How to Make a Felt DIY Pirate Eye Patch Tutorial

In honour of tomorrow being my favourite celebration day, International Talk Like a Pirate Day I thought I'd share a tutorial with you today, ready for your little Pirates to wear tomorrow (or any time if your kids are like mine!)

A Felt Pirate Eye Patch

You will need:

Black Felt
White Felt
Black Elastic
Scissors
White & Black embroidery thread
A pencil or tailors pen
The pattern (which can be found at the end of the tutorial)

Step One:

Cut out 2 black eye patch pieces and 1 white skull & cross bones piece

Then using the skull & cross bones template as a guide mark on the white felt the position of the eyes and the nose and using sharp embroidery scissors cut out the eye sockets and the nose

Then using either a sharp pencil or a tailor's pen (which has disappearing ink) draw on your mouth and teeth:

Then using the black embroidery thread (2 strands) and using a back stitch, embroider on your mouth and teeth. You should now have a finished skull

Next using the white embroidery thread (again 2 strands) with a simple running stitch, sew on the skull and cross bones to the top layer of the eye patch

Once you've gone all the way round, your eye patch will look like this

Next using your black embroidery thread sew the elastic onto the back piece of the eye patch, securely going over it a number of times

Then repeat for the other end

Then pin your front eye patch piece to the back and sew round the edges, using your black embroidery thread and using a simple running stitch, but making sure you go over the elastic bits 2 or 3 times to ensure they're secure

And tie off your thread neatly at the back.

You now have an eye patch fit for a real Pirate, me hearty! Arrrrrrr!

And here is my little Pirate modelling her eye patch

I'm afraid (as is always the way!) that my printer/scanner has just decided to play up, so I've taken a photo of the template page and will get my husband to scan it in for me from work tomorrow, so it should be available as a printable sheet then! Why do printers always go wrong at just the most inconvenient moment?!

Please feel free to make as many of these eye patches as you'd like for personal use, but please do not sell the finished articles or the instructions.

I'd love to see any pictures of anything that you make using any of my tutorials, so please do feel free to email me a picture at simmi@gracesfavours.co.uk

Enjoy and Arrrrrrrrrrr!

Another felt tutorial will be available tomorrow.

How do you calm down an excitable child?

Well, as most of you know my eldest, Seren, started school last week... it was a VERY exciting week for her. And seriously exhausting for all concerned!!

First of all we had a special day out with just Mummy & Daddy on Monday (to Cheltenham for posh nosh) while Patrick was in nursery - I've not seen her so excited and happy in a long time (and she's always pretty excited and happy!)

And then on Tuesday she was up bright and early (!!) and in her new School Uniform! SO cute :-)

Then of course Patrick wanted to get in on the action:

And then madam's best friend (and future husband according to her!) arrived for the walk to school:

Gonna be showing this one at their wedding!!!

What the two weeks of funny hours whilst they "settle in" means though is that I'm all over the shop and don't know who I'm supposed to be taking & collecting when... it's left me rather disorientated!

But only this week left and then Seren'll be doing full days and I'll be back to a proper routine.

Awww I feel all teary at the thought of having a baby old enough for school! Sniff...... *deep breaths* and I'm fine :-)

PS. The answer to the blog post title is of course, you can't! Just ride it out and hope you have enough caffine & alcohol to cope with it!

Wholesale Orders

Sorry for being a bit quiet on the blog front recently - I've been suffering with a mystery ailment (well that sounds much more exciting than the reality, which was insufficient iron in my blood!!) and haven't felt up to doing much of anything... which has made for an interesting time with the kids still on school hols and a wholesale order from a lovely lady, just up the road from me in Cheltenham, who I met at the Home & Gift exhibition in Harrogate.... you might remember the post I wrote about it here.

While we were at the exhibition her eye fell on this:

Personalised Airplane Picture

As her company centers around Aeronautical gifts, it seemed perfect!

So I've been busily creating 5 of these framed pictures - they're basically done, but still need pressing and framing:

All 5 pictures with the banner reading "Up & Away"

I love the pinks - might have to some more pink & grey things

We also settled on some of these canvas drawstring bags:

But the ones I'm making for the shop won't be personalised so I've gone for a larger plane:

So a bit of work still to do this evening - as I'm delivering the order tomorrow morning!

I've also got a mountain of other orders that have been piling into the shop in the last week, which is lovely and next weekend I'll have lots to show you, but does mean I might not get round to everyone at Handmade Monday this week - although I will try my best!

My little girl also starts school on Tuesday, so there'll be a totally gratuitous mid-week post about that (hopefully without me shedding too many tears!!)

How NOT to finish anything in a week!

Arrrrrrggggg! This week has been all over the place!

I've been trying to work whilst the kids are on school holiday (as has every other craft-business owner who's also a parent of small/young children) and this week I've spectacularly achieved almost nothing!

I've posted out a couple of these:

Dark Green VW Beetle Hanging Ornament

Red VW Beetle Hanging Ornament

Felt Airplane applique

A rainbow of VW Campervan Hanging Ornaments

All of which can be found in my Etsy shop and on the new exciting website I am proud to be part of Uniquely UK

I've been trying to get a fascinator started for a local customer. The brief was 1950s style, with a veil to match her dress which has shades of grey, cerise and black... I have the exact thing in mind, but it's a fiddly job that I really can't be doing in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed as I'm generally too tired and the light isn't good enough, but also can't be doing with the children about. So I'm LONGING for their nursery day this week!!

I've also had feedback from my lovely Father-in-Law who I made this picture for:

Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II Felt Picture with a personalised number plate

My Father-in-Law worked for a large very posh car dealership in London in the 70s and 80s and these were the type of cars they used to work on every day - so we thought he might like it. His initial comment was delight that he could finally say he too owned a Rolls!!!

So nothing much new with me, but I do have all the school uniform labelled (can't believe my baby is nearly 5 and about to start school!) which was a rather long & boring job! I'm hoping a hop round the Handmade Monday blogs will inspire me to get something new created this week... watch this space!

Being Featured on The Guardian Website

A couple of weeks ago I had a very exciting phone call from someone at The Guardian. The phone call was to ask me as a member of the Guardian's Small Business Network (which I joined a couple of months ago) if I was planning to enter the Showcase they are running:

I was rather taken abact - they'd done their homework on my business, been on my website and even read some of my blog posts and wanted me to enter the Home Business Innovation section.... so I have and guess what? I've got my entry published on their website!!!

That means I've got past stage one - The Editors!! They basically weed out all the entries that don't meet the criteria or that are not suitable for the showcase and then they publish the ones they've selected to go forward to the next stage.

The second stage is the shortlisting, which starts on the 9th August 2013 and this is where the panel of judges will choose 3 companies. These three will have a write up done by a Guardian journalist for the main website and the Finance section of the newspaper and then ultimately there's an awards ceremony next year (May 2014) where they announce the winners of my category and all the other categories.

I don't really expect to get shortlisted as there are some amazing companies already through and there are more to come, but just to have got this far feels wonderful!

Anyway, you know I'll keep you posted!!

Now I'm off for a scoot round the Handmade Monday Blogs with a cuppa and some naughty (but very nice) chocolate brownies!

Campervans for the Cushion Competion

A while ago a very nice lady called Suzie contacted me from a company called Terry's Fabrics and asked if I would be interested in getting creative with some of their fabrics, in return for blogging about it... Would I?!? Erm, Hell Yeah!!

This is the range that she sent me:

LOADS of choice (in fact it was hard to restrict myself to less than 25!)

The 4 I chose in the end (it could have been smaller pieces of 8 fabrics, but I had a couple of projects in mind so I went for larger pieces of these materials:

And of course the one I HAD to have.... the Campervan material!








I then discovered that there was a bloggers competition running to make an 18" x 18" cushion cover, using Terry's Fabrics and the winner will win £250 worth of vouchers to spend on the Terry's Website!

So, in super quick time I have put together my entry - inspired by the Blur pop art album cover, with the different quarters being different colours, I give you the Family Campervans:

Each Campervan is personalised with the family member's name

Being shown off on my living room sofa

A collage of the close up shots of each Campervan

The fab campervan material on the back in an envelope style

Side view showing off my neat sewing!!

I really enjoyed coming up with the design and suspect that this will probably be quite a popular item, so keep your eyes peeled for it in the shop soon!

I will be keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the Terry's Blog to see the other competition entrants and more excitingly, who wins all those lovely vouchers :-)

Edited to add: I'm cheating a bit today - I'm going to add this to the Handmade Monday post as I've been so busy this weekend and not had a chance to get on the laptop till just now (6pm on Sunday evening!!)

5 Tips to a Successful Trade Show

Regular readers of my blog will know that I have recently exhibited at my first Trade Show, the Harrogate Home & Gift Trade Show 2013 and wowee, have I learned a lot!

I felt the show went really well, especially given it was my first one and I had no real idea what to expect - the people I met were lovely (both fellow exhibitors and the buyers) and the exciting ideas I have come away with are enough to make my head burst!! If you can afford the outlay (it's not just the price of the stand, but also kitting it out, travelling expenses, accommodation and food whilst you're there) then the contacts you make and the leads it generates definitely make a Trade Show worthwhile doing.

I'm going to share the 5 most important things I've discovered this week on my emotional roller coaster ride!

1. Plan out your stand - do a mock layout and take pictures. Come back to it an hour later. How does it strike you as you walk up to it? Would you stop and have a look? Are your items getting lost? Or do they jump out at you? Think about the items you want to be seen most, or that will draw the buyer in for a closer look. Make sure they are placed at eye height with any lighting you are using focused on them.

2. Prepare for the questions you'll be asked - think about what a buyer would want to know and have your answers ready and written down on a sheet of paper that you can easily refer to. You may know all the answers backwards, but if for any reason you get thrown off track (imagine a buyer from John Lewis stops to talk to you!) it's essential to have the facts at your finger tips! So all you need to have all your retail prices and the trade prices you are offering. What volumes of orders can you cope with? If like me you hand make all your pieces and someone (that pesky buyer from John Lewis again!) asks if you could handle an order for 1,000 of a certain item, what would you do? How long would it take you to fulfill? Do you have backup in place for that situation? Do you have a minimum purchase amount? Do you offer free carriage? Do you drop ship? (terms explained in a minute) What are your terms?

3. Expect the unexpected - our exhibition hall was air conditioned, so although the temperatures were soaring last week, I didn't expect to have any problems with overheating - however the air conditioning packed up!!! We spent two days completely boiling, which made it very difficult to concentrate and as a result the pepped up start to our 4 days of exhibiting fell rather flat in the middle. It also meant that our buyers didn't stay very long and weren't all as enthusiastic as we'd have liked! We were being given bottles of water by the exhibition organisers on a regular basis, which was a relief as if you're manning a stand on your own, you can't keep nipping off to the cafe to buy water!

4. Making friends with your fellow exhibitors - as I just mentioned, if you're exhibiting by yourself on your stand, you need to make friends with your fellow exhibitors... not only will they help keep you sane over the course of the exhibition, but you can also then take turns at keeping an eye on each other's stands while you take loo breaks, lunch breaks, fresh air breaks, etc. I had some wonderful neighbours, specifically the most gorgeous couple ever, Jayne & Ged from Jola Designs who make beautifully clever cushions & canvases and Denise from Denise Moloney Ceramics who designs amazing plates, mugs & tea pots. We had a fantastic time - getting to know people under circumstances like this make for very intense friendships which I hope will last a long time!

5. The most important - GOOD SHOES! You are going to be standing up (something most of us are not at all used to) for up to 9 hours a day... I happened to bring with me 4 different pairs of shoes and I was VERY glad for it - a seasoned exhibitor recommended 2 different pairs of shoes per day. One lady did resort to wearing her slippers on the last day because she'd worn inappropriate shoes previously!

I mentioned different terms above... I thought I was fairly au fait with the terms I would encounter at a trade show, but there were some I'd not come across before, so I'll give you a brief summary of the most common terms used this week:

Minimum Amount - you can decide if you will place a minimum value on wholesale orders, so each order has to exceed a certain amount to qualify for wholesale prices

Free Carriage - Will you offer free shipping? Or does the buyer have to pay 'Carriage'

Drop Ship - where the manufacturer ships direct to a customer when an order is placed - this is particularly requested by online shops, so they do not have to hold large amounts of stock. It's also popular where the items require an element of personalisation (like the majority of my items) so this can be done once the order is placed.

Pro-forma - this is when the exhibitor sends the buyer a detailed breakdown of the items purchased and the prices, along with the terms (i.e. payment must be made within 30 days, payment must be made before items dispatched, etc) and the sellers bank details, which then allows for the buyer to make an online payment for the goods.

I hope all of that has been useful - I learned so much this week that I could just go on for hours (but I won't bore you all any further!) instead I'll just leave you with some pictures of my stand and now I'm off for a mooch around the other Handmade Monday posts with a cuppa and some cake!

Christmas In July!

Well, it's turned nice & hot this weekend, so we've been out in the garden or in the local pub gardens almost all the time.

The kids have had a great time playing and hubby & I have had a lovely
time relaxing with friends!












But now we're back to Monday and no more sunbathing for me, as I have just re-opened my Etsy shop after my "holiday" month (i.e. time to panic about the Home & Gift Fair in less than 2 weeks - EEEEEK!)

And very excitingly I'm taking part in the Etsy-wide "Christmas in July" promotion, which is an American tradition, whereby shops offer a discount on Christmas goods halfway through the year for organised shoppers to get a head start!

Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

In some western countries, July has a minor number of marketing opportunities. In the United States and Canada, there are no national holidays between the first week of July (Canada Day on July 1 in Canada and the Fourth of July in the United States) and Labo(u)r Day (the first Monday in September for both the US and Canada), leaving two months with no holidays. (Some Canadian provinces hold a civic holiday in August, but this is not a national holiday.) The late July period provides relatively few opportunities for merchandising, since it is typically after the peak of summer product sales in June and early July, but before the back to school shopping period begins in August. Therefore, to justify sales, shops (such as Leon's in Canada) will sometimes announce a Christmas in July sale.

As a lot of my funny goodies could be bought as Christmas presents, I thought I would offer a store-wide promotion, not just the Christmassy items, although they are all in the shop now too:

So you just need to use the code CIJUK10 at checkout to get 10% off all orders over £10 for the whole month!

Now I'm off with a cuppa for a slightly belated hop round Handmade Monday :-)