“It’s hard to be a badass when you’re wearing a unicorn shirt,” says Deanna. But I think she does an impressive job in this picture.

I loved doing this custom order for her and her niece. There will be more unicorn toddler shirts and baby onesies in the shop within the next few weeks, and I’m also working on some dinosaur options. Both will be on colorful organic cotton. Yay!

Lately I’ve been worrying that some people may be turned off from buying some of my stuff because it’s made from used materials, especially the vintage bed sheets. This thought occurred to me before I even launched the shop, but I didn’t want to plant seeds of doubt in anyone’s mind, so I didn’t address it head on. However, after some consideration, I’ve decided that it couldn’t hurt to offer some reassurance. Even as a diehard thrifter who loves upcycled goodies, I know I would appreciate knowing that a crafter took cleanliness and quality seriously, especially if I was purchasing something that should only be washed in cold water.

So today I added the following at the end of all my upcycled clothing listings:

ABOUT VINTAGE MATERIALS

When I choose vintage bed sheets, pre-worn clothing, and other used materials for my work, I examine them carefully for stains and damage. I then scrupulously machine wash them in hot water, usually twice, including a rinse cycle with baking soda, to ensure that they are 100% sanitary and fresh-smelling. If small imperfections remain, I either use them as inspiration for embellishment (stitching, appliqué, etc.) or avoid using that area of the fabric. You can be confident that all upcycled items from the Vocabulary are clean and pristine.

Thoughts? Feedback? Did this concern occur to you? Do you think this note will adequately address it? Is there anything else I should consider or add?

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of Etsy, and I was going to try to meet a few fellow crafters at the Etsy Craft Party at Vermilion Gallery here on Cap Hill. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it for a variety of boring family logistics reasons. But I still wanted to share the cute business cards I made in preparation.

I’m feeling good about my most recent shop addition, the haiku nighties, and finishing up a few more baby items before embarking on something new. I have to keep remembering that this is a side project and (so far at least) the business model is not remotely viable as anything more than (eventually, hopefully) a small trickle of supplementary income — even if I get to the point where I sell as much as I can physically produce in the time I have available.

My real goal is to justify time and space for my creativity. Making things helps me think and keeps me inspired. When I feel like a boring person who does nothing but work and do laundry and change diapers and read picture books about ducks, this project gives me an excuse to open up one of the many drawers in my office that are stuffed to bursting with scraps of beautiful fabric, scribbled ideas, journals, and other signs of life that remind me that there’s more to me than my daily responsibilities and that it’s been there all along. When I do this, I’m more likely to write, more likely to take care of my body, and more likely to do all kinds of other great things that I want to prioritize in my life.

So, I’m trying to keep it simple. That means keeping the marketing side of things as minimal as my years of working in marketing allow, not stressing about turning a profit, and focusing on the creative process. Make what I can make, sell what I can sell, and keep exploring. That’s my creative manifesto – for now, at least.

After weeks of obsessing – and still probably nowhere near done – I’m making this site public and starting to let people know about The Vocabulary. Right now there are only six baby shirts and onesies in the shop, but I’ll be putting up the new baby/toddler pants soon. Those will be followed shortly by some women’s skirts. I also have some really awesome women’s short nighties on the agenda and some items for the home and men’s t-shirts. Stay tuned. :)

UPDATE: If you’re viewing this site on a Windows machine, the fonts probably look like crap. Sorry! Everything looks so pretty on my Macbook. I didn’t think I’d done anything to the WordPress theme that would create a platform/browser compatibility issue, but obviously I did. I’m working on fixing the problem… whatever the heck it is!

UPDATE 2: Problem seems to be resolved. Looks like it was simply my anachronistic preference for Courier over Courier New that borked everything. All I had to do was accept the New Font Order and let go of the 55-year-old loveliness of Courier. I’m told most people can’t tell the difference. Oh well.

This little onesie is my first item for sale in The Vocabulary on Etsy. It’s not getting much traffic because I haven’t done any promotion and this website isn’t even live yet, but having *something* up for sale allows me to say that I met my self-imposed deadline to launch on May 20. Below is a screenshot of my search for “onesie” on Etsy just a few minutes post-launch. I’ve done a lot of searching on Etsy over the years, and it was exciting to see something of mine in the results for the first time.

The process of launching this shop is slow. Everything takes much longer than I expect, partly for anxiety-producing technical reasons (sewing machine snafus, printing challenges, user error) — but also because I’m having so much fun. I keep coming up with new ideas before I finish the things I’ve already started.  More soon!