My First Craft Fair

It's been a while since I last did a blog post.  In fact I've just realised I haven't done a post on my first craft fair which I promised myself I would do.  I can't believe a whole month has passed and Christmas has already been and gone :(

 

Anyway, my mum and I set off at 8am and arrived in a somewhat flooded car park at Delapre Abbey.  The weather had been awful and had been raining non-stop for days.  Luckily it stopped long enough for us to unload the car. One of the organisers told us where our table was located.  We were in one of the three small rooms in the Abbey.  The floors were pretty muddy with everyone coming in and out.  I was careful how to get out the white sheet which we used as a table cover.

 

We set out our table with my dolls and bags and my Mum's iPad cushions, bags and keyrings, etc which she sells on her page, Nina's Nicecties.  My dad made me a gorgeous clothes stand and some miniature hangers for me to hang my doll's dress-up clothes on.  I was so pleased with my little display.  The only downside was that the walls were solid concrete and I couldn't push a drawing pin into it, so I couldn't put up my Little Sugar Plums banner that I had printed, so the wall behind us looked a bit sparse. The bunting I made for the front of our stall looked lovely though.

 

 

Me on my stall with Craft Seller magazine!

DOLLS!

 

 

 

 



The lovely Clothing rail my Dad made me

 

Our bags



Pincushions

 

Mum's accessories from Nina's Niceties (find her on Facebook)

 

The fair started at 10am to the public and finished at 4pm and it was non-stop the whole day!  There wasn't a quiet moment.  I met quite a few people who are fans on my facebook page and lots of friends and family came out to offer their support.  It was a great day. We did really well and I sold quite a few dolls and took some orders.  A lot of Mum's little accessories and bags sold well too.  One lady asked me if I could embroider her Daughter's name on the back of the dolly, which I did and delivered it to her house that evening...

 

 

 

It did take me a few days to recover.  Nobody told me how exhausting doing a craft fair would be!

 

I don't have any more fairs lined up for the New Year but it is certainly something I will consider.



 

 

Delapre Abbey Christmas Craft Fair

 

 Two weeks today I will be running my first every craft stall.  Below is an official poster from the hosts of the fair. Please feel free to share with your friends and family. For directions, please see my events page.

 

2 Weeks to go!

With just 2 weeks to my first craft fair, I really do need to get a move on and get some more things made.  I am really struggling for time at the moment, as I work part time as a self employed childminder during the day, so my mornings are taken up with looking after three toddlers and my afternoons and evenings are taken up with taking care of my two year old daughter and my 12 year old son when he comes home from school, as well as cutting out and sewing up dollies, dolly clothes, bags and, accessories and hair clip holders!  I also have 10 custom orders to do before Christmas so I really am feeling the pressure at the moment!

I thought I would share a few dolls that I have for the craft fair so far...

This is Rory.  He is a blue-eyed Sugar Plum boy dress-up doll and wears designer Riley Blake dungarees.  Aren't his freckles cute?  I gave him sticky-up hair just like my own son.  He has a double crown and i've always found it a nightmare to get it to lay flat!

 

 

This is Holly and Ivy.  They are limited edition Christmas dress-up dolls.  I love the way that despite being sisters, they look completely different, just like my own sister and I!

 

 

And here is a cute little outfit I made for my Daughter's Little Sugar Plum doll especially for Halloween!  How cute is her matching trick or treat tote bag?  More about her here.

 

 

I have spent this afternoon cutting out dolls and outfits ready to sew up this evening and over the weekend.  I wil post more photos when I have them.  In the mean time, please like my page over at www.facebook.com/littlesugarplums. I am up to 775 likes and I hope to get 800 by the end of next week. :)

 

 

Trick or Treat?

I managed to russle up a few bits for the kids this Halloween this month which also adorned my Facebook page giving it a spooky make-over for the Halloween.

First were these tote buckets which I had left over.  I made four in total; two which I sold on my facebook page and  two I made for my own children, although at 12, we decided Oliver was probably a bit too old for them and he went trick or treating with his monster hand treat bag in the end.

 

I am in love with the whole range of this fabric and I really struggled to decide on two to make the bags, but I am really pleased with how they turned out. The purple lining really coordinated well too.

 

Then I made my daughter, Amelia a little Halloween dress for her own Little Sugar Plum dress-up doll. She loved it and carried her everywhere.  She even came out trick or treating with us!

 

 

I also made her a matching trick-or-treat tote bucket!

 

I had a bit of fun playing around on a photo editing program online and gave my halloween makes a spooky make over.  I used this as my profile photo on my Facebook page...

 

and this one as my Cover pic...

 

My husband and I took the kids out trick or treating, but after 6 houses the rain got the better of us and we decided to go home for hot chocolate!

 

Speaking of hot chocolate... how cute is this babychino from Costa Coffee that Amelia had today?  She loved the chocolate spider on the top!

 

 

The giant custard cream and the flake went down well too :)

 

Right, well i'm off to get on with some orders and Christmas dolls.

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

 

Little Sugar Plums - Now CE Marked

 

I spent a few minutes yesterday playing around on my laptop and came up with this sign for my little business.

 

I'm hoping it will get me some more likes on facebook if I post it around in the right places, which potentially could get me some more customers.  I will have to see how it goes!

 

 

 

If you are not yet subscribed to my Little Sugar Plums facebook page, click on the link on the right which will redirect you there. You will then be able to stay updated  with my new release dolls, offers, market nights, custom slots and more!

Becoming CE Marked...

If you subscribe to the Little Sugar Plums facebook page, you will know that I am currently product testing fabrics and materials to make my dolls CE marked.  This is quite a complicated process and so I thought I would write a blog post about it to let others know my findings and how to go about getting their own products CE marked.

So I started off by finding out my local trading standards. I found the address online (love google!), but unfortunately there was no email address and the only phone number available was for the citizens advice consumer helpline.  I gave them a call but the guy I spoke to was as much use as a chocolate fireguard!  He didn't know anything about it and didn't know who to ask. After 20 minutes and being put on hold several times he finally took my details and told me that he would pass my number on to Trading Standards who would call me wihin 5 days. I found the whole experience incredibly frustrating.

 There is a CE self certification support page on Facebook which was quite helpful.  I found out on here that you can download a Self-Certification Pack for Handmade Soft Toys and all the testing can actually be done yourself at home.

The pack can be found at  Conformance.co.uk and costs £30 including VAT.  I went to the website, downloaded the pack and printed off everything I needed to enable me to do the product testing.

My Dad told me he had some G clamps that I could borrow (which are needed in the testing process) and put them in the post for me, and while I waited for them to arrive, I set about emailing companies to request test certificates for their fabrics and materials that I use to make my dolls.

Over the next week I built up my stash of 'safe' fabrics to conform with part 3 of the conformity. The following weekend I bought the other things required to carry out the testing... some S hooks, a million bags (well almost!) of sugar to use as weights, some wooden spoons and some spring scales, since I only have digital ones in our kitchen.  These do not have to be expensive.  The ones I picked up in our local Asda were only £3.95.

Lots of scrummy fabrics

Even more bags of sugar!

I also bought new stuffing, thread and fabrics which carried the EN71 mark in order to make my first test dolly and a new sewing basket to keep it all seperate from my other sewing supplies..

And here she is... Tess the Test Dolly!

She's so pretty, it seems such a shame to hang 7.2kg of weights from her little arms and legs and burn her little body!

I went through the check list which is part of the pack I downloaded from Conformance.

Section 1 is about material clenliness.  The fabrics and materials I use for my dolls are all new, so my dolly passed that part of the test.

Section 2 is about toys intended for chidren under 36 months. My dolls are suitable from birth and are machine washable at 30 °, however sponge cleaning is preferred to maintain their pretty features.  I use a mineral based blush on my dollies cheeks which can easily be reapplied at home should they get washed off.

Section 3 is  about warnings, markings and instructions. My dolls come with their own unique batch number and will hold the CE mark on a label (I have ordered these) attached to the body/skirt and further information displayed on their pacaging which should be retained for future information.

Section 4 is the test methods!!

The first part of the physical test was to twist the dolly 180 degrees and hold for 10 seconds.  Then inspect her to ensure no visible signs of damage had become apparent, and that no stuffing had come loose.  My Little Sugar Plum passed the test!

Then I had to attach a G clamp to her seams and hang a bag containing 7.2kg of weights for 10 seconds.  I used bags of sugar and tins of soup as the weights. I repeated the test on all limbs.  She passed the test again with no signs of wear at all. 

The next test was the Test Rod. For this part I had to dig a 12mm hemispherical rod (the rounded end of a wooden spoon) into the dolly's seam whilst on a set of spring scales and push down until it reached 1kg, which is the equivalent to 10N. Again, she passed with flying colours!

Next was the small components test.  Since I have no small components on my dolly, this part was really for the stuffing.  I had to determine whether  I could insert an articulated probe through the seams, again using a force of 10N without feeling any stuffing through the seams.  She passed again!

And lastly was the flammability test.

I had to hold a 20mm flame 5mm away from the bottom of my dolly so that the flame  moved up her body.  The flame was to be held there for 3 seconds.  However when I held the lighter to her, hardly anything happened!  I was expecting her to catch on fire a little bit as I had seen photos of other CE tested dollies with big burn marks on their tummies, but Tess was indestructable!  She was left with a very feint brown mark.  I wasn't utterly convinced and carried out the test again to make sure, a bit higher up this time, but still nothing happened and the flame self-extinguished which meant Tess had passed the test!

I then washed my dolly and repeated the tests.  Again, she passed!

As with all CE dolls, each of my dolls will have a declaration of conformity written up and their own unique batch number which forms part of the CE mark.

Now that I am CE tested I can continue with my custom made dolly orders and make lots more dollies for the Delapre Abbey craft fair and my market night.  I have so many things to make!  I better stop blogging and start sewing!

Trick or Treat Tote Buckets

 

I coudn't resist these gorgeous fabrics from the Trick or Treat Doodlebug Designs collection by Riley Blake. I planned on making a sugar plum witch dolly with them, but decided on making some trick or treat tote buckets instead.

 

I have two Trick or Treat tote buckets left which are for sale on my Little Sugar Plums facebook page. These cute totes are 100% cotton and fully lined. They are incredibly versatile and can be used for many years. Not just for Trick or Treating - how about taking them to the cinema to hold some spooky treats when checking out new Frankenweenie film, or giving as a gift at a Halloween party. The trick or treat totes are approximately 10cm x 21cm excluding handle and are priced at £12 each or 2 for £20. + P&P.

 

I am getting very worried about the stall i'm holding at the christmas craft fair.  I only have 6 dolls made and some tote bags and brooches, and I'm really up against the clock.  I also have 5 custom orders to do aswell as working full time... there aren't enough hours in the day! :-(

Children's brooches

Well I have been a busy bee!  With only 12 weeks until the christmas craft fair, I spent all weekend making little tote bags, and this afternoon I've been making some little brooches.  Here's a sneeky peek....

London inspired busy bag

 

Strawberry brooch

 

 

I've made some strawberries, owls, cats and frogs so far.   Ohhh, and check out my little tags I've made to display them on!  I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

 

I have a busy few weeks ahead of me and am trying to get as organised  as possible.  I know it's early but I have some paper bags all made up with my logo on and I have added a little leaflet and business card to each bag which will save hassle on the day.

 

 

 

They will also have "Find us on Facebook" printed on the bottom, although I am still waiting for the stamp to arrive in the post.

 

I am so excited to be doing my first fair (can you tell?).

 

Right, I'm off to make a few more brooches while the hubby gets the kids reasdy for bed and then I shall be having a well deserved restful evening.  I have some X factor to catch up on!

Delapre Abbey Annual Christmas Craft Fair

I am delighted that my application for the Delapre Abbey Annual craft fair was successful and I have a table booked on 25th November 2012.

My Mum is going to do the stall with me and has been making some P.E bags and bag charms to sell too. This will be our first craft fair and I am a little nervous, but also excited!  I have been trying to find some pictures of craft stalls to get some inspiration for how I will set ours up.

I LOVE how this one is set up with the cute bunting along the front of the table.

Craft stall by Kirsty Fish

Or this one from Covetables

 

I have bought a Christmas themed banner which I will display on the front of our table ...

 

 

And lots of baskets to display things in.  Now to get making!

 

Unfortunately I will not be taking on any more custom orders for the run up to Christmas as I get some stock together.  I still have a full time job, so time is limited with just 12 weeks to go!

 

Little Sugar Plum Dollies

I have been busy this afternoon trying to promote my Little Sugar Plums Facebook page.  I know it's a fairly new page but I only have 65 likes so far and would obviously like to get as many as possible.  My little dolly's were all very willing for their little photo shoot and I had them all lined up in the garden before it started to rain.

I was recently asked to make some multicultural dolls for a childminder and so Elise was born...

She has proved very popular. I will be expanding on this to include lots of other skin tones and also some boy dolls.

If you have not "liked" my facebook page yet, PLEASE share some love on my page soon :-)