weelittlestitches

A Stitching Tradition

2012-02-18T10:11:00.001-05:00

I was lucky to have grown up with a tradition of needlework in my family. My mother sews beautifully (she made my wedding dress!) and she cross-stitches and knits as well, so there was always fabric, yarn, and embroidery floss about for me to use. But deeper than that is the tradition I inherited from my father's culture.

In the late 1950's my father and grandparents immigrated to Canada from Hungary. They moved into a rural farming community with a strong Hungarian presence and spoke the language almost exclusively at home for many years. Sadly, I never learned to speak Hungarian myself (I'd love to - but it's not easy!) but my early childhood was touched by the traditions they brought to Canada with them. More than anything (other than these amazing cookies called kifli) the thing I remember the most is the embroidery. If you've never seen traditional Hungarian embroidery you are missing out!

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the topic - far from it in fact - so if you'd like to learn a little more in-depth I recommend checking out: http://www.folk-art-hungary.com/ (where you can buy pre-made goods) and http://www.folkology.com/ (where you can buy kits and books if you'd like to try it yourself).

Styles of Hungarian Embroidery vary from region to region - you can find examples of the richly varied styles here: http://hungaria.org/projects.php?projectid=4&menuid=236

The beautifully coloured Kalocsa floral embroidery is probably the most recognizable. Like almost all Hungarian Embroidery it was used to decorate a wide variety of linens (everything from bedding, to doilies, to tablecloths, to towels) and clothing, I find every piece breathtakingly gorgeous and intricate!!

http://hungaria.org/projects.php?projectid=4&menuid=236

http://www.hungarianfolkart.com/embroidery.html

http://www.kalocsa-embroidery.com/needlework-gallery.html

http://www.kalocsa-embroidery.com/hungarian-embroidery.html

In a similar vein is Matyo embroidery - traditionally done on white or black linen, it also consists of floral motifs either in a bright rainbow of colours, or else a subtle, almost monochromatic look. I adore it on the black background and I think it looks quite modern and yet some how still charmingly traditional. This is the style I remember best from my childhood with it's cheerful colour scheme and fat, rounded motifs.

http://hungaria.org/projects.php?projectid=4&menuid=236

http://www.folk-art-hungary.com/matyo-embroidery.php

But these days the Hungarian embroidery which speaks the most to me is (surprise, surprise) the cross-stitch - in Hungarian it's keresztszemes - how's that for a lovely sounding word! Mostly geometric based designs the history of the craft goes back hundreds of years. I love the simple use of colour - usually red and black. As always I find it absolutely awe inspiring that so much beauty can come from one kind of stitch.

http://hungaria.org/projects.php?projectid=4&menuid=236

http://hungaria.org/projects.php?projectid=4&menuid=360

http://shop.folkology.com/products/starflower-2

Want to try a little keresztszemes yourself? Check out the great free patterns here:
http://qtp.hu/xszemes/regi_keresztszemes_mintak.php (the page is in Hungarian - but cross-stitch patterns need no language!) Examples of the available patterns are below. Click the link to take you to the page so you can get the charts directly.

Aren't they GORGEOUS!?! Happy stitching!

A Cross-stitched Home

2012-02-13T11:38:00.002-05:00

Around here at Chez Wee Little Stitches we don't just talk the talk - we live, unashamedly, in a cross-stitched home - every wall, every room, has at least one piece of cross-stitched art hanging on it. Would you like the tour? (if you click on the photos they get bigger so can see all the details!)

Entryway - cross-stitch on scrapbook paper

Livingroom - TARDIS from our Eleven Doctors Pixel People pattern

Livingroom - Dr. Zoidberg from our Futurama Pixel People pattern

Kitchen - "Given enough coffee I could rule the world" - Chris' original design

Dining room - Pixel People of our wedding party; quote Chris designed and gave me for our fifth anniversary

Livingroom - Crafty Chicks are Hot Pattern from our shop

Livingroom - my collection of pieces stitched from antique patterns

Hallway - Chris' collection of comic book/anime inspired work - Dragonball Z, Transformers, Pokemon, Green Lantern, Spiderman

Bathroom - monochromatic embroidery hoops with words -dream, seek, cherish, laugh, believe

Bathroom - Bathroom To-Do List pattern from our shop

Master Bedroom - Avatar: The Last Airbender Pixel People pattern

Studio/Guest Bedroom - cross stitched hoops by me, floral needlepoint by my Grandmother

It's a busy, busy apartment as you can see - and yes, that's a lot of beige walls, but we rent and there's not much we can do about that - other than cover every conceivable flat surface in stitching :)

So where do you hang your work?

Etsy Shop Love: Claudia Varosio

2012-02-12T13:18:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that I'm actually quite terrible with a pencil and paper - if I could sell my soul to the devil (hypothetically of course) for one skill it would be the ability to draw. I'm in absolute awe of people who can! I have so many ideas in my head that I'd love to be able to get on to paper, but alas... I'll just have to stick to Pixel People instead!

That's why I'm absolutely in love with Etsy shop of artist Claudia Varosio - because she draws just the sorts of things I would - and in colour palettes I adore. You simply must, must, must check her out!

It was tricky picking out just a few samples of Claudia's work because apparently she and I love exactly the same books, movies, and television shows!

I especially adore the paper dolls!

Breakfast at Tiffany's

The Big Lebowski

David Bowie

Now go buy lots of stuff from her! And send a few to my address as well :)

Literary Fashion Inspiration

2012-01-29T11:37:00.000-05:00

As happy as I am to have been able to undertake weelittlestitches full-time, I do sometimes still miss my old day job. I spent years working in retail as a fashion merchandiser - which is a fancy term for the person who makes the store look nice. It was my job organize the wall, table, and window displays and to dress all the mannequins. It was fun and creative and allowed me to play dress-up on a daily basis. Personally I dress a little conservatively - I'm a Virgo, slightly over 30, and not exactly a size 6 - but when it came to mannquins and displays I could be as creative as I liked and I really miss that.

Enter Polyvore - a vertible playground for all things fashion and decor. If you haven't discovered it yet, you simply must - it's a total time-suck, but worth every minute. There you can play dress-up all you want, without any consideration of budget or body type. It's wonderful and it's given me a chance to combine two of my loves - fashion and literature!

Introducing Miss Elizabeth Bennet by weelittlestitches

Introducing Alice by weelittlestitches

Introducing Miss Anne Shirley by weelittlestitches

Introducing Miss Eliza Doolittle by weelittlestitches

See Mom & Dad? Isn't it nice to know that the 40K I spent on my B.A.H in English Literature is coming in handy??

5 Things I Would NEVER Buy on Etsy

2012-01-19T10:06:00.000-05:00

There's a lot of really great stuff on Etsy. There are a lot of creative, original products, and wonderful, energetic sellers. And then there's a lot of bad stuff on Etsy. A LOT. In fact, whole websites have sprung up celebrating these atrocities (www.regretsy.com anyone?)

The truth is, there are just some things that I won't buy on Etsy. Ever. Not because the photos are bad or the sellers are actually re-sellers in disguise. There are somethings I just won't buy on principle.

do your birds match your sofa?

#1 - Vinyl Wall Decals
I live in an apartment with beige walls which I can't paint. The idea of peelable decorative vinyl wall decals appeals to me very much. I just don't think they belong on Etsy. These aren't handmade items. They're clip art and vector art which someone uses a special machine to cut. That's like selling things you've used your embroidery machine to embellish. I just don't think it's handmade. Besides... do I really need the silhouette of a tree plastered across my dining room wall? Probably not. And anyway, it takes up valuable cross-stitched art space!

dental hygiene is important!

#2 - Any Product Which Encourages Me to "Keep Calm"
Here's an example of a cool item which has gone seriously, seriously wrong. I love the original WWII era "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster which was developed by the British government, never actually used during the war, and then rediscovered years ago in some mouldy filing cabinet somewhere. I think it's a great campaign for a war torn country trying to keep it together. Heck, if it weren't currently so overdone I might even buy a reproduction print of the original. But somewhere along the line someone has decided that "keeping calm and carrying on" can be twisted into other not-so-clever maxims. Keep calm and have a cupcake? No thanks. Keep calm and and drink wine? Jeez. And I like cupcakes. And wine. Go ahead and type "keep calm" into the Etsy search engine. You'll see exactly what I mean.

yup. it's a record.

#3 - A Fascinator
I admit, I love hats. I don't wear them well owing to my extremely large head, but I like them. I admire women who can wear them. I admit I watched the royal wedding almost solely because I wanted to see what sorts of hats the guests were wearing. I may even have squealed in delight over one or two. But that being said, I'm not going to buy one. And I'm certainly not going to buy one on Etsy. Have you seen some of the crap sellers are hot gluing to dollar-store headbands and calling fascinators?? It just takes away from real milliners with real talent. And besides... where the heck would I wear one?

does anyone know CPR?

#4 - Any Product Modelled by a Naked, Sleeping Newborn
I like babies. I don't have any, but I like them. Newborns especially, since they're just so darn soft and smell so good and they don't talk back. But there's something about the trend of naked baby photography that freaks me out. Like seriously, seriously freaks me out. Scares me a little even. Do you really need to photograph the hat you're trying to sell on a sleeping naked infant? Probably not. And maybe it's morbid, but those babies always look dead to me. Or fake. Is there maybe a fake naked sleeping infant doll market that I don't know about? Maybe once I actually reproduce I'll feel differently about the trend. Maybe I'll look at those naked sleeping newborns and think "awwwww...." but in the meantime, please do me a favour and slap some pyjamas on your kid before you take photographs of him or her. Thanks.

wha.....?

#5 - Food
There really shouldn't be any explanation necessary for this one. You don't know the conditions under which these products have been produced. I consider myself to be a great baker, a passable cook, and a not-too-awful housekeeper. That doesn't mean I'd sell you something I cooked in my kitchen. You're better off finding a local bakery or farmer's market. Then at least you don't have to wait 3-5 days for your food to arrive.

With all of that out in the open though, I must admit there's a lot I WOULD buy on Etsy. I love letterpress and lithographs. I love patterns and PDFs. I adore jewelry if it doesn't look like I could have bought it at my local mall. There's a wonderfully vibrant and ever-growing community of artists and sellers who want nothing more than to bring a little of their work into your home. As a seller I can tell you there's nothing more special than knowing that something you made is going to be treasured by someone half-way around the world. We've featured some of our favourite Etsy sellers in past and we're going to continue doing it - so we can share a little of things we love with the people Etsy has brought into our life. So we can pass on a little of the luck we've had to other sellers who love the community and the lifestyle as much as we do. Just don't expect to see me buying a fascinator any time soon.

Let's Face it... Size Matters!

2012-01-15T09:52:00.003-05:00

We love encouraging our customers to ask us questions and one of the most frequent ones is "how to I make my stitching bigger/smaller?".... The answer, my friends is scale!

Cross-stitch is cool because it's stitched on a woven fabric - that's what makes it easy to work - there's no transferring the design and there's no fuss with guessing size... all it takes is a little math. We design most of our patterns with 14 count in mind... that is, there are 14 stitches to an inch. This is pretty much the standard size for cross-stitch and is the most common count of Aida cloth available.

That being said, there's something really cool about playing around with the scale of your projects! You can buy Aida cloth in any number of counts - 18, 11, 8.5... and the number of stitches per inch affects the size of your finished project... Behold!

(That's a lot of Wonder Women!)

Let's start with the Wonder Woman on the white perforated plastic at the top centre of the photo - she's stitched at our normal 14 stitches to the inch with two strands of embroidery floss - making her 2.75" x 1.25" - a few Pixel People lined up side-by-side at that scale will fit nicely in a 4x6 or 5x7 picture frame which is why we usually design at that scale.

The Wonder Woman in the embroidery hoop is stitched on 22 count with one strand of floss. It's tiny, finicky work, but I adore the wee scale of the project - she measures a petite 1.5" tall and 0.75" wide - perfect for a small acrylic keychain or magnet (or just because she's so adorable that small!)

The blue t-shirt belongs to Chris - the characters on it are stitched at 8.5 count with three strands of floss. When it comes to using waste canvas to stitch on t-shirts (and don't worry... that tutorial is coming soon) we've been able to find both 14 count and 8.5. I like the size of the 8.5 for t-shirts - you can't fit quite as many characters as you could at 14 count, but for one or two Pixel People (especially for smaller shirts for kids and babies) it's the perfect size! Wonder Woman is a little larger at 3.25" x 1.5". I like that you can see the details from a distance - just right for t-shirts!

Last but not least is our Amazonian sized Wonder Woman - she's stitched at 4.25 count and is a whopping 8" tall and 3.25" wide and will eventually be sewn into a doll. I used the 8.5 count waste canvas and stitched 6 strands of floss over two stands of the grid - making one giant stitch instead of 4 smaller ones. Stitching this was really just an experiment to see how it would turn out, and I must admit I'm quite pleased. I could see a row of Pixel People at this scale decorating bigger projects like pillow cases or quilts!

So you see, it's really all a matter of scale! If you want a larger sized design just stitch at a smaller count - and yes, it's really that easy!

Free Pattern - Futurama

2012-01-08T12:16:00.001-05:00

Hey All!

It's been a while since we've had a blog post. The holidays were extra busy for us this year, as I'm sure they were for many of you. As things are starting to get back to normal, we're finding ourselves with time to stitch again (finally!) and thought that perhaps you might be too... so as a belated New Year's gift from us here's a free pattern:

Futurama! (link)

We'd like to remind you that (as always) our patterns are for personal use only!! :)

Happy stitching!!

How To Survive Christmas Shopping - Tips From Someone in the Trenches

2011-12-10T09:51:00.002-05:00

The Etsy shop isn't the only job I have. I've been in retail a long time. A. LONG. TIME. Most of the time, I love what I do. It's fun, I'm not stuck behind a desk all day, I get to help some amazing customers, and I get 50% off on my own purchases. It's a sweet deal. But every November and December I spend a vast, vast majority of my time questioning why the hell I put up with it... Holiday in retail. It's hell.

In the interest of the good will and cheer of the season, I'd like to pass on some tips to you - call it insider information if you will - on how to make the dreaded Christmas shopping excursions as easy as possible. Why bother you ask? Because grumpy, irritable customers drive us sales clerks crazy. CRAZY. And everything would go so much smoother if we all just got along, and it's that what Christmas is really about?

#1 - Don't go to the mall on Saturday
Just don't. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the mall on a weekend in December is a bad idea. But if you want any sort of selection/attention from the sales staff then Saturday/Sunday afternoons are the WORST time to go. If you must go to the mall on weekends, be there early. If the mall opens at 9 A.M., be there at 9 A.M. - if for no other reason than because at least the staff is fresh and eager to help you. By 2 P.M. we're miserable and exhausted and if we hear one more complaint we're liable to claw someones eyes out. You'll get better selection and better service if you avoid weekends altogether! Trust me. Sneak some time off work if you have to, but try the mall on Monday morning or Wednesday afternoon - you'll be surprised at the difference in traffic! If your local mall has extended hours for the holidays (and most do) then use them - we're open earlier in the morning and later at night and those early/late hours are usually the slowest.

#2 - Educate Yourself
Every store has different policies regarding returns and exchanges. Believe it or not, it's the customer's responsibility to educate themselves as to what those policies are. Legally (at least in Canada and the United States), stores are required to have their policy posted for the customer to read and usually it's by the cash register. Any employee in any store should be able to tell you what the policy is though, if you ask, so please, please ask. And here's the difficult part of this tip: the company's exchange policy is not the employee's fault. If the policy is not to do cash returns, then the policy is not to do cash returns. These policies are put in to place to protect the company and it's investors from fraud and loss and to keep our prices as low as possible, they are not just to piss you off. Moreover, the sales clerk has no control over the policies and can't just pick and choose when to abide by them, so STOP ASKING US TO. Take the store credit and smile -- because if you didn't read the fine print before you bought the ugly sweater for your cousin Julie then that's your fault, not the person behind the counter's.

And please, please stop using the phrases "but it's my money" and "the customer is always right" because here's the truth - once you've bought that sweater, it's not YOUR money any more, it's the store's money now - that's how consumerism works. It's our money and your sweater. I wouldn't march up to your house, knock on the door, and demand my sweater back. And policies are policies which means the customer ISN'T always right. In fact, most of the time the customer is dead wrong and arguing with the sales clerk usually just makes us mad. If you absolutely have to have something which goes against a store's official policy (like your money back or making a return on Boxing Day) here's the best tip for making that happen: BE NICE ABOUT IT. Be polite. Be understanding. The person behind the counter is just as flustered as you are, and yelling at them for something beyond their control achieves nothing - in fact, the ruder the customer is, the less likely I am to help them (how's that for a confession?) If you're polite to me though, I'll probably try to bend the rules, at least a little, if I can.

#3 - Your sales clerk is not a psychiatrist
Believe it or not, but in almost a decade in retail sales I've heard way more personal information than any one person who is not a practicing member of the psychiatric community should. I've heard about weight gain and break-ups, about problems at work and trouble with the kids, it's like the second the fitting room door opens, the person inside seems to spew out every little issue they've ever had. Most of the time I really don't mind. I like people. I like getting to know people. I'm usually fairly patient with doling out the advice and then helping you find the little black dress which makes you feel like a million bucks. That's actually my favourite part of the job. Until December. Then customers start bitching about how busy they are and how stressful the holidays are and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... and every single time I want to punch them in the eye because they have no freaking idea.

Do you have a nine-to-five job? A Monday-to-Friday job? Do you get time off over Christmas? If the answer is yes to any of those questions, here's a little suggestion for making everyone else's Christmas a little brighter - shut up and enjoy that. Stop and think of those of us working over Christmas. We have shopping to do too, and the same family obligations that you do. Our houses need to be just as clean before the mother-in-law arrives. We have the same social occasions to stress over, the same meals to plan. So if you're not one of the people who works over Christmas, please be considerate of those of us who are. Stop and think about it from our point of view, if only for five minutes.

#4 - The Post Christmas Rush - aka. stay home on Boxing Day
Here's the deal. Stay home on Boxing Day. Please. If you're lucky enough not to be working then please, please stay home with your family. Because all those Boxing Day deals that people trample each other to death for? They're really not worth standing in line for 8 hours overnight. Do you know what Boxing Day is for retailers? It's the chance to clear out all the old crap that no one wants. The ugly-ass sweaters that didn't sell before Christmas. The dregs of the backroom stock that never would move any other day of the year. I could slap a 45% off sticker on a hairball my cat's thrown up and someone would buy it. It's ridiculous. All this hype has been manufactured by retailers to fool you in to purchasing things you really, really don't need any way. So do the world a favour and stay home. Enjoy your day off with the people who love you. Enjoy the gifts you've ALREADY gotten instead of greedily going out and buying more. All those gift cards that you got from Great Aunt Mildred might be burning a hole in your pocket, but you're better off saving them for pretty much any other time of the year... why? Because generally retailers don't get stock shipments in the days leading up to Christmas, which means there's nothing new in the stores until after the new year. Sizes are picked over, selection is poor, and often sales made during the week after Christmas are final - so if you later regret buying that 62" television there's nothing you can do about it. So please wait. Traffic dies off so drastically in January that any sales clerk would jump at the chance to help you then.

#5 - Treat the sales staff like people
Here's an idea - say please and thank you. Yes, it's my job to help you, that's what I'm being paid for but that doesn't mean you can't be nice to me while I do it. You'd be surprised how much better the service can be if you actually are pleasant to the people providing it. I dread the bitchy customers and if you want me to be honest, I'm probably not as helpful to them as I should be. But if you smile at me and are polite, I will move heaven and earth to get you what you want - even on the busiest days of the year. Too often customers forget that the people behind the counter are PEOPLE. We're not machines, we're not invisible. We have feelings. We have families. We've worked long hours and we're probably more tired than you are. We'd really, really like to enjoy our Christmas too, if only we could. So try a smile. Try asking us how we're doing. Try a little sympathy. I wouldn't go in to your work place and be rude to you, so I really hope you won't do the same to me, no matter what day of the year it is.

#6 - Smile, dammit!
The holiday season is suppose to be about cheer. About spreading joy and good will... so smile, wouldya? That's the first thing I tell me staff, even on the busiest days. Because a smile and a 'thank you' is contagious. If I smile at my customers and make their shopping experience a little more pleasant, then perhaps they'll go home and smile at their spouse and their kids... I've always thought that if I injected just a little niceness into every interaction then I was doing my best as a person, and never is this attitude more important than at the holidays. But it's tough to be that upbeat when the person you're smiling at has an attitude to rival Ebenezer Scrooge. So smile, dammit. Acknowledge that we all share in the hectic and demanding pace that December brings to our lives. You're not the only one having a long day. You're not the only one worrying about the cost, the mess, the mother-in-law. We all have those issues! It really won't kill you to be polite and smile. And perhaps, by doing that, you'll make some sales clerk's day. Perhaps he or she will go home with a smile of their own. Perhaps you'll make the holiday season a little nicer for someone who needs it.

#7 - You do realize Christmas is always on December 25th, right?
I'm always amazed at the last minute gift buying rush... I mean, of all the holidays all year round, Christmas is the easiest to remember. It's always on December 25, every year, so why are so many people caught off guard by that?? If you do your shopping early then you won't have to brave the mall on the last Saturday before Christmas, instead you can do what I wish I was doing, which is to stay home and spend time with the people I love. It's not like you don't know Christmas is coming!

In summary... enjoy your holidays every one. Embrace the season for the crazy, hectic time that it is. Smile about that, joke about it. Extend a little kindness to the people who work through it, who don't have the time off that you do. There are people who work on Christmas and if you're not one of them, be thankful. Take the time you've been given to be with your family, because trust me - if I could have that option, I would take it, gladly.

P.S. - if you're looking for me on Boxing Day, I'll be at the store at 5 A.M. Yippee.

Free Pattern - The Avengers

2011-11-29T17:29:00.003-05:00

The holidays are fast approaching and we're heavily, heavily into the Christmas crafting here at Chez WLS... and based on how busy the shop has been the past few weeks we`re guessing you are too!

In light of the upcoming season and all the warm and fuzzy feelings it brings - and to thank you all for being such wonderful supporters of us and what we do - we`d like to share a pattern with you... for free!

I give you... the Avengers pattern! (link)

I`d like to take the time to remind you that our patterns are for personal use only - please feel free to share the link with all your friends, but please don`t sell the pattern or the finished product.

Happy holidays!!

2011-10-16T14:00:00.000-04:00

New shoes, new camera, same old weather - rain.

Stitch Your Own Cell Phone Case Tutorial

2011-10-08T11:48:00.003-04:00

So for a few months now I've been ogling the cross-stitchable cell phone case from Connect Design. It's super cute and I LOVE the idea...

But as far as I can see it there are several problems with this particular cell phone case....

#1. It's $18 + shipping and comes from overseas, which takes forever. I'm cheap and in need of practically instant gratification.

#2. I don't know what the inside of your handbag/pocket/knapsack looks like, but mine is rarely spic and span and the stitches would get dirty and ratty within no time.

#3. I don't own an iPhone and have NO plans of buying one any time soon.

So... when faced with these seemingly impossible obstacles there's only one thing for a crafter to do...

FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF!

Enter the sketchy cell phone accessory kiosk at my local shopping mall... where I managed to find myself one of these:

It's a clear rubbery cell phone case! And it fits my Blackberry Bold. And it was $6. Sweet. The salesperson assured me they had clear cases for almost every brand of cell phone - including iPhones 2, 3, and 4. I know I've seen these cell phone accessory kiosks in pretty much every mall I've been in lately, so I'm sure there's one near you.

Next I need to gather my supplies:

For this project you will need:

A pattern (I'm using our Justice League Pixel People Pattern but you could use any small cross stitch pattern) and the appropriate floss colours

14 count plastic canvas or Aida cloth - available at any decent craft supply store or needlework shop. One sheet of 14 count plastic canvas is a whopping $0.99 at my local Michaels and is available in either clear or white. I'd love to get my hands on other colours too, which I know I've seen online. In the meantime though I'm going to use what I have on hand. Alternately, if you don't have plastic canvas you could definitely use regular ol' Aida. You'd have to fray check the edges to keep it from unravelling or you could paint it any colour you like using our Paint Your Own Aida method which will seal the edges.

Small sharp scissors and an X-acto knife

Your clear cell phone case

First thing's first... you need to make a template so you know how much plastic canvas/Aida cloth you'll need to cut.

With the backside of your cell phone case facing up, make a crayon rubbing on a scrap piece of paper (just like with leaves in kindergarten). This is will give you a good idea of the outline of your case - especially useful for those curvy edged cell phones like the Blackberry.

Cut our your rough template and pop it into the case just to be sure it fits. It doesn't have to be perfect or straight at this point. It's really just meant to be a cutting guide for our stitchable fabric. Which leads us to the next step...

Just lay your template on top of your plastic canvas or Aida cloth and cut to size. I left myself a few extra rows all the way around just to have some room to play with. Again I popped my plastic canvas into my case to be sure I liked the fit. I was glad I left a few extra rows because I actually needed them - this is why your paper template doesn't have to be perfect! (FYI - the exact size of my 14 count plastic canvas ended up being 100mm x 55 mm).

The only thing left to do is to round the corners and to cut the holes for my camera lens and flash:

I just snipped a few notches in the corners of my plastic canvas to make it fit into the curve of my case. Then holding my plastic canvas in place I used a marker to trace out all the little holes and doo-das I needed for the camera function on my phone (not that I use it much, but it's nice to have the option). Using a craft knife I (carefully!) cut out all the holes that I'd marked.

Now you're finally prepped and ready to go! At this point you have the perfect template for your stitchable cell phone case. I've actually cut myself a half-dozen of these now so I can stitch as many variations as I like. For my first case I worked up Wonder Woman and Batman. The size of plastic canvas you have to work with is completely dependant on the size of your cell phone. With my Blackberry Bold I have just enough room for two normal sized Pixel People side by side. The combinations of motifs is practically endless!! I've been thinking I might do a Doctor Who case next, with two of my favourite Doctors... or maybe a Star Wars case with Chewbacca and Han Solo... at any rate, the nice thing about doing your cross-stitchable case this way instead of buying the Connect Design case is that you can change out your stitching whenever the whim hits you - you're not stuck with just one design... and with your stitching behind the clear plastic it'll stay clean!

After a quick bit of stitching this is what I ended up with:

Cool huh? Quick, interchangeable, protected, and best of all... LESS THAN $10. Sweet.

Happy stitching!!

Reflections on One Year

2011-08-25T09:42:00.000-04:00

So... it's our one-year Etsy-versary! Hard to believe an entire year has gone by already. I must say after 2350 sales, 315 "likes" on Facebook (only 40 of which are our family and friends who have to like us) and 64 patterns we're still flabbergasted at how well it's all gone. Like 'pinch-yourself-it-can't-be-real' flabbergasted. Who knew there were so many cross-stitchers in the world? Who knew there were so many people who shared our geeky interests? Who knew that a few pixelated people patterns could prompt a lot of non-crafty sorts to pick up a needle and learn to stitch?

We certainly didn't.

We are humbled, truly and deeply, by our reception in the world of cross-stitch. We never, ever, in a million billion years could have anticipated the success of this past year. We thought we'd be lucky to sell just a few patterns a month. Nothing could have prepared us for 2350 pattern sales.

So really we want to take this opportunity to thank you. None of this could have happened if you hadn't embraced our geeky little patterns so completely. We love your enthusiasm for our patterns and for the craft of cross-stitch. We love every relationship we've established with our new friends all over the world. You've made our business and our lives a wonderful, creative, and exciting place to be!

We're looking forward to growing even more over the next year - there are big, big things planned for our wee little stitchy business... including an avalanche of new patterns, a plethora of cute finished products for you to buy, and a few magazine appearances too... we can't wait to share all those things with you.

Thank you again, from the bottoms of our hearts!

Happy stitching,

Jacqueline & Christopher xo

P.S... we want to give a little back! For a limited time if you enter the code WOOHOO during checkout you'll save 20% on purchases of TWO OR MORE PATTERNS <3

So You Want to Open An Etsy Shop

2011-07-02T12:23:00.001-04:00

We've been doing this Etsy thing for a while now with, well... a little bit of success, luckily. And we get asked quite often what the secret to our success is. In our opinion there are a lot of smaller points which factor into overall success in the uber-competitive world that is Etsy selling... and luckily we're going to share them with you!

Be Original.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that a lot of the product on Etsy is the same ol' stuff over and over. And while I'm sure those sellers are lovely people, you're never going to stand out in the crowd if you're selling the same sorts of items as Sally Smith three shops over. It just ain't going to work! Find something different to offer people - otherwise you're probably wasting your time.

Learn To Take Decent Photographs.
Put down your iPhone - it takes crap photos no matter what Apple says. Bad photography has killed many an Etsy shop. People aren't going to buy it if they can't tell what it is! And by all means please, please do your shoppers a favour and skip all the cheesy props and backgrounds. Clean, well-lit, and in focus is all you need! Find photos you like and analyze what it is you like about them. The setting? The quality of the light? You *can* learn how to take good photos - it just takes practice and a somewhat decent camera.  And if you don't have any confidence in your photography skills, find a friend who does. Pay them with drinks if you have to (but not until *after* the photo session).

Find Your Aesthetic/Style And Stick To It.
Now is not the time to develop multiple personalities. Sell one sort of thing and sell it well. Embroidery, great. Knitting, fantastic. Quilting, good on you.  Handmade stationary, so lovely. All four in one shop?? Might be a bit much. I recently stumbled upon a shop which was selling so many different styles of crafts that it was more like a church jumble sale than a store. Find one thing you love to create and focus on that. If you really need to sell your quilts and your hand knit baby hats, open two shops! It's free, remember?   Some of the most successful Etsy sellers have multiple shops, and often the aesthetic for each is quite different. You want people to recognize your product as your product, not get confused between you and Sally Smith three shops over.

Customer Service Is Everything.
We've all bought from those shops which don't even acknowledge your presence and are left wondering (often for weeks) if the seller even realized we'd purchased something from them, never mind if the item we purchased actually ever shipped! My real job is in fashion retail so I've learned a trick or two about helping customers. The best advice - treat each and every person who expresses even the slightest bit of interest in your shop like they were an old friend. Be helpful. Be polite. Be friendly. The way to build a relationship with customers is to be communicative! Let them know you got their order. Let them know when the order ships. Let them know you're thankful for their patronage. Let them know you want to see them again. Do all of those things and you'll see the same customers back again and again and after a while you'll be able to stop treating those strangers like they're friends because they will be. Then you get to treat friends like they're friends!

Admit To Yourself It Will Take More Time & Effort Than You Expected.
Say good-bye to your personal life. If you want your shop to be successful you have to treat it like the job it is and if you already have a real, full-time job (like I do) that often means early mornings and late nights filling orders. Be prepared to have this thing take over your life in every way. If you don't have the time or desire to dedicate yourself fully to this enterprise, you probably shouldn't be doing it! It may mean being up at 5:30 a.m. to fill the overnight orders before you go to work in the morning (I do it every day). It may mean being up stitching/designing/shipping every night when you get home until you're nodding off to sleep over your embroidery (which yes, I've done too). If you want to do well there are no days off. That's what owning your own successful business is. Admit it. Accept it. Deal with it.

Relist Often & Tag Intelligently.
The only way people are going to find your listings is to keep them at the forefront of the search engine... and since Etsy lists items chronologically (the newest listings being first) no one is ever going to find you if you're 12 pages in. That being said you don't have to relist every item in your shop every ten minutes. One or two every day at the very least. That extra forty cents might gain you a sale. And don't forget to relist an item once it's sold (unless it's one of a kind). That bumps you back up to the top of the list too! When I first opened the shop I used to relist one or two things every morning, then again around dinner time. I don't have to do that as much now because I'm selling things often enough that I'm relisting several times a day anyway, but I never would have gotten to that point if I didn't relist often in the beginning!

And don't forget to tag your listings. Etsy gives you 13 tags for each item - don't tag every single item in your shop the exact same way either!   Use the obvious ones of course - for example, we tag everything in our shop with "cross stitch"... but then we'll throw in different tags too - putting "wedding" or "sci-fi" in with appropriate listings opens up a whole new customer base for you - you won't just get cross-stitchers but people getting married or science-fiction fans. Tags are a great way to broaden the sorts of buyers who come through your shop. Don't mis-tag your items though. It ticks people off if they're looking for "Green Lantern" and you've tagged a fuzzy pink baby hat that has nothing to do with Green Lantern or even comic books in general. Plus, Etsy will pull mis-tagged items if people report you. You've been warned ;)

Build Your Brand
As someone who works in retail, I hear the phrase 'branding' a lot. I sort of hate it because it seems like such a self-serving sort of thing, but it works. Walmart isn't just a department store, it's a brand. The Toronto Maple Leafs aren't just a hockey team, they're a brand. Beyonce isn't just a singer, she's a brand. Your shop needs to be like that too. This is a business you're trying to run - you need to put yourself out there as much as you can. That doesn't mean you need to spend thousands of dollars to build your brand though - the really good social media is free. Facebook. Flickr. Twitter. Tumblr. Pinterest. Let people know where to find you. Make connections. It doesn't have to cost anything except your time. You don't need to rush out and buy advertising space on blogs and sites unless you want to. All that being said though, your blog and your Facebook page, your Flickr account and your Twitter feed need to be something more than a blatant advertisement all the time. I can't tell you the number of people I've stopped following on Twitter because each tweet is just a link to another their shop and nothing more. You have to talk about yourself at least a little. But keep it from being too personal. Your business Facebook page definitely isn't the place to talk about how hungover you are after a night of partying.

Stick To Your Promises and Policies.
If your listing says you ship within 24 hours you better ship within 24 hours. If it promises customers they can return an item if they're displeased with it, you better take that return if necessary. In business, as in life, don't make promises you can't keep. Outline your policies clearly (there's a spot for that in your shop) and by all means stick to them, but make them fair to both the customer and yourself. A good business will do everything it can to satisfy the customer, but you also have an obligation to protect yourself, your product, and your profit. I see this every day in my retail job and it's one of my biggest pet peeves!! I don't know who invented the phrase "the customer is always right"! I'd love to throttle them because the truth is the customer ISN'T always right. But the customer isn't going to know that if you don't outline the rules and policies before they make their purchase.   I've had a few misunderstandings with my Etsy customers but they've all turned out well (thankfully) because my shop policies are clear and (I feel) fair to both myself and them.

You Owe It To Yourself To Price Fairly.
Handmade is Handmade. Handmade is not cheap. It takes time, effort, and love to create something special like that. Please do yourself a favour and price your product accordingly. You're never going to make something of your Etsy shop if you undersell the time and effort and cost of creating an item. The nice thing about Etsy is that the people who shop there understand that. They like that. If they wanted a $2 pillowcase, they'd go to Walmart. That being said, don't jack up the prices just because you can. You have to do a lot of research before you open your shop. What are similar items being sold for? How much did the materials cost you? How much time did it take to create the item? If there are $4 worth of materials in your item, and it took you 20 minutes to create it - please don't sell it for $75. You won't be fooling anyone.  However, if it took you $15 dollars worth of materials and 12 hours to create, please don't sell it for $5. You're a craftsperson and your time and skill is worth more than that! Pay yourself fairly.

Love What You Sell
If your shop takes off and you hate the process of creating the items you sell, well... life is going to suck a little!! I love cross-stitch. I eat, sleep, and breathe cross-stitch. I dream about it. I think endlessly about it. I'll talk to anyone who'll listen about it. I think that's the real reason why my shop is finding a little success. You can't fool customers! They know when you love what you do. It shows in every stitch and every email. Even on the days when I'm exhausted and overwhelmed I still love my little shop and what I do. Once you find that thing for yourself, once you dedicate yourself to it, success will find you.

Good luck! And send me the link to your shop when it opens - I'd love to be your customer!

Because We Love Love

2011-05-27T09:42:00.001-04:00

In honour of our impending wedding anniversary (it's tomorrow... and it'll be six years we've been married) we wanted to share a little of the love with you. So... free patterns!!

And remember... feel free to share the love... but don't sell it ;D

Etsy Love - beanforest

2011-05-08T09:16:00.000-04:00

Both Mr. WLS and I have a fondness for buttons... and together we own more than we should - which is precisely why I shouldn't be drooling (and giggling) over the offerings over at beanforest on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/shop/beanforest

My favourites:

So much laughing out loud going on over here... the neighbours must wonder!

My finger is hovering over the "add to cart" button... are yours?

Tutorial: How to Paint Aida Cloth

2011-05-01T11:21:00.002-04:00

Don't let my all-black wardrobe fool you... I am in fact a colour person, which is one of the reasons that I find the current available colours of Aida Cloth so darn frustrating. Let's see... I'm planning on beginning a new cross stitch project and the colours of fabric I have to choose from are white, off-white, black, natural, and a rather anemic selection of awful pastels. Sorry folks, that just isn't working for me.

I hummed and hawed and experimented for a good long while before I finally came up with a method for colouring my own Aida cloth. I tried dyeing it (it is 100% cotton, generally) but couldn't get a consistent saturation of colour - and while that works quite well for some designs, I didn't want the fabric to compete with my simple cross-stitch patterns so much as compliment them - enter my method for painting Aida...

This is what you need:

~ White Aida cloth in the count you prefer - we almost always use (and design with) 14 count.
~ Regular ol' acrylic craft paint (available at pretty much any craft store - although we don't recommend using dollar store craft paint... go ahead and ask us how we know that).
~ Textile Medium Liquid - usually found in either the fabric paint aisle or with the acrylic paints - we use Delta Ceramcoat and we love it. We buy it at Michael's.
~ Foam paint brush and a small container to mix your paint in.

Okay... let's take a quick break to answer a few questions you undoubtedly have.
1. Why the heck don't you just use regular fabric paint? 'Cause it's expensive and we're cheap. Acrylic paint is much cheaper than fabric paint, comes in a wider range of colours and mixes well. The bottle of textile medium is a little more expensive, but a little goes a long, long way.
2. Do I have to use textile medium? Can't I just paint right on the fabric with the regular paint? Yes you do and no you can't. The textile medium helps the acrylic paint to sink into the fabric - keeping your Aida flexible and making it ironable/washable. Without it, the acrylic can just sit on the surface and flake and crack. That's not very nice!

Now... back to the business at hand.

Firstly, prep your work surface. We like throwing down a piece of waxed paper to work on, although any clean piece of paper would work too (don't use newspaper, the newsprint will rub off on your fabric... again, don't ask us how we know that!). Waxed paper works well because it's cheap and it doesn't absorb the paint, risking it seeping through to the surface you're trying to protect in the first place!

Cut your white Aida cloth to the size you need. For a pattern that's 5x7 we literally cut our fabric to 5x7 - that way there's no waste at all. But if you prefer to trim your fabric after you've completed stitching, that's cool too. The nice thing about painted Aida is that the edges are sealed - so they won't fray as you work!

Next, mix your paint to the colour you're trying to achieve. For softer colours it's nice to start with white paint and tint it with a little colour - in this example we're going for a soft grey. If you wanted a brighter, more vibrant colour, just go with what's in the bottle. Remember though, once you get it on the fabric, the colour always looks stronger! Trust us. When all else fails, err on the side of caution. If it's not as dark or vibrant as you wanted it to be when it's all finished, you can always repaint it.

Before you begin painting you need to mix in your textile medium. Our brand recommends a 2-1 ratio of paint to textile medium. We don't measure exactly... if you have a little too much medium that's okay. The nice thing about the textile medium is that it doesn't alter the colour of your paint!

Really now all you have to do is apply your paint to your fabric - we like using a foam brush because they're really inexpensive and they achieve great coverage. You want to make sure you get every bit of your fabric painted evenly. It's going to look like the tiny holes in the Aida are all filled in with paint. Don't worry - as the paint absorbs into the fabric the holes will reopen again - and if they don't, then your needle will still go through.

You don't need a million coats of paint - truth be told, one coat usually does it. We go side to side with the first pass, and then up and down on the second to make sure no little white parts are showing through!

Now comes the hard part - waiting for the paint to dry. In the meantime don't forget to clean up! If you have leftover paint you can keep it in a sealed container to use the next time.

Once the paint has dried flip your fabric over. Don't be alarmed, but chances are a little (or a lot) of the paint has seeped through to the backside like this:

That's okay! It means the paint/textile medium has done it's job and permeated the fabric instead of just sitting on the surface. It may not look too pretty, but no one's going to see the back anyway. The last step in this process is to heat seal the paint to make it washable and permanent. We recommend a hot iron on cotton setting without steam.

We have an iron dedicated just to crafting, so we're confident to iron directly onto the backside of the fabric even though a little paint has seeped through. You can also use a pressing cloth to protect your iron if you like. Either way you're going to smell a little acrylic paint sort of smell. That's okay! Just keep your iron moving in circular motions for a few seconds to set the paint (half a minute usually does it). The textile medium we use recommends allowing 7 days for the paint to cure after you've heat set it before you wash the piece - but you can still stitch on it in the meantime!

See? Looks pretty good - unless you flipped it over, you'd never know it wasn't grey Aida cloth to begin with!! You may find that the paint has made the Aida a little stiffer. Personally, we like it that way, since it's easier to stitch on without a hoop (I generally don't use a hoop at all). But you can still hoop your fabric like normal if that's your preferred method of stitching. Once your stitching is completed, the fabric can be ironed on the backside just like normal!

And that's it! Instead of being limited to the small number of colours of Aida cloth commercially available, you can now, quite literally, make millions of colours!! With only a few basic colours of paint, you can mix an entire rainbow of personalized, one-of-a-kind colours of Aida cloth. Have fun!

I do do other things

2011-04-30T10:05:00.000-04:00

I'm sort of one of those people who has a lot of hobbies. A lot. Actually, that's probably understating the scope of the number of things I've attempted. Since the Etsy shop began, I do usually spend my time cross-stitching, but I know how to do any number of crafty things... knitting, crochet, sewing, scrapbooking, embroidery... I've tried it all! And over the years all those hobbies have amassed a rather frighting amount of supplies. That being said, I love experimenting with using non-traditional supplies for the hobbies that I do have! Painting Aida cloth to cross stitch on? Done it. Crochet with kitchen twine? Check. Embroider on scrapbooking paper? Well yes... yes I do.

Cool, huh? I've been playing around with stitching on paper for a while (both embroidery and cross stitch). I really love the selection of scrapbooking paper out there (and own a shameful amount for someone who has never actually done much scrapbooking). At least if I stitch on it, it justifies the large amount of paper I own. Want to see details?

They turned out better than I could have hoped for -- and so much nicer than store-bought cards!

2011-04-24T12:51:00.000-04:00

Yeah, we do!

What. No Mints is a great Etsy shop - just the sort of embroidery we like - check them out here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/whatnomints

We love the combo of geeky embroidery and felty goodness!

Etsy Love

2011-04-15T09:25:00.000-04:00

There is something to be said for spending as much time on Etsy as I do... I'm always stumbling on lovely little shops that make me want to spend all my hard earned money... case in point - Etsy shop Sew Sweet Stitches... http://www.etsy.com/shop/SewSweetStitches The colours! The perfect little stitches! Serious, serious Etsy lust.

This little iPhone cozy has my finger hovering over the 'add to cart' icon in a big way! Funniest part of the entire thing? I don't even own an iPhone. Or a Blackberry. Or a smart phone of any sort. I still use a cell phone so old that current iPhone owners weren't yet born when my phone was manufactured. Toddlers have better cell phones than I do! But that certainly doesn't stop me from considering picking little treasure up. Goodness knows what I'd use it for...

So Glad We're Not The Only Ones

2011-04-12T08:40:00.000-04:00

Okay, the truth is that certain members of this household pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe comic books. We talk about it a lot, think about it a lot, and very often turn to each other and say - "this would be a cute cross-stitch". And yes, we are completely aware of how nerdy that is!

It is of some comfort to know that we're not the only ones who think of comic book heroes as fodder for slightly non-traditional comic book art! While doing my weekly troll around The Internets, I stumbled across this fantastic piece of artwork:

The print of which is available here: http://www.society6.com/studio/lishoffs/ABC_Superheroes

It's brilliant! I think it would be perfect for a comic-book loving kid's room, and while there currently aren't any wee little feet pitter-pattering around our house, I think I might just have to buy it anyway... because there is one comic-book lovin' kid in this house - it's just that he's 34.

The real test? Can you name all 26 alphabetically-represented comic book heroes??

I love our customers!

2011-04-11T17:13:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been feeling like we're really lucky. It seems that word of mouth is working in our favour. Case in point... a customer I did a custom Pixel People Couple stitch for (all the way in Barcelona Spain... Hi! Sandra!) so kindly put a good word for us with the nice folks at this cool wedding site:

http://www.ohweddings.net/gifts-custom-pixel-portrait.php

It's still a little amazing to me to see our work out there in the big, wide world. And it's even more humbling to think that someone likes us enough to want to share what we do. I can't think of any better reward for all our hard work than that!

Happy stitching!

(P.S. that Pixel People Bride & Groom?... it's me and Mr. WLS)

The beginning

2011-04-10T08:25:00.000-04:00

Things always have to start somewhere. For us this blog is a place to share a little bit more about the passions which drive us - movies and comic books, literature and pop-culture, crafting and cross-stitch. There was a day just before we began the Etsy shop when I had chinese food for lunch and the fortune inside my cookie at the end of the meal said this:

At a time where I was questioning whether I really needed to add one more thing to my already busy days I thought that fortune was positively providential. We both love our 'real' full-time jobs... (I'm a fashion retail merchandiser and Mr. WLS is a zookeeper... seriously) but for us the Etsy shop was (and still is and hopefully always will be) the path that has heart. We love what we do - our patterns, our customers, cross-stitching in general. It's become such a big part of who we are in such a short time that I know the fortune cookie was right. When you pick a path with heart, good things happen.