Sewing For My Supper

Tis that time of year again, shops already have an aisle of Christmas gifts and food, and I'm yet again in a panic because my brother is just so hard to shop for.
I also find that despite my best efforts, relaxation is impossible to find. I'm always sewing my little fingers to the bone to make sure everyone gets their order in good time.. I should maybe explain here that I make little felt brooches, mainly for shops, and they don't order one brooch at a time, no, a small order tends to be around the 50 items mark, and these brooches are hand cut (with scissors of course, I don't have multi-tool hands!) and hand sewn!

So this year, I'm trying to be one of those superwomen, who have everything planned and come Christmas are super relaxed and laughing at the rest of us! I'm already a little behind, but I can catch up, and this is how I'm going to be spending the holidays watching old films and drinking cocoa without a care in the world:

1: I'm going to make a big order of felt, before I need it! This way, I can't run out..
2: I'm going to dedicate days to doing one job at a time; cutting the shapes, sewing the eye etc etc
3: Ask my buyers to make their orders early so they hopefully won't rush me come December
4: Set up little boxes for each item so I don't need to rummage through my big sewing basket
5: Make a great big list of things to do, and get ticking - I love lists!

Reproduction 1940's Scottie Dog Brooch in green

One of the most stressful things I've found this Autumn is finding out that someone is copying these dog brooches, and not very well - If you're going to copy an animal shape, don't make it look like road-kill!

I spent ages tweeking this pattern, from an original 1940's design, I have developed it to be my own - It took nearly a year for me to be happy with the finished product, so I'm sure you'll understand why I'm so annoyed.

I've already emailed one stockist and I'm making a felt order tomorrow morning.. I'm already making progress.

I must be off, I have a few hundred dog shape to cut!

Jenny xx