fair@square, peppermint and summer dresses

Next month I'm going to be showing several dresses of mine at the fashion parade of the Fair@Square Festival. It's at Fed Square in Melbourne on Sunday December 13th from 11am-7pm and all about embracing all that's ethical and fair trade.

As well as the fashion show, there's going to be panel discussions and workshops - t-shirt reconstruction, screenprinting, hat-making and kids craft activities. Plus you can shop for fair trade and ethical goods from over 50 vendors. I won't be selling, I'm just going to be presenting at the fashion show. Come along, if you're in the area! It's sure to be heaps of fun and educational, too.

The festival is being sponsored by the wonderful Peppermint Magazine, among others, which makes a good segway for pointing out that I'm in the latest issue, yay!

(click to enlarge)

I thought I'd show you some of the one-off dresses I've been making lately. I haven't decided which to present at the fashion parade yet. Your thoughts would be lovely!











Which do you like best?

inspiration: boo radley

I wanted to show you what I've been making lately but Tim keeps running off with both our cameras for his volunteer work at the AYCC. They're a bit different in style to the tshirts up in my shop at the moment, because I've included more lace, more detail, more flowiness, and they're all one-offs.

It's so stinking hot here in Melbourne at the moment that sleeves are too much to bear, so I've been making light and flowy sleeveless tops and I'm going to start on summer dresses today. Pictures to come!

I'm having difficulty working out which method works for me best: sticking to styles or creating one-offs. Styles take more effort to prepare, but once prepared they're easier to make up. One-offs can often be a headache as they can be quite challenging and time-consuming. And sometimes they don't work out. But they are more interesting to make. I guess I'll just make some of each. Maybe the one-offs can be samples that I'll make up into styles if they're well received.

On another note, here's a local designer samples outlet just down the road from me that I entered for the first time and I was so impressed by the collection of interesting pieces - there's very few 'trendy' items there, just timeless goodness. If you live in nearby I really recommend it because the prices are very reasonable too. It's called Neo Rococo and it's at 269 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn.

They stock a Melbourne label called Boo Radley and I have been feeling very inspired by the pieces I saw. I checked them out online afterwards and found that the styling wasn't my cup of tea, but I think the work is so much better in person. They have a very good eye for interesting details.





And! Boo Radley is having an end of year summer sale at their warehouse in Collingwood. Everything below $50.
Thursday Nov 26th to Sunday Nov 29th
Boo Radley Warehouse: 114-118 Campbell Street, Collingwood Vic 3066 (off Johnson St.)
9:30 am to 5pm

Yay for local talent.

the non-schedule affair

I've been using the system in my last post since last Friday and it has been working perfectly. I'm really excited about what I can achieve with this. I can plan for things like markets and wholesale orders better, and try to keep new online listings a bit more consistent. That means I'm this much closer to making Heidi & Seek pay a full-time income.

I discovered that for me, five items per day isn't really 'starting small'. It's enough that I'm challenging myself but not enough to make me give up in a heap of frustration. It's perfect. I think eight things is the most I've made in a day, so for a while that was my goal for each day. I very rarely met that aim. It's too much to expect from every working day, so it made me feel overwhelmed and procrastinate-y.

I started back at uni yesterday. I'm doing fiction writing (which is half a day on campus) and couselling via correspondence. So I really have three and a bit days to work, rather than four, like I planned for in my weekly chart. I'm pushing myself a bit by making up the lost time and still maintaining my 'quota', as I've started to call it, of 20 items per week. It has been harder to meet today, because I've been flat out making up for lost time yesterday. I suppose it's okay to have just one day a week as a 'work your ass off' day. I am very motivated by wanting to see all those boxes coloured in, weird as that may sound.

I'm setting up a space at incube8r gallery on the 12th of August, so lots of my stock will go there, plus I'm working on a wholesale order. I'll still list a few things on Etsy in the meantime though, just as soon as I can fit in a photo shoot! Here's a look at a few of the things I've been making.


By the way if anyone in Melbourne wants a copy of the upcoming Handmade in Melbourne book, they're available from incube8r, hot off the press for $29.95. I haven't gotten a copy yet but will soon!

One more thing: I was included in a post about refashioning over at The Transit Lounge blog, check it out.

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!

new stockist: rude health

Rude Health is a brand spanking new shop in Melbourne, and you can find Heidi & Seek items there. Every item is sweatshop-free and made in Australia, how cool is that? "Think polka dot fifties dresses, crocheted alien birds, silk high-waisted undies, Little Red Riding Hood capes, stripy one-piece pyjamas, paperboy woollen caps and felt lungs in jars."


Stop by at 17 Irwell St, St Kilda.