Craft Fairs and Teddy Bears

Friday Greetings dear friends & readers,

The Craft Fair last Saturday was somewhat of a wet & windy affair

I have pinched borrowed this photo from the I-site website & it shows the rather damp conditions.
That is my stall under the blue gazebo where the arrow is pointing.
I only got to snap a couple of pics of my stall & now that I look at them, I see lots of my crafts had blown over

Because I generally only do this one stall per year, I am rather ill-equipped for outdoor markets
I just use The Mr's Moto X gazebo which doesn't have any sides ... I think in hindsight, I would've been better with sides - they would've given me alot more protection from the elements

Though we only had one real wetting shower come through, the wind was constant all day long & lots of things blew over or hit the ground
I must confess .  .  .   it felt like a rather loonng day.
On a positive note, thanks to Sue who came over from Hamilton to say Hi, to Amanda who came all the way from Patetonga to collect an order from me, & also to all the people that stopped by to purchase or to say Hello !!
It is always a great opportunity to catch up with customers both old & new.
Amanda purchased a rustic Angel doll from me & sent me a gorgeous photo of her happily hanging in her beautiful new Home.

My neighbour at the Fair was an old friend Julie ... who is currently running a business with her daughter Bridget called "Bo and Co" ... sewing beautiful girls clothing

You can read a wonderful interview about the girls new venture here at Cupcakes and Bunting
Many thanks must go to Julie for coming to help me so many times when my creations hit the ground !!!
One of my happy memories of the Fair is of an older gentleman leisurely browsing at all my crafts who took the time to tell me "you have a real vintage country look to all your work"
His compliment made my day.

The night before the Fair I managed to hastily put the last stitch in these little fabric trees ... 
a pattern from my Tilda book "Homemade & Happy"

Though I had purchased the rustic pots a year ago, I had never done anything with them
I used up some of my Lynette Anderson fabrics for the trees & the trunks are made using actual tree branches

I did sell the red one & hope to make some more of these - perhaps using some Tilda fabrics

When I completed the black/cream doll for my friend Christine back in this post she asked me if I could please make her two teddy bears in the same black/cream colourways.
The pattern Christine wanted was an old Teddyworks design called Simple Simon.
It had been many years since I had made this pattern up & I must admit I had kinda lost my confidence a little bit along the way .... as you do

Two pair of pants, two bodies/heads & arms & legs ready to be assembled

This pattern is most unusual in that you make a calico body weighted with pellets, then joint the fur head to this.
You then make the arms & legs from fur & these get inserted/stitched into the clothing at the finish.
This makes him a very flexible bear indeed.
I had some string mohair in a pale cream colouring so I decided to use this as felt it would go perfectly with the black/cream colour scheme

Simon And Simone

Although the pattern is basically a boy bear ... I like to make a girly version too ... so for her I added a hair bow & some pretty embellishments to her jacket
The boy version I added a small bow tie

Considering what horrors they were to create ... I felt they turned out rather perfectly ... as did Christine when she collected them yesterday

At the very end of the pattern this is what the designer has written ...
"He looks great sitting amongst a collection of bears ... he is extremely poseable & can sit in positions that most other bears can only dream of ... "

How absolutely right they are !!!

Thank you So Much for your visit today dear friends & readers
Tomorrow its the Weekend !!!

As I am fighting a headcold at the moment I plan hope to do Not too much
With a lemon drizzle cake in the oven & the latest copy of Simply Vintage Magazine ... would you care to join me ???
with much love & friendship
Julie & the furry ones
x0x0x0