All I can say is, "Wow!"

The custom diaper business is alive and well here at Fishnoodles. I have been working my tuckus off! Large orders, small orders, lotsa orders!




In the past six weeks, I've done 8 of my "free tee with purchase of three" deals. That is, if someone orders three custom diapers or covers, I send them a handmade tee to coordinate in the size and gender of their choice.




These tees are so much fun to do, because I make them when the diapers are all sewn up and sitting there ready to go. I pull out fabrics and play with colors and shapes until an idea comes to me. I've included a few in this post. Oddly, Blogger insists on turning these last two sideways.





The other new thing is that I've added a Flickr gallery so that folks can see my work and perhaps get some ideas for what they'd like to order. This gallery shows only new work since August 1, 2008. And that's not even everything I've made. I tell you, I've been BUSY!

High heels and cloth diapers

Dress-up high heels with your cloth make a great fashion statement, as 2-year-old Claire demonstrates, striking a pose. (Never mind that you may have to grab onto the wall to keep from falling over.)

As she comes down the runway, "Claire is wearing the new P-Grabber fitted from Fishnoodles. A limited edition tester for the summer line in turned-and-topstiched baby pink velour."

"This super absorbant new diaper is also available with serged edges that dry even more quickly, shown here in lovely baby pink floral. Custom slots opening August 15 at Fishnoodles."

My gift to you...

Starting at my next stocking on July 15, I'm giving away custom tees with purchase of any three items. The cool thing is, it's not just any tee shirt. I'll select a blank shirt from my inventory and embellish it to match with at least one of the diapers in the order, so that it makes a set. Each one will be different. You get to choose the size and gender, and beyond that, it will be a surprise!

Surprise!

It's a sale! For three days only everything currently shown in my Hyena Cart is on sale. June 24-26 only. Hooray!

In case you were wondering...

What happened to Painted Patootie?

Painted Patootie is still a registered brand and part of the Fishnoodles store. I have grouped all the painted pockets and covers in one main category in the store. At this time I am not producing new painted work, as my youngest is needing more attention and I do not have the long uninterrupted work time needed to do the painting.

 

You see, the paint has to be applied all in one go, wet on wet, and you just can't stop and tend to a toddler midway through or it might not cure properly. So I'm putting aside the painting for now and focusing on working with all the wonderful print fabrics that are on the market today.

 

Like this cover I made yesterday. Pretty wild, no? Remember fruit stripe gum? Well, here's a fruit stripe cover!

 

 

 

Color color color!

It took me all day yesterday but I think it was worth it. I finally added all my PUL, microfleece, and suedecloth color choices to my store. I didn't entirely realize how much fabric I acually have until I started the project. I was going to scan in each fabric but that quickly became obvious that it would take me all week. So I used photoshop to select the closest match to each color. Now people can select from my full range of choices for their custom diapers and covers.

Don't Ever Change!

But I've got to...things are different now...I'm not the same as I once was. I want more variety. I want to try new things.

And so it goes. Painted Patootie has been swallowed up by the big ol' Fishnoodle. Yet she will live on, as a subset of the larger entity. In the belly of the whale, so to speak.

I'm adding all sorts of things to my Hyena Cart store: All-in-one diapers with quick dry soakers in side snap, aplix, and front snap options. More styles of my gusset covers - now front snap and aplix in addition to the popular side snap. New fabrics - I'm getting in shipments of bamboo, cotton and hemp velour in all sorts of lovely colors. And lots of PUL prints, too.

All this requires a reconfiguration of my Hyena Cart and a name change to signal where all this is going. Plus, I need something more simple and clear. So Painted Patootie, that then became Painted Patootie & Fishnoodles, will now be known simply as Fishnoodles.

Yes, I'll still be doing my Painted Patootie line of painted pocket diapers. And covers. And now AIOs too. And so much more!

The deal is, I'm closing down temporarily starting late June to go on a couple of little vacation jaunts with my family. Come mid-August I plan to have all this new goodness up and running. In the meantime I'll be prepping and doing all the behind-the-scenes work to make this possible.

Craziness, I know. Still, I gotta be free to evolve!

Ewwww...!

That's what she calls 'em. Ewwws. It did at long last stop raining and warm up enough to plant the tomatoes and peppers and cukes and zuchinni. My little garden helper followed along as I turned over the damp soil, looking for ewwws to examine. She studied each worm carefully, then said she'll "put it to night night" and tucked it carefully into the soil. I am happy to report that no worms were harmed in the making of our garden.

Recent Custom Work

I fully admit this blog has gotten a bit neglected as of late; March and April were the all-time busiest months in the history of my business. Looking back at it, I averaged an order a day those months. That's a LOT of sewing!

It's nice that the work has slowed now in May. I'm soon going to be posting a notice that I plan to be gone from late June to July...if anyone wants pockets or covers, they have to be ordered by June 15 or else wait until late July.

Here is some of my recent custom work:


A side-snap cover for a baby girl named Anna. You can guess what her nickname is!

A dyed and painted tee for the daughter of Lori at BTRT. The colors kind of remind me of the Northern Lights. The painted design is my celtic dogs motif, done in a different colorway from my previous sets.

And a girly pirate cover and tee shirt set for a very cool baby girl.

Happy Spring! I'll be planting veggies and flowers if it EVER stops raining...

Keeping on top of things

This morning I was thinking about my plans for the week and realized that over time I've evolved a schedule for myself. It has to stay flexible with 3 kids between ages 2 and 8, but having some sense of what needs to get done helps me stay on top of my orders and customs list.

Monday - Cutting day. Cut out PUL for painting new designs, cut diaper outers that have been ordered to the correct style and mark snap placement, cut out diaper inners. If there is time, start attaching snaps.
Tuesday - Painting day. Paint new designs on PUL. Paint shirts or applique patches.
Wednesday - Sewing day one. Finish attaching snaps, sew pocket diaper inners, prepare side snap covers for binding. Also take photos of new work.
Thursday - Sewing day two. Finish sewing pockets and covers, attach final snaps, check for quality control. Prepare new stockings.
Friday - Finishing. Applique sewing on tees. Print shipping labels, prepare packages, go to post office, monitor new stockings.

I work about 2 hours each morning and 3 hours each afternoon, plus another hour (or more!) on the computer at night. I like to batch up all the orders for each week and sew them all together in steps, rather than sewing all of one diaper, all of the next diaper and so on. This means that my turnaround time is about 7 to 10 days. I really try to get everything for the week done by the end of the week, though sometimes when orders are many, it has spilled into a 7-hour sewing stretch on Saturday!

I like to reserve the weekends for family time, of course, but that's when my mind is often generating new ideas and when I try to sneak in a few hours worth of dyeing.

Really, when you run your own business, you're never entirely not thinking about it. At least, its hard to stop...Even when I'm not in my studio, I take my sketchbook on trips and am always playing with design ideas. So far I've had 3 or 4 ideas for every one I have time to execute. So, I feel confident I'll be doing this for some time to come!

Spotlight on BTRT

Beneath the Rowan Tree is the creation of Lori, a mama in Canada with unbelieveable amounts of creative energy. She's got a website, a Hyena Cart, a sucessful Etsy store, and is in two congos (conglomerations of sellers that stock a group store). Her blog is extensive and she's organizing a charity challenge for dyers. She is doing some needle felting (which I confess I don't even know exactly what it is, but she's got step-by-step photos of projects on her blog), toddler crayons and party favors, playsilks, web banner design...and all this is in addition to the main attraction: her fabulous dyed-and-painted children's wear. I've admired her work since she started a year ago, which has been easy to do because she is a genius at marketing and I'm always intruiged to see what she'll be up to next. Somehow, Lori manages to work a day job in addition to all of the above. I have no idea how she does it all, but clearly, she is a person just brimming over with new and original ideas. BTRT is an inspiration to me.

Dyeing fever has taken hold around here. I recently read one of the best how-to books ever: Ann Johnson's Color by Design lays out all the possible ways you can use dye to color fabric. That's got my creative engines revved so I'm making and stocking more dyed items right now, including some lovely lush bamboo velour:

I had bought the BV yardage some time ago in case I might want to make some fitted diapers but decided not to go that route. So instead I am dyeing it for other sewists to use in their creations.

I'm also continuing to dye paint with resists, now on fabric. In order to have a venue to offer these, I've opened an Etsy store called dyegoods.

Here is a fat quarter that I've called "Camping Guitars." Painting with dyes allows me to be more free than ever before with how I color fabric, and yet at the same time it requires a lot of energy and concentration because every single mark or splash of color shows up on the fabric and there is no way to erase!

Tie Dye for the Professional Man

The Fishnoodle Daddy wears mainly polo shirts to work, so I made him one for those days when he needs something kickin'. The classic swirl in shades of blue is off-center, centered over the spot where a little logo is often sewn on. I kept the collar white by wrapping it tightly in a plastic bag and applying dye sparingly as I got near the collar so it wouldn't bleed up. I also kept the collar elevated so gravity wouldn't defeat my evil plans. Ta-da! The super funkin workaday Daddy!

When the worst becomes the best

I like to work in series. For instance, four or so shirts, each in a different size, done all pretty much the same. It takes me so darn long to conceptualize what I'm going to do, planning designs and mixing colors, that to do just one of something seems silly.

 

So, there I was with a series of four tees I was dying green, yellow, and brown. I was on the last one and hadn't mixed quite enough brown and was furiously scrabbling around the bottom of my dye containers, splashing on dye and trying by sheer force of energy to get that last one done. Well, it came out pretty dotty and splotchy. I thought it was hopeless. Too crazy. At least I can test out some rubber stamps on it, I thought, since in won't matter what I do to it at this point.

 

I started stamping away with bugs and snails and grasshoppers. I liked the way the snails looked the best, so I did a more restrained version with those on the other three shirts. Then I set everything aside. When I came back the next day with a fresh eye...those three shirts were nice. But that crazy forth one? I love it best. Go figure.

Who needs a cookie?

It's so nice to have a colleague who's willing to share her animal crackers and who appreciates my old James Taylor album. Music, singing, dancing, snacks--just a few of the many benefits of working from home.

Spotlight on Whiffy Bean Bags

Sometimes the simplest idea turns out to be brilliant. A beanbag is just a beanbag...ho hum...could you really make a whole business out of that? Darn tooting you can, if you're Whiffy! Kids love playing with bean bags (such a great open-ended, low-tech, creativity-required toy) and you combine that with all sort of scents and there you have a multi-sensory toy. Or sachet. Or...well. Here I do just have to mention the new Whiffy Poo. A rose-scented beanbag shaped to look just like a poo. Doesn't surprise me at all that the Daddy thought of that one! Gag gift? Potty training aid? Hey, I can see my Little One making her dolly poo in the potty as she begins to get interested in such things. Just a bean bag? No, it's just brilliant!

In love with a fabric

I don't usually get this excited about commercially printed fabrics, but this one...wow! It is so odd, in a good way.
It's a skunk print surrounded by hearts (there are also anarchy symbols and the words "david & goliath" -- that's what makes it so, um, wierd!). I'm going to use this as the starting point for painted diapers and coordinating tees.
The skunk is printed in shades of grey and white, so to give her more punch, I used fabric paint to put in some lines, enhance the eyes, and added a hairbow and a heart tattoo on her belly.
This dear little skunk reminds me so much of a toddler having a temper tantrum - so angry and so cute. I'm calling this one "Love you, Little Stinker."

Take 3 colors and whadda you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt.
No really, you can get three different shirts from just three colors plus a little resist.

I really wanted to do a giraffe. I've been sketching giraffes for a while now and just had to dye-paint one. I was thinking about what else I could do with butternut, brown and azure blue...and I saw my dh's guitar. The colors translated really well to that theme. Then with the remaining dye, a tie-dye swirl in some shades that are bright ( and thus appealing to the young man of the house) yet not the usual ones.
The next step will be adding a little detailing to the first two shirts with fabric paint but I am really excited by how these worked.

My kitchen table

My kitchen table is the center of our home. Is it that way at your house, too? An old butcher block table from my grandma is where we eat all our meals together, where the kids play with dough and legos, or dump their backpacks and do homework. I'm constantly wiping it down, because it's where I do all my painting too, oweing to the bright light coming through the south-facing patio doors.












Just yesterday the kitchen table was the place to be for our annual ritual of coloring eggs.












This was the first year for our littlest to get in on the fun, and boy did she enjoy all the colors.
Another nice thing is that it was not a busy weekend day but actually a relaxed weekday. DH is on spring break from teaching this year at the same time as the kids' spring break. Naturally I decided to take a spring break from the sewing machine too! But that doesn't mean I can stay away from color, oh no! I'm continuing to experiment with direct dye painting.
Here is a custom tee I recently did with water-based resist:




The final step was adding a few touches of fabric paint - at the kitchen table, of course!

Spotlight on: TUSH

Tush is another cloth diaper shop on Hyena Cart, and it is all about fitteds (absorbant cloth diapers that snap on) and wool covers.

This Canada-based WAHM makes some beautiful diapers that are highly sought-after, if the interest and bidding on her recent collab auctions is any indication! Of course, I am drawn to the dye work she's done. Check out the yummy softness and color in these pics:

I also can't resist posting the pic of this toile diaper. Love it!
Oh, and she's a blogger too, with lots of posts on working at home, motherhood and creative crafts-woman-ship.

Things to come...

I've been doing some experimenting with dye painting. Here are a couple of my test samples...

This is such a fun technique to use! While painting on diaper fabric has to be quite controlled due to how the paint goes on (very sticky, like honey) this is extremely free. Each touch of dye spreads out onto the fabric much like silk painting. It creates a sort of batik effect using waterbased resist. The trick is keeping the watery dye from leaping past the resist lines excessively...I think there is great potential here for some really neat tees. I am planning a betta fish design for 3/28 and this may be just the ticket.

In other news, I'm half done with my website redesign and really liking the new look. It's still not warm so I've got more indoor days to finish it up. Once it warms up I'm going to be outside!

Getting all dressed up

These cold grey days of winter seem unending and I've got cabin fever bad. Twice I've taken the kids to a playground despite the wind and freezing temperatures until I got too chilled, but the kids loved the chance to be out. The baby was practically frozen but still cried all the way back to the car.
Some signs of spring though...crocus shoots are poking up through the semi-frozen soil. I've got a new bluebird design. My cabbage and onion seedlings on the widowsill are putting out lots of green leaves. And quietly behind the scenes I've been getting my main website all dressed up in new finery for spring. I'm hoping to be ready to lauch by next week and really looking forward to a fresh new look.

Now, we need some slightly warmer days without rain so we can head back to the playground!

New Item!

Can't believe I didn't think of offering this sooner myself...but hey, my best ideas always come from other people! This time it was a customer request for a plain (unpainted) pocket diaper. Well, why not? I've been getting a lot of custom requests lately, but I really cannot do those easily when it involves painting just one of something. (It is difficult and wasteful for me to properly mix tiny quantities of my special paints). This one, however, I could do, so I went ahead and made a new listing for these pocket diapers under my "fishnoodles" name. There are still all the great style and color choice options, and they'll be made with my patterns, for the great fit so many folks love.

Spotlight on wahspirations

If you have a Hyena Cart store, you know Michelle of Elemental Muse, also known as *snowflake*. She seems to be online virtually 24/7 on the seller's forums, always helpful and polite and knowledgable for those of us who *ahem* occasionally need a teensy bit of computer help. This is of course a great marketing strategy for her own website design and hosting business, in that she has great trust and credibility. I especially enjoyed bowsing her design portfolio of the various websites she has done for many well-known Hyena Carts. Michelle has a blog called wahspirations, dedicated to inspiring work-at-home businesspeople. It's full of upbeat business advice and is worth checking out.

Want to see my studio?

Here are some pics I took recently:



I feel really fortunate to have such a nice space all to myself! Even though it's just a room off the basement playroom, "finished" in lovely 70s era dark fakewood paneling and a tile over cement floor, with a hodgepodge of castoff tables and other furniture, it's so much better than where I used to work. At our last house, I sewed in an unfinished, unheated basement room next to the washer and dryer. I wore my coat down there in winter but had to stop when my fingers would get numb.
Now I actually have a space I can call a studio. I have my own desk and computer that I don't have to share, a sewing machine table with a cut-out for my machine so I can work on a big flat surface, a dedicated cutting table covered in giant self-healing mats, and a organizing/snap press table. See the lovely sunlight coming in? I even have a window with a view!

Just stocked something cool...

...in my Etsy store!

Why am I so excited about these? Because they were inches away from becoming a "wadder," yet I saved the project. What's a wadder? A sewing project that goes so disatrously wrong, there's nothing left to do but wad it up and stuff it in the trash. I sketched these semi-geometric bunnies, painted the outline and the facial features onto my favority dotty fabric, and was ready to finish them by putting contrast fabric in the ears. I had all these little ear shapes cut and I was placing them on the bunnies...and the lovely vision in my head was looking crummy in real life. I wasn't sure why and started trying all sorts of different fabrics from my stash for the ears. My hubby walked over amid my fabric snipping frenzy and said, "the fabric makes the ears look top heavy". Of course! He figured out what was wrong in seconds by looking with fresh eyes. I couldn't give up so I put my dear little bunnies away overnight.
Fortunately, the ol' subconscious came through for me: why not paint some little motifs in the ears instead? Voila...now I really like them. Problem solved, project saved. I know that's a lot of angst for a couple of little rabbits, but that's how it goes sometimes when trying to make something original.

Spotlight on The Felted Sheep

The blogging project continues after a period of delay...I want to tell you about Kelsey up in Alaska, yet I am not a yarn person; I don't dye wool, spin, knit, crochet (despite my grandmother's attempt to teach me) and I don't even know what a "roving" is. Kelsey is a Hyena Cart & Etsy WAHM who can do these amazing things and she offers her hand-dyed wool and multi-fiber rovings and yarn for your crafting pleasures. What I can say for sure is that she's got some exciting colorways:

It takes some skill to use orange and green, or rose and caramel, or green and blue effectively together. This kind of adventurous spirit inspires me.

So Pretty!

It's so great when people send me photos of their babies to add to the gallery. Just wanted to share one I got last week.

These two baby girls look so lovely and feminine in their new dove and blossom diapers on a silky bedspread. I am pretty much a tomboy myself, and even though I have two girls myself, I find it much easier to come up with boyish and gender neutral designs. I challenged myself to do something more girly and that's why this photos was especially pleasing to me.

How the eagle came out

Let's compare the eagle sketch to the finished painted PUL. Which is which, you say? The top one is the painted piece, the bottom is the sketch. My camera made the PUL a bit greener than it should be--gotta try to tone that down. I'll be stocking a few of these pockets for Friday.