Larmer Tree July 2012

I promised you all that I would take loads of pictures and report back about my time at the festival but I may have sort of forgotten to get my camera out quite as much as I should have. Our old friend the British weather decided to get in on the festival action by providing several prolonged heavy downpours which made the event harder work than our long-lost friend Mr Sunshine would have done.

This was my stall all laid out on the Wednesday, before being opened to customers. I went with pretty much the same layout I had used in the last few fairs I did, but having seen some of the other stalls, I think I will make some changes in the future.

Below you can see my stall in the evening. I was lent a lamp, which did make a big difference. I had not thought I would need any extra lighting as the marquee was lit, but I see now that individual stall lighting can be really effective and next time I would definitely dig out the fairy lights.

In the picture below you can see some of the other stalls. The jewellery stall in the right of the picture was to my left. It belonged to the fabulous Annette, who became my festival heroine. Annette is a Larmer Tree veteran and was full of good advice and information, not just about Larmer Tree but about running a craft business and life in general.

Annette's jewellery is made from handmade glass and is just so colourful and gorgeous that I couldn't resist spending some of my profits on a few pieces.

I even got to design my own necklace, which wasn't as easy as you might think. It took quite a while to choose which colours to include, in which size, and in which order, but I love the finished piece. Please go and have a look at Annette's website, Wild Scarlet. You won't be disappointed.

The festival itself is held in a really beautiful setting in the Dorset countryside and the organisers did a fantastic job of getting us all on site and into place. We got to camp directly behind the marquee and even had access to showers! Unfortunately for us, we had decided against taking our own marquee-like family tent as it is really huge and we were concerned about it getting ruined. We opted to take our old, much smaller tent, which turned out to be a mistake as it proved no match for the torrential rain we had over the first few days and leaked like a sieve.

Double rainbow!

Mr Magpie was understandably less than keen to spend his holiday sitting in a muddy puddle so we made the decision to return home for the night and ended up commuting to the festival daily for the duration.

Initially the rain helped to drive people into the marquee for shelter and was quite good for business; Thursday was my second best day sales-wise. However, it soon worked against us as the lush green fields we arrived to turned into a brown swamp during the first 48 hours.

To reach the Artist's Quarter you first had to cross a sea of mud, and many people chose not to do so. I don't really blame them. Indeed, I was so reluctant to cross myself that I made only a few trips into the rest of the festival and failed to see a single band or comedian all weekend, which had not been the plan at all.

Would you?

Talking to the other traders, most of whom had been to Larmer Tree before, it seemed as though business was slower for most people this year. I know that this was the first year that tickets for the festival were still available as the gates opened, and from chatting to the visitors, many were planning on leaving early because of the mud.

I didn't sell as much as I'd hoped to, but I was happy with my takings all things considered and would definitely be up for a return visit next year if invited. The kinds of things that sold well at Larmer Tree were different to my usual best-sellers and I think I'd have a better idea of what to take next time and what changes to make to the stall.

Interestingly, although I displayed my fruit pincushions with a couple of decorative pins in, I didn't label them as such. I priced each item individually instead of my usual 'Fruit Pincushions £5' sign. Last time I did a fair I sold a dozen of them; this time only about five over the five days! It does seem that you really do have to spell things out for your customers!

All in all, I found the festival experience much more satisfying than selling at craft fairs. I have been on a steep learning curve and this experience taught me loads, as well as introducing me to lots of really lovely people.

For now, I am going to enjoy the last week before the children break up. I have got a few little sewing treats planned just for myself, as well as a bit more knitting and crochet. I can now resume Granny-Striping, yay!

If you were at the festival, I hope you managed to enjoy it and would love to hear from you with any thoughts you have on my stall.

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x

Bad Seam, Good Seam (Sewing an Invisible Seam)

I know that I showed you my pincushion fruits in my first post but I learnt a new skill last week that I wanted to share with you. Please excuse me if I am teaching you to suck eggs but I'm hoping I wasn't the last of the un-initiated and this might be useful for someone!

From my very first fruit I was aware that I was not possessed of the proper knowledge to sew an invisible seam when sewing up the stuffing gap, so I proceeded clumsily, stitching as closely and neatly as possible to finish off.

When my mother-in-law was visiting the other week and I was frantically busy with all the fairs, I was finishing off some more pincushions as I had sold nearly all my stock (in spite of the badly sewn seams). I asked Grannie Magpie if she could show me a better way to close the gaps and she taught me this method. (I'm sure it has a proper name but I'm too lazy to find out what it is, perhaps you can enlighten me?)

I had previously been putting the needle in one side of the gap, then putting it through the adjacent fabric.

What you are meant to do is make a tiny stitch along the seam line, putting the needle in and out of the same side in one stitch.

Pull through.

Then, you repeat the action on the other side; make a tiny stitch along the seam line.

And then pull through, thus drawing the gap closed.

Repeat all along the gap, alternating sides as you go, pinching the sides together with the seam allowance tucked under.

Et voila!

The apples have a button sewn onto their bottoms (with the stitches going right through to the top) as this helps to make the apple shape and stop the pincushion falling over.

And the the finished fruit!

I now feel slightly ashamed that there are a dozen of my pincushions out there with inferior stitching. If you are the owner of one, I will happily have it back to rectify the seam.

The garden gang, ready for their new homes.

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x

Snap unhappy

Well, apparently I'm not talking to myself, so I'll continue.....

I hadn't really thought the whole blogging process through because it is only when I come to write that I realise I need photographs to accompany my witterings. Therefore the past few days have seen me snapping away at anything vaguely connected with crafting and having an enormous file full of dodgy shots to sift through. I will share a couple of the less dodgy with you, but please accept my apologies. My photography skills have improved since the advent of digital cameras (I was always the one with pictures of headless bodies and blurred images) but I am thinking I may need to enlist the services of one of my more snap-happy friends if I want to keep any readers.

I'll start with this picture of a couple of the bags I made this week

Those who know me will recognise my most crafted item of this year, the wash/cosmetics bag. After quite a few botched efforts, I came up with what I think is a great pattern and  have probably made about seventy of these now, lots of which adorn the bathrooms and dressing tables of family and friends, and some that I have sold at craft fairs this autumn, which has been a new adventure for me. (More about that another time.)

The fabric is from Ikea and I really love it. It has been very interesting to see which of the fabrics I use is most popular, but so far Ikea seems to be winning out over Cath Kidston, surprisingly.

Something else I made recently was the pincushion caddy by Anna Maria Horner, from her book 'Seams to Me'. I bought the book because it was recommended by a few different people whose blogs I read, especially Florence's. Florence is my blog and sewing heroine. She makes beautiful clothes (amongst many other things) and her blog is full of tutorials, patterns (her own), advice and other nuggets of stitching wisdom.

Anyway, after spending two days trying to make the pincushion, I did some research and discovered that I wasn't the only one who found it difficult and even learned some good tips to make it successfully, should I be moved to try it again. (I won't.)

My version isn't a resounding success (the middle should be solid, not squidgy) but it does the job and was a good way of using up several Cath scraps for posterity. Should you ever consider making this, my advice would be don't, but if you are determined, get in touch and I can point you in the direction of help. Failing that I can recommend a great Pinot to help you through.

Thanks for stopping by,
Beth x

My First Post!

After much procrastination, here it is, post number one. It seems unreal to me that anyone will be interested in my ramblings, but if you are reading then you are most welcome, and I thank you.

I have spent a long time reading the blogs of others and finding lots of inspiration from so many clever people. I thought it only right that I should offer something back so decided to give you a quick peek at some of my latest creations.

I had seen these and admired them online but hadn't managed to find a decent tutorial. Then Mollie Makes featured them and with not too much swearing, I managed to produce my own.

This was my first attempt

I had bought some felted wool a few weeks previously at a vintage fair without really knowing what I would use it for. After making the pincushions, I was inspired to make these brooches

 After that, I went a little bit brooch crazy, and made these

All of the hand sewing gave me a little rest from the sewing machine, which was needed as we hadn't been getting on all that well for a while. I've just bought some lovely new oilcloth which is waiting to be turned into bags, so hopefully the break will have done us good and normal service will be resumed.

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x