It's rather chilly down at free range studios at the moment. This has inspired me to start cranking out super snuggly quilted coats.
This little number uses gorgeous vintage fairy tale cotton that mum and I found on our recent Op. shopping trawl in Palmy North. I paired the fairy tales with dusky blue drill. It's also fully lined with blue and white gingham, making it "almost" totally reversible, just those pesky buttons would be a bit tricky.
Check out those straight quilting lines too! My first attempt to quilt my own fabric.
Here is the last of the huge brimmed sun hats to keep all those nasty rays off wee ones. Yep, I'm feeling nostalgic about summer on a very chilly Wellington day in my studio.
Beautiful vintage bonnets will be coming soon... when the weather warms up a little again. I can't wait to turn these designs into beautiful bonnets in vintage florals!
Gorgeous wee angel tops, as modeled by Cara below, are based on 1950's plunket patterns. They are available in a selection of beautiful vintage florals.
I find it impossible to part with even the smallest scrap of gorgeous vintage fabrics, being as they are irreplaceable and I hate being wasteful of cotton, given the huge resources that are pouring into its production.
So here is one of the remedies to the problem of creating "scrap" pieces of fabric in the production of free range baby clothing.
These are origami cranes, folded with fabrics in the same way as they would be with paper. Fabrics are patched together in order to create cranes in a variety of sizes.
This is my favourite of the latest batch of pinafores. The fabric in this wee number was screen printed in Norway in 1980, it took some serious commitment to cut into it, but I love how it turned out. If you want to check out more pinafores stop by the glorious Wanda Harland in Petone or Swonderful in Brooklyn (Wellington)... Pinafores retail for $58, are fully reversible and they come with the wee free range chick.
Custom orders always welcome, pinafores available in sizes 1, 2, 3 years
Stipes are the best! I've never seen a baby in stripes who doesn't look delightfully cute.
This striped number is from the range of little cat burglar outfits. These sets includes a romper with a hand embroided cat on left side of chest and a matching CAT HAT - a cute little beenie with ears.
Outfits available in a range of stripes including white and blue, cream and black, blue and green, yellow and blue, white, yellow, green and pink.
Two piece set $48. Available in sizes 3, 6 & 9months.
One of the best things about free range studios is our super lovely neighbours. musicians, artists, dancers, philosophers and all. some of my favourite people live upstairs and some of my favourite music is made in the basement below. At the moment the black seeds are in the basement working on their new album and it comes up through the floor boards for most of the day. Not a bad place to work And sometimes if we are really lucky the 4 legged neighbours pop by. Most of the time it's a crazy permed looking devon rex, but the other day I met this little guy with his cute wee two toned face.
Somehow it's become March 2008 already. free range baby is still learning to crawl. down at free range studios brand new equipment has arrived and a new order to the chaos has been created. the shelves are piled high, with bundles and bundles of gorgeous cotton in stripes and dots and florals and vintage prints. all meticulously organized after a solid week of tidying. the huge leaning tower of fabric is no more. now i can't wait to start churning out clothes again on all my brand new machines.... just as soon as those damn labels arrive
Meet baby Charlie and Grif the pup. Charlie is the original freerange baby, him and his little friend were created by local illustrating extraordinaire Ben Crotty.
I'm crazy about 1950's and 60's children's picture books (and clothes of course), so I wanted Charlie and Grif to reflect that.
Oh and yes I'm bitter about being an 80's baby just a wee bit!
You can check out items currently for sale on felt.co.nz Or you can come visit me at Kristmas Knack - you'll find this fabulous new Welly craft market hiding in the hall at at Berhampore School - 105 Britomart Street (off Adelaide Road ), Berhampore. It will be a great day for Christmas shopping!
It's rather chilly down at free range studios at the moment. This has inspired me to start cranking out super snuggly quilted coats.
