Chestnut Festival Success

The Chestnut Festival went really well. I ended up with 5 jackets to sell (I made 6 but an online friend bought the first one on Friday) finishing the last one at the stall! I sold 3 of them, which I'm quite pleased with. I think I would have sold more if I'd had more, especially in the bigger sizes. We sold a few of Andrew's wands, and a couple of staves, and even had a woman interested in stocking them in her shop! We also sold some of his mum's knitted gnomes, and a pile of his sister's amigurumi tortoises and hippos, plus a few kids bracelets. I was really surprised that the painted bags his mum made didn't sell at all. We were using one of the primary school's tents (thanks, Mum!) which unfortunately meant we were next to the fairy floss machine, and got coated in sugar! A few of our friends came by, his parents helped out for the day, and the weather was a perfect crisp autumn day.
Prepare for the photo bombardment sequence....
Size 2 short jacket in chocolate corduroy with striped lining (I still have this)

Size 2 Rusty orange polar fleece with floral lining - the last one finished

Size 3 Rusty orange polar fleece with gingham lining (I still have this)

Size 4 Blue polar fleece with floral lining

Size 6 Brown floral velour with floral lining (this was sold to 2 women who plan to pass it down between their daughters!)

Chestnut Festival This Weekend

The market I have been madly (if surprisingly slowly) sewing for is the Mt Dandenong Pre-School Chestnut Festival, which is THIS Sunday. It will be held at Kalorama Oval on Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd, and goes from 10am until 4 (I think). I'd love to see you there!

Labels

I ummed and ahhed about whether or not to get labels for the clothes I'm making for the Chestnut Festival. In the end, although they're rather unnecessary, I decided that they added a professional touch, and ordered 300 (I have no expectations of using them up any time soon, but it was either that or get 200 for the same price) They arrived yesterday, and I'm just so thrilled with these little pieces of fabric that will now mark all the clothes that I make.

Chestnut Festival Preparation

3 patterns, 5 sizes, all traced, cut out, labelled and bagged.
And 1 gorgeous little jacket. I'm not sure how I'm going to bear to sell this one!

To market, to market...

The last month brought with it two big craft supply purchasing opportunities. The first was the Australian Quilter's Conference quilt show. I hadn't been going to go to this one, but Mum wanted to, so along we went one Saturday after Italian. The display was gorgeous, though Mum and I have very different tastes. There were many gorgeous fabrics for sale, but in the end, I couldn't cope with the crowds, and only bought a couple of 30cm strips of greens for my Emerald Isle quilt, plus Mum bought me some Beatrix Potter panels.
The other was the Stitches and Craft Show. It was in a new venue this year, and ultimately, I was disappointed with it - there was far fewer stalls than previously. That didn't, however, prevent me from spending over $100.

I simply couldn't resist this Halloween/Samhain fabric.

Or this fairy. Isn't she gorgeous?
And I've wanted this pattern for years. It was finally time to buy it. I already own two from the series, and there's two more to buy. I'll stitch them one day. Really.

Finally, Andrew had the bright idea that we should have a stall at Mt Dandenong Preschool's Chestnut Festival. His mum is knitting gnomes, Andrew is making sticks/staves, and I... am making kids clothes. I'm not at all confident about this. Can I make enough in time? Will people like them? How much should I charge? Will I have the right sizes? Nevertheless, when Spotlight had 20% off everything, I had to go and buy some supplies. Then I raided my stash.
I've also found some corduruoy at the op-shop of all places.
So I'm currently working on getting my kilt quilt out of the way, and pondering whether or not to order some woven labels for the clothes. It would give them a more professional touch, but do I really need $200?