Iluma Christmas Arts Market 11th - 12th December 2010 Post-Mortem

My dear friends,
If you haven't heard from me for a while, don't worry. I'm still alive. Maybe I feel a little tired, but I'm very much alive. Okay, I confess. I'm dead tired. OMG, I'm so, so exhausted. I just wanna lie down and sleep and sleep all day. I've been busy, busy, busy sewing all day long. This weekend, I was selling my bags at the Iluma Christmas Arts Market. So how did it go?

To be really honest with you, I was a little disappointed in the beginning because firstly, there weren't many sellers. Just 12 of us and we were kind of scattered around three little areas. I really wanted a cosy atmosphere where everyone is located in 1 area. But that's not my call. Anyhoo, I made the best of what I was given.

Table on Saturday

Rack on Saturday

There was lots of space for me to display my bags. I kinda wished I had more to display. My kids came to help me on Saturday. They told Dad they enjoyed themselves. Yep, treated themselves to lots of food at the mall.

This past week I had been busy making bags but just didn't have the time or energy to post them. I'd like to share some of them with you today.

Do you know Etsuko Furuya? She designs such fabulous textile print. I LOVE her Echino collection. Her rich colours are not for everyone. You must LOVE colours to LOVE Echino. Her blue is bluer than blue. Her pink is so deep you can't really see the white. No grass green for this textile designer. It's Yellow Mustard-Green. I wanna lie in bedsheets made from Echino fabric. I wanna sleep on pillow cases made from Echino fabric. I wanna wear T-shirts made in Echino knits (if she EVER makes them) I wanna use her double-gauze fabric to make curtains for all my rooms. I wanna roll about..... Okay, I think that's enough visual for you.

3 Blue Panther Bags

So I couldn't find any Echino fabric in Singapore and had to order them from overseas. But so worth it! I went a little out of control and made FOUR crossbody bags all using Echino fabric. When I made the bags, I wanted something cool you could sling across your body, big enough for essentials but certainly not big enough for documents (if that's what you have in mind). I also imagined the owner of the bags would walk with a little swagger!

Blue Panther

Red Panther

Brown Crossbody (The handle is houndstooth canvas!!!)

Birds Crossbody (this bag is not for wallflowers)

Only the blue panther was sold. The selling price is $39. The 3 remaining crossbody bags will be put up for sale again next weekend at Iluma. (Yes, I'm going back!)

Curvy Blue Panther Mini Zip Handbag

Handy Blue Panther Mini Zip Handbag

I'm so loving the blue panther fabric that I made 2 more mini zip handbags which you may have noticed are my new "thing". Both bags were made to carry just a few essentials. The selling price is $19. The curvy one is sold but the other one will also be put up for sale again at Iluma.

I made some zip pouches (to pay the rent). I took pics of some and forgot to take pics of some.

Kokka patchwork

Mini Zip Pouch

Kokka Little Red Riding Hood

Nautical

All my zip pouches were snatched up. Yes, the elephant ones are sold. The flower-flower ones are sold. The new ones are sold. The ones I forgot to take pics of are sold. 2 zip pouches I sold right after I put the finishing touches to them and placed them on the table!!! Gosh, I wished I had more zip pouches to sell. One of the HOT zip pouches was sold to a lady who reads my blog!!! Oh, I feel so special. She's also a seller.

mutya & jinggoy

Meet Mutya and her husband, Jinggoy. Mutya actually remembers that I love to wear my lucky Roots T-shirt when I sell at craft markets.

Mutya & Jane & her lucky Tee

In the pic, we are posing in front of her table where she sells her tullerie products. Go to her etsy store and check her out.

I think my Roots tee did its magic again because I sold a total of 22 bags and pouches!!! So yes, I had a pretty good weekend. Next weekend, I'll be back at Iluma Christmas Arts Market again. I'm crazy, right? My stock is at an all time low so I'm gonna have to sew like a mad woman once more. It'll be my last craft market for 2010 and after that I'll sleep for a few days. See you in a while.

My Next Craft Market

Hello!

Iluma

This week I'm abandoning my favourite TV-shows, housework, blog friends and just doing nothing but sewing. Sewing bags takes time. I have no time. This week, time FLEW. I haven't even washed my hair! I have completed 4 crossbody bags so far. I have no time to take photos. Today and tomorrow I'll do a few zip pouches and that's all I can spit out this week. My next craft market is this weekend at Iluma. Iluma is not a easy place to sell at. It's a different crowd. I can only hope for the best. Plus it's outdoors. Will probably start to worry about rain from Friday.

Iluma

Christmas Arts Market
201 Victoria Street
Singapore 188067
12pm to 9pm both days
Nearest MRT stn: Bugis

December MAAD 2010 Post-Mortem

Hey you guys,

Hope you had a great weekend. The last MAAD for the year 2010 has come and gone. I was a little worried about rain as I was taking the train. Plus my girl was coming along to be my little helper for Saturday. She did a great job by the way. I must surely be very lucky because just 5 minutes after I reached red dot design museum, it POURED for hours.

The Christmas crowd did not come to MAAD this year. So yes, it was very quiet. I was expecting a miracle but it didn't happen. But sellers never cry. So I will gamely move on to the next craft market.

I read my December 2009 MAAD post-mortem and was really shocked that just 1 year ago, I sold 32 bags at Dec 2009 MAAD. Gosh, business has really gone down the drain. This weekend, I just managed to sell 13 items!

I made 3 additional drawstring pouches which I haven't shown you guys yet. The red and whites ones have been sold. But the blue/grey/white checks is still available.

What a great smile!

This is June with her purchase. Inside the pouch is a clutch which she also bought. Her friend, Cindy bought the other red and white nautical drawstring pouch. Thank you ladies!

Guess what she's doing?

My dear friends, please meet Fiona, officially my very FIRST bag-making student. On Saturday, I taught her to make a perfect size lunchtime drawstring pouch. She had to handsew it - poor thing. She's very easy to teach mostly because she already knows how to sew pretty well. I kept talking to her while she sewed. I realise I talk a lot.

Yay, I did it!

I hope to conduct future classes using sewing machines but that'll be 2011. I hope Fiona returns for more classes!!!

Perfect breakfast - eggs, buttered toast and tea

On Sunday I was so happy to discover that a restaurant called Funan Wen next to red dot design museum served breakfast. Look what I ate. Breakfast fit for a QUEEN. However, I was a little concerned when the very attentive waiter asked me if the eggs were cooked right? What??? You don't know? He explained it was only the 2nd day they were doing breakfast and needed my feedback.

Thank goodness the guys knew what they were doing after all. The eggs were PERFECT. I'm eating breakfast there from now on.

Sunday was not spectacular at all. Me bud, Jon came down for a short while. Forgot to take a pic! (He must be so relieved) At the end of the day, I received a nice surpise. My fellow craft seller Sally gave me an early Christmas present. (I got her nothing!)

Wire wrapped ring

This wire wrapped ring was something I had been eyeing for a while ever since I saw Sally wearing it. I wanted to buy it from her but I did not tell her I fancied it. To my surprise, she gave it to me! How did she know I liked it? Sally just started selling her wire wrapped jewellery at Etsy. Her shop is called SalangCreation. Check it out and please heart her folks!

I have 2 more craft markets to sell at this year. My stock is embarrassingly low so this week I have to become a superwoman and spit out a few more bags. See you.