Last month, Etsy sent email stated there was a bug on Etsy that they belatedly found and as a result a lot of my listings were not charged for renewal for the past year. So by April 1st, Etsy deactivated all the affected listings, and I did not realize it until a few days ago when I saw my shop were practically empty! This both affected my fabric shop and my handmade shop! Now I have more than 200 listings to relist and as I am on it, I will rework on the SEO, etc before put them back on the listing. I think it's a blessing in disguise also, as I have been wanted to work on the SEO on some of my listings. But yeah it's a lot of work - I will do it one step at a time!
Anyway, I have been busy making a few passport wallets last week. This time I am using block print fabrics! They have been on my WIP bins for a couple of months and finally I got time (and the mood) to finish them!
I am super happy with how these kalamkari passport wallet turned out. I have made only the rustic indigo color in the past and as I got order for the same, I might as well finish the rest!
For the kalamkari wallets, I offered 2 closure - zip around or snap button in my ETSY SHOP.
And if you love something vibrant and bright, the yellow floral passport wallet is perfect for you. The yellow floral fabric is chanderi cotton fabric and combined it with red tie dye fabric.
I still have the fabric, maybe I will make something else. Let's see!
All the passport wallets I finished and are already available in ETSY and my WEBSITE. What do you think?
So that was quite productive week for me. Batching work really works for me, especially as I am going through perimenopause stage now with all the weird symptoms and swing of energy level! When the mood is good and everything is prepped, I can complete more work in less time.
Recently I love watching these small (sewing) business vlog by many young women (college girls) on YouTube, and I marvel at how they organize their work around the school work, online shop and even doing crafts shows! I do learn many things from them and it's lovely to see how enterprising they are! Very inspiring!
In the past few days, I've been busy making a few wallet and placemats orders. I got a couple of passport wallet orders in the past two months. I think now that travel around the globe is eased, many people started to travel again.
This time, the zip around small passport holder seems quite popular and as usual, whenever I make for an order, I cut one extra to add to my shop. Because I am working solo and nowadays hardly have time to sew, this way I can add a couple of new designs in a month. Also, I will always have projects that are ready to sew. Although sometimes it takes days to finish and sometimes I can finish 2 wallets in a day. Well, as long as I can sew, I am a happy girl!
Ah, I also recorded the video tutorial for this small passport wallet - which hopefully I can finish editing and put up on YouTube this week.
I often got questions regarding bias binding. For beginners or someone who never makes or use bias binding, it can be a daunting task. There are a few ways to make a bias binding but this traditional method is my fave because the binding always turns out perfect.
Please check the video below. I hope the video is clear enough. If you have any questions, you can contact me or leave a comment below.
Here are more fabric wallets recently done and a couple of them are on their way to the new home. I love making this classic bifold wallet. My first wallet was this bifold wallet and even after washing it several times, it is still in a good shape. The interfacing and padding did make the wallet sturdy and did not lose its shape.
And here's the medium scrappy placemats I recently finish and sent out. I hope they will be received well. As a maker and seller, nothing more rewarding than a happy customer!
I kind of love these medium-size placemats and I have a couple more to finish hand sewing the binding before I put them up in the shop.
I also experimented with different quilting lines on my Industrial machine. I tried doing FMQ after watching a couple of YouTube videos where people do freehand machine embroidery using a similar machine as mine. Well, guess what? I worked! I will try in my next project and hopefully can share a few tips with you all. Stay tuned!
On the 16th, my SIL and I went to a wedding in a village nearby. It was great fun for both of us. And of course, I love watching how the folks are having a great time at the party. In the village, a wedding party can last a couple of days (2-3 days) from morning to midnight. People from all around the village and nearby village will keep streaming in, sitting and chatting. I love to see the young girls dressing up to the latest Bollywood trend.
And of course, I enjoyed the ride through different small towns and villages. Since the harvest season is just over, most of the fields are dry now. But it was a lovely day!
The bride and the bridesmaids
Henna - a must in every wedding!
We also went to the market last week. We went saree shopping for one of our helper's daughter's wedding next month. Of course, I wore a double mask even a lot of people are not wearing masks now since the state government announced that all pandemics restrictions are lifted off.
I really enjoyed looking at those colorful sarees. Even though I don't wear colorful clothes myself, looking at those bright colors, makes me happy! And no, I did not buy for myself, I only went to my regular fabric shop to get denim material. I suppose to go look for Mekhla (Assamese dress) border for my kawandi project but it was getting late, so maybe next time!
That's all for today. I hope you enjoy reading my blog. Thank you for stopping by and please leave a comment or two.
I like to improvise with my own patterns and recently I made these 3 kinds of travel wallets from This Pattern.
The Snoopy wallet was a custom order and she wanted an additional zipper pocket and this is my current fave zipper wallet to make. (I'm working on the tutorial! so make sure to subscribe to my blog so you won't miss it! )
Besides that, I added 1/4 inch on the length and width from the original pattern, so that it fits nicely for the B6 Size Notebook. I realized that when I travel, I always carry a small notebook to doodle or just to write down ideas or my thoughts. As much as I like the notebook app on my phone, I still prefer a real book to write on. And this is just perfect. Oh, I can't wait to travel again!!
For the Paris journal cover below, I used elastic for closure. As it is more convenient, I suppose. The wallet can pack quite a lot too. I can fit 2 passports in one sleeve and the other sleeve for the notebook.
And another one with flap closure. If you'd like to make one with outer flap closure, cut the flap fabric 2" W x 8" Long and all purpose interfacing 2" W x 7.5" Long. Once you iron the interfacing on the fabric, fold the long edges towards the center, and then fold the flap crosswise so that the short ends meet. Topstitch along the three edges, leaving the raw edge unsewn.
