The Sweatshop of Love Blog

It’s always crazy when something you’ve been planning for and anticipating for a long time actually arrives, so the fact that Renegade Brooklyn is THIS WEEKEND kind of blows my mind! Caitlin and I found out we got in back in March, so it has been a while.

Lots of Knitting Kits Packed Up

I started out with a HUGE plan. I trimmed it down as I went and ended up with two new kits, a couple updates to some old kits, and a bunch of new knit and crochet ready to wear jewelry pieces to sell.

Felt Boxes for Display

When you’re in a craft fair you not only have to think about what you’re selling but also how you are displaying it. For Renegade Chicago I used my mom’s beautiful baskets, but since we’re traveling for 11 days and will be living out of our car I didn’t want to take the chance that something would happen to one of them along the way. We have a LOT of stuff we’re taking and needed disposable/collapsible displays.

Cute AND Collapsible!

When I saw Katie from Under the Red Umbrella‘s Felt Box tutorial last year I knew I had to make some! And somewhere I made the connection that I could make them with Sweatshop colors, and organize my knitted jewelry for Renegade in them.

Katie’s tutorial is super easy to follow, thorough, and super clear. They’re also a lot quicker than I thought they’d be! I made 10 of these in 2 sittings. Bonus?! The materials cost me like $2. Katie makes them with vintage sheets, which I love, but I’m working on BRANDING and all that, so I used yellow and teal materials, my Sweatshop of Love colors. I found teal sheets of felt at Michael for like 20 cents a sheet and the same muslin I dye yellow for my kit project bags.

I’ll show you pics of how it all looks next week! I made tags and pricing to attach to them so I think it will look awesome.

A Million Mes

Speaking of tags, one of he downfalls of using yourself as your model is that you end up staring at yourself ALL DAY to the point where you don’t even see yourself in the picture anymore. This is the picture on my kits, so this is the picture I’ve had to stare at at the printers, cut out, paste to tags, and stuff into project bags. I wore this shirt yesterday and could barely stomach it.

Daisy Chain Necklace, Ruffle Bracelet

I don’t even recognize that as my body anymore. But there you have it! My Daisy Chain Necklace and Ruffle Bracelet kits. They’re my first crochet kits! They’re debuting this weekend at Renegade so if you’re in the area come pick one up! If you aren’t then they’ll be up in my Etsy shop by the end of the month. What do you think?!

As you’re reading this we’re somewhere between Chicago and New York. Follow me on twitter for Renegade updates this weekend, and I’ll let you know how it goes next week!