A cloche hat to go with your flapper dress?

I watched the trailer of the movie Changeling a while ago and thought I would definitely find an opportunity to watch the movie one day. The movie is based on a true story that took place from late 1920s to late 1930s. And last night it was on the television!!  Watching the movie as well as all the beautiful flapper dresses and cloche hats of the female characters gave me another dose of inspirations. So I thought it was time I share with you more work in progress of my new products. Let’s begin today with some cloche hats!

  

It began with trials and errors! This box below is full of the first hats I made when trying out the patterns and sorts of fabrics.

After a few weeks of experiments I was able to finalize the patterns and the fabrics used.

 

I love my free-arm sewing machine. It makes life a lot easier (and the hats prettier). 

So far, I have 3 different designs of the hats with different color and fabric combinations. These hats in the picture below are half-finished. I still need to sew in the sweatband and the exterior decorations. Some hats will be decorated with lots of flowers and pretty stuff. Others will be just simple and elegant!

There will be new designs of different shapes and different fabrics in the future. For now, I still have plenty of fabrics to make more of the current designs, which will be offered in both standard and custom sizes. 

I want my shop to be a one-stop shop for people who are looking for a flapper dress and coordinating accessories for their next 1920s-themed party! Keep in touch to see what else I will have to offer!

A story on reflection, passion, and faith

Reflection  
My  Etsy shop has been closed for 10 days and all the orders have been shipped. I have also been able to catch up with other household businesses. Today is the first day that the ‘to do list’ is totally empty. Even the house is sparkling clean, for the first time in many months.

Now without the 'to do list' to guide (or force) me what to do I sit on the sofa and think about what I can do next, especially regarding my work. The list of things to do begins again, this time in my head and not on paper. I can continue to sew more skirts and dresses of the old designs to keep in stock for when the shop is open again, as I know that they will always sell. There  are still a lot of fabrics left on the shelves.  Or should I begin to order supplies to make my new designs. I will need quite a lot of money because this time it is not only clothes but also fashion accessories.

The urge or you may call it ‘impulse’ to begin the new projects is very strong right now. But should I already invest a lot of money on the new products even when I don’t know if they will sell? There have been times in the past when I introduced new products and they did not sell very well and I ended up having too many of the items at home. The money has not been earned back.

Should I still insist on working for myself while I would earn a lot more working for someone else?

What have I learned from these past experiences?

How should I plan it better this time?

But I am not really a planner!

My heart is always stronger than my head.

If my head is weak what does my strong heart say now?

My heart says have faith in what you believe in. Live your dreams and your passions. Try building from what you have. When something did not work out the way you wanted, do not call it failure. Call it an experiment that did not work. Then you keep experimenting working around the ideas that you have. Keep the faith! Live your passions!!

Faith

OK, I know that at the end of the day I still do not have an answer to my question what to do next. But what I know is that I will not give up. I will always have faith in my work, my passions, in the same way I have faith in the plants I bought for my living room in early December 2011. I bought two red Christmas poinsettia plants, which were then about 10 inches tall. We enjoyed their beauty as they brought lovely festive atmosphere throughout the festive weeks. By mid-January the next year all the Christmas decorations were tidied up and the colors of the poinsettia plants began to change slowly from red to green. The new leaves were green too.

I kept watering the plants because I believe in their beauty, regardless of their new colors. Besides, the green color was lovely throughout spring and summer 2012. I really don’t have a lot of knowledge on the plant and was kind of hoping that the color of the leaves would change to red again by Christmas. But Christmas came and went and the color remained green. I was a little disappointed.  But I said I would give them another year and hope that the color would turn red again by Christmas 2013. And we keep watering them. Some friends recognized the plants and jokingly said ‘Oh you still have these plants!’.  Never mind!

And to my delight I one day noticed the fading of the color of some of the leaves. Some were not very dark green any more. I said, as I gave them water, please turn red, please turn red. 

And these are the pictures of the plants today in March 2013.

 This is one of my most wonderful experiences on keeping the faith and following the heart. I feel so inspired. 

Shop will close for holidays

I will be on holidays and take some time off work. My Etsy shop will be closed from this weekend and open again in the summer around July or August. However, I will still be around and available for contacts via Etsy Conversation or personal email address thongbai (at) thongbaitatong (dot) com.

Also, I would like to spend these coming months further develop my new designs, which I have already started with some sketches and prototypes. Nothing is finalized and I need time to really concentrate. The pictures below are some sneak preview of work in progress of the new product line. 

Even though the shop is closed, I plan to be active on my blog and share work in progress of the new products. There will also be posts on other things such as my inspirations, Postcard from Holland, my holidays, etc. So please keep in touch!

PS. Everything in my shop has been on sales for a little while. The A-line skirts, for example, are only 49 dollars each. They are available til the shop is closed this weekend!! 

London Calling: more Union Jack dresses

I am happy that I did not waste the beautiful Union Jack fabric I used many months ago for the dresses. I was able to make 6 one-of-a-kind dresses out of the remnants. They are in 3 sizes: S, M and L, two for each size. They look similar but are not the same; they have different pattern placements. In the past I sold them for 90 dollars each. These new ones are on Valentine Sales for 75 dollars each.

I took the pictures of the 6 dresses this afternoon and listed them on my Etsy shop a few minutes ago. 

Here are the very last Union Jack dresses. Super original and fun!

Four new dresses

Many months ago I bought this retro-inspired fabric and used it for the dresses. The fabric was used up and the dresses sold out. But I still had a pile of remnants left. It is such a beautiful fabric and I just did not want to throw them away. I sorted the pieces out and was able to make 4 one-of-a-kind dresses. I have two in size M, one size L, and one size XL. They look almost the same but they are not. These are really the last ones, which are offered to you now on my Etsy shop for only 68 dollars each!!