Overwhelming Support & New Styles

I have been blown away by the support I have had since launching Oli e Lui on FB to friends and family and anyone else who has been interested. I was really nervous to start this as an actual business (not that its officially registered... lets not tell the tax man just yet!) but its been about 5 weeks and I have been kept very busy. I am only just keeping up. It's given me a fabulous alternative focus, other than my boys, which has given me a much needed boost. Although there has been one continueing frustration along the way - but I won't go there!

Here are a few new styles from last week (a bit late on posting them)....

"Biddy Skirt" Made with vintage fabric.

Skirts are adjustable to two sizes with a wooden button on the back.

"Linen Luies" in navy. Fabulous roomy butt. 

Designed to fit for longer with roll up cuffs..

Contrasting striped linen for cuff.

These one's I'm calling "Naram Pants" - my version of Harems :)

...

Biddy Bibs. Front and back views.

Oh, and a Sheep Sack requested in red for a baby shower gift.

Right I'm off to bed. More Biddy Skirts to sew tomorrow, plus the usual daily grind!

Introducing... The Sheep Sack

It has hardly been summer this year and already the weather is turning wintery. Most of NZ is feeling a bit ripped off in the summer stakes. I know I am!
So what better time to start making Merino Wool clothing. I have always put my boys in Sleep Sacks. They are fantastic! Babies and toddlers always wiggle out of their blankets and often wake themselves up from being cold. Pop them in a sleep sack and it not only adds extra warmth under blankets, it also makes it harder for them to wriggle out of the covers. And if  they do - well they'll be wrapped up in merino wool :)
There is a market coming up in April so its given me a deadline (oh how i need a deadline to be productive!) Here are two new "Sheep Sacks" I've made for Oli e Lui.

 They are made with beautifully soft 100% NZ Merino Wool inner and 100% Cotton exterior, with a merino fabric sheep on the front :) Priced from $55, depending on the thickness desired. 

to be available on Etsy soon..

Sweet Striped French Canvas Shoes

I was given a small strip of this lovely striped deck chair canvas from our old neighbor and landlord  in Wellington. It's from a gorgeous shop called Madder and Rouge this is the fabric here. It's crazily expensive fabric... like $155 per meter! Anyway this gorgeous fabric sat in my stash for sometime and I thought I would eventually use it to cover an old chair I had. Then looking for baby shoe inspiration, I saw this gorgeous pair of shoes on pinterest and bingo I married the shoe pattern I've had forever and the canvas up to make a pile of shoes good enough to eat! I love how every pair is different to the next yet it's all out of one piece of fabric. These are part of my new Oli e Lui collection.

These are my fav.

Currently selling for NZ$25 per pair :) To View the others see here. You could even "like" Oli e Lui on Facebook. 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. xx

Say Hi to "Oli e Lui"

I haven't blogged much lately... not for lack of things to blog about but we didn't have a computer for over 2 weeks and since then I have been madly trying to sew for my NEW label. I have decided to bite the bullet and start a kids clothing design business for real. I'm calling it Oli e Lui. And I have even ordered labels... feeling flash! Here are a few things I have made in the last few weeks to start with....

 100% cotton long sleeve top. sizes 1-5 years.

 100% Organic Cotton tights, great for cloth nappies.

Floral Bib.

I have started to create an Etsy shop so I can sell my things on there, but it's quite full on to set one up... shop policy, paypal accounts, design...  

I have started a Facebook Page just to get it out there... Now I just need to find more time to sew!

Oh No Not Another Doily Idea! (oh but this ones a goodie!)

I'm sick in bed today, this is day 3 of an awful flu type thing. Hot and cold sweats are so much worse in 27 degree heat! I always seem to get sick after a crazy busy spell. I can almost pinpoint when it will happen. And what a crazy busy spell its been! Two (very last minute) craft fairs in which I had no time to plan, Luca's First Birthday, family staying, Christmas presents to make and then Christmas! Cleaning our house to rent it out over New Year, packing up and staying with my parents, 3 nights at Gisborne's New Year festival Rhythm and Vines (this has been going for 9 years in Gisborne) this year had a sell out crowd of 29,000. I have gone to all but 2 of them. We were given VIP tickets this year and I have to say I will not be going cattle class again. I am getting too old. Anyway so it has been a very very very busy couple of weeks and I am now utterly exhausted. Lucky I have a few creations up my sleeve to blog about, and keep me from feeling totally useless while I am stuck in bed!

Yes, another Doily Idea! Organic Cotton Stretch with Doily Knee patches. I had these little doily circles left over from my DIY Doily Dress and came up with idea for my Cousins newest addition, a little girl who was born in December.

Just simple Organic Cotton Stretch with a doily circle on each knee

Girls clothes a so much fun :)

Happy New Year Everyone.

My Fabulous Fair Day & maybe the start of a business!

Eight hours on I am still buzzing at how my first shot at selling my own creations went... I went with no expectations and I am so proud to say it was a hit!
I went with about 33 items and sold about 20 (and counting)! Take a look at what it all looked like ;-)

"The Ollie T, w 'stache"

My fav - and a customer fav too

SOLD OUT

"'Stache Singlet"

"Luie Legs", spots

"Luie legs", stripes

"Nunu Knees"

Cotton shorts w rocket pockets

Linen shorts w floral pockets

Linen shorts w floral pockets

Bubba Bloomers

And here's our little stall, like I had mentioned in my previous post I shared a stall with a extremely talented friend. My condition to share a stall with her was that she stick with girls clothes and I do the boys. And it worked really well. There was no competition between us and the collections actually complimented each other. We were also super lucky to be out on the verandah as the space inside was crazy busy with stalls and we had room to wander and hang our little clothes line :)

Chelsea's gorgeous little collection

love the lace style fabric!

So anyway it was a fabulous first experience for me and I will be back... actually I have already semi committed to the christmas art and craft fair in two weeks! YIKES better get sewing... again!

And who know this could just be the start of a wee business for me. Hurray! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

xox

Baby Fair and Me!

What a busy week! I have been flat out sewing all week for a baby fair which is on this Saturday that I (very last minute) have decided to sell some clothes at. It's very daunting for me to be one selling my stuff and two to be sharing a table (as in my terrible sewing next to) with my friend Chelsea, who has had her own successful clothing label! I'm doing the boys stuff and she is doing some absolutely gorgeous girls things. 

A couple of things I have learnt this week.. Pressure is a great way to get stuff done. I Have been really wanting to sew in the evenings more often but I am always persuaded by my lazy self to have a "relaxing" night instead. But I can't believe how good I feel after a week of sewing every night for a few hours. 

The other thing I have learnt is that sewing more than one of the same thing (even better 6 of the same thing) is so much easier than just sewing one thing at a time! It always takes me a while to get my head around the pattern (even if its one I have done before!) so sewing a whole heap at once makes for super quick work. Anyway here is a few snaps of the things I have been sewing (mostly half finished..)

stack of half finished linen shorts like these I made a while back.

Knee patch pants

Crawler pants (pattern from Ottobre)

Check Bloomers 

planning... still a bit to do!

One of the many piles of fabric waiting to be used up... or not.

a snap shot of the mess.

I will post again after the fair and show you how we looked

Easy Ottobre Crawler Pants

My cousin (whilethechildrensleep.blogspot.com) and I have been getting Ottobre sewing magazines for well over a year now, I have made quite a few of the boys clothes from them. Although I find a lot of the designs "too busy" there are a lot of simple designs in them too. I often adapt/tone down the more "busy" designs to suit my style. This simple pants pattern is one I have used again and again. They are super easy and super practical. Yesterday I made a pair for Luca and a pair for my brothers baby who was born a few weeks ago. I used the same pattern for both but just lengthened the legs for Luca's pair. Easy.