Wishlist Wednesday–Baby time!

As many of you know, I am expecting my first baby this May. So of course I have been looking through Etsy for bits of handmade joy.

First of all, how can I resist this elephant onesie from blinkbaby?

Baby shoes are always adorable–handmade felt baby shoes with elephants on them are even better! Check out these babies from outofthebox:

Every baby needs a favorite blanket, and of course, I’d choose this one from bankiebaby (noticing a theme here?)

And finally, since I am having a little boy, I absolutely must have some tinkle tents from ClothPadStore.

Millinery Mondays–OnYourHead

Welcome to the first installment of my new blog series: Millinery Mondays. Once I week I will be featuring a piece of millinery artistry that I find inspiring and generally awesome.

This blog series was inspired by a particular inspiring hat created by Eleonora of OnYourHead. Eleonora lives in Florence, Italy where she is studying millinery. The hat is called “Freedom” and features a hummingbird flying out of a handmade metal birdcage:

This hat has a beauty and grace to it that I strive for in my own work. I am currently fascinated with the concept of hat designs that tell stories, which I intend to explore in my own character hats. Eleonora captures the moment at which the hummingbird escapes from its cage in a hat the combines the whimsical and the elegant. This is truly a work of art that you wear on your head.

Want to keep up with what Eleonora is working on? Check out her facebook, follow her blog, and of course, don’t forget to see all the treasures in her etsy shop.

Character hat in progress

Soon all of this will come together as a hat!

Wire figure armature by created by my husband, along with two needle felted sheep.

Hand blocked and wired wool hat base.

Stay tuned to see how it all fits together!

Elephunk’s Trunk Welcomes in the New Year

I would like to wish all the fans and followers of Elephunk’s Trunk a creative, happy, and prosperous 2011. This year is looking to be an exciting one for me: I am expecting my first baby at the end of May, which I know is going to transform my life in ways I cannot even begin to predict. As part of that change I will be quitting my day job, and while being a mom is certainly going to be a full-time job, I am also hoping to have more time to devote to expanding my craft. There will be lots of exciting changes in the coming year.

First, my etsy shop is getting a make over thanks to the talented Valerie of xinkblot. She has been working hard with me to create a logo and design matching business cards and graphics for my etsy shop. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for quality, professional graphic design. Valerie took my half-formed vision and turned it into something beautiful. She has been incredibly patient with me as I ask for various revisions and seems just as interested in creating the perfect image for my shop as I am.

I am developing several new product lines for 2011 as well. Everyone knows that people wear hats—this spring look to see hats wearing people at Elephunk’s Trunk. I have a new line of bridal headgear in the works and hopefully by the end of the year I will be making hats for grooms as well. I am also working out the kinks on a new winter hat design inspired by the frigid winters of medieval Mongolia.

Wishing everyone the best for the new year!

New knitting project tote from madbird!

It was early spring 2009. I had just opened ElephunksTrunk on etsy and was beginning to explore the forums. I stumbled across a thread started by Eclecticasia for shops with less then ten sales and I met my first etsy friends there. Alecia of madbird was one of those friends. With her products in several local boutiques in addition to over a thousand sales on etsy, Alecia has achieved an enviable level of success. While I’ve sprinkled hearts all over her knitting organizers and project bags. over the past year I never actually got one. Knitting had been a sort of background hobby for me until an hour commute convinced me to start making knit hats to sell. I can’t bring my sewing machine on the bus, but I can bring my knitting!

And now I can bring it in style with this gorgeous madbird project bag:

What I love about this bag: It’s the perfect size for my knitting projects. The padded, square bottom lets it stand up and stay open so I can get to my work. Also, it is beautiful and expertly made!

The best part? I won this beauty in a giveaway! Last month I learned from madbird’s facebook page that she was running a giveaway on ravelry. The more I chatted on her thread, the more chances I would have to win, since she would be picking a random post number as the winner. When she drew the number last week, it was me!

And it gets even better! Alecia does a ravelry giveaway every month with different prizes. This month you can vote one what prize you want to win. So come on by the August Giveaway Thread and chat with us for a chance to win your own madbird goody. You do need to be a member of madbird’s ravelry group to win.

Now I just need to order one of these fancy organizers to hold my needles and I’ll be all set!

Pirate Faire!

I got into sewing to make costumes. The first thing I ever sewed was a pair of jester pants for a Halloween costume in sixth grade. Hat making started for costume purposes too. I also have an affinity for pirates. Maybe I get it from my dad who wears a skull and cross bones bandanna when we jogs and flies the jolly roger from the back of his bicycle. So needless to say, when I moved to Massachusetts and first heard about the New England Pirate Faire, I knew I would be going and getting all dolled up to boot.

Most of my free time this month as been spent sewing my costume. My etsy shop is not as well stocked as I would like it to be as a result, but I am proud of my outfit! It was well worth the time it took to make it.

And, I worked out a new design for my fancy fascinators while I was at it!

My husband made a pirate costume for the occasion as well!

A sun hat with a bun hole!

Every so often I am lucky enough to get a custom order that challenges me to create a whole new design rather than simply altering the colors and sizes of my current designs. This week I got two! The first was from a woman with long thick hair who likes to wear sun hats but has difficulty getting them to fit right over her bun. Her solution? A hat with a hole in the back that she could put her bun through! Here are the idea sketches she sent me:

Note the bun sticking through the back of the hat. Here is the hat I made:

Like most of my sun hats, this one is reversible. The other side is mostly pink with a brown band:
Unfortunately my display head does not have any hair so I couldn’t make the bun, but you get the idea.

Inside the Studio-Mini Pill Box Hats

A lot goes into a handmade hat and a lot of it ends up invisible in the finished hat. In the picture above, the skeletons of three mini pillbox hats wait for me to cover them. When they are finished, they will look like the hat I made for Julia’s wedding.

These frames are each made from two pieces of buckram: one for the sides and one for the top. The bottom edge has been wired so that the hats retain their round shape. These three frames are almost ready to be covered. First, I will sew bias strips over the wires and over the tabs that hold the top of the hat to the sides of the hat. This way the frame will be smooth before I cover it with fabric. Once covered with fabric I will decorate with flowers, feathers, netting, and whatever other decoration the hat calls out for. Each hat is different, but underneath they look the same.

Wishlist Wednesday- Summer outfit

Etsy has developed a new tool to help me find new things to drool over: the suggested shops. A computerized algorithm looks at shops and items that I have previously added to my favorites and shows me shops that people like me have hearted before. The algorithm needs some work to more fairly represent etsy shops, but I have already found some things to add to my hearts.

Like this wonderful green batik shirt from batikwalla:

And this whimsical pixie skirt from ElvenForestCreations:

I think they would be a great combo for traipsing around in summer fields.

The blushing bride

When my friend Julia of ManicSpider Art and Photography first showed me pictures of her wedding dress, I begged to be allowed to design a hat to go with it. A dramatic off the shoulder number in black and red, the gown screamed “funky elegant cocktail hat” at me. And fortunately Julia, being a rather funky and elegant lady herself, honored me by allowing me to design her bridal hat.

Here she is on her special day:

I love doing custom work for people’s weddings. I know how much thought people put into all the details of their wedding, and to be trusted with an element of that design is a great honor.

In other news, I apologize for my long silence. I have been in the process of moving to Boston for several months now–looking for jobs, apartment hunting, packing, etc. I am finally settled in and have re-opened ElephunksTrunk. I plan to be a regular presence in the blogosphere from now on!