Mini Cushions

I call them "mini cushions", although they're not really tiny. Measuring approximately 30cm square, they're smaller than your average department store variety but they are infinitely more charming!

You may recognize those central cushions from one of our apron dresses.  The fruit fabrics are a real favourite of yours, so we're incorporating them into other items.

Plenty of admirers come to our market stall and tell us how lovely our dresses are and that they would love to buy one, if only they knew of a little girl to give it to.  Hmph!  So we've decided to diversify slightly and make things that you don't have to be a little girl to enjoy.

Like cushions!  Everyone likes cushions!  And apples, most people like them too.
These cushions are just right for a kid-sized chair or a toddler bed.  They'd also work well when your poppet fancies curling up with a favourite book or catching up on a bit of Waybuloo

These aren't on our Etsy page either, so you'll have to write us a charming email if you'd like one.  We love those sorts of emails.  helterskelterkids@gmail.com.

xx Jane

E17 Designers Market

 Our apron dress and karate top @ E17 Designers

The best thing about selling our wares in a market environment is that we get to speak directly to our customers.  We learn what they like, they say lovely things about the stuff we've lovingly crafted and they give us the encouragement we need to keep everything going.

It is even more insightful to speak to our potential customers, the ones who browse but don't buy anything.  Understanding what makes them want to shop with us means making a more desirable range of items, which means our little business will thrive.

We met plenty of lovely shoppers at the E17 Designers Market  a few weeks ago.  It was a perfect late summer's day, bathed in sunshine and warm enough to wear t-shirts.  Plenty of people were out and about as part of Walthamstow's fantastic annual Art Trail, so there were loads of folks passing through the market hall.

Helter Skelter Jane at our stall

The atmosphere was boosted by a delightful performance form the Rose and Crown singers (who set up adjacent to our stall, so we had front row seats).  I remember enjoying their version of "Scarborough Fair" very much.  Also passing our stall were a steady stream of cafe patrons, who had discovered that a good cup of tea and a slice of amazing homemade cake were to be garnered from one of the hall's back rooms.

Sliz and I had a terrific day, making our most sales yet for a market stall.  We left the hall beaming with pride and bouncing with motivation.  We hope to be a part of many more E17 Designer events in the future.

Domino badges! Our new best seller

Although we loved the idea from the start, we weren't expecting these cute domino badges to be the star of our last market day.

They're bright and colourful and liven up a winter coat.  We discovered that badges are (still) all the rage with teenage girls.  We had scores of lasses fussing over our big jar of badges, picking out the right combination of their favourite colour and number.

Other customers included a doting aunt, who wanted to come away from the market with something for each of her nieces.  She selected a badge showing enough dots to represent each girl's age, which struck us as a great selling point.  Another shopper was a grandmother wanting a gift small enough to fit into an envelope.

Meanwhile, we are intending to wear them ourselves,  five or six at a time, down the front of a plain jacket, or pinned to a shopping tote.

They come in an array of number combinations, up to 12 and you can chose from one of six colours:

• classic black
• red
• yellow
• orange
• pea green
• cobolt blue

We haven't listed these on Etsy or Folksy yet, so if you'd like to purchase one for the tiny price of £2 (plus postage) contact us on helterskelterkids@gmail.com

We're working on more domino stuff, so watch this space if you love a bit of fun, retro-style jewellery.

xx Jane and Sliz

So Long Summer!

 As summer slips away, my garden wall turns this ravishing shade of red and signals that the chill is on its way.  Elsewhere in the world, blossoms are opening and rafts of people are looking forward to feeling their toes in the warm beach sand or an afternoon ice cream.  

While I'm a little bit envious of those folks, it seems that autumn is going to be a very busy time for our fledgling craft business.  The autumn months are the Christmas shopping months and we're trying to get prepared.  We've got to get ourselves signed up for local markets and get our pencils out to design Christmas gifts and decorations.  Then there is our clothing to think about.  Is it suitable for winter?  Our lovely apron dresses can be dressed up warm, but we'd love to add another dress with long sleeves in a cosy fabric for the colder months.  

And what about the new things we've been making that I haven't even mentioned to you yet?  We've got bags and brooches, cosy scarves and cushions.  Details about all of these will follow this week, as I'm making a pledge to you now, patient reader, to blog every night until we're all up to date.  That is assuming, of course, that my own Helter Skelter kids keep their little eyes closed in their beds during the evenings.  

So to those of you pulling on your jumpers and cardigans, enjoy these autumnal days and for those of you enduring spring showers (if you are), you lucky ducks!

xx Helter Skelter Jane

On Holiday

There hasn't been much word from us here at Helter Sketler HQ as we have been deeply invested in our summer holidays. 

I was lucky enough to spend a whole month on leave with my family, spreading ourselves between relatives in New Jersey and Nova Scotia, while Sliz and her posse have decamped to Cornwall. 

We're looking forward to the next few months.  We will be setting up and selling at the E17 Arts Trail (and were featured on the e17 Designers blog) where we hope to debut a few new bits of funk for your little Helter Skelters.  More about those in the next few weeks, because for now, we've got a bit more relaxing to do.

xx
Jane

The Apron Dress

The apron dress is our first design, although it is not really our design at all.  It is something of a classic, a traditional design and we wouldn't be fooling anyone if we tried to pretend we'd created it. 

As a toddler growing up in the long, hot, Australian summers I had a number of them in my own wardrobe.  My mum was (and still is) a great seamstress and quickly discovered that this dress didn't get in the way of a toddler's daily adventures.   It is cute and easy to wear and it is so, so versatile.

It has buttons at the shoulders and is completely reversible, so you can flip it inside out while you're on the go and have a brand new outfit.  If the day becomes a bit messy, perhaps after a delicious lunch or sand pit session, then undo the buttons, turn it inside out and you're ready to carry on with a well presented babe.

Wear it with a matching pair of bloomers on a summery day (like the picture above) for a special party or wedding.  We've made the sizes quite large, so it can be worn as a dress when you first buy it, but as your little lady grows, it turns into a sweet little swing top.  Then, as the seasons change, put a long sleeved shirt underneath along with a pair of jeans or leggings and you've got a great ensemble for cool days too. 

We believe that this is a dress that every little girl should wear!

If you're as enthusiastic about it as we are, you can buy one from our Etsy store.  You can get a pair of matching bloomers while you're there as well.

As Etsy is an American website, all the prices are in US dollars.  We'll be setting up a similar store on the UK equivalent, Folksy in the next few days as well.

You can also join our Facebook group.

 

That's me on the left, in the same design, sewn by my own mother circa 1976.

Sewing Mania and the Craft Fair

Before Sliz and I joined forces I'd been talking to friends and family, trying to gauge whether my sewing ambitions were sensible and if other people thought I might be able to make a living out of it.  One kind and supportive friend suggested I participate in the local fair she'd been helping to organise at our local toy library.  Preparations were underway at the time, but the fair was still months off and it seemed like a great motivator to kick start this little business.

And so our first deadline was set.

Teaming up with Sliz was great because it simultaneously gave the business focus, while broadening its horizons.  Now Sliz had other stuff to keep her busy, over and above caring for her family.  She was already sewing to supplement the household income, plus she was (and is still) managing a pile of duties for an exciting pop up restaurant at the Glastonbury Festival later in the summer.  So she offered to make a start to our partnership by helping out on the day of the market and manning the stall.  That didn't last for long because she was fabric shopping and assuming the sewing position behind her machine. 

Two weeks before the fair we were confident that we had enough time and stamina to get all our stock sewn and our stall looking good, but that's when the universe started throwing obstacles our way.

To begin with a nasty tummy bug hit Casa Sliz, leaving all of her family laid up in bed (including their visiting grandparents).  There were teething babies, explosive nappies and needy toddlers.  Both our husbands left town on pre-arranged business, while the volcanic ash from and Icelandic eruption threatened not to bring one back on time.  A great piece of marketing for the Glastonbury restaurant meant that Sliz' admin work mushroomed overnight.  Then the tummy bug came to my house.  Our fabric was delivered late.  My sewing machine broke down.  I cried.  All the while, our nights saw us sewing late, late into the night and our days were spent on short fuses for having gotten by on too little sleep.

The night before the craft fair we gathered around the kitchen table, amazed that we'd reached our goal of sewing 30 of our lovely little apron dresses (more about them in another post) and matching bloomers. 

The fair was a success!  We made a few sales, but more importantly, we'd been able to to talk directly to our customers and understand what they'd like from a label like ours.  So far, what we'd produced were pretty dresses for baby girls, which garnered lots of admiration.  What we found, though, were plenty of parents saying "What about something for boys?".  Then some said "I have an older daughter who would love to wear a dress like that" or "Do you have a website?".  Not so much food for thought, but more of a feast. 

After a week of intense sewing and stressing we decided to relax, or at least that was the intention.  We couldn't stop ourselves brains from whirring in fast forward though, so much to plan, so much to do!