Introducing My New Baskets - Perfect for Nappies!

Introducing my new size storage baskets. 

These baskets are 9inches in length by 8" wide by 7.5 " tall or in cm 23 x 20 x 19.5cm, so they are an inch longer and two inches wider than my other storage baskets that have a linen base. When I was designing the shape of this basket I had the idea of nappy storage in mind. I wanted to create a basket that you could store a good number of nappies in neatly and also be able to fit on a shelf of a changing table or on a chest of drawers comfortably. A basket that would offer really handy, useful storage in a baby's nursery whilst also being playful, colourful and stylish.

These new baskets will hold roughly 24 nappies in total in two rows. Of course, the exact number of nappies will depend on their thickness and size, but as you can see from the photos below, 24 nappies in a size 2 fit nicely in two rows.

Of course, you don't have to fill these baskets up with nappies! They can be used to store many things in and don't have to be used only in a nursery! Available in 5 different fabrics, the very stylish and Modern Grey Scallops,

Twinkling Gold Stars with a cream cotton canvas liner,

Blue Animals with a blue teal spot liner,

Grey Buck Heads with a grey spotty liner, 

And finally Dear on a teal background with a lovely gold dotty liner. Now this one is extra special as there is only one of these available with the gold dotty lining, so you need to be quick if this is the one for you!   

All of these new baskets, along with all the rest can be found here. And more photos and to stay up to date with what I am currently working on please pop over to Facebook and Instagram and say hi!

Spotted this week - Girls Autumn Wish list

Girls Autumn Wish list by acraftyhen

Long sleeve floral print dressCotton cardigan / Zara Buttoned Coat With Pockets / Zara Animal Print Backpack / CAMPER WABI, / Donna Wilson for John Lewis Squirrel Bag, 

What a day!It has not stopped raining all day, we got drenched on the morning school run and even more drenched on the afternoon school run! The warm, dry start to the Autumn has gone and we have lit our first log fire. I do love the changing seasons, and I am quite happy to start wearing a chunky knit cardigan and sit in front of a roaring fire eating pumpkin soup! The change in weather is also a good excuse to do a bit of shopping and these are the things I have spotted this week for my daughter. My love of mustard is still going strong. It is such an Autumnal colour. 
I am finding myself doing more and more of my shopping at Zara, especially bits for the kids and I am so in love with this mustard button coat and really wish they would do it in adult sizes! I would also be happy to wear the camper boots aren't they superb! Another clothing range that is becoming a staple in my daughters wardrobe is Little Bird by Jools Oliver for Mothercare. Wonderfully designed, amazing quality and at a good price you can not go wrong and I love the fact that a lot of the collection is suitable for either a boy or girl which makes handing clothes down from one sibling to another so much easier! Now lets talk hats! I found this crochet hat in a gorgeous shop on Folksy called Wild Honey Pie Boutique and I am pleased to say they do adult hats as well which makes me very happy. And the doll, a find on etsy and if you have never visited Blita I urge you to her work is stunning I am rather in love with her Raccoon, one I think to add to the Christmas wish list!

More Storage Baskets in New Designs

I just can not stop making these storage baskets. I enjoy the whole process from selecting the fabric to sewing them to seeing the finished baskets all lined up on a shelf! So its no wonder that I have made a few more! I have added another five baskets in new fabrics to my Etsy shop. The very popular Black Triangle basket is now also available in grey, also in grey is a lovely basket featuring small crosses. Then there is a mint with small white triangles and the odd glittery gold triangle, and 'Crystal Arrowhead' which is what the fabric is called and I rather like the name! There will be only a few of these two baskets available as the fabric comes from a limited addition collection and I have noticed that it has already sold out in many stores. And finally I have got round to listing a deer basket which coordinates with a bib and burp cloth set that is also in my shop. This organic fabric featuring deer in a mix of gorgeous muted colours is one of my all time favourite fabrics and I am hoping to have blankets available in this print very soon. And for those that ask me on a daily basis for larger baskets well, I am working on those at the moment so hope to get a few in my shop in the next couple of weeks! 
Right you can see all of the baskets pictured above and more here!

Happy weekend!

New Storage Baskets

New Storage Baskets are all now listed in my shop and you can find them here.

A Huge Fabric Leap!

Possibly the most exciting parcel ever arrived this week. 

A box full of fabric. A box containing full bolts of fabric. A box full of fabric just for me!

Not only is this the largest amount of fabric I have ever bought but this is also the biggest commitment I have made so far to 'A Crafty Hen'. Usually I purchase one or two meters of fabric, make for example a baby gift set, if the item does well then I will order more of the fabric, and this method works ok most of the time. But sometimes an item can be a 'slow burner'!! It may not fly of the shelves for example, but slowly and surely after say advertising the product it may start to sell well, but this is when I often encounter problems! I go to reorder the fabric and find that it is sold out or the fabric shop has reordered it and then there is a delay, or worse still that it is no longer being printed! However much I like working with lots of different prints in small quantities, it is a lot more time consuming and really is not the most efficient way to work or to sustain a business. It takes time and effort to get traffic to your shop, to an item you have made so it makes sense once the the traffic is there to keep it coming! So I made the decision in the New Year to take more control of my fabric stock and the most sensible way to go about this was to choose a few 'key' fabrics that I can create a collection from and order these fabrics in bulk, making stock taking a whole lot easier!

And so there it was in the box! Five full bolts of organic fabric. 

Grey elephants has long been a favorite of mine which is luckily shared by many of you. The deer never stays around for very long, so I've not had the chance to play around with the fabric, and the multi coloured elephants is also a favorite. The grey spots, well that's a staple fabric! But maybe it is bolt number 5, that excites me the most, as this is organic cotton fleece. I've been searching and searching in the UK for cotton fleece and have not had any success. I use to make baby dribble bibs and the occasional baby blanket and started by backing them with fleece, which is the most common fabric to find a dribble bib backed with. But I was never that keen on the fact that the fleece was polyester. Yes sure it absorbs and wicks away moisture and dries very very quickly, but to me, and this is only my opinion, a baby's delicate skin should have the kindest and most gentlest fabrics placed next to it and for me polyester doesn't cut it. But organic cotton oh yes! And it doesn't disappoint!  It is very very soft and cosy making it not only perfect for dribble bandana style bibs but also for backing blankets. So watch this space, as they say! I am going to continue working with lots of different prints. I can't help myself! But these three key prints, the two elephants and the deer fabric will soon be available in bibs, dribble bibs, burp cloths, storage baskets and blankets and no doubt a few more items will slip in along the way, which I know will please many of you who get in contact with me asking for more of a range for your baby and nursery in these delightful fabrics.

On my Sewing Table.... Spring Makes

There are definite signs of Spring popping up everywhere, and its amazing how these glimpses of life give you renewed energy. Its like coming out of hibernation and where as in the house its making me want to spring clean and have a clear out, in my studio area I've been busy working, hoarding away new items, like a squirrel hoards its nuts, waiting for some light to come into the house so I can photograph these items. And yesterday finally the sunshine arrived, though it wasn't easy. I chased the sunshine from room to room, desperately trying to photograph my new stuff. My shop is looking rather bare at the moment and I can't wait to renew it. To organise it, to freshen it up. Unfortunately the sunshine disappeared rather too quickly so I didn't manage to get everything done. And quite a few of the photos I've taken I have had to rather heavily edit so I am hoping that the weather man has the forecast right and that we are in for a sunny dry spell.

I wrote the above on the 6th of March, and in fact the weather man did predict the weather correctly and we did have a lovely couple of weeks with real Spring like weather. We had sunshine and even felt some warmth! But unfortunately minutes after writing the above my laptop shut itself down and died on me!! And so that was that. 

What it did mean was without the distractions that the online community has to offer (!) I did get quite a bit of sewing done, and the sunshine did mean that I got to take quite a few photos. Though without being able to upload the photos I couldn't check the quality and I am disappointed with quite a few of them as I've unfortunately taken them on too high an exposure setting. Anyway working with the ones I've got and now that I have a new laptop, I am hoping to get my new items listed by the start of next week and hopefully then my shop will be filled with some lovely rays of Spring sunshine!

Handmade Christmas: Greeting Cards

Image credits: Angela Smyth, Ashley Phal, Draw Abiding Citizen, Man vs George, Seeing Stars.

With only days to go until December now is a good time to start thinking of writing those Christmas Cards. For those of you that haven't yet bought the cards (that includes me!) here is just a small selection of the wonderful cards that can be found on handmade sites like Etsy, Not on the high street, and Folksy. For more handmade gift ideas take a look at my other Handmade Christmas selections.

1. Pack of five 'Crap Cat' Christmas Cards by a very talented artist Angela Smyth whose facebook page is worth having a look at as well.

2. 'All I want for Christmas' card by Ashley Phal whose Etsy shop is filled with wonderful papercut stationery.

3. 'Fairy Light Deer Christmas Card' by Draw Abiding Citizen which is a fairly new shop on Folsky. I have treated myself to this card as decoration! 

4. 'Cardinals in Snowy Tree' by Man vs George, a great modern greeting card with an added bonus of a another design on the flip side! This card comes in a set I also love their Retro Red Scandinavian Reindeer card set.

5. 'Penguin Card' by Seeing Stars. This is a lovely shop on Etsy, her work reminds me slightly of the artist Eric Carle whose books and illustrations my children adore. I have my eye on some of her prints especially this Lightning Bug print.

I'm back off to my sewing machine to get today's orders done. Please check back tomorrow to see what offer I have in store for 'Black Friday' - 'Cyber Monday'!

On My Sewing Table...............

It's been a busy few weeks and it doesn't look like it's going to let up, well not just yet anyway! I finally finished two custom baby blankets. 
One using my favourite deer fabric mixed with lots of grey and mustard prints. I was so happy with it and could have quite happily kept it! 
And in my excitement and hurry to get it sent out to its new owner completely forgot to photograph it finished along with the other blanket! 
Yes I could kick myself!! It's also been a busy time for baby gift sets, there are a few new ones in my shop and also lots of favourites in stock!

Handmade Christmas: Stocking Fillers

 Image credits. 1.Minifanfan 2.FionaT 3.KatieFew 4.Weegallery 5.ColourMeFun 6.KraKra 7.MosseryCo

One of the things that I struggle with when it comes to gift buying for Christmas is finding stocking fillers for my children. Managing to find small, relatively inexpensive items, yet worthwhile gifts can be difficult, and you can usually find me Christmas Eve in my local toy shop with a last minute handful of plastic bits and bobs that I know full well will end up discarded on the floor of their bedroom by the end of Christmas. So in an attempt to a: find gifts that will be enjoyed and cherished and b: support small handmade businesses here is my third part in my 'Handmade Christmas' series - Stocking Fillers.

1.  Sticker Set by Minifanfan on Etsy this shop is full of quirky stickers described by the maker as 'Happy Drawing for Happy People' and I completely agree!
2. Ninja Bookmark by Fiona T on folksy. An amazing unique shop full of zombies and ninja's what more can young boys want!
3. Apple Compact Mirror by Katie Few perfect for girls of any age including mums!
4. Forest Tattoos by Wee Gallery I can imagine these going down very well with my kids. Wee Gallery is a lovely shop on Etsy as well as temporary tattoos there are baby art cards and rubber stamps that also look very good.
5. Monkey Crayons by Colour Me Fun, a jam packed shop on folksy full of different crayons perfect for your little artist!
6. Wee Bird by KraKra I can imagine one of these poking out of my daughters stocking. It is well worth checking out this lovely colourful shop, especially her dolls, this one is my favourite.
7. 'We are all here' pocket notebook by Mossery Co. Stationery items go down very well with my kids and especially notebooks. They happily spend hours writing in them, filling them with drawings and stickers. 
My 8year old boy has a little stack of notebooks by him at night and I find it fascinating to see what he has drawn in them in the morning!   

If you have any ideas for handmade stocking fillers I would love to hear about them. 

New Organic Baby Bibs

I am busy editing photos of new organic baby bibs that I will be listing in my shops over the weekend. These are some of my favourite images of my bibs. It seems a shame to crop them, but square photos work best on sites like Etsy, so that's my job for tonight!

On my sewing table.......

This week it's all been about catching up with orders, including an order to a stockist. It's nice to occasionally batch sew. It gives you a chance to build up a rhythm, all the cutting can be done, then the sewing up of the bib fronts, then attaching the towelling, etc. It gives you a chance to build up a bit of speed as it cuts out the stopping and starting. It is also very satisfying when you end up with a pile of bibs at the end of the production line! 
This pile of bibs have gone off to Inside Out a lovely shop who are now stocking a great range of goodies from smaller handmade businesses like myself along side items from Cath Kidston and Orla Kiely in their stores in Tavistock, Exeter and Dartmoor. 
I always find though after concentrating on sewing one item that I am desperate to let my creative juices flow! So expect lots of new gift sets to start appearing in my shop next week!

Handmade Christmas: In the Woods

 Image credits 1.2of2, 2.Inkkit, 3. Gunnaydri, 4.Lessandmore, 5. Peacelovebeach

Second part of my series 'Handmade Christmas' where I am featuring items made with love and passion by independent small businesses, like myself. This week 'In the Woods'. Gift ideas for me, for the gardener in my life, a stocking filler for my little artist and ideas for the rustic home.

1. A Tabletop Forest by 2of2 a very talented brother and sister design team.
2. Twig Pencils by Inkkit, a pretty stationery and packaging shop on Etsy
3. A Scandianvain Retro Deer Cushion from Gunnaydri, on Etsy and based in London. I love this shop and would be happy to have any of it as a gift!
4. A Tealight holder/Seed starter holder by Lessandmore. Their desk organizers are amazing too! 
5. Modern metal Bird Cuff/Bracelet by Peace love beach. I am deeply in love with the jewellery in this shop, and have about five of Beth's cuffs on my Christmas wish list!

Fabric Post

Fabric post has got to be one of the best types of post to drop through your letter box! And I've been eagerly awaiting this pile of goodies.
The strawberry and clover prints are from Heather Ross's Briar Rose collection, which is just beautiful and the other four prints will mean lots more organic cotton gift set and bibs coming very soon to 'a crafty hen'.

Handmade Christmas: Cosy Knits

Image credits 1. InnerWild 2.Sally Nencini, 3. Oeuf, 4. Homelab, 5. Moaningminnie

I have spent the last couple weeks getting ready for my son's birthday which is at the end of the week. I will then quickly turn my attentions to my daughters birthday which is a couple of weeks later. My OH also celebrates his birthday in November, so I feel it's impossible to even think about the big 'C' until after these events! But Christmas (there I said it) is coming, and quickly! One of the problems of celebrating birthdays towards the end of the year is that I usually use up all of my gift ideas on the birthdays and then draw a blank when it comes to Christmas. 
I also like to support small businesses like myself and buy handmade items where possible. Even with my boys who are star wars and lego obsessed I try and balance it out with handmade gifts. So I thought I would start up a new series of weekly blog posts featuring items I have found and liked, ideas for myself, for the home, for the kids and not forgetting men who can be so difficult to buy for! So here it is my first 'Handmade Christmas' feature this week featuring 'Cosy Knits' which seems very appropriate considering the temperature drop here in the UK!

1. Gorgeous fingerless gloves by InnerWild a lovely shop based in Scotland and selling on Etsy

2. Knitted Lambswool Tapestry Cushions by Sally Nencini, found on 'Not on the High Street

3. Eye Mittens for kids by Oeuf, perfect for playing peek a boo!

4. Legwarmers by Homelab, I've had my eye on these for a while, along with other items in her shop on Etsy 

5. Men's Neckwarmers by Moaning Minnie bought as a present for my OH last year, I can highly recommend.

 

Sneak Peek!

A 'sneaky peek' of some of the new baby bibs and burp cloths that I've been working on over the last couple of days and will be added to my shop, once back open!

I feel very excited about these new additions. Theres an organic bear, Scandinavian seed heads, a Japanese inspired cloud set and even a bit of linen going on! All are fresh, modern and stylish and the colours are very Autumnal. All I need now is some sunshine so I can get them photographed!

On my Sewing Table.............

A customer order has been easing me back into sewing this week. 

I love the baby gift sets that she has chosen. The colours sit so happily together.  

I'm hoping by this time next week I'll have my shops back open as the school and preschool routine returns. It's going to be hard to settle back into the routine though as I enjoy having the kids around and I miss then so much when they go back to school, but I am looking forward to getting my mornings back at my sewing machine. 

I've already been pulling out fabrics that I want to start sewing with.
My head is so full of new ideas. Such a perfect way to keep myself occupied!