The New Collection on the Beach

Finally ready to let go of 2013 . . . .

I am soooooo tired - But it was a good day. 

The last weeks I did nothing else but finishing off my NEW Collection - BASIS - and today I was ready to take all the pieces with me to the Beach to take some pics. Obviously it was freezing cold but the sun was out and we chose a rather sheltered corner. So filled with my excitement of being at the Beach - home! - but also because I finally can show the collection and offer it in my shop, I felt almost warm.

Just after a couple of hours I could not feel my toes anymore and we had enough shots captured and could drive back home, where we shot the rest of the details and voilà: my first listing is online!

The collection is the Best of ONE year work. There are Yoga pants, three different styles of Long sleeve Tops including a Tunic and a Tank Top and ALL pieces are Hand stitched. I offer size S, M or L and the fabric is either Organic Bamboo/Cotton Jersey or Organic Cotton Jersey in black, white and colours. (I will show the colours available but will have to order them on demand according to availability.) For the seams there is a choice of contrasting Red, or a similar colour to the tone of the chosen material and you can state your wish at the check-out.

There is still much more to do but I can feel a chapter is finishing and I am ready for the New of 2014! 

Namaste Ringo Starr

The rain stopped for a minute

One day I will look back and think How did we do all this?

Kids seriously changed my life. I am not sure how other parents do it and whether kids get pressed into their life or parents give up their life for the kids. Or is there a secret of how to do it? In our case it is two self-employed parents obsessed with their work sharing this pleasure of raising two little boys and this can take funny routes. While we keep arguing about our working time the boys began to copy us and say they are busy working now or ask us to print out the pictures they have just taken. It is a dance to meet everybody's needs. And then one day they are both off to school and I will miss the chaos and my working days might seem endlessly long until they are back home.

I guess it is the end of the year that makes me pensive. I am waiting for some new fabric to test and to finish the collection with, meanwhile I finish orders and presents. 

Yesterday I took all my energy to drag us to a photo shooting. It was in my head and needed to get out. But it rained. The solution was a warehouse with a roof, so the photos could still be taken. Nice location, but the picture in my head was a different one and this morning it did not rain. The car was available, so we packed the two kids and the camera and took off to school. While one was playing in school the other one was screaming in the car, a lorry in his hands watching me warming up to do some sun salutations. Time is precious, so half warmed up I posed barefoot in front of Ringo Starr's Birth House. 

It is not a nice area to walk on your own or to walk at all but I love those abandoned streets. I am not spending my time scouting around Liverpool but I do hope we will take more photos at interesting locations like this. 

Sneak Preview: Hand stitched Yoga Pants, Tank Top and Tunic

Funny dance around new Patterns

Anti...climax

Good that I can still laugh about myself.

 

It has been weeks now. First I transferred the chosen garments of my first collection onto pattern paper, then I had to let go of them and they were transported to London. And after some weeks they made it to the graders and also back. And finally they came by train back to Liverpool last weekend. 

When I heard they would be back I got very excited, it felt like a victory. But somehow it started scaring me and that's where I am glad that I can laugh. Maybe because it felt like a massive project from start to end, maybe to let go of a whole year of hard work, maybe the step to the next level, whatever it was, it is gone now and I am ready to move on. And it feels really good to use them. 

This collection is available now and just waiting to be put in my shop. It is a Hand stitched long sleeve Yoga Tunic, a short long sleeve Top, a comfortable Top and Tank Top and the Yoga pants in all sizes and different colors.

a collection / chapter end

Suffering (;

I knew this would come. 
I have this self-imposed rule that I draw a pattern straight after a new design is born, no matter what. And if I make any changes I transfer them immediately too.

Obviously, there are exceptions. Sometimes I am not sure and think I can draw the pattern later. Sometimes the drawing is very free-style as it is in process anyway. Although I must say through experience my pattern-development got more and more accurate as it just speeds up the process, and although I know by now how to cut what, it is still of advantage to have the pattern finished, named and neatly stored. 

A year has passed. It feels like a chapter is finished and it is time to move on. But before that I wanted to present what I have done in form of a collection. I decided which of the designs will be part of this collection and did the last fine tuning. And I spent the whole weekend to create the final drawings of those patterns, I mean the final final ones, which was quite painful as I had to test and work out if it is all correct, like super correct. Because they will be graded and if there is an error, it will be in every size.... 

(... From now on I am not only drawing the pattern immediately but also do the final drawing.)

Well, now I only have to choose the fabrics and manufacture and present this collection in my shop. What a big event!