Kids Klosset

I inherited my love of sewing and creative design from my mother. I sat with her as a child while she drafted the patterns then created our cloths on her sewing machine often sewing well into the night and long after I’d fallen asleep. I felt very proud wearing her creations that were made with so much love. This memory has inspired me to recreate and share the stylish practical designs and quality that I enjoyed as a child.

The one thing that has changed is the availability of the beautiful colours and prints that I like to incorporate in my designs.

I use quality fabrics and only purchase small amounts. My range of short runs or one of a kind outfits are for boys and girls from new born through to size 6 years. All the designs in the Kids Klosset range are created, produced and customised in Australia with the utmost attention to quality and detail. 

 

My garments are tested for durability by our little family members, they love them and I hope you will too.

Visit Kids Klosset on hand-made

The Hand-made.com.au scrap and off-cut Hand-Makers challenge

At Hand-Made.com.au we believe that creativity can blossom from anything. 

That is why are having scrap and off-cut challenge! The challenge is to

 use your scraps and off-cuts to create something spectacular. 

You may have left over fabric, wool, paper, buttons, clay, wire, 

beads any and all of this can be used to make your entry. So yes, 

your entry must include scraps or off-cuts.



How to enter
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Simply create your entry, take a photo of your item and email it 

along with your name and postal address, and let us know where you

 have used your off-cuts/scraps, to challenge@hand-made.com.au .

 Enteries must be submitted by 12 noon Friday the 10th of Febuary 2012.

All enteries will be uploaded to the challenge album on the hand-made.com.au 

facebook page (www.facebook.com/HandMadeAustralia).
Voting will open at 9am Saturday the 11th of Febuary 2012 and will run 

until 9pm Friday the 17th of Febuary 2012.
Each "vote" your creation's image** gets is counted as a vote. Members of 

the public are encouraged to vote for their favourite items.

Any "votes" made out side of this time frame will not be counted. 

The Prize:
----------- 
There is one winner who will be decided by the general public, see above. 

The photo with the most "likes" is the winner.**

If the winner is a member of hand-made.com.au their prize will be a $100 

voucher to either Spotlight or Lincraft (you may choose one or the other). 

If the winner is not a member of hand-made.com.au their prize will be a 

$50 voucher to either Spotlight or Lincraft (you may choose one or the other)


** This is the number of votes we are able to see on hand-made.com.au 

facebook page if you intend to vote please ensure that your vote is 

public to ensure it is counted.

*** Entries open to Australian residence only 

**** Please try and keep as small in file size as possible

***** Times are in AEDT

Introducing Creative Lee

The love of creating started when I (Shiralee Allen) was a youngster. My grandmother would sit for hours teaching us how to crochet; she made the most beautiful, delicate doilies and hankies. I tried my hand at nearly every kind of art/craft I could. My mother was a keen seamstress, and while try as she may when I was younger, I just didn't have the patience... until I had my own babies... and I haven't stopped since. I now use all the techniques I've picked up over the years as a form of relaxation, and hence created... CREATIVE LEE - all handmade.

Creative Lee is located in the rural city of Albury in New South Wales, Australia; situated approximately 600kms south-west of Sydney and 300kms north-east of Melbourne. The business at this stage is situated in my home; hoping one day to grow and expand into a shop-front.

Creative Lee products are frequently seen at the many Markets in Albury-Wodonga and surrounding areas.The most prominent market Creative Lee attends is Albury’s Twilight Market at QEII Square. This is an art/craft market with lots of handmade products which operates on the 2ns Thursday of each month during daylight savings period. The next markets for 2012 are 12 January; 9 February; and 8 March.

All Creative Lee products are handmade and can be custom-made to suit your needs and requirements. What does Creative Lee have to offer?

§    Clothing for babies; teens; and adults too.

§    Crochet hats; clothing; bags; and accessories.

§    Handbags; duffle-bags; casual bags and night-life bags.

§    Accessories: headbands; salad/casserole carriers; paper cakes and more...

Creative Lee’s contacts:

Phone: Shiralee on 0405 153 609

Email: creativelee@albury.net.au

Web: http://creativeleebyshiralee.webs.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Creative-Lee/141959985844497

Playtime for kids

Hi, my name is Sharon and I am the founder of Playtime for kids.

After years of knitting for my children, family and friends, etc, I was encouraged to put together a collection of my favourite patterns and colours to start my own online shop.

My collection is full of bright, bold and colourful hand knitted garments,  nothing stimulates babies awareness like colour.

Hand knitted in 100% Australian Pure Wools including Merino/Silk and Cashmere blends for extra warmth and softness. These days most Australian Wools have been processed to be machine washable. (so no more time consuming hand wash)

My local wool shop process their own brand 'Adorn' which is a beautiful, soft blend of merino and silk DK and has quickly become my favourite wool to use.

I have been selling at specialized Craft Markets for 18 years and am a regular stall holder at the Hawthorn Craft Market, Mathilda's, Yarraville and hopefully with be a regular at Huckleberry Market.  Why not drop in and have a chat and check out my goodies.

Visit Playtime for kids on Hand-Made

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Gift Guide

Miss Bellibuttons	Passion For Craft	With You In Mind
SewDarnEzy	Mellebug	Koobi Designs
Yannas Designs	TassieDevilKnits	Badge Bliss
Geek Chic	Wunday	Rose Berry Bays Soap

Huckleberry Market

Huckleberry Market is the new kid on the Melbourne market scene, specialising in boutique and hand made items for babies and children!

We began as a one off market to raise funds for a special little girl called Holly, but the response from customers and stallholders was so strong that we just had to keep going!

Our aim is simple Collect the best in boutique and handmade items for babies and children under one roof, have fun doing it and lend a helping hand at the same time.

Our stallholders offer boutique and handcrafted goodies that range from T-shirts to softies, play rugs to beautiful quilts, toys, jewellery, hats and hair accessories; almost anything you can dream of (and even things you didn’t know you wanted). If you’re after something special for your little one chances are you will find at Huckleberry Market.

And the shopping experience is just as much about the kids as it is the adults pushing them around in prams! Every Huckleberry Market will have some form of entertainment for the kids be it a face painting fairy, balloon twisting clown, gardening activities or craft. It’s all about the littlies!

Some of our regular stallholders include: Piccaninny Rugs, Life is like a blanket, tiger baby, baby laila, Me shirts and Jaybee baby. All showcasing such beautiful handmade products.

Visit our website
Like us on Facebook

Handmade Love

Tell us all about handmade love?

Handmade love is a haven for quality Australian handmade. It is a place you will find the most sought after and beautiful handmade items from some of Australia’s most talented and creative artisans. A place where you will find the crème de la crème of Australian handmade.  Our aim is to promote, support and encourage those in the handmade industry to sustain and boost their WAHM business by offering affordable prices for advertising and a cleverly researched market audience. Handmade Love has wonderful capacity to broadcast handmade businesses through our website, blog, advertising, business directory and product reviews – all in the one place.

What inspired you to start handmade love?

Handmade Love was born from my Love of handmade.  Last year I became quite disheartened with mass produced commercial clothing and items for my children and wanted something beautiful and unique for them. Children each have different personalities, their own little style and flair – something discouraged by commercial clothing, the same piece seen over and over again on many. Children are beautiful and expressive and handmade affords a quality unlike any other. I was frustrated with spending so much money on commercial brands that would inevitably fall apart. With this in mind, I began to spend time trawling facebook, etsy and madeit, searching for the perfect handmade items for gorgeous children.

 

From my initial beginnings, my search then turned to home decor, art and in fact anything handmade – it became quite the obsession! 

 

After researching for a period of time, I began to purchase some lovely items, building rapport with many WAHM’s, many which have grown into wonderful friendships (which evidently shows how many handmade items I have acquired!). After seeing the incredible quality and love that has gone into these items, I became a HUGE supporter of handmade. I decided to run my thoughts past a few of my favourite handmade ladies, the idea to promote and grow the best of the best handmade all in one spot and, received so much love and encouragement. Its such an honour to be welcomed into the handmade community with open arms.

What are you hoping to achieve with handmade love?

 

For me, I would LOVE to increase the awareness of how beautiful handmade items are in the general community, on behalf of those who create handmade. My aim is to have people see, much to their surprise that, handmade items are far more superior than commercial items. Each item is made one at a time with love, attention and detail. Many hours go into handmade pieces and, the quality and designs are to a totally different standard than those made in chain stores , there really is no comparison.  I'd also like those who create items in our handmade community to have more belief in themselves. Many feel as though they are constantly having to defend themselves with issues such as pricing - more often than not many hours go into each item and yet items are listed for a price well under what is reasonable. For me, just having the general community be more aware of the handmade industry, the standards and have a greater understanding of these businesses would be an ultimate goal.

Tell us about your handmade showcase?

The handmade showcase, showcasing the beautiful designer fabric “Sophie” by Moda is the first of what we hope will be many more showcases to come . I was honoured to be approached by a group of WAHM’s to hold the showcase as a means to invite the handmade community to Handmade Love and am very grateful for this opportunity. The idea behind the showcase is to promote and showcase the works of all different WAHM's and those involved in handmade industry. By using the same collection of fabrics, it allows us all to see the creativity of each designer. We can see how each designer puts their own inspiration into practice on their items and, opens the door for the general community to find handmade businesses that speak to their style and tastes, that perhaps they have not heard of before. It gives them the opportunity to see first hand their work and the opportunity to purchase something unique that they may never have had before. 

 

The response to this showcase has been overwhelming. With over 100 entries and many more to come, it has been an amazing success so far. Unfortunately there have been some delays as many ladies purchase their fabrics from the US and the fabric has taken a little while to arrive but, with many more items being emailed daily we expect to have in excess of 100 beautiful items available to showcase. 

 

Your first handmade showcase has been such a success, do you plan on more down the track?

With the instant success of this showcase, and the wonderful promotion it is creating amongst the handmade community, I plan on hosting 2 showcases in the coming year. There will be a few alterations made to ensure a smooth and more efficient process and, once details are finalised I will most certainly make an announcement on our site.

 

How are you managing to juggle home/work and your new venture?

Ahhhh the juggle! Well, so far I am living and surviving on very little sleep. I am currently working part time 3 days a week as well. One might say that launching a website and running a showcase within a week of each other is not ideal! The moment I am up I am checking emails and posts on our facebook page before work. I then check emails again on my iPhone during lunch, come home and have another quick check. After the dinner/bath/bedtime routine which is generally anywhere from 6-30 til 1030 (my almost 3 year old thinks sleep is for the weak LOL) I jump on the computer, check messages and update facebook. Most recently my time is taken up replying to emails and loading pictures for the showcase. I like to ensure I have answered all emails and questions before closing off for the evening.

 

I have found this situation is not ideal so, after the showcase I plan to set some strict work hours and write the majority of my content with scheduled posts. For me, the hardest part is not just working from home but trying to find the balance for my family and my business. I guess for all of us that’s the million dollar question so, if anyone has the answer please feel free to share!

 

Visit Handmade Love's website

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