 'lost in the mists of time', which means we don't really know if they were just pretty, or served some deeper purpose, but they are still fascinating.
For the Maze event, a group of knitters had knitted a very very very long scarf, which traveled the length of the maze - which is a mile, if you follow it carefully round.
As this is England, it was gently raining as our intrepid junior Minotaur hunter set out - but then I suspect that the ancient Celtic peoples often got a little damp around the edges. I imagine them looking out over the green lands of ancient Britain at the epic monoliths they had constructed in order to commune with their Gods. I imagine it was raining then too, and the first thing they were really keen to find out about was a neolithic pack-a-mac. Oh how less dignified though, if the heart stopping rituals of blood and fire were accompanied but the all consuming rustle of rip stop nylon, so reminiscent of summer holidays in England. One wonders if the common Celtic man was less worried by the Roman invasion when he spied his first sauna.
Anyway - the maze seekers set off - not daunted by the drizzle, and follow the ancient lay lines and the jolly knitted scarf.
The mini mazer looked lovely in her Union Jack Kimonii, and stands out against the green and pleasant land.















Keep going - it's not far now - well, it is far if you only have short legs, but she's doing really well. Even so, the whole mile may have been a bit of an ask for a two year old, even a two year old who is nearly three - so in the end, a short cut was employed...
And like and all good mazes, there was treasure at the end, even if we didn't get to see a Minotaur.










If you want to learn more about the Kimonii, please click this link.

Amazing Maze

We're off here today - to visit friends in Saffron Walden and to see some Mazes - It's a free week long events and seems to be mostly free, so a great way to spend what might be a reasonable summers day.
I think it may be reason enough for Wednesday - to wear one of these!

Do you Squidoo?

I do - this is where I write in-depth articles about how to do some of the things I do - have a look at this very interesting post about cocktail cup cakes!

New threads!

It has been a while since I blogged, but I have been very busy. I had my first trade show which scared the life out of me, but I did manage to get a few wholesale orders. I learned a great deal, and I have decided to push ahead with retailing my children's wear as well as supplying shops.
To that end, I will be at the Thames Festival on the 10th and 11th of September with the lovely 'We Make London' craft collective - so do try and come down. It's all free except what you buy from the stalls!

This is one of the new styles I have been working on - a bubble dress with harem pants. This one was made from a sari I bought in a charity shop, and I hope to have some more made in a range of fabrics for September.
It's a lovely pattern, and it's made of a half circle of fabric, with one seam at the center back, as shown her, and button straps. I just wanted to see if I could spread my usual dress pattern into a half circle, and this is the result!
It's fully lined, and the lining is attached to the hem and it both more narrow and shorter, to create the bubble effect.
And I've been making these - little waist coats all based on my favorite asymmetrical pattern, with my big round patch pockets - they are so useful to add warm layers and cover up ice cream on t-shirts!

Will blog more soon, on how my preparations for September are going, and I should have new pictures of my corduroy coat soon!