Why did I leave it all to the last minute?  Well, the last few weeks at any rate?  I am now sewing and making like a crazy person and sweltering in the heat along with the rest of Australia!  I have a stall at the Handmade Market on this Saturday at Albert Hall (Canberra) and I am FLAT OUT getting ready.

I have been doing markets here and there for over four years now and I had always meant to paint myself a banner.  I finally did it this week.  First I did a huge version of the artwork, then selected it all and stroked it with 5 px black (so I would only be printing the outline of the text - to save on printer ink) then I printed it out, laminated all the pages and taped them together (it was about 6 pages) then got busy with a swivel scalpel to cut out all the bits that I didn’t want to print.

I used red and  black fabric ink to paint through the stencil (twice, I did two banners) and heat set with my iron when it was dry.  Then I sewed the banners to the cover for my trestle tables.  You might see in the stencil image above, that I had planned to do some other text (”shop online at www.redinstead.com.au” but I decided to keep it simple when my hand and wrist were killing from all the stencil cutting.

Last week I decided that I wanted to sew some toys and dolls for the market so I got started and made up a couple of dolls to test and refine the pattern.  They turned out a bit wonky but still cute enough.  I have since realised that I probably don’t have time to rework the pattern (dolls, hair and clothes) and make a bunch in time for this market so I have put this project on the backburner and will have a look again for next market.

Luckily enough Emma fell in love with them and she adores them, wonky or not!  She is my best (non-paying) customer, always loving whatever I make.  She tells me they are boy and girl twins and they have been having lots of fun and adventures.   Their names keep on changing, not sure what the current consensus is.

While I was getting out my softie making things, I found a poor little blind guy who had been languishing, half-made,  for well over a year.

I sewed his eyes on, gave him a heart and he was so happy to be finished at last!

Tomorrow - my littlest baby goes off for her first day of Kindy and Sam starts Year 11. Where has the time gone?  Jack is super-excited because he doesn’t start back until Tuesday.  He is going into 3rd grade.  Big milestones all around.

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tags: dolls, drafting, handmade, markets, painting, pattern, red instead, school, sewing, stencil, toys