To keep you in stitches...

A woman got a new job at the Tickle Me Elmo factory. The boss quickly explained that she would be on the assembly line just before the dolls were packed into boxes and she'd have a very important job. They started up the line and within twenty minutes had to shut it down because the new lady couldn't keep up, so the boss went to find out the problem. The woman had a heap of dolls waiting and was getting into quite a flap.  "I'm going as fast as I can!" she cried. The boss looked and saw that she was sewing little cloth bags containing two walnuts onto each doll. The boss looked at her and it dawned..."Noooo" he laughed "I said to give each doll Two--Test--Tickles."

MooAndFlo's first market day - woot

Titirangi Mums' Craft Market

at Kaurilands Primary School, Titirangi

When:

Saturday 28 May, 9:30am – 1:00pm

Saturday 9 July, 9:30am – 1:00pm

Saturday 13 August, 9:30am – 1:00pm

Saturday 10 September, 9:30am – 1:00pm

Admission: Free 

A monthly market run by mums selling all things handmade for mother and child, the Titirangi Mums' Craft Market is the place to come to buy goodies for littlies. Be it a gift for a baby shower, birthday, something you need or want as a new mum, room decorations or children's clothing, you'll find it here.  Everything on sale will be made and designed by the person selling it. 

We hope to see you there. Spread the word to help make the inaugural market totally fabulous!

Titirangi Mums' Craft Market

Girls love monsters too

When looking at girls' clothes in the stores, I see lots of pink, lots of bows, butterflies, ribbons and lace, but I don't see nearly enough monsters, but I know for a fact that girls love monsters, too!  So look what I've rustled up today at MooAndFlo

When is sewing not sewing?

You'd think that a stay-at-home mum with a wee sewing venture would mainly spend her time sewing, wouldn't you?  Or at the very least, she'd be at the fabric store picking out new material and buttons and lace and other jollies.  Or maybe at the post office posting garments out to her customers?  But no - I spend about 30-50% of my MooAndFlo time doing non-craft tasks, like invoicing, reconciling the accounts, replying to customer queries, and all manner of things that don't involve needle and thread.  But my time's not just taken up by admin, which, let's face it, has been around forever and isn't likely to change in essence anytime soon.  What takes up a lot of my MooAndFlo time is updating social media like this.

I blog.  I Tweet.  I update Facebook.  Why?   Why not spend more time sewing and less time in front of the computer?  Well, to put it simply, the Internet is my shop - it's my wee village store.  And rather than put an advert in the local rag or fliers in letter boxes, I publicise through social media.  Even the customers that know me personally almost always buy from me through the web, having seen something on MooAndFlo's Facebook page and taken a shine to it.  And despite being in a little treehouse in the middle of the bush in New Zealand, Internet promotion has lead to orders from as far away as the UK.

So when is sewing not sewing?  When it's putting on my media and sales hats and getting the garments out there for the world to see.  I'd love to tell you more, but I must dash - I've Tweets to make...

What's in a size?

Most women will attest to the pain and frustration of clothes shopping where you go from elation thinking you've dropped a size, to total despondency at thinking you have gone up a size, then the harrumph or realising you've not changed at all it's just the clothes in the shops are seemingly sized by a random number generator.  But, as adults are such differnet shapes, heights, sizes, etc, I can sort of mayyyybe forgive the clothing manufacturers a little...

However, as younger children at any given age don't actually differ that much, you would think that kids' sewing pattern sizes would be kind of accurate.  You know, if you're making a size 2, then it will fit a two year old, that kind of thing.  Is that asking too much?  Am I just picky?  Because patterns cost an arm and at least one leg, so I thought maybe I was paying for, well, accuracy... but no.  Of the three main trouser patterns I've been using to make trousers size 9 months, 1 year and 2 years, any given age can differ up to 2cm in length and 2 cm on the waist (and that's taking into account any dodgy sewing on my part).  And they're not even totally consistent when the patterns are made by the same company!  So, I've got a new system...

I've saved good-fitting items from Moo's wardrobe for age 6 months, 9 months, 1 and 2 and - as he is of average height and weight according the the charts - I use those as my new yardstick.  Then I re-label the pattern with what I thnk the *real* sizes are.  That way at least my customers and I stand a fighting chance of getting somethig that fits.

Pattern makers, you suck!

Pins, needles and nails

So, I went to a wedding a the weekend - no, not that one, another one - and it was all rather lovely.  I, of course, used the opportunity for a bit of pampering and had my eyebrows and nails done, and as a result looked as good as Flo possibly could on the day, which is fortunate as I seem to have garnered a prime spot in the group photo, right behind the happy couple.  Unfortunately, I have discovered a downside to this burst of beautification:  it's blummin hard to sew in false nails.

My sewing machine has an auto threader - so far so good.  However, as soon as I whipped out the twin needle and had to thread by hand I discovered I was more or less disabled by these pretty wee nails and had the precision and accuracy of a two year old.  Much to my embarrassment, after five minutes of faffing, it transpired I also the patience of a two year old, and the tanties ensued.

I fear for later in the day when I have to re-thread Doris, my trusty overlocker.  Four threads to cope with, all intertwined, and it tries my patience on the best of days with ten functioning fingers.  It's not going to be pretty - I've got the Rescue Remedy on standby.