My First Guest Blog Post - Craft Fair Top Tips

When I set out on my journey into running a crafting business I read various articles and blogs online (in fact I still do) as well as a few books, one of which was Crafting a Successful Small Business by Joanne Dewberry.  I found this book to be particularly useful: it is broken down into clear chapters covering areas such as Pricing, Branding, How and Where to Sell, Marketing and PR.

Joanne set up her business, Charlie Moos in 2008, selling handmade party bags, quality party bag fillers, cards and wrapping paper. 

Joanne also runs her blog www.joannedewberry.co.uk providing professional business advice.

I had connected with Joanne via Twitter and Facebook and a little while ago she asked if I would like to write a guest post for her blog about my Craft Fair Top Tips.  I was really pleased to do this.  Follow the link to read my Craft Fair Tips for yourself.

My next craft fair is on Sunday, I think I should revisit this article to check I've covered everything.  Over the next week as I prepare I will be checking my stock levels, updating my stock list and making a few more items to add to the list. 

In other news.....

This last week I made a slightly larger cross body bag than my previous ones and included a zipped interior pocket and a recessed zip closure in the bag.  This is the first of my bags to have these features.  I posed a question on both Twitter and Facebook about what are the most important features in a bag and pockets ranked very highly in the responses.  Would you agree?  What features in a bag are most important to you?

I purchased this cute owl fabric a few weeks ago and thought it would be perfect for this bag.  I've teamed it with a chocolate brown cotton lining and cotton webbing for the adjustable  strap.

I also made a few more bags in the gorgeous Clarke & Clarke Retro Floral fabric and the Alfie Scottie Dog oilcloth, these can be seen on my website .

I hope you all have a great week.  It's now time for me to pop over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been doing this week.  Why not take a look.

Sewing with oilcloth.....finally

Hope you've all had a good week.

Since my last blog post I have sewn with the Scottie Dog oilcloth and the black and white print fabric I showed you a couple of weeks ago.

After reading on the Internet about how tricky oilcloth can be to sew with I was actually becoming quite scared of picking it up & sewing with it. Silly really as it wasn't as tricky as I thought. Not trouble free either, I might add.

So here is my first attempt......

Since I hadn't sewn with this stuff before, I went for a basic tote.  I'm generally happy with it and have been using my new bag this week. 

I'm working on some new designs and am hoping to add oilcloth bags to my range on the website very soon.

I thought I would share with you some of the tips for sewing with oilcloth that I have found through my research online.....

• Purchase a roller or Teflon presser foot for your sewing machine as this will help the cloth move more freely as you sew, it will stick otherwise.  If you don't have one you could put masking tape onto your ordinary presser foot.
• Use paperclips, pegs or bag clips to hold fabrics in place as this avoids piercing the cloth with pins.  If you do use pins make sure you pin inside the seam allowance so any pin holes won't show.
• As much as possible when sewing 2 layers, sew with right sides together as the oilcloth tends to stick to the bed of the machine.  A piece of oilcloth right side down taped to the plastic part of the machine bed can help, but don't cover the feed dogs when doing this.
• I've read various opinions regarding what size needle to use.  I think generally a size 16 denim needle is considered to be the type to use, however it's probably best to experiment with some scraps of oilcloth as each machine will cope differently.
• If you are sewing over a number of layers, for example in bag-making; bag straps or side seams, use the hand wheel rather than the foot control if your machine labours at these points. 

I hope that you have found these useful and that if you haven't sewn with oilcloth before and would like to, I haven't put you off!

I also made a clutch bag using the Tempting Tonals black & white fabric.  This was the first time I'd sewn a bag with a front flap.  It was reasonably straight forward however the flap is basted to the body of the clutch by a scant 1/8th" and when I turned my bag back out I could see some the of basting stitches and then I couldn't get it back through the hole to re-do the seam.  A little more practice required I think! 

Anyway this is it.....

I really like this knot & loop fastener I found in a local haberdashery.

I think it's time for me to head over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone has been doing this week.  Why not join me?