Thursday, October 25, 2012

Ready for the Weekend!

Been sewing up a storm lately.  I love having my sewing space connected to the living room because now I can be inspired by endless episodes of Project Runway while working on my projects.  Those people are crazy talented!

If you haven't noticed, I posted up some links to the right with information about my products.  Check it out and contact me at jslikdesigns gmail com if you'd like to place an order.

Here are some orders that I've finished up the past couple of weeks:
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I've been working hard this week, sent out a bunch of orders, and cleaned off my sewing station.  My best friend is coming into town tonight, aslik's heading to Big D, so it's gonna be a fun girls' weekend!  I was going to say no sewing, but my best friend has recently started sewing herself and she wants to learn the secrets behind jslik designs.  She's got 4 kids, so she doesn't get much time to sew, eat, sleep, or do anything by herself.  So, this weekend she's coming sans-kids and we're going to have a fun time of sleeping in, eating a ton, watching chick flicks, and maybe a little sewing :-)

Friday, October 19, 2012

Production begins!

It's been a busy weeks as I've been working hard to get a bunch of orders out.  First in the queue was a blanket for Josie! I've been working on figuring out my font choices for embroidery.  All the embroidery on my items are done carefully by hand.  I print out the name in Word and then trace it onto the fabric.  Then, following the design, I embroider by hand.  So far, my favorite font is Bookman Old Style, but there are times when Century Gothic works as well.  I've used script fonts a couple of times, but with all the flourishes, it can be too busy and a little hard to read when embroidered.

Josie Blanket

Josie Blanket

Josie Blanket

I realize alot of people have been asking about my prices since I made my shop re-opening announcement last week, and I'm working on updating my blog so that my fabrics and prices will be easily available.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Friday, October 12, 2012

Big News!

Anyway, I have a big announcement to make - I'm opening up my shop again!  I've been doing some shopping, getting my stash ready, ordered some new business cards, and re-designed my blankets.

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New business cards - I left off the phone number because I'm always moving out of the country!

As for my blanket designs, I've changed them to look like this:
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Mainly, I cut out the corded border that I used to put on my blankets.  I also changed the middle strip from a flap to a flat strip that is sewn in.  The blankets are a bit lighter now and easier for me to make.  Why did I do this?  I've been re-evaluating my business and with the current rates I'm charging, I realized that the blankets are not really worth my time.  With my old blankets, I was making sweat shop rates, but by cutting out the corded border, I'm able to significantly cut down the time required to make a blanket and therefore increase my profitability to a reasonable rate.  You can weigh in on this by leaving me a comment (if you care).  I could always still offer the option of the cording for an extra fee.

Besides the blankets, I'm still selling my bibs and booties as sets or as separates.

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I've already had a few orders, so it's time to get busy for me!

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You can check out my current fabric selections in these albums:


For more information you can contact me at jslikdesigns (at) gmail (dot) com.  Let the baby-making and blanket-ordering begin!

Monday, October 8, 2012

NJ to DC to TX

Lately, I've done a little bit of travelling, but am ashamed to admit, not a lot of photo taking.  I spent two weeks in Jersey hanging out with my family and friends.  People often ask what I plan to do when I go home.  Mostly, I just lie around on the couch reading, go grocery shopping for my mom at ShopRite, do things around the house like re-plant my mom's front flower bed, lie on my bed and hang out with my sister, and even bake Peruvian alfajores to help my sister with her Spanish project...
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Not very exciting, but very relaxing and enjoyable.

From Jersey, I flew to DC where Aslik met me to spend the weekend hanging with the Sliks and attend a family wedding.  We hung out, chatted, and played pinochle late into the night.  We also came away with one of the funniest wedding stories ever.

So the story goes like this...

On our way to the wedding, I used my phone's gps to find directions to the reception site.  Just to double check, I had my sis-in-law type the address into her phone as well.  Both phones agreed and we were on our way to the wedding.  We get off the main road and drive down a shady gravel road and arrive at this beautiful manor:

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We walk into the entrance, are greeted with programs and get in line to sign the guestbook.  I'm holding the program in my hand and am noticing that there's a letter "F" on the program followed by the names "Brian & Crystal".  Confused, I'm thinking to myself that I'm pretty sure Andy's cousin Brian is marrying a girl named Liz and their last name begins with a "C".  Then we see a picture of the lovely couple and realize that we are at the wrong wedding!  We run out of this wedding, re-plug in the address in our phones and make our way to a different manor, just a quarter mile down the road.  Late for the actual wedding, we arrive just as the bride is about to make her entrance.  Not wanting to make a disturbance during her grand entrance, we hang back in the rear of the wedding area with another couple that also arrived late.  I commented to the other couple that we had just gone to the wrong wedding.  As soon as the bride appears, I hear the girl next to me gasp and say, "We're at the wrong wedding!".  Turns out, they were supposed to be at the wedding we just tried to crash!  We sent them off with directions to the right wedding and even provided them with a wedding program that we had held onto.  Definitely makes for a great story!

Anyway, we had a great time celebrating with the new couple.  Congrats Brian and Liz!
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And to end, here's a pic of the two of us.  I think this is probably the last wedding we'll attend this year....whew!  
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Now I'm back home in TX, getting back into the groove of daily life!