Fairtrade fabric (and a bit of chocolate)

This week I signed up to be a Fairtrade Champion and pledged to spend at least $2 per day on fairtrade products. After stuffing my face with Cocolo and Alter Eco chocolate, I thought I would look at buying some fairtrade fabric, being the stitchy person that I am. Turns out that fairtrade fabric is actually not that easy to find! I have had to do some real hunting online, and so far have come up with the following results.

Those awesome girls at Ink and Spindle have some beautiful prints on certified fairtrade cotton.

Fabric of Life have a range of fairtrade fabrics from around the world.

Organic Cotton are based in the UK but will ship to Australia if you ask them nicely. Their fairtrade fabrics are labelled as such.

Bishopston Trading Company are also UK based. They have a nice range, and again, the fairtrade fabrics are labelled.

Another British company, Fairtrade Fabric.

If you know of some other suppliers (especially Aussie ones) please let us know by posting a comment!

Crafty Power Hour

Well, I have finally emerged from the chaos of moving house, and I am pleased to say that I am slowly getting myself back into the crafty community. I missed a whole bunch of cool Sydney crafty events recently (boo!) but managed to catch the last lunchtime Crafty Power Hour put on by Knitty Gritty & Loopy. Crafty Power Hour had been part of the We Craft This City event which was put together by a whole bunch of cool crafty peeps.


At Crafty Power Hour I was taught the very important skills of making plarn (plastic yarn, or yarn made out of used plastic bags) and weaving it into baskets and other cute vessels.


This is the very beginning of my kawaii-sized plarn basket. It is basically made by spiralling the plarn around and holding it in place with blanket-stitched twine.


And here is the finished piece. It's quite small (about the size of an egg cup) but would you believe this is a whole plastic bag worth of plarn? What a great example of recycling, not to mention a super fun way to spend a lunch hour in the city.

Oh, and just a post note: it occured to me recently that many lovely people follow my blog (some through RSS feed) and I don't always get to know about you and your own blogs! So if you read this, please leave a comment with a link to your blog or site, so that I can get to know you too! Thanks xx

Thoughts from amongst the boxes

I think there comes a time in everyone's life, particularly when they're moving house, when they ask themselves "where did I get all this junk from?"

Staring into the cardboard abyss that was my dining room up until last night (pictured above), I certainly asked myself this question. I mean, really, what is in all these boxes? And do I need all of it?

I'd much prefer to live a simple life with less stuff, so I have made myself this promise from now on - for every thing that I acquire, I will get rid of something else. That way, I can't end up with more stuff than what I have now.

New mug cozies

Hi everyone! Just a quick note to say that we are moving house, so I will be offline for a week or so while our internet provider does the big swap-over, and while we pack and unpack our house.

I've just finished a few mug cozies which will be showing up in the Stitchybritt shop over the next few days. Two beautiful Ink and Spindle prints (the blue one I've had in store before, but sold out) and a cute teacup and teapot print that I couldn't resist from a craft shop in Copenhagen. Pop on over and snap them up fast if you would like one.

Take care all!

(Stitchy)Britt

It's finished!

Finally the baby blanket for little Jack (who is due tomorrow - so in reality, any minute!) is finished. It will be sent off this week with one of Pepperstitches' cute Antler Boys. Yep, this kid is gonna be the envy of the playground.

The unfinished projects pile still includes the bunny wool cardigan and a dress pattern that I got from BurdaStyle, the pattern cut out but the fabric yet to be touched. Oh well, I suppose two ain't that bad.

Happy Sunday all!

Incoming!

As Bianca from Goodnight Little Spoon would say - incoming!

I have received my second parcel of amazing goodies in a week. Can you believe it? I entered a competition run by Monica at the Creative Beast, and lo and behold - I won!

I've gotta say - this crafty woman is incredibly generous. Not only was she giving away vintage crafty goodies from her grandma's collection, but she went to a massive effort to package it up beautifully - and pay the not-so-cheap price to send the box all the way from the US to Australia.

First, everything came in this red carry bag, as pictured above (uber useful).


The prize I won was vintage knitting needles, some yarn and some other knitting related goodies. This wasn't even all of it!


As if that wasn't kind enough, Monica looked at my blog, discovered that I have an undying love for tea, and added a whole bunch of tea related gifts to the box.

So, considering this and my last post, I'm feeling pretty spoilt right now. If it's any consolation to you empty mailbox owners out there, it is my birthday week, so I'm just counting these as 'extra' birthday presents.

Oh, and if your mailbox is empty, consider writing to Bianca at Goodnight Little Spoon, she is bound to write back and with decorated paper and envelopes to boot.

DUST are go!

I have blogged before about the sheer awesomeness of the Etsy Down Under Street Team (DUST) which I am a member of. Just to quickly recap - these are a super supportive and helpful bunch of crafters who are scattered across Australia and who work together to promote each other's work and assist each other with all crafty business endeavours.

You may also remember that I made some teeny weeny crocheted teacups to go in the goodie bags for the DUST Conference, which I was unfortunately unable to attend. Well, those wonderful folk who organised the conference didn't forget me. This week, I got this very exciting package in the mail.



What's in it? Well, let's take a look! Firstly, this DUST carry bag (which is great, coz I use these bags all the time until they wear through and I have to throw them out).



And inside the bag? Goodies! For me!




Check out all these fantastic things! I couldn't believe how generous those DUSTers are! There's a notepad from Wiccked. There's a necklace from TashaChawler. There's earrings from AndyJusty. There's the cutest hairtie from VanillaPixie. And then there's a whole bunch of discount vouchers and other generous offerings from other DUST members.



Needless to say, I was extremely chuffed to receive all these little gifts in the mail. Just goes to show what a wonderful community of people they are. You should so go check out the fantastic things they make. Go on. You know you want to.

Meanwhile, I've got a few new mug and tea cozies which will be added to my etsy shop starting tonight. Here are some in the making.



Adios for now!