Sunday, 22 December 2013

Happy Holidays!

It's that time of the year at last. Today was our last market until next year.  

It's time to take a break, chill out, and then let all the new ideas for next year out of the monkey brain and on to some paper, and some fabric.  I can't wait to get a few days in my workroom!

Until then, thank you for all your support this year and have a great holiday.  

I couldn't put it any better than this card from Starling & finch who I met at the Magic of Christmas a couple of weeks ago ...


Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Belle Frocks - new colours

The new Belle Frocks are coming along nicely.  The most fun, but most time consuming part is the final embellishments.  I love doing them but being a bit of a perfectionist it does sometimes take ages to find the right mix.

Do let me know in the comments section if you think I should leave a few plain.  You could then wear a huge statement necklace instead??

Here's some pics.  They aren't on the website yet.  I took these with my iPhone at the market on Sunday so sorry about the quality ...


These are a burgundy colour - organic cotton fabric. The birds on the main fabric are flying free, the ones on the applique are more goth and caged.












These ones are a beautiful floral, again the fabric is organic cotton and the appliques are in a Matisse style.
















These ones are quite a pretty floral print and the appliques are Japanese inspired kawaii.  I so love them!




















Email me if you want to buy: minnie.faux at gmail.com. 

There are also some others at the Napier pop up shop - there a couple of foxes and the other caramel coloured ones, at the back of the rack!!


There are a few more colours coming - here's the original cutting pics:


Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Napier pop-up shop

Here's our wee slice of Napier.  It's a tower of Minnie + Ree - snap wrap skirts, reversible skirts with pockets and even a few Belle Frocks.  Napier, I have given you my best!  


It's at the Made It Here Craftmas Market, 14 Hastings Street, Napier for all of December. And now I have to get to work to make more to restock!

Minnie + Ree will also be at:

Sunday, 1 December 2013

Napier Shop

It's off to Napier in the Hawke's Bay on Monday to set up our stock at Made It Here's Craftmas.  The store is at 14 Hastings Street, Napier for all of December.  



For those of you who don't get the poster here is a photo of the original Pania statue in Napier:




  

Saturday, 23 November 2013

Piako Fete 2






The Nukes
I'm hopelessly behind in the blog but just have to say that the music was fantastic at the Piako Fete.  Check out the Nukes.

We were a little fearful when we saw a ukelele band was headlined but these guys are great!

You can see their cool Facebook song here - delightfully takes the piss outta all this interwebs stuff.


Anyways since we are talking ukeleles, I am in Fiji now. So may have more ukelele music for you soon...

The Nukes
And here's their Peas and Carrots song - a bit of romance to finish off with...

Thursday, 14 November 2013

Piako fete Friday 15 November


We are at the Piako Fete in Matamata tomorrow - Friday 15th November.  This is Ladies Day Out.  So if you want Minnie + Ree clothing or Stephanie Cahorel ceramics you will find us at Daltons Plantation 10am - 4pm Friday 15 November.
Stephanie - welcome from the hobbits
Tonight we are staying in Matamata.  Here we are getting in to the spirit of Matamata's Hobbiton.  
Ree going home 











Sunday, 10 November 2013

New Belle Frocks ...


Belle Frock swingtag



















New Belle Frocks

More colours for the new Belle Frocks
I have been cutting new frocks today. Here's a few pictures of the new colours.

I am trying out some darker colours as I think they will look quite dramatic.

The red/pink floral is from an organic cotton fabric as is the maroon one.








 

And some maybes for the embellishments but I can never really tell what's best until they are sewn up!






Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Where to next ...

It is becoming that time of year when you start to wonder where you are and where you should be next.  Roll on Christmas and the summer break!  For the next few weeks Minnie + Ree will be out and about:

  • We are at the Underground Designer Market  (click on the link to see a map) in Frank Kitts Park, Wellington Waterfront, New Zealand on most Saturdays from 10am - 4pm.  In November 2013 we are at the market on Saturday 9th and 16th only
  • Then we are away for Saturday 23rd and 30th November. Yep - it's time to go back to Fiji!
  • The Underground Market at Pataka Art & Museum (click on the link to see a map) Porirua, NZ on the third Sunday of every month.  We are next there on Sunday 17 November.
  • Ladies Shopping Night, Silverstream School Friday 8 November 2013.
  • Piako Fete in Matamata on Friday 15 November 2013.
  • Palmerston North's Magic Of Christmas market on Tuesday 10 December 5.30-10.30pm.

December is double markets at Underground on Wellington Waterfront.  We will be there Saturday and Sunday on 7-8th, 14-15th and 21-22nd December. 

Then next year we will be at:
  • Pauanui in the Coromandel on Friday 3 January 2014.
  • Cooks Beach in the Coromandel on Saturday 4 January 2014.
  • Hahei in the Coromandel on Tuesday 7 January 2014.
  • Whitianga in the Coromandel on Wednesday 8 January 2014.

whew!





Thursday, 17 October 2013

Hawke's Bay and ...

We are off to Hawke's Bay next week. The lovely people from Made It Here, Napier have arranged a huge craft marquee at the Hawke's Bay Show and Minnie + Ree will have a stall there. Well, "stall" means racks.  It'll be all our favourite wrap skirts and dresses. Heaps of beautiful cotton and colour ready for summer!

The show is Wed 23 - Friday 25 October in the showgrounds at Hastings.  

Before then we have Underground Market on Wellington's waterfront 10am - 4pm on Saturday.

And it's the third Sunday of the month this weekend so that means we will be at Pataka in Porirua 11am - 3pm this Sunday.

See you there!

Friday, 27 September 2013

pink elephants

Party time is coming up.  Do you need a new skirt for the party season?  One that really sets the scene?  

Why wait to see pink elephants when you can wear them?  

We have a new skirt - it's in our classic snap wrap style and it's just right for the summer ...  it will be at the Underground market tomorrow AND we celebrate WOW by being open all weekend!  Saturday 10am - 5.30pm and Sunday 10am - 4pm.  

See you there?  Or are you seeing pink elephants already?



Friday, 20 September 2013

Seal photo by Marran!

This cute little seal came to the Underground market last week. 

It was on the rocks just outside the main doors for quite some time. It gathered quite a crowd but seemed quite calm around people.  

Maybe there will be more interesting characters at the market this weekend but NOT Minnie + Ree. A HUGE pile of fabrics is sitting in the workroom so it is scissor-time this weekend. And new skirts and dresses will be the result.

The WOW markets start on 28-29 September. The WOW markets are huge and are Saturday and Sunday during World of Wearable Art.  

We are at the market on 5-6 October as well.  See you there?

  

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Market style - matchy matchy in a good way

Matching cowgirl bag!
This woman was in the market recently.  Once I spotted her bag I had to get a photo with one of the Minnie + Ree cowgirl skirts.  

They were made for each other, yes?

Cowgirls snap wrap skirt

Friday, 6 September 2013

Skirt lengths and the economy



Have you heard the theory that hemlines are an important economic indicator?  According to the theory that started in the 1920s the higher the hemline, the shorter the skirt, the better the economy.

Now lately I have been thinking about a new skirt design and the one in my head is a longer wrap skirt but with a bit of a high-lo look.  So the question is - will I negatively affect the economy with my longer skirt??? 



Further research has now revealed:
  1. There are quite a few midi skirts and dresses around and I am really liking the look.
  2. The theory has been 'discredited' and replaced by heel height and lipsticks.  Do these researchers have nothing to do I wonder!  The original theory was supposedly to do with the silk stockings that were worn with the shorter skirts by the flappers and then it was 'proven' by the mini skirt in the affluent 1960s. It started with women not being able to afford silk stockings in hard times so wore their skirts longer ... but the flapper pics above are from Wikipedia - hmmm, these skirts would be considered long by the theorists - they are well below the knee!
So it's all just a bit of fun.  And I am continuing on with my new skirt design.  And I've also made another big decision - all Minnie + Ree clothing must have pockets.  They do add to the time and so the cost of making them but it is so worth it.  

Tell me - I meet lots of women who want skirts that cover their knees - are you one of them?


Friday, 16 August 2013

Designer Cats

Did you know there is a Sewing
with Cats award?  And all great designers have a cat?

I hate to miss out on a trend so here we go - the official Minnie + Ree cat is revealed. 

His name is Gleep and of course he is such a good cat and would never sit on any fabrics unless he was specially posing for a photo - yeah right!!  Don't you just love the evil "Don't mess with me" stare?  Yes he is the boss of this place.

Next up is a picture of famous NZ shoe designer Kathryn Wilson.  

This photo was in a newspaper several years ago and it says that she takes her cat to work every day. Her cat is also a Cornish Rex - they have curly fur and are long and skinny (and bossy).  

I am thinking that Gleep and I will get a professional photo done like this, if that's okay with him ...

The Sewing with cats award is here:

Gleep is a multi-tasking cat so here he is helping out with the laptop.  I was watching an Etsy video featuring Megan Auman and it was all about pricing your products properly. It's a great video and if you are thinking about how to professionally price your products or how prices are set it is great to watch.  Here's the link.  




And here is the skirt that he has NOT been allowed to sit on!





Friday, 9 August 2013

Scary!

Three things happened this week that were really quite scary:

ONE - It is the height of the summer in the northern hemisphere but the US and UK blogs and newsletters I subscribe to have started to advertise their Fall/Autumn clothing!!

TWO - Christmas is coming!!  I have just booked in to the Magic of Christmas market in Palmerston North.  It is 5.30-10.30pm on Tuesday 10 December.  Here's their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MagicofChristmasnightmarket.  Check out the great stuff that will be there!

THREE - We may be having our warmest July-August in a long time but it is August and July-August is the depth of winter in New Zealand.  But this week I saw a shop with their new Spring clothing display in the window!!  

So I immediately decided that the US/UK ones were crazy pessimists and the NZ ones were crazy optimists (because I hate winter!!).  But really it's just modern retail cycles doing what they all do.  I'm still working on my Vivienne Westwood mantra of Buy less, Choose well, Make it last so I don't feel the need to buy new Spring clothing right now. AND at Minnie + Ree it is bright colourful clothing all the time anyway!


More colourful wrap skirts from Minnie + Ree 

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun??

Thursday, 25 July 2013

New postcard





We have a new postcard!  


After having huge fun making new label tags for our applique slouchy tops I fell in love with the look of the font on my stamp printer wheelie thing (whatever it's called!) and so now that font is taking over!

I also now notice that my favourite pics that got on to the new postcard were all quite summery.  And it's still freezing here!  
[And we've had a huge earthquake!!!]

The great thing about this business is that it's either spring/summer or I am planning new clothes and looking at fabric samples for summer.  So check out the summer Belle Frock.  I have made a very few with hand stitched applique and they are stunning.  Of course the new fabric choices will not have this hand stitching.  But they will still be really cool (stylie) and cool (made of nice natural breathable cotton)!  

There's the pic of stamp printer wheelie thing - what would you call it???


Thursday, 18 July 2013

You're so vain ...

I hope the title of this post means that you are now singing along to You're so vain by Carly Simon.  If you need more help here's the video:



So why this song?  It's for me.  Here is the Bad Photo that was in the local paper about this Sunday's market at Pataka museum in Porirua.  Soooo not my best pic so I'm desperately thinking "all publicity is good publicity".  Right?



The pink skirt in the Bad Photo is nearly out of stock but we have the new purple version ready and a couple of new reversible skirts.



And aren't you happy that the song is spelt correctly?  I love this photo!!


Thursday, 11 July 2013

Vivienne Westwood said it better!

A few weeks ago I did a wee rant on how buying good clothes that you love and keep as long as possible was a great way to go. And hopefully Minnie + Ree's clothing would be on your list of 'keepers'.

Turns out that Vivienne Westwood has expressed this same view and being such a stylie woman she has said it so well:

BUY LESS
CHOOSE WELL
MAKE IT LAST


How great is that???


As I was looking around the web at this quote I also found some great pictures.  Here she is wearing my dream glasses, I have wanted some glasses like this forever!  Geraldine Booth, I hope you are reading this!!

And then I found some more wisdom from her:

"I think it is a good thing to buy less and choose well.  It's good for the environment and to be fair it's also good for me because my clothes are quite expensive."

So she's a style icon and a good business mentor too!


Another picture of the perfect specs!







What do you think?