Only one entry again this month, from Suzanne Jones aka Heckadoodledo.  Well done, Suzanne! Her entry is Puppy Dog Unisex Kiddies' Shorts.  Here is the fat quarter version: You need 2 fat quarters to make the shorts. Suzanne has also created a 2-pairs-on-a-metre version, which makes them much cheaper!  Thanks, Suzanne. Both versions will be in our Market Place soon.  If you want one pair of shorts, order 2 fqs of the

  How's your summer going?  It's been pretty good weather-wise so far, so you may be keeping your kids outside a lot of the time.  Although some days have been too hot to be out long, unless you're sitting quietly in the shade - not something children are well known for! So, have you run our of ideas yet? Have you tried sewing with them? Or designing? There are some ideas about both, below. Sewing

  Following on from last month's design challenge, this month's challenge is Cut & Sew Shorts. If you sew for boys, (and even if you don't!)  this is your chance to design something with them in mind.  Mothers and Grandmothers of boys often complain at the dearth of suitable fabric for making boys' clothes.   But girls wear shorts, too, so you can go to town with co-ordinating trims, frills, fancy pockets, etc

It has come to my attention that some of you may have missed the design challenge last month (Girl's Cut & Sew Skirt) because of difficulties creating and / or uploading a pattern onto which to put your design. I must admit, I'd sort of assumed that a simple skirt would be basically rectangles.  This month's challenge - Cut & Sew Shorts - is a bit more complicated, so I'll give you one way of doing it here

  Sadly only one entry to this month's design challenge.  Well done to Suzanne Jones, aka Heckadoodledo, for rising to the challenge!  Here is her design, Lia Belle Ra Ra Skirt:    You can Like or comment on Suzanne's design below or on our Facebook page.  It is available in our Market Place. This design fits into a square metre, which isn't available on the website.  If you'd like to order

  Where do you look for inspiration for your next fabric design? Of course, once you start thinking about designing fabric, patterns pop up all over the place!  If you keep your eyes open, which artists generally do, then you can find inspiration anywhere and everywhere. It's often easier when you're in a new environment, though.  It's easy not to notice things when you see them every day. I've recently been in Eastern Europe

This month's design challenge is a bit different - can you design a Cut & Sew Skirt for a girl? Do any of you remember Clothkits?  They produced the most adorable clothes, mostly for girls, but some things were for boys and some for women.  Most of them - and certainly, in my opinion, the best ones - were Cut & Sew items.  The whole garment was printed onto fabric with cutting lines marked.  You just had to

I'm afraid I'm very late with the blog post this week - blame it on the holiday!  We got back late on Wednesday, but then what to do first?  Deal with 100s of emails?  (I'm afraid I messed up the Out of Office message - I really have issues with that!)  Print orders?  Write a blog post?  As you can see, I decided that the blog post would have to be low priority

   Today's post is by guest writer Rachel Stinson.  Rachel is a blogger and writer.  According to her website,  'She expertly analyses real estates, restaurants and fashion stores with respect to pricing and people involved and can express her opinions in an unhesitant, engaging manner for all matters.' Today, she is giving us 10 interesting historical facts about the use of flowers in fabric design.   There are very few women in the

  I hope, by now, that you know about the Just a Card campaign!  If not, please read my blog about it, posted soon after it started. The exciting news is that next week is Just a Card Week. The aim is to make a lot of noise on social media, so everyone knows about the campaign.  There will be an Instagram challenge, daily blog posts with tips for using social media for your small business and an

  This month's design challenge has a sort of holiday theme, although it doesn't have to be - it's On the Road.  So you could interpret that as travelling, caravanning, hiking or biking, or the wherewithal to do those things (maps, compasses, boots etc.)  Or maybe you'll go for an abstract design based on the colours seen On the Road, go-faster lines or ...... I love seeing the different ways you interpret the monthly themes

  We have almost come to the end of the design challenge / competition themes which I gave you for the first half of the year.  So here are the themes for the rest of 2018.  As before, the first date is the launch date, when, as usual, I'll give you the full details.  The second date is the closing date. Theme Date 1 Date 2   Girl's Cut & Sew Skirt 05-Jul 17-Jul

Apologies that this post is so late.  We've been celebrating our Ruby Wedding Anniversary with a lunch party in our garden for 60 people.  I had a lot of printing to do last week and was trying to get it all done by Thursday evening so that I could take Friday off to get organised for our party on Saturday.  (Fortunately, our kids were doing the catering, so I didn't have to do much for