Natty Paint and New Designs

A few new and interesting and upcoming things in the world of labudde:

1. I have teamed up with Emily LiMandri of Natty Paint. She designs and hand silk-screens really excellent graphic tees. Her designs include bicycles, skeletons in mid-makeout session, peacocks and lots of other great things. We've been setting up a table together at the Waverly Farmer's Market in Baltimore for the past few weeks. Come stop by if you are a Baltimorean. We're also planning to team up and create some hand-made, hand-silk-screened shirts (yay!). I'll post some pics once we whip a few up.

2. Moving! I am moving July 15th to a great little rowhouse on Guilford in Charles Village. I am very excited to have my studio, the internet, and a kitchen and food all in one place! (Right now I make all my clothing in one place, but eat, sleep, and use the internet and do all my photos and shipping in another place...this sounds like a relatively minor inconvenience, but I am not a person with a gift for organization, and forgetting things at one place or the other has been a major time-suck. It reminds me of friends of mine who had divorced parents in high school, constantly forgetting homework at Mom or Dad's house.) I'm also working for Outward Bound for about a month from late July-mid August. So, I will be moving all my stuff, then in the woods for a while...which will most likely be a big setback for my etsy business. Hopefully the time away and the excitement of moving into a new place will help motivate me to make more things, and my new setup will increase my productivity a bit.

3. Some new designs:


Some new ruffled-edged tanks:

Watermelon Slice Tank:

This one was created from a lovely velour fabric, with organic cotton trim.


Smock-style loose-fitting tanks:

In Poppies and Plaid

Avocado Smock

All these designs, plus some other new ones are now up in my etsy shop!

New Bags

I have been neglecting this blog and my etsy site a bit this month, partially because I had the opportunity to go on a lovely pre-mother's day yoga retreat with my Mom, I visited some friends in Annapolis; but I have also been making things! Here are some pictures of my new batch of bags. I'm starting to play around a bit more with ways of embellishing tote bags with different colors, textures, trims, and, of course, new vintage buttons!

Fleur de Lise Tote

Sunworshipper Tote

Fleur de Lise Tote

Cripple Creek Tote

Durango Tote

Miniskirts

It is a rainy morning here, and I keep procrastinating before leaving the house, trying to find one more useful thing to do on my computer. Which brings me to this post.

I am sometimes slow to catch on to trends, so I tend to lean heavily upon people and websites for ideas on what to make next. My sister planted the seed a while ago that I should start making miniskirts. I don't think she used the word "miniskirt"--which sounds a bit anachronistic to me, the miniskirt seems mired in 1960's reruns of I Dream of Genie--but she quickly bored of some of the styles that I was making a few months ago and suggested that I try making some skirts that were SHORT. So here they are (they are both up in my etsy shop now).

No Warning Signs Skirt

Elements of Flirtation Skirt

Eighties Dance Party Legwarmers

I wish I had had these legwarmers (now in my etsy shop, p.s. THANK YOU Jessie for finding this fabric for me!):



At this 80's dance party (circa 2nd semester, freshman year):

Sunworshipper Tote Bags

Hey. I wanted to post some pictures of the tote bags I've been working on recently--they have given me a great reason to collect vintage buttons. All of the materials for these bags are reclaimed, and some of them (the red damask print, the green and white stripes) came from the Sew Green project in Ithaca NY, which collects fabrics that people have had laying around forever and makes them available for resale.

I've always been more of a tote bag kind of gal; handbags always seem a little too formal for me, and these are big enough to fit a small laptop, or all of your beach essentials, stuff for a weekend roadtrip, etc. I'm working on putting some more up in my etsy shop, but for now they are for sale at Pandora's Box, in Federal Hill, Baltimore Maryland.

TUFF SOUL

I am excited to write that my clothing is for sale at its very first retail location in Ithaca, NY. The store is called Tuff Soul, and it is truly a treasure trove; chock full of vintage, reconstructed, and eco-friendly clothing.

Bamboo Fabric T-Shirts, Tanks and Tunic Dresses







Mina's Tunic Dresses, made out of vintage fabrics, vintage buttons, and bamboo




Jumpers, made primarily out of vintage and repurposed fabrics



So, all of these items, which used to be featured in my Etsy shop are now for sale at Tuff Soul. I'm working on getting a bunch of new things together at the moment...a line of spring tote bags are in the making...more updates to come.

Ode to my Favorite Coffee Shops

I got down to business last night and whipped up a new crop of laptop cases from my latest supply of coffee bags. I got these great bags from Gimme!Coffee in Ithaca, NY. Thanks again, Gimme Coffee. In fact, thanks to all the lovely independent coffee shops that have given me bags and kept me caffeinated:

B.B. Bean Coffee, Colorado Springs, CO. All they serve is coffee here. No lattes, no espresso, just really, really strong, really great coffee. My favorite is the Earth Friendly Sumatran Gayo Mountain blend. I wrote many papers at top speed propelled by BB Bean coffee alone. In fact, I think in order to get through college without BB Bean coffee I would have had to learn to stop procrastinating and sleep more. Good thing there is coffee instead.

Newport Coffee, Lake Forest, IL. Great lattes. Nice midwesterners.

High Grounds, Baltimore, MD. This is a combination coffee shop, coffee roastery, and used bookstore. They have a really great selection of books here, and they even roast the coffee beans right in the back of the shop. They also sell their coffee at Whole Foods in Baltimore, and feature local artist's work on the packaging.

Stagecoach Coffee, Cooperstown, NY. This is my hometown local coffee shop. They are a great family-run business. I often go there to manage my etsy site and use the internet when my rural, snail-pace-slow internet connection at home goes down (which is constantly). They serve good sandwiches for lunch, but my very favorite thing here is the soup.

Here are the new laptop sleeves. You can also see more of them at my etsy shop: