I had definitely planned to blog about The Dainty Squid shop and my sewing projects A LOT more this year. Obviously I did not do that. I managed to squeeze in a few posts about it here and there but it wasn’t even a fraction of as much as I had imagined. My sewing machine and I have definitely been busy though, especially this holiday season.
When I first re-opened back in January, the one thing I promised myself is that I would allow myself to play. When I had a sewing business before I burned myself out by just concentrating on making stock, making stock and…making more stock! I felt like it was a waste of time to experiment because I already knew what made money so I should just keep doing that. That eventually led to a period of about three years or so where I didn’t touch my machine at all.
This time around, I wanted to make sure that I had fun. I enjoy making regular pouches, they’re satisfying but without a break, it can definitely get repetitive.
baby basket king
November and December have been wild! I had a goal – which I crushed. I made a stretch goal and somehow squashed that too! I thought I was stocked up and prepared for the holiday season but I completely underestimated how quickly the things I had made would sell. (Seriously, thank you!) There was obviously a part of my brain that was like “SEW. NOW. MORE STOCK!” I even cut out a ton of fabric to do another big update before the holiday rush was done but came to my senses that if I were to actually tackle it, I’d probably hate myself.
Still wanting to sew but wanting to give myself a bit of a break, this week I pulled out my scrap basket and sorted out some fabrics I might want to play with. I realized almost everything I pulled fit into a nice little color palate so I narrowed it down a bit more and decided to give myself a little challenge – make as many bags as possible from the small amount of fabric I had in there.
making the straps. (& in true Kaylah fashion “If I’m making them in this fabric, I should just go ahead and whip up some others…”)
The result was a collection of seven one of a kind bags. I managed to squeeze a pencil pouch, three wristlets and three clutches out of the scraps. I am so pleased with how they turned out!
I love anytime I can just piece together different fabrics then play around with decorative stitches. I also really enjoy making things that are bigger than my normal bags. The clutches are my favorite because they hold so much! I made one for myself a while back from other scraps and it holds all my stamp carving supplies. You can spot it in this post. I just think it’s a really useful size!
The seven one of a kind bags are live in the shop today if you want to get your hands on one! xoxo