Design Inspiration « Pink Panda Says…

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Project Inspiration – Kawaii Fabric Books

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Keeping up with the kawaii theme, this week’s project inspiration is from emma & paul 2008 in Germany!

Look at these mini books made with cute imported fabric. How sweet are these? I have a soft spot for all things cute (maybe because I’m a mom of an 18 month old or because I’m just a girly girl at heart).

Kawaii Fabric Books by emma & paul 2008

And for those who don’t know what kawaii means – an adjective in Japanese meaning “pretty; cute; lovely; charming”. Don’t worry… I didn’t know this either and I just learned the word last year!

We have several kawaii fabrics in store right now (some of which are on sale and of course you can use the coupon code to save even more) but wait until you see what’s coming in 2010! Kawaii comes to Canada!

If you have something you’ve made with modern designer fabrics, make sure you upload them to our flickr group!

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Project inspiration – Kokka ribbon

Monday, October 26th, 2009

I’ve decided to start a series about what people do with the fabric and notions we sell (see our flickr page - it’s growing slowly but steadily — thank you for this!) as I’m always interested in seeing what people are making.

So for this first posting in the series I’ve decided to feature something made with Kokka ribbon.

Below is a pacifier clip made by FawnAndFinch. It’s very cute, don’t you think?

FawnAndFinch's Pacifier Clip

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Coming Soon …. Eco Friendly Fabrics

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Being a mom with a child who has eczema, I was thrilled when I read that designers were considering eco-friendly options for their fabric collections.

Imagine how excited I was when I met Michelle on Twitter and found out about her new company, Cloud 9 Fabrics. I finally found a company that was designing a gender neutral healthy fabric collection for children! Finally an organic fabric collection with designs kids would love (and parents too)! Gone are the days when organic cotton means plain beige / neutral coloured fabric — that’s all Google returned when I tried searching for “organic cotton fabric”.

We are so happy to be carrying the full line of their premier collection, My Happy Garden. It’s set to arrive in September so hopefully I’ll have the newsletter up and running to let everyone know. Don’t worry, there will be an announcement on the main page as well

We are constantly on the hunt for modern eco friendly products to bring to the store so if there’s anything you’d like to see, feel free to drop us a line.

To a happy, healthy planet!

Posted in Design Inspiration, Fab Finds, Fabric 101 | 4 Comments »

DIY: Free tutorials

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

It’s been a while since I posted some tutorials… so here are some I found during my many hours of surfing:

For your little girl: Bubble Dress Tutorial by My Mama Made It

For your home: Stitched Cork Coasters by Crafting a Green World

For the IKEA lover: a little bit of blue for the aneboda by ikea hacker

Enjoy!

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I want to learn how to quilt

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

I’ve been reading some of my customers’ blogs (if you have a blog, let me know — I love to read) and am getting inspired.

I’ve already figured out what I’m going to do once my sewing classes are done. I’m going to learn how to quilt! Or find someone to teach me how to make a quilt for the Pink Panda. This may be a bit ambitious though as I will have JUST finished a beginners’ sewing class and probably still not have enough to replace the duct tape sewing machine. The quilt could end up looking like a disaster! Ha ha. But it’s the thought that counts, right?

Why quilting, you ask? Look at this:

Paula Prass / Sandi Henderson Quilt by Barb

Beautfiul, isn’t it? Barb used Paula Prass’ Flights of Fancy and Sandi Henderson’s Farmer’s Market to make this quilt as part of the Old Red Barn Sew-Along.

One more thing added onto my “to make” list. Now I just have to find a patient teacher. Anyone know where to find a Quilting 101 type class?

Posted in Design Inspiration | 6 Comments »

A few good tutorials

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

It’s been a trying few days over here but the tooth that was causing havoc has finally popped out and all is back to normal.

The Pink Panda and I have been able to get out quite a bit for a few playdates and walks in the park. We are loving the summer weather — it has finally arrived where we are. We hope you are getting outside too!

As always, things have been busy and there are lots in the works for this store. New lines of fabric coming up shortly — a Coming Soon page will be built eventually so you can see what’s coming to the online shelves, contests being created and a few interviews being lined up to introduce you all to some great designers. If you’d like to be the first to know what’s new, make sure you sign up for The Bolt Newsletter (bottom left hand corner).

And we know what it’s like to have emails clogging up our inbox so we promise we won’t be sending you newsletters weekly (or sharing your address with anyone).

It’s summer afterall — who wants to read emails? I will because my BlackBerry is attached to my hand 24-7!

Now back to the reason why I wanted to post today. I have tons of fabric scraps and never know what to do with them. So I started surfing and found these — a few tutorials on how to put your fabric scraps / wonky cuts to good use:

1. Business Card Keeper by Amy Butler

2. Fabric Calendar by i heart linen

3. Pillow Case Bag by Martha Stewart

4. Offset Square Wrist Pincushion by PlanetJune

If you make any of these, send me a photo! Now if I could only find time to make these things myself. Think I can get one of them done before Pink Panda gets her next tooth? We’ll see!

Posted in Daily Life, Design Inspiration, Fab Finds | 3 Comments »

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