Where have I been.....

I have been conspicuous by my absence lately and the main reason is I have moved from north london to sunnier climes (north devon) and the move has been a big event as most  moves tend to be.  I promise now that I am based in my lovely new office with a lot less distractions I will be blogging much more regularly!

In the world of Sarah Harper Handmade things are in the early planning stages and very exciting, I have a lovely converted stable which is being made into a purpose built soap workshop by my long suffering Hubby! Full equipped and ready to make much more of the soap that you all seem to like.  My range of body butters has being doing well and receiving good reviews from new and old customer alike.  I am continuing to run Soap and Sewing workshops in North London at The Work Shop and will be opening my own teaching space down here is North Devon so watch this space! 

For now my chips have arrived so I will bid you all good night!

Busy Busy Busy......calm

Since our Devon trip life has been crazy and it is only now the holidays are here that I can finally find time to post.  In the run up to Christmas I have been working solidly to get my soap orders out and sew stock for the shop I work at Sally Bourne Interiors not to mention teaching.  The very cold weather we have had has meant that on top of smaller sewn items for gifts we are selling a large amount of draft excluders for all those old victorian houses in Crouch End and Muswell Hill.  I can't seem to make them fast enough and just when I think I have enough to keep them going I  get another phone call. 

At the beginning of December I found a website on twitter called From the Wilde it is a lovely boutique site selling a variety of products from British designer makers amoung them Poppy Trefry of whom I am a big fan (she does all her sewing on vintage Singers)  I emailed the shop owner and mentioned that they seemed to have a very empty Bath and Beauty section.  Well a few days and many emails later my products are now launched on the site and I must say look lovely.  It is so nice to see my soap in its lovely new packaging on such a beautifully arranged site and hopefully I will get a few sales and my products more well known.  Now that the crazy period is over I can start planning for my business next year and one of the things I am really looking forward to is launching my range of recycled fabric patchwork quilts and cushion again via from the wilde. I always found it a little strange to buy brand new fabric and then cut it up in to little pieces and sew it back together again, especially when there is so much lovely fabric around that needs re-purposing.  To this end I have amassed a collection of second hand clothes and curtains to turn into quilts.  It feels a little closer to the original patchwork that was done using whatever fabric they had left and appeals to my thrifty nature.  It is always difficult selling items that are all one of a kind in main stream shops so finding the simple designs and just making the colours different is the best way I can see to produce quilts for shops or online. 

Devon

Right now I am sitting warm and cosy in my lovely stone cottage in North Devon fantasising about rare breed sheep, poly tunnels and small holdings.  We are currently on a house hunting holiday visiting family and enjoying the sparkly cold devon winter.  Each morning I throw open my curtains and look out over the fields and the white rooftops of the other farm buildings.  I walk the dog on frosty crunchy grass and listen to the noises of the country so different from London.  In London a normal sound to hear is sirens, cars racing by, people shouting in the street and general hustle and bustle.  Here there are cows talking to each other across fields (a conversation you really want to join in on) a trickle of a stream, birds chattering and the far off rumble of traffic or trains.   My daughter watches the birds on the bush outside the window while eating her locally made bread and locally made butter and chattering constantly about everything she sees outside the window on "her farm".   Due to the nature of my husbands work we never holiday in the Summer months and always go away either in late November or early February to Devon & Aviemore on alternate years.  Both holidays usually involve snow and our annual warm weather clothing shopping which is a real treat for us, new lovely warm socks and replacement of worn boots and old fleeces. 

This Year is a particular treat as we are relocating to the area early next year and have spent the last few days looking at possible houses to rent.  One particular property is very exciting and unexpected as it is a neighbour of my family (by neighbour we are talking 1/2 mile down the road) and not on the market yet.  It is a beautiful newly built log cabin home with 3 bedrooms and a large open plan living space.  The outside space does not dissappoint and has a double garage, kennels, shed for a washing machine, a 7 acre paddock and a big barn.  It has given me a lot to think about and I am trying my best not to get too excited in case it does not work out.  The thought of being able to grow all our own food and sell some surplus is something I thought would be years off but could be a reality next year.  Oh and did I mention the place has its own acre wood?  I forsee foraging and coppicing and all sorts of lovely woodland pursuits.  I am not sure my family will quite know what to think of us should we set up shop so near, they have a large plot mainly used for horses and a few ducks, chickens etc and don't grow food or make their own remedies, clothes, cleaning products etc.  My cousin is fascinated by the idea that I make soap and is keen to help out if we are near.

This is the house and I am already thinking about a porch swing or a couple of rocking chairs not to mention using my quilts to decorate the interior of the house which is all wood panelling. 

We have a few other places to look at and this could come to nothing but it has given me a few lovely days of fantasising if nothing else.

Sarah

Long and Productive Day

Generally I make lots of plans and try to get them all done but invariably end up distracted and only manage a fraction of what I think I will get done.  Not so today!  I started working from home at 9.00 with Hubby looking after the little one and keeping her distracted with colouring etc.  Got all the little niggly last bits sent to my web designer so hopefully my website will be relaunched very soon.

I have decided to separate my Soap site from my sewing and teaching site as I struggled with creating a cohesive brand with it all under the same roof.  I am currently designing another site to encompass my teaching and sewing called Rowan Tree Studio.
My other target for today was to finish re-designing my soap and body butter labels for the new shape soaps that I am now making.  I have a delivery to a new shop that is stocking my soap and body butter so had to get the packaging finished and the soap wrapped and ready to go by the end of the day.  I also had to make 4 different body butter scents for the delivery which I managed while Hubby and Bubba went out with the dog. 

The packaging uses retro images kindly supplied by karen at Graphics Fairy and I am really pleased with it.

I may change the peppermint as I have a found a lovely image of two bulldogs looking very feisty which pretty much sums up my peppermint soap! Here is a lovely basket of goodies ready to be delivered!

I then finished my to do list by delivering the restored treadle to my lovely friend who is moving tomorrow!  I also delivered a copy of Sloe Gin and Beeswax one of my favourite books, it is nice to think we will be making the same lovely things each season.

Now I have managed all the things on my list it is time to spend time with my family!

Sarah

Restoration

Today I have been doing one of my favourite things, restoring tired water marked wood on an old treadle table.   A while ago I purchased a lovely straight leg Singer treadle with a Singer 15k machine in it.  It has sat to one side for a good 6 months until the right owner came along.  We got it out and used it for a vintage sewing weekend at The Work Shop and it treadles beautifully with a very light mechanism perfect for beginners to the art of treadling.  A few weeks ago a good friend of mine who is leaving London to start a beautiful life in the country mentioned that she would love to have a treadle table for the Singer 201k sewing machine that I sold her a year or so ago.  At the same time she was looking for someone to buy a loveseat sofa that they would not need in the new house.  Perfect I thought time for a barter!  We settled on the table, a Hand Crank for their girls to sew on and a few hours of my teaching time for a birthday party.

The Birthday party is fast approaching as is the moving day so tonight was time to get the table out and deal with the water marks and flaking veneer and give it some love before it went to its new home.  In machine restoration circles those in know use a magical liquid called Fenman's Elixir (love the name!) which my lovely Mum makes up for me to use.  You use it with wire wool and plenty of elbow grease and it behaves like magic to re-distribute the remaining lacquer and veneer and remove water marks and all sorts of unsightly damage usually from years sitting in damp garages where most of these machines end up.  After a good rub down and a generous helping of soft wax to give it some protection it does look lovely if I do say so myself

There were several very obvious rings on the woodwork which have now almost dissappeared along with the flaking bits of lacquer.  The machine that is currently in the treadle is a Singer 15K which is often used for free-motion quilting and is beloved by quilters all over the world.

I imagine this is the original machine that came in the treadle but it will now go into my loft until another table comes along to offer it a home.  My lovely Mum and I are doing our best to generate interest in treadles and Hand Cranks and make all the lovely sewers out there both old and new realise that not only are they eco friendly but they sew so much better than modern plastic and computerised machines.  We are slowly converting people one at a time and have had a real rush on small 99K hand cranks for Christmas presents for children. 

Most electric machines even those aimed at children lack the level of control that will allow a younger child to sew, not so with Hand Cranks.  At our eco-sewing weekend I got to see 4 year old girls making dolly blankets on a sewing machine and slightly older boys and girls making clothes for dollies and bags.  Parents are much happier with these machines as there is much less chance of injury and if needed they can be used one stitch at a time.
I have filled the drawers of the treadle with some lovely machine accessories which I know both my friend and her girls will love, particularly the ruffler for making gathers and pleats, perfect for aprons and skirts.  I have also popped a lavender bar of soap in each drawer to make it smell nice as well as a vintage tape measure from my collection of haberdashery that I have acquired over the years of collecting old machines.  I always find it really exciting to see what bits and bobs have been left in the drawers, old thread, needles, bobbins, bits of ribbon and sometimes lovely silver thimbles which my dear friend now has a few of to do some darning with.

I will be delivering the table along with the hand crank for the girls on Sunday when I go to help the youngest girl and her friends make dolls clothes using the hand machines and some simple hand sewing.  I hope she likes it and enjoys what I know will be hours of rythmic and soothing treadling over the long winter months in their lovely cottage.

By for now Sarah

Begin at the Beginning

Welcome!  As this is my first post I thought a little bit of background on me would be a good place to begin.  I am a 34 year old mother, wife, small business woman, sewer, knitter, gardener, massage therapist, quilt maker, blogger (just) and just about any other hat I can throw on to make life a bit different every day.

I try to be environmentally conscious and live as simply as possible, I used to live life on the treadmill in a city job at a desk which bored me silly and encouraged me to spend too much on things I seriously did not need!  I learned my lesson and quit my job to look for other ways to earn money and be at home with my husband and any future children we would have.  The path I have been on the past 5  years has not been entirely what I expected when I started but  by being open to different opportunities I have been able to live the life I want.  I have been a massage therapist, Dog walker & Pet Sitter, PA and various other interesting jobs.  I have now settled into my favourite areas of Teaching, sewing and soap making.

Each year I grow more of my own food, buy less "stuff" that I don't need and make more of my own clothes and gifts.  My family stopped buying gifts a few years ago and now we make all our gifts and don't put as much emphasis on gift giving at Birthdays and Christmas and concentrate on more family time and good food.  I try my best to use less energy and less water and I generally do most of my sewing on Vintage people powered machines which are a habit/passion of mine.

Early next year we are planning a big move to Devon to hopefully become even more sustainable and live more simply.  I have been looking for a house the past few months and it is lovely to think we will have so much more space and I can carry on my business and allow it the room to grow that it has so desperately needed this year.  I am fantasising about a soap room and a sewing workshop and my husband is planning on re-training as a traditional upholsterer.  I was born in Devon and want my daughter to have the upbringing in the country side that I had.

Well this was a bit about me, hope to hear from anyone read this.
Sarah