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.

Cute Little Custom

A long time customer asked if I'd do something special for her new baby. Of course! Wouldn't miss it!! She wanted something gender neutral, not knowing that info yet, and chose a of Tree of Life on yellow. This is my version of the famous painting by Gustav Klimpt. Such a darling wee little side snap cover--see my big ol' hand for size reference. I don't get to do all that many smalls, as they fit newborn to about 6 months (really, a medium would be huge on a newborn), so it often takes an experienced mama to know she wants to start her baby off in cute cloth.
I did an extra one, just in case I were to mess up partway through the painting, that I'll be stocking soon.

I've been featured...

...by Michelle of Elemental Muse on her website. Thanks Michelle!

Been sidetracked lately

Well this post is off-topic (okay except for the fact that my baby girl is wearing a Fishnoodles leaf tee in the photo) but part of the context of trying to work from home with all that entails. We recently adopted two rescue dogs, both about 50 lbs, male, young adults of anonymous breed. They are fabulous with kids even though they endured some rough treatment early in life and are recovering scaredy-cats. The problem is that the black one figured out how to climb out of our fenced yard...and back in, for that matter. I am having to spend a lot of time supervising and training right now...always positive of course...while we get his behaviour on track. So between that and sewing for the orders that come in, I haven't had the time to blog etc that I would like.
And in fact right now I have to go dye my daughter's hair pink and purple in preparation for her 7th birthday party. Yeah, I'm a cool mom!

New deal for pocket diaper sets

Announcing a new promo...when you buy a pocket diaper and the matching tee, take $4 off your order. That's just a little incentive to get the complete set, plus the tees are always designed to look great on their own, too.
Add the pocket diaper and the tee to your cart, and use code diaperset at checkout.

Making Some Changes

I've been changing the look of my Hyena Cart store a bit and it's not just cosmetic. Hyena Cart has made some nice changes since I first set up my custom-sewn pockets ordering. There are now lots of choice fields available so that I can have customers choose their options when they order, rather than having to do it by email. I'm in the process of converting everything over...so soon it will look like there's lots more in my store. It was all always there, just sort of hidden and convoluted to find it.
I'd love to give my store and website a whole new look and spring makeover but that is just not realistic!

Spotlight on The Enchanted Nursery

4th in the series highlighting the creatve WAHMs of Hyena Cart.
The Enchanted Nursery offers a variety of items such as playing dough, playsilks, mama pads and teas, as well as custom dipes. The main items in stock at the moment are diapers. I absolutely love the hand dyed organic bamboos fitteds, of which only a small remains. Gorgeous! She definitely should do more of these.
Another item that caught my eye is the Night Owls wool overnight diaper. I have heard of using wool as a cover of course, but this uses the absorbant properties of wool to keep baby dry--and with fun color combos to boot!
To read about the life and times of this "Mother to a Pack of 4 Wild Monkeys", visit her Blog.

And now, the Beetle tees

It's really cool when something comes out just like I imagined it in my head. Here's a quick shot of how the Beetle tie-dyes came out:
I did the traditional spiral in lemon & lime, with the car at the center. The shirt background is pale yellow (not white as it may appear). The colors are somewhat muted so the dyed spiral wouldn't overwhelm and take the focus off the smiley little car. Here's a close up:

I did the car as a patch and then stitched around the edge for extra security. It won't come off in the wash but I started to worry a toddler might pick at it. I also garment-dyed a few long-sleeve shirts in pale lemon yellow for those who might prefer a solid color shirt with the car patch in the center.
I owe a HUGE thank-you to Kristy M. for suggesting this design idea. I'm really loving it!! You rock, Kristy!

How the VW beetle came out

So, I painted the diaper outers for the VW beetle project.

They came out very much like the sketch (see below a few posts). I'm very pleased and these were fun to paint. These will stock on Jan 18. Now I'm working on the coordinating tees. They are dyed and batching as I speak. The waiting is so hard...

Spotlight on The Cloth Canoe

Third in the series on Hyena Cart artisans...
Geneviève of The Cloth Canoe is one talented mama. First off, let me say that just looking through her blog and website, I was very drawn in by the beautiful design and colors. It makes you want to see more about her and what she does. Gen has one of the most interesting "about me" pages I've ever seen.
But, getting to the point, this Canadian WAHM makes lovely diapers--mainly fitteds but also all-in-twos (AI2s) and mama cloth. With the fabrics and detailing you would definitely want to show these off. Just look:
For customs, she has a system on her blog for keeping folks up to date with her progress. Also, she speaks French!

How the Doves came out

While I was painting this design I was making myself solemnly vow to never, ever plan such a detailed, fussy design again, no matter how much I love it. These took forever to paint! Here is the actual painted dove design in two different colorways:

Compare to the sketch two posts below and you can see how different it looks in paint. Painting with fabric inks on PUL is like painting with cold cream on a sponge. It globs on more than spreads and then sinks in to the weave of the fabric. This makes it difficult to do fine lines and detail. But, the stuff really holds up to washing! I'm pleased with how these came out. If you want one, I'm stocking these for Jan 11 and, I swear, they will never be repeated!

My daughter, the artist

When you work at home, every day is "Take your daughter to work day." To wit: this picture my girl made for me, now hanging on the wall of my studio.

Okay, so never mind that it *might* have been an attempt to cut out a heart on the edge rather than the fold. She creatively recycled the paper into a picture for me because, she said, it looks like a diaper. Indeed. That is the shape of the pattern, more or less. She decorated it and glued on a button. I'm really not sure about the center front hole though.

Spotlight: Pumpkin Pie Baby

Second in a series on other talented WAHMs on Hyena Cart.

Pumpkin Pie Baby offers crocheted soakers, shorties and longies. If you are a cloth diapering person, you know that these are wool garments that go over a cloth diaper to keep wetness where it belongs, baby comfortable, and in the case of longies, warm in winter too.

This "Over Coffee" set would be lovely on a girl says PPB, and I agree, though I would certainly put it on a boy too. I always like seeing things that could be used for more than one baby, and these crocheted colorways can adapt to either gender. Simply accessorize, dah-ling!

But that's not all. Pumpkin Pie Baby can make all sorts of things, like hats and toys. I love this frog!

PPB does custom work and has a gallery and blog to inspire you.

Upcoming Designs

I have two new designs that I'm getting ready to start painting. One is a dove and blossom design for Jan 11, done in a circle. The other is one that was a customer suggestion (I love that!) - a VW beetle with a peace sign for Jan 18. I'm planning cloth diapers and coordinating hand-dyed tees.
Here are my line drawings...it will be interesting to see how they look after being interpreted in paint.


I say "interpreted" because the paint I use looks different wet and dry. Plus it is semi-opaque, such that the underlying fabric color affects the paint color a bit. Besides trying to re-create the lines of my drawing, I have to guess when I'm mixing colors how the color will end up looking. This partial unpredicatability keeps things exciting!

A Ginormous Stash!

Thought I'd share a photo a customer sent to me:

She is a real fan of Painted Patootie--this picture shows 13 PP pockets, 2 PP covers, and 2 Fishnoodles tees. And this isn't all she has!

In her (unsolicited) words: "I dunno if I'm more embarrassed or excited about having the biggest stash! All I know is I'm loving them. It's hard to find a diaper (or cover even) that meets 3 main requirements:
1. works great (fits, no leaks, etc.)
2. is affordable
3. is as so adorable you hate to cover it up with pants!
I will admit, I own lots of diapers and covers and I love a few others, but Painted Patootie is, by far, my favorite! I swear this on all that I love. No exaggeration!"

I really appreciate hearing these kind words...it makes what I'm doing so worth it to me.

Spotlight: Pirate Booty Baby

Other Hyena Cart WAHMs of Note...

Ever wish you could have a custom outfit, like the stars do? Well, now your baby can. Karma is a children's wear designer who is at home (with twins!) and doing outfits for the fabulous little ones among us. There are also the unique reversable overalls and underwool garments to keep cloth diapered babies dry. The very cool-looking website is Pirate Booty Baby and there is a Blog too. Check out these photos of her work:

As it so happens, Pirate Booty Baby is located very near me, in the next community over, but we've never met IRL. It's a small world on the net.

More Patches

The adventure with iron-on patches continues. For these, I did two different colorways of my koi pattern. I used regular webbing to fuse the fabric bits to the background fabric. Then I did regular satin stitching and some free-motion stitching to give it some character. I just love free-motion...its like drawing with thread! I learned to do this through quilting, especially for a quilt that I made for my niece of circus tents--in each tent I stiched an animal and at the bottom a portrait of her and her brother about to enter the circus. Anyhow, the koi are backed with iron-on adhesive, so they are easy for anyone to use.

Happy New Year!

Here is a picture of all the little noodles wearing their Fishnoodles logo tees. First I garment dyed my favorite plush cotton shirts in marigold, then hand silkscreened my company logo in black and white. This was a holiday gift for my kids and their cousins, suggested by my brilliant sister. We celebrated the Yule with food, fellowship, a fire, and lots and lots of goodies! Hope your holidays have been warm and festive as well.
Unrelated, but hey while I've got this window open...
My internet service has been extremely patchy since I supposedly upgraded to a faster connection in mid-December. I have lovely new goodies to stock but its taken me so long to wait for each page to load that I'm giving up for now. I'll be posting more this year, especially more project photos and some how-tos, provided I can get some internet speed here!