Fabric Party Hats Pattern for SALE (here goes nothing!)

Hey Friends!  I want to thank everyone who downloaded the "test" version of my little Fabric Party Hat Pattern this past month!  I have had fun tinkering with and revising it over the past several weeks and I feel like I have gotten it to a place where I am ready to list it for sale.

 

I had the pleasure of sewing and shooting the photographs included in the pattern at my favorite local shop for fabric and yarn.  Many thanks to Jessica over at Stitch for graciously allowing me to use your beautiful space! Should any of you find yourselves in Cental Iowa  (which is a way cooler place than you might think!!) you ought to stop by!

As for my little pattern, I sincerely hope that if you give it a whirl, you will find it to be a fun and creative endeavor.  As this is my first attempt at pattern-writing, I would love feedback or questions!  If there's any way I can make your experience in making this hat more pleasant for you, I hope you will contact me!

Lastly, as I am just getting my feet wet at this, I would appreciate any help in terms of sharing the pattern with others you think would enjoy it!  I would especially be so honored if you felt it was worthy to pin on any of your boards on Pinterest. : )

The link to the pattern can be found here as well as on the side bar over on the right!

Thanks and much love, friends!

xoxo,

My First Attempt at Writing a Sewing Pattern (and how you can help me out!)

Like I said in my last post, I love crafting! And a few years ago I decided I loved it SO much that I started selling some of my original creations locally and online. It was such an honor when others chose to spend money on something I had made! It contributed to my joy in life. After having fun with that for a couple of years, though, I recognized the need to phase out of it (at least for awhile) due to the stage of life our family was in.

While I'm definitely still not in the position to invest as much energy and effort as I once did in selling my creations, I have been considering dipping my feet back into the craft-business waters just a bit!

It didn't take me long to realize what my first step back in this direction ought to be. I knew it had to have something to do with my most popular offering from my craft business days... My little fabric party hats:

I created my first fabric party hat almost five years ago when I was preparing for Lucy's second birthday. I had sewn her a special party dress for the occasion and was attempting to use card stock to make a classic party hat for her celebration. Right as I was wrestling with the paper trying to get it into the perfect cone shape I looked down at the scraps left over from making her dress and I thought, "Hey! I wonder if I could use THESE to make a longer-lasting hat to coordinate with her outfit?" This is what I came up with:

It was  a wonderful surprise to discover that other folks seemed to like these about as much as I did!  They experienced their share of popularity in the local shop where I was privileged to sell crafts.  One of my favorite memories was when I was perusing the blog of a local photographer who was going to shoot our upcoming family photos, and my hats turned up a few times as photo props in her galleries. Fun!

I have had others express interest in making my hats in the past, but I would tell them that I would happily make one for them but wasn't quite ready to divulge my hat-making-process.

Well, I have decided that the time has come to offer my party hats up as a detailed sewing pattern for sale in digital download format.

It turns out pattern-writing is its own skill set!  It is one thing to come up with a design simply for my own crafting pleasure. It is quite another thing to put my thought process in written and visual form so that others can successfully create their own versions of my design.

But I am excited to try.  I now have a rough draft of my pattern put together and I am looking for some friends who possess basic machine-sewing skills to test-sew my pattern for me and give me feedback before I start...you know... asking people to pay up before I give it to them. : ) When I put an initial inquiry on Facebook yesterday, I was thrilled with how quickly people volunteered!

I have decided to go ahead and throw the link to my pattern up here on the blog and list it for FREE from now until January 30th, 2015.

So!  For any who are interested in trying it out, I invite you to download the file (included at the end of this posting), give it a whirl and give me a little feedback.  Here are some specific questions for you to consider:

1. What do you think about the level of detail included in the instructions? Too much? Too little? Too confusing?
2. What typos or grammatical errors did you notice?
3. I think I already know the answer to this one but... is the "pretty" font too much?  Should it be simpler?
4. How was your experience working with the pattern template provided?  Should it be redrafted in any way?
5. Give a price range you think would be fair to ask of a potential buyer.

**A note on the photography: The photos included for instructional purposes are rough and not intended for the final draft.  When I have been able to work on drafting the pattern so far, it has not been at peak times for natural lighting nor have I a great place to stage the the hats to be photographed. I am currently working on finding some help and a better location to take high-quality photos for the final draft. But the rough images you'll work with will be representative of the content I am going after.  Do tell me if you think there are some steps that don't have photos but should, or if any of the photos provided are unnecessary in your opinion!**

I do have a goal of getting the final version up and listed to sell by February 1st. So if you intend on giving meaningful suggestions to be incorporated into the final draft, then I would ask that you aim for giving me feedback by Monday, January 26th!  

All feedback should be e-mailed to: erikajoyfuljourney@yahoo.com.

If you don't get around to making the hat by then and can't offer feedback, no problem.  Please just enjoy the pattern and know how much I appreciate your interest! 

I do also ask that you all enjoy this pattern for your own personal use only, and do not sell the pattern itself or hats made using the pattern!!

If you do make the hat and have a positive experience, I would be ever so grateful if you would also help me when the final pattern is for sale by sharing  the link with others who may be interested. Maybe add it to one of your Pinterest boards (if Pinterest is your "thing"). Instagram a photo of your final product and let curious admirers know how to get the pattern for themselves! You get the idea. :)

Finally, here is a link to download the pattern itself. 

You can also grab it from the side bar over on the right.  

Thanks for your interest and I am looking forward to hearing about your experiences!

Xoxo,

My First (maybe only) Online Craft Tutorial

Ok, y'all.  I love crafting.  If you know me at all you know that I love crafting.  Also, I am a sucker for a great online crafty tutorial (no big news there either, right?).  But I have yet to venture into the world of offering my own crafty tutorials on this little blog. At any given time I have about five or six ideas of crafty projects I could share in tutorial form, but I have refrained to do so for three reasons:

• There are just so many out there! Been on Pinterest much? I've often thought it would just be "white noise" to start sharing my own.  And really, how original are my ideas anyway?
• When I have a crafty idea and set to work creating, I rarely bother to stop and take pics of the individual steps or think it is worth it to take the time to write out instructions.
•  I am prone to immerse myself too much in projects and allow myself to use my creative outlets to avoid the mundane but important responsibilities of every day life. I want to avoid the temptation to let a new "hobby" of producing online craft tutorials take more of my time than is healthy and wise.

But tonight I have decided to break my online-craft-instruction-silence and share my first (and maybe only) tutorial on this blog. This project was just too delightful, quick, simple and sweet. I must share.

Who remembers doing "Shrinky Dinks" as a kid? I have fond memories of coloring in little images on flimsy plastic sheets and handing them over to my mom to place in a hot oven and watching them magically shrink down into sturdy little charms and trinkets.  Good times!  Except, I don't really recall what we ever did with the final projects. (Do you, Mom?) I am guessing not much before they eventually ended up getting thrown away.

Recently I got my hands on some blank sheets of "shrink film" and have been experimenting with creative ways to use them while enjoying all kinds of warm fuzzy childhood memories.  Also: I am constantly looking for ways to cherish Lucy and Collin's original artwork and preserve the especially sweet drawings without allowing the piles and piles they produce to take over our household. I decided to use shrink film to transform some of their most treasured drawings into these quirky keepsake Christmas ornaments and key chains.

Here are the supplies and tools I gathered:

• shrink film (my stash was given to me by a friend who was clearing out some of her craft supplies) I haven't found a place to purchase it locally, but it is available for online purchase at Amazon.
• sharpies in a variety of colors
• baking sheet
• standard sized hole punch
• scissors
• metal jump rings (found in the beading section of craft stores)
• metal key rings (also found in craft store beading sections
• bakers twine (or any yarn or thin ribbon works)
• metal spatula
• selection of children's drawings

While you can have your children (if you are comfortable with them using a permanent marker!) draw directly on the shrink film, I enjoyed the process of looking through and picking out some of my favorite of theirs that I had been holding onto for sometime. I just placed the shrink film over their drawings, matched the colors as best as I could and traced their drawings.  There was something sweet about the experience of tracing their artwork. It helped me enter into their little hearts and minds and I gained some insight into their creative processes while paying close attention to the details they deemed important.

 

 I made sure to write in each child's name and the year when I traced the drawings. When the tracing was complete, I just cut each image out and punched a hole in the top.

 

Next, I arranged them onto the baking sheet and placed them in the oven at 275 degrees.

I stayed close to the oven and kept watch while they were baking. After 3 minutes they had shrunk down quite a bit but I knew they weren't done because the edges were curled up and the images looked a bit distorted. Don't let the curled up edges make you think that it's not working right. 

After 3 MORE minutes I knew they were done because they were perfectly flat and the images were no longer distorted.  Just cute tiny little perfect versions of the originals. : )

 

They cooled off super fast and were ready to be turned into key chains and ornaments. For the key chains, simply attach the jump rings to the hole at the top of the finished little trinket.  I used my fingers, but would probably have been easier with pliers. Then just attach the metal key rings to the jump rings.  The jump rings aren't necessary, but I feel like the pieces hang better and look more appealing with the jump ring attached. For the ornaments I just threaded a length of red and white bakers twine through the hole and tied a bow.

Here's a look at one of the finished key chains next to the original drawing to give an idea of how much "shrinkage" occurs. There are a lot of fun family gift possibilities here.  I know a few grandparents, aunts, uncles and older cousins who would get a kick out of receiving these. They also make a great Father's Day or Mother's Day gift option. Make up a few for yourself or even for the little artists themselves to keep and treasure. 

Since this is my first time putting my own craft tutorial "out there" do me a favor and let me know if you decide to try it yourself.  And if so, do tell how it worked for you and if you modified it at all or ended up with a different final product. : ) Thanks for reading!

xoxo,