It was pretty cold for Oregon, one neighbor said 32 degrees! Brr… That’s why the butterfly is wearing a wooly sweater. Didn’t I do a good job with the vampire makeup?
Archive for October, 2006
Happy Halloween!
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006Diaper Bags
Sunday, October 29th, 2006One of the things that I am going to work on between now and the first of December is the diaper bag pattern. I love my diaper bags, but there are a few engineering difficulties to overcome. They are hard to sew as they are currently designed. So, I’m going to be fiddling with the pattern in a couple of ways. One way has to do with the way it is put together, and really won’t affect the features much, except that the top zipper will open wider which can only be a good thing. However, in the interest of saving production time I am looking at simplifying the design a little. (Shorter production time means lower prices.) I want to get some pictures of the current model up soon, look for a Mama Bag page over in the right sidebar. In the meantime, here is a list of features. If you have any strong preferences one way or the other, please feel free to leave a comment on the blog. They are moderated because I get a fair amount of spam, but I would still love to hear from you.
Current Features:
Snap-out Wet Bag/ Cargo Pocket
Key Clip
Clip-out purse/ pocket
Camera/ cell phone pocket
Book pocket
Front outside pocket
PUL-lined wipe pocket
Proposed changes:
I am considering getting rid of the key clip and the cell phone pocket. I think that the front pocket makes a better phone pocket, because it is on the outside and easy to access in a hurry. The key clip is handy, but maybe not so useful as to justify the time it takes to sew it.
Ditto the cell pocket. It is next to the purse, which has a sort of cargo pocket that it fits into. I will just extend this pocket and tack it down in the middle to make two cargo pockets across that side. Much faster to produce.
Also, I’m looking at the PUL wipe pocket, and wondering if I shouldn’t find a way to make the liner removable for cleaning. It’s hard to do without making the entire thing turn inside out whenever you take things in and out of it, but I’m sure there’s a clever and simple thing I can do to solve that problem if I just put my mind to it.
Those Size 1 carriers I mentioned
Thursday, October 26th, 2006
These three are still available at 20% off regular price. (Patchwork $150, Simple $130. After the discount, the first is $130 and the second two are $104 each.)
*As of March ‘07 these red carriers are all gone.
Pre-Order Dates
Thursday, October 26th, 2006I have a few orders now, and thought I’d better give some dates so people know what to expect. If we have talked already, what I told you is still the correct information.
I will keep the pre-ordering open for 2 more weeks, unless I feel that I have enough orders that I run the risk of being unable to fill them in a timely manner. So, the pre-ordering ends November 12.
If you have not yet contacted me about pre-ordering, then the date to remember is December 1st. This is the ship date that I am aiming for, it’s about 5 weeks out. I apologize for the long wait, but…well…it’s a pre-order, right? In the meantime, there are still a few red carriers available for immediate delivery.
Remember the Fund the Conference Auction?
Tuesday, October 24th, 2006
Here is the winning custom carrier, all finished and ready for a baby!
(the off-kilterness is due to my poor photography, not a feature of the actual panel)
Hiking is Fun
Saturday, October 21st, 2006
We took this picture a few weeks ago on our way up Spencer Butte.
See how the shoulder straps are crossing the carrier above Sylvie’s legs? They come together under her rump, twist together once, and then go under her leg to be tied with the waist strap. I often notice people, in pictures and in real life, bringing the straps around behind so that they wrap right across the baby’s knees.
In my experience, there are a couple of problems with that method. First, it pinches the baby’s knees, which can’t be comfortable. Red marks, purple feet… I thought about some sort of padding on the strap down around that area, before I figured out that I could just tie it differently and solve the problem.
Second, physics. In the picture above, look at how the shoulder straps make a sort of X. Sylvie is sitting right in the cross of the X, which supports her in an upright position. She is close to me, and aligned with me, so we share a center of gravity and most of the weight is resting on my hips. If the straps were to cross her knees, it would tend to pull her knees up and her rump down, making her sag away from me. Then I would have to lean forward against her “drag” which would be really hard on my body.
I know that we all know that having the knees higher than the bottom is good for babies. Sylvie is a 2 year old, her hips are pretty well developed and you can see that in this position she is not “dangling,” she is sitting. A smaller baby would fit in the carrier more, with her knees closer to the padded sides, and more space and less weight in the carrier which can allow for fine-tuning the hip rotation. An even smaller baby would be in the front, in froggy position.
Here, I found a picture of Sylvie at about 9 months old, in a front carry. Her bottom is lower than her knees, but she isn’t being pinched by straps.
Do spread out the straps more than I managed to in these pictures, though. I stopped using twill fabric because I wasn’t really happy with how much it twisted. The brushed canvas is just as soft, and much easier to handle.
New Designs!
Thursday, October 19th, 2006
Here is the first batch of panel designs for my next line. The embroidery programs need the tiniest bit of tweaking, but you get the idea from the prototypes. Still to come are two more embroidery designs. They will be sewn up with a grey-olive brushed canvas. Once the Zen Cart is finished, I will start pre-ordering at 10% off the in-stock price. If you can’t stand to wait, drop me an email (and, by the way, the carriers in the In Stock gallery are on sale for 20% off. I have a couple in size 1 that aren’t pictured, they’ll turn up in the shop as well.)
ETA: See the post titled Pre-Order Dates!
Getting those ducks in a row
Wednesday, October 18th, 2006I was recently made aware of the existence of www.fashion-incubator.com , a blog created by Kathleen Fasanella author of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing. Her whole purpose with the F-I is to help Design Entrepreneurs learn the ropes of the apparel industry. I wish I’d gotten this book a year ago, but I’m hopeful that I can get MBD organized and ready to roll “the right way.”
In the meantime, I’m busily doing everything myself. I have some new panel designs ready for pre-ordering which will make it up here sometime, and as soon as Dh sets up my Zen Cart there will be an official sale on the rest of the Summer Garden line. (in the meantime, drop me an email and mention you heard it here…everything’s 20% off!)