Fabric Binge

A few months back I did some temping for a local newspaper, and I promised my Facebook followers that as soon as the money came through, I'd have a fabric binge. Well, after four months of waiting the cash finally showed up in my bank account... and I headed over to Castle Court Quilter so fast that my feet barely touched the ground.

My fabric haul, in a neat pile of loveliness. Almost too pretty to cut up. Almost.

Swallows on blue and sage, and a corresponding blue, white and sage print. These are all from the Floragaphix range that has been so popular.

Bright florals are always a joy to work with. And they make very cheery pads!

Birds and books.

More batiks, as requested. The batik range is small, but I liked this earthy design and the vibrant red floral.

The ever popular "Gypsy" print, this time in bright red. Should look fabulous with black fleece and snaps.

A couple of old favourites that I'd run out of.

Finally, how organised is this?

A print for this year's holiday pads. Hey, I said HOLIDAY, I didn't even mention the C word! This will sit in my cabinet until November, and until then we will speak of it no more.

Speaking of Facebook, I'm 7 "likes" away from 100. It's very exciting! To show how much your support means to me, I will hold another giveaway as soon as I reach triple figures. If you haven't already liked my Facebook page, please do - the sooner I reach my target, the sooner you get a chance to win a free pad! (That's a menstrual pad, not an iPad. Sorry, you can't play Angry Birds on it.)

Christmas Pads!

Given that it is snowing softly outside, this seems like the perfect time to announce a new arrival to the store - Christmas pads!


I have to admit that I previously never understood the point of holiday pads, until a couple of years ago when I received one in a trade. That year Aunt Flo arrived on Christmas day (having arrived on my birthday the previous month), and I was very glad to have a shiny new festive pad to wear. It helped take the sting out of being crampy at Christmas, and has since become one of my favourite year-round pads.

So far the Christmas pads are available in pantiliner, 8.5 inch, 9 inch, and 10.25 inch sizes. 11.75 inch Christmas pads are in progress, and I have a menstrual cup pouch waiting to be sewn up.


Speaking of Christmas, after four years of living together, my partner and I have just bought our very first Christmas tree! I can't wait to decorate it. I don't think I will be adorning it with mini pads, though... ;)

Fabric Addiction

I love that I have a job that enables me to feed my fabric addiction. Buying fabric counts as work, and is therefore justified. I don't even mind that it isn't for me, as long as I get to play with it.

Now that I've moved to Shropshire, I'm about two miles away from the most wonderful quilting shop I've ever visited. Tucked away above a dentist's surgery in a small rural village, you'd never know it was there. Discovering it is like finding hidden treasure. Two rooms are dedicaded to floor-to-ceiling shelving packed with bolts of gorgeous designer quilting fabric. These are adjacent to an enormous studio with state of the art quilting and cutting equipment, where they host workshops and events. You can even hire the studio for personal use, if sewing at home is difficult.

After we got settled in, of course one of the first things we did was visit this place. This is what I came away with:


*swoon*

Some of these beautiful new prints have already been made up into pads, and I have more cut out, so look out for them in the shop! I seem to be all about the blossoms and birds at the moment; it must be summer.


In other news, the shop got pretty well cleared out earlier this month, so my partner stepped in to help me re-stock. We've discovered that we make quite a formidable team! She's taken most of the cutting off my hands, leaving me free to concentrate on the sewing. I hadn't realised how much time the fabric cutting eats up - a lot, it turns out. With her help I've reached a record 40 products in the shop, several of them having more than one in stock. More choice for you, and less stress for me!

We don't know how long she'll be able to help me before she gets too busy again, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts. I like having a minion.

Vicarious Sewing

Packing for Saturday's move has gone way beyond the fun stage, and is now at the awkward, difficult and inconvenient stage. You know, the stage where you can't walk two feet without tripping over a box, and where you keep needing things that are already packed - usually in a box at the very bottom of a towering pile.


I've held off packing my sewing machine and fabric as long as possible, but today I decided it was time to box them up. Good grief, I have a lot of fabric! I guess when it's all folded away in cupboards I don't really notice how much of it there is, but I've filled several large boxes, and still have to find room for several metres of flannel and microfleece, and two 25m rolls of PUL and bamboo fleece! I had a similar revelation with my yarn stash - how did half of my local yarn store end up in the spare bedroom?!

I feel completely lost without my sewing equipment, and am itching to get back to making pads. In the meantime, I'm enjoying crafting vicariously through other people. It's been great to hear about your pad making projects, such as this one by Sarah in California:

Sarah made this fabulous pad using the 9" pattern in my pattern and tutorial set. Having always had a soft spot for owls, I love her choice of fabric! This is actually a pantiliner weight - one of the best things about making your own pads is that you can customise them to get exactly the size and absorbency you want.

The pattern and tutorial set is currently 15% off, along with everything else in store, until Friday 29th. Happy sewing!

A few Tidbits

In celebration of the beautiful sunshine we've been having here, I've been filling the store with spring-like prints. Flowers, blossoms, birds, and cheerful colours all feature heavily, thanks in part to Amy Butler's gorgeous "Daisychain" and discontinued "Charm" collections.


I also have some new stock up at Cloth Pad Shop Europe, including a whopping great night/post-partum pad topped with luscious cotton sherpa. At 14" long, this pad is for when you need to bring in the big guns:


Finally, if you've purchased my patterns/tutorial set but aren't sure which kind of fastening to use, I've written an article about the pros and cons of various types of pad closures. I hope you find it useful!

New Fabrics!

I have a hard time finding beautiful modern prints here in the UK, and often have to order my designer cottons from the USA. So, imagine my delight at stumbling upon Gone to Earth, a UK based supplier of stunning designer fabrics!


Some of these prints are already made up into pads in the shop, and yesterday I colour-matched thread so that I can make more this week. Yay! New prints make me feel so inspired!

I also found a beautiful floral print at my local quilt shop, which puts me in mind of dresses from the 1940s. It's more modern and graphic than the 1940s prints, but definitely has that vibe. If only I could justify buying enough of it to make a dress! Still, it's an absolute joy to work with, and makes beautiful pads.


Finally... I still have a small amount of fabric left from when I had my Reclaimed Fabric section. I've added a couple of pads made from upcycled fabric to my Cloth Pad Shop store, as part of the "ecology" theme. They are topped with the most gorgeous deep purple velour, and because they are upcycled, they are cheaper than my usual stock (remember, at CPS the price is in Euros!). I have more upcycled liners cut out and ready to sew, so keep an eye out!

New Prices, New Cores

Wow, it's been a long time. Sorry about that. The last few weeks have been super busy - I've been dealing with family visits, sick pets, broken down cars, and prolonged bureacratic nonsense that I can't make head nor tail of. Why does everything always happen at once?!

Anyhow... the reason for today's update is that I am making a few minor changes at Luna Wolf. I wanted to let you know in advance, since it seems rude to just throw it out there without any notice.

The first change is pricing. You're probably thinking that there's only one way this can go, and I'm afraid you'd be right - I am indeed going to be raising my prices. I've kept them at this level for as long as I possibly could, but it's time for a revision. The prices of my supplies have continued to go up, and I'm at the point where I can no longer afford to keep this business unless I make some changes.

My new prices will come into effect on 7th September 2009. It was originally planned for 1st September, but since I posted this later then I intended, I'm giving you an extra week to make the most of the old prices. My new price list will be as follows:

Pantiliner: £3.75
8.5 inch pad: £4.85
9 inch pad: £5.45
Incontinence pad: £5.45
10.25 inch pad: £5.99
11.75 inch pad: £7.10
"Monster" night pad: £8.75
Menstrual cup bag: £2.75

Make-up remover pads, fabrics by the metre, Femmecups, and Femmecup starter sets will stay the same for now.

I do empathise with people who are on a tight budget, and I'm hoping that the price raise will enable me to start running free lotteries again, and hold sales once in a while. I also update my Squidoo lens regularly with ideas for creating a stash without breaking the bank.

The second change at Luna Wolf is that I am going to be reformulating some of my pad cores slightly. The core is the absorbent "soaker" part that is hidden inside. I use a mixture of medium and heavyweight bamboo fleece to create the absorbency I want for each pad, measured in GSM (grams per square metre). The higher the GSM, the more absorbent the pad. Anyway, I've decided to increase the GSM in some of my cores to make them even more absorbent. Since bamboo fleece is very thin and flexible for its extraordinary level of absorbency, it's unlikely that you will feel much difference in the thickness of the pads. You'll just find that the cores can hold even more fluid!

As always, if I use a heavier or lighter core, I will note it in the listing. But for my standard cores, here are the new GSM figures if you're interested. (I am not including the quilter's cotton or flannelette in these figures, even though these have some absorbency of their own.)

Pantiliner: 280gsm (no change)
8.5 inch pad: was 560gsm, now 605 gsm
9 inch pad: was 605 gsm, now 640 gsm
10.25 inch pad: 840 gsm (no change)
11.75 inch pad: was 840 gsm, now 880 gsm
"Monster" night pad: 880 gsm (no change)

I think that's all my news for now. A huge thanks to everybody who continues to support Luna Wolf, and I'll try not to be such a stranger to Blogspot anymore.

New Fabric!

I had an appointment in town. As you've probably figured out by now, I find it impossible to go into town without visiting the quilting shop. And then I find it impossible to visit the quilting shop and come out empty handed.



The second is a Tina Givens print called "Sweet Poppies", which makes very jazzy looking pads. The quilting shop has several more prints from that collection, so I'm sure I'll be picking up more in due course!

However, I have saved the best for last. Worcester has a fabulous vintage clothing shop just across from where my appointment was. A few months ago, it is where I found this dress:


(Yes, that is me in a wig. I went to a 60s themed party. It was a hoot!)

Anyway, in one corner of the shop there is a suitcase filled with vintage fabric. That is where I found this little gem:



Is this not the best piece of fabric you have ever seen?! Daffodils! Birds! Welsh hats! I grew up on the Welsh border, so I may be slightly biased... but I think this is the highlight of my fabric collection. Everything about it makes me grin.

Now I just have to decide what to do with it. I don't think I'll be making it into pads, because I'd only be able to get one girl on each, and the beauty of the fabric (in my opinion) is having the girls in lines. There's not enough to make a skirt, unfortunately. I'm leaning towards a cutesy apron, which is the closest thing. Any other ideas?

Snap Woes are over!

The new snaps and dies arrived... and... they work perfectly! I definitely prefer the new ones, they look and feel really sturdy and secure, plus they are easier to apply. I hope you'll love them as much as I do. I got two different sizes - small ones for liners and 8.5 inch pads, and larger ones for 9 inches and above. I'm not quite sure what to do with the old snaps and dies - keep them for backup perhaps?

I also splurged on some new fabric. House of Fraser in Worcester has started stocking Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett and Heather Bailey prints (be still my heart), and my favourite little quilting shop had a half price sale, so I couldn't not buy anything. Right? Right?

Midwest Modern by Amy Butler. Yum.

Garden Maze - so cheerful and summery!

Go see the rest here. :)