style number two

The Yoki tee. Available in different size and colour combos in my Etsy shop upon relaunch (visit the shop to sign up to receive an email when it reopens).

WINTER IS HERE

Yes, I know I'm a bit late. Forgive me; I have pretty things for you to look at. I listed 40 cool winter threads in my Etsy shop today (and holy cow it took almost an entire day, crazy). Here are a few of my favourites.

heidiandseek on Etsy

Several of the oversized collar jumpers have disappeared already (which is awesome for knowing what to make more of next). So there will be more of those coming soon!

This is obviously not a traditional 'collection' where I make a bunch of things then I'm finished and done designing until the next season. That means I'll be making new things (from Friday) and will continue to list new things regularly again once I've caught up.

So! If you have any suggestions about things you'd like to see more of or less of, I'm all ears. Okay, now I'm imagining a person covered in ears. Gross.

sneak peek at winter collection

I don't tend to make 'collections', since I put new designs up daily. In the past I've made whichever season clothing I feel like making, with the assumption that I'm selling all over the world, so there are multiple seasons going on at once.

I have since realised that I have pretty much zero winter clothing in my shop, when it's 5 degrees celcius in Melbourne right now, and subsequently, that this is a really dumb thing not to plan ahead for.

So I'm working on a winter collection, which will all be launched at in my Etsy shop in a big bunch, instead of my usual 'few here, few there' method of listing. After that I'll continue to make and list winter clothing and summer clothing. Here's a sneak peek at some of the upcoming winter designs.




They'll be launched in a week or two along with the rest. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions about what you'd like to see for winter (in the way of dresses, jumpers, and tops), please do let me know. I'm still making, so I'm very open to ideas!

music. and free shipping info

I'm finishing up the Australian free shipping offer at my etsy shop, so if you're an Aussie and you've had your eye on something, now's the time! I'm ending it this weekend.



Just so this post isn't exclusively promo, I thought I'd share some tracks I'm loving at the moment:
The Knife - Got 2 Let U
I usually find The Knife a little boring, but this song is just so catchy and gets me in a good mood.
So They Say from Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
If you haven't seen Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, you have been missing out! It's available to watch online and doesn't go for that long. It's created by Joss Whedon of Buffy and Angel fame. Here's the trailer. Anyway I have been listening to the soundtrack (it's a musical) and it is so so catchy (and funnier in context).
Cloud Cult - Journey of the Featherless
I left you a love poem
The best I have written
My favorite words
Were the ones I couldn't spell
Sigur Rós - Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
I love singing along to this even though I have no idea what the words are.

things i would like to be mine

dress up dolls wall decals by lovemaestore

contemplation desk garden no. 2 by madebymavis

obsessive print by yaelfran

mini hardwood toy sewing machine by woodclinic

I've been working fairly non-stop this past week, so I treated myself to a bit of Etsy browsing. Very much considering buying that yaelfran print for my studio. Utterly adorable.

I love the idea of a contemplation garden. It wouldn't be too hard to find some sand and a pretty dish and a cute fork from an op shop.

I recently bought this belt from utilitywear on Etsy.
I think it will come in very handy for short trips.

I used to be quite happy lugging around kilos on my shoulder in a tote or handbag, but since I've had Ellie, I'm a little more wary of putting too much pressure on my neck and back, since they're already overworked. A backpack is the best option for everday use for me. I've been searching high and low on the net (plus just about every search page on Etsy with the tag 'backpack'. You'd understand how tedious that was if you knew how many non-backpacks come up in the search) to find something cute and unusual, because this one isn't wearing very well. I've found absolutely nothing I like. Bugger all.

When I have some spare time I will a) try to teach myself bag-making techniques b) design one I like and c) make it. I think it will be a long while away.

clearance sale at heidiandseek.etsy.com

There's a big 25% off clearance sale happening at my Etsy shop right now, on a range of my older stock. I've been in a creating frenzy recently but haven't done a photo shoot yet, so this is to make way for more new stuff! Here are a few of the things on sale:

Click to go directly to the sale section.

sometimes things disappear

Just a quick note to say that if you notice something in my Etsy shop and come back and it's disappeared (i.e. not in my sold section, either), it's because I've sold it in a wholesale order to a retailer or I've sent it off for a fancy pants magazine photo shoot or some such. If you convo me I can tell you if it's coming back to Etsy or not.


My sansa skirt, among other things, has gone to the latter, more specifically the first issue of Oxfam's Three Things magazine ("a humorous, hard hitting magazine for modern folk") which I would LOVE to get regularly. The first issue is only being distributed in NSW, so I hope they expand to include other states for future issues. I'm happy for the moment because I'm being sent a copy of the one I'm in, muaha.

Crafting failures and successes

You know how sometimes you create something that you can be proud of (and you have this 'yes!' moment when you're done) and then other times the finished product isn't quite so great? I found examples of this in my most recent batch of Heidi & Seek creations.

Here's the one I love:

vanessa top on Etsy

Here's the one I feel like shoving under the bed:


When my experimentations with colour and design went awry, sometimes I would list these pieces anyway to see if someone else might like them and they're just not my style (and sometimes they would sell) but now I think that if I don't like them then they shouldn't be representing my work in my shop. I'll let you know what it turns into when I change it up.

Mind you, the first top came with its own set of problems, because first I made a top out of the purple fabric alone, which turned out a disaster, so I reconstructed it into the vanessa top. Such is the beauty of designing one-offs on a whim! I think it's much more fun than reproducing the same thing over and over.

One more thing: check out this thought-provoking post from OutsaPop Trashion about why, in ten years time, buying recycled clothing might not be an option.

a little update in the midst of chaos

Hello ladies, sorry for the infrequent posts lately, but it's crunch time at uni! I'm stealing a procrastinatey break right now, but I have an assignment due tomorrow (it's about the Melbourne-based zine called YOU, anyone heard of it?). My computer has also been infected with a sneaky, pesky virus so I'm in the process of backing up all my stuff so I can reformat. Fun times!

Anyway, I was delighted to find my Georgia dress in an Etsy Finds article about repurposing used items into fashion goodness. You can check it out here because there are some delightful finds included. I particularly loved the Wooly Baby shop - cosy woollen slippers and shoes for little ones! They are adorable, made from preloved materials and very reasonably priced.

Mountain Laurel slippers by wooly baby

Purple mist baby slippers by wooly baby

Since it has been a month, here's a little hair update, following my shampoo-free post:

• My hair still feels and looks much better than before.
  
• On the second day after washing, my hair still looks clean, but gets flat after I brush it. I suppose that's a little inevitable and something that I could address with some hair product if I could be bothered, but I don't think it's worth the trouble. So I just tie it up in a ponytail, as I often do anyway, and it looks good as new.
• On the third day after washing, my hair kind of does the sticky-together thing in the fringe, which I don't like, so I wash it. It's still not as bad as the second day after washing with shampoo.
  
• It doesn't make a difference to my hair cleanliness if I use as little baking soda as possible to cover my scalp. Same with the apple cider vinegar - I just pour a little in the cup and then add water. I found that I was getting through my supplies too quickly and it was unnecessary. Less is more!
• I am enjoying making use of my shower cap.

If you've tried it too, do let us know how it's going and leave a comment!

New designs

I'm a bit excited about the new stuff I've just uploaded. I think I'm going in a bit of a new direction. Love the asymmetry, so I'm going to be trying more of that in the future. I'm also really into ruffley bits. Would love to hear your thoughts! There's more to be listed over the next week or so.

XS/S sugar top

M granger top

S tattoo top

Holiday return

I'm back from Tasmania! It was gorgeous and fun. Will upload pics when I have them. I feel kind of like a different person now that I'm back. The house feels strange because I did a complete reorganise just before we went away (plus, it is tidy. Shock horror).

I've never really had a 'refreshing' holiday before (probably because as a part-time uni student living with a casual retail job living with her parents, I never needed a break). During the trip, I got a bunch of ideas for my novel, and wrote most of my plot outline. I feel good about getting stuck back into Heidi & Seek. Not feeling quite as good about the essay I have due on Monday. But still overwhelmingly happy with life. It was lovely to have more quality family time than usual.

In other news, Etsy Voter has popped up I'm-not-sure-when, but basically there are a number of polls where you choose between items with a certain theme. I'm in a new poll at the moment called Eco-friendly Items for a Better World (isn't that lovely?). Click the link to vote for my Ella dress if you wanna.


I'm fixing up orders placed while I was away, but I won't be back to listing and making until Monday.

Also! Sydney-siders, there's going to be a public talk about ethical fashion at the University of Sydney. It's called Slaves to Fashion - the apparel industry and the race to the bottom. It's next Monday the 20th April, from 4-5:30pm, given by Prof. Robert J.S. Ross from Clark University, USA. It will be in Room 148 of the RC Mills building, which is in between City Rd and the Manning Bar. Wish I could go. Even events like this in Melbourne, I don't end up attending for lack of time.

We have lift-off: awareness badges on Etsy

I've finally got these pictured and listed! Don't they look cute, all lined up in this picture? You can check 'em out on Etsy here. I'm really pleased with the concept of these. I love that they're innocent and cute looking but they purport big ideas. My favourites are this and this.

Also, photos from the fashion show are up on Style Melbourne here! Four of the seven or so outfits I showcased are there. Awesome.

I smell a change

I'm on the Etsy front page right now, yay.

I've been doing some thinking and I've decided to no longer make clothing from scratch, and instead concentrate on reconstructing. This is for a few reasons:

• Making items from scratch usually meant buying factory remnant fabric. This seems kind of like buying regular recycled paper instead of post-consumer paper. Recycled paper is made from the offcuts from paper mills (so maybe not truly recycled?), and post-consumer recycled paper has been used by the consumer, then recycled and made into new paper. It's still better than buying new, but post-consumer is better still, no?
• I wasn't making much of a wage, much less profit. I've now restructured my prices and created a comprehensive spreadsheet including ALL of my costs. Previously I just set my prices at what I thought they were worth, plus factored in some kind of wage. It wasn't very formal. Now that I'm starting to do more wholesaling, I've really had to work this out properly.
• Everything I make will definitely be one-of-a-kind now. I previously had the idea to do a made to order collection, choose your own size and I'll make you a copy kind of thing, but I think there's something special about having something that's yours, and yours only.
• It means I can make more things and list more regularly. Making things from scratch often took triple the time of a reconstruction that ends up the same level of pretty at the end.

I've been doing the reconstructing all of this week. I've become enamoured with gathering, so expect to see lots of frills and cute little flutter sleeves like this one:

M piece by piece dress

I've also been working on warmer designs - wool jumpers and long-sleeved things. If you'd like to see more of anything in particular, please do let me know.

Green things and what I wore

Our energy company is Origin. We pay extra for a percentage of green energy, which means that that this percentage of the amount of energy we use is added to the electricity grid from renewable sources. In Australia, the mandatory amount of GreenPower that must be sourced into the grid is about 3%. It's up to us to get that tiny percentage higher by choosing green energy. Even 10% GreenPower helps and it doesn't cost much more at all. You can find out more here.

What brought me to this topic was that we get the current issue of Marie Claire for free for being with Origin. At first I was kind of dubious about the magazine, because I thought it would be too mainstream to interest me. I actually found it a darn good read. It had an Eco News page, upon which I found out about an organic grocery delivery company in Melbourne, The Green Line. I never would have thought to search out a service like this but I'm excited about ordering from them. At the moment we usually shop at the closest supermarket because we're strapped for time. This ends in a bunch of 'add-ons' to the trolley that we don't really need, and me still thinking that there's nothing to cook right after a shop.

Organic grocery delivery is even more convenient because it'll end up right on our front door step, plus we'll cut out all the unnecessary purchases, the food will taste better and be healthier, I'll be supporting a husband-and-wife run business instead of a large corporation AND it'll be much kinder to the environment. I'm quite sure we can work it so that it'll be cheaper than what we're currently doing, too. Phew. The delivery cost is quite a steal, and free for members standing orders (buying the same items every week). Groceries add up to so much over time, I'll be glad to finally feel ethical about my purchasing in this area. I'll feel much better about what I'm feeding my little one, too.


Have a Google and see if there's a similar business in your area.

Anyway! Here's what I wore today.

Dress - second-hand
Red boots - eBay, Django & Juliette

How cute are those sleeves? For some reason I very nearly passed this by at the second-hand store. And then I was planning on cutting it up for Heidi & Seek. When I got home and tried it on I found I loved it a lot more than my initial judgment let on, so I decided to keep it for myself, as is (although, now I'm thinking of sewing the wrap together, because today's wind meant a bit of a peep-show for onlookers).

P.S. I've been on a little listing hiatus at my Etsy shop, but new pretties will resume this evening.

P.P.S Mosey on over to Style Collective to see an interview with yours truly! Style Collective is a brand new fashion directory and style community. They have an indie style directory, too.

P.P.P.S. Made It is having a makeover! Soon the site will be revamped: bugs fixed, features added, new look applied. The problems with the site are what's made me stick to Etsy, but if all goes well I'll be listing regularly in my Made It shop as well.

Random facts, sizing update and outfit pic

I got some great advice from the folks in the Etsy forums the other day. Given their advice, I spent the entirety of today making the sizing in my Etsy shop clearer and more consistent. From now on, every listing size M and larger will now contain photos of the garment on my dressform set to the correct size. You can now correctly see how these sizes will fit.

I also have a new size chart. Now, in each listing, there's measurements of the person they are meant to fit as well as the measurements of the garment. Plus I've added US sizes and those pesky inches measurements into every listing. Phew.


In other news, I was tagged by carlseapatch! The point is to say 7 random facts about yourself, so here goes.

1. I started writing a novel this year. I admit it's going very very slowly, but I'm excited about it. It'll probably be young adult and it's about a girl like me (about five years younger) that meets a boy who's travelled back in time. It will be full of adventure.

2. I watched Enchanted last night. It's a cool idea for a movie where a soon-to-be princess gets transported from her cartoon fairtytale land to real-world New York. It was fun while the satire lasted but then it got corny and dumb. James Marsden was quite hilarious though.

3. I'm in the process of growing my hair long again because my dad said he liked it better that way. It doesn't really make sense because he's gone now.

4. I got a self-powered radio for Christmas. You wind it up manually and that powers the little thing.

5. At the moment I am LOVING Sigur Ros, The Do and Emiliana Torrini. Favourites are Jungle Drum by Emiliana (how adorable is she?!), The Bridge is Broken by The Do, and a song I can't hope to pronounce by Sigur Ros. It's awesome though, and I sing along like I know the "words" (they mostly sing in a made-up language).

6. My hands-down favourite music artist is Rachael Yamagata.

7. At uni this coming semester I'm studying Youth Media, Print Culture, Novel into Film, and Gender, Media and Consumption. I wish there was a humanities sustainability class I could take, but no such luck. I'd be all over that like white on rice.

Dress: Heidi & Seek
Vest: Vintage hand-me-down from mum
Skirt: Second-hand
Tights: Myer
Boots: Josef Siebel
Bag: from Thailand

The tough get going: dealing with the economic climate

The post-holiday sales slump is getting a lot of Etsy sellers doing whatever they can to entice customers. Myself included. (Hey, this is my living.) Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to turn into a spam queen or anything. I'm just focusing on improving Heidi & Seek.

So I've had some time for thinking and planning and I've made some changes. First of all, I won't be posting every new listing on this blog anymore, because they're too frequent. I'll post ones that I particularly like or have something to say about, but for everything else, please check my shop regularly. You can subscribe to my shop in your reader if you like, just click the RSS this shop at the bottom of the right column, here. This will mean that I'll be posting more hearty content, instead of just new listings all the time.

I've made over my Etsy shop. I was inspired to improve it by one Etsy shop in particular that I found, Allen Company Inc. It just looks so pretty and clean and interesting, and I felt like mine resembled a garbage dump in comparison.

I'm very tempted to re-shoot photographs for every single item, but Tim accidentally took the camera to work today. My technique in the past has been to close my eyes, set the timer and hope it all turns out okay. Mm, clever. I found some resources on taking good photos, here and here and here. Man, Etsy is helpful. I'm itching to try some of those techniques out. I actually kind of understand white balance and how to utilise it now. Go me! I'd love to try an interesting background, maybe hang up some lace or something.

I've made some cute little banner ads and have started advertising on Project Wonderful, Craftster and Modamuse. I'm most excited about Modamuse because it's such a great site. They support independent modern Australian and NewZealand designers, artisans and crafters and there's always pretty things to look at there. This is the square banner.

Feel free to take it and spread it far and wide. E-far and e-wide, I mean. Oh, and there's a sneak peek: that black dress on the first slide will be very limited edition, made to order, and available very soon!

One other (not very exciting) thing is that I've closed my 2threads shop. I'm going to be concentrating uber hard on making my Etsy shop perfect and well-stocked, and might give my Made It shop some occasional love, too.

Oh yay, I just made a sale. My work must be paying off..

Fashion Awards and finally, some new items

I'm stoked to let you know that I was shortlisted for the 2threads Fashion Awards in the category of Best Women's Fashion Designer. Please vote for me if you think I deserve it. Click the image below to visit the voting page.

Thanks to whoever nominated Heidi & Seek!

In other news, I have ended my listing drought and put up four new items in my Etsy shop. My favourite is the last dress. Good for twirling. Everyone needs a dress you can twirl in. Yes, even the guys. Although they'll have to shop around because this one probably won't fit them. Gosh, it's been a long day and I'm talking nonsense. On with the show..

S/M creative nessa dress

M seven check dress

XS/S blue fire dress

S little house dress

SALE and h&s update

I've just reduced the price of a bunch of stock in my Etsy shop. Here are my favourites from the sale items, both 50% off:



Check it out here.

I have a lot of other stock waiting to be photographed and uploaded. I was going to tackle it today, but Ellie is home from daycare with a slight temperature so it'll have to be done on the weekend or next week. She has barely noticed that she's sick and has been happily making drawings since she got home.

I'm going to stagger the new listings over the next few weeks. You can have a sneak peek at the ones that have already been photographed here. In the meantime I'll be working on a collection of pieces that will be made to order in the usual sizes. To help me out, soon I'll post a survey for you guys to let me know what you like and don't like.

I'm also in the process of moving my studio into part of our living room for extra space. It's been half-done for a couple of weeks now because I started the day before Jeffrey's stroke, and so it's been on hold. I've been helping mum out or going over there in all my usual working hours.

My to-do list is getting longer and longer. Hopefully it will settle down soon.