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Earlier this week I went shopping for some sweatshirt fabric, but when I didn’t find any I picked up some cotton instead. I hadn’t used cotton because it’s not a good fabric for hoodies, although when it comes to making a summer dress it’s perfect! Purl Soho also had some really cute cotton prints I just couldn’t resist.
This little sundress is hot off the sewing machine! It’s made from a dark cotton fabric with light purple, pink and blue mushrooms. The dress has a white waistband, two purple buttons on the front and a Maribel Made tag. We’ll see which lucky sock monkey gets to wear this cute Mushroom Sundress this summer. Look for this sock monkey and others wearing sundresses in the shop very soon!
Tags: sundress
In a race against time, I subjected myself to making four hoodies before going on vacation for two weeks! I made these hoodies for a group of sock monkeys I began stuffing back in January. I’ve been so busy with knitted jumpers but these sweatshirt hoodies finally got their time! They’re made from a Japanese piggy print fabric I got at my favorite and local fabric store, Stitches, in Seattle.
I’m really excited about lots of things right now and one of them is a new outfit I’ve designed for my custom Mars Sock Monkeys! This outfit’s for the girls. Yay! Be back in a couple of weeks. I’m heading off to London to scout some socks, yarn and so many other things. Then it’s to Texas for some home made food and craft supplies. ;)
Btw I have new clothing labels! :D
Tags: clothing, custom, fabric, hoodie, japanese, jumper, knit, labels, mars, monkey, piggy, print, seattle, sock, Stitches, sweatshirt, vacation
These days I’m working on baby sock monkeys (no 1 and 5 below)! Some of these socks came from the babyGap and fortunately didn’t carry bumpy logos at the bottom of the sole like most of their other socks. So annoying when trying to find suitable socks btw! The one with the strawberry is cute, but I wonder how much of the design will actually show once it’s sewn.
Stay tuned to see what these baby sock monkeys will wear. I see lots of bright and bold colors for them!
Tags: baby, Gap, little, monkey, small, sock
I’m currently working on a sock monkey made from a pair of socks sent to me earlier this month. They completely rock! They come with hearts and skulls in a berry and sky blue argyle print!
This sock monkey called for spooky with it’s freakishly long limbs plus I loved the idea of incorporating some kitty features so I made several sweater designs with this in mind…
The pirate kitty sweater with pink and blue stripped sleeves was a good match! These animal sweaters or as I like to call them, cosplay hoodies, are really fun to make! I think a bunny, bear or doggy eared hoodie would be cute as well. :)
Tags: animal, argyle, color, cosplay, design, hoodie, kitty, knee-high, maribelmade, monkey, pattern, print, sock, spooky, sweater
Besides making my sock monkey, Xochitl, I’m also working on two ity bity ones. I caught them playing in my yarn stash the other day!
Claudia, the grey with white little monkey, is going to wear a bow sweater with puffy sleeves. Not sure if I’ll add a hood or a hat, but if I make a hat it’ll be a tiny beret! Mauricio, the one with blue, will wear a little boat sweater and cute bucket hat to complement his nautical look.
I’m now in the process of converting graphics into knit. If you’re curious about how I do this check out Jed’s cutom Dino Sweater.
Below is the line art for the bow and boat sweaters with accessories. They’re gonna look so cute in this!
These are the vector graphics I’ll use for the knitting grid. Fun fun! :)
Tags: art, baby, beret, boat, bow, bucket, claudia, graphics, hat, howto, kawaii, line, little, mauricio, monkey, process, small, sock, vector
I just launched a new Etsy shop! My Pretty Ones is a collection of illustrations I made during life drawing sessions held around London in 2008. The cool thing about the shop is that I’ll be selling original drawings, not prints, right off my notebook!
Below is the first illustration for sale this week; one more will be listed each week thereafter. There is about 20 illustrations in total, making them a unique collection. I am keeping a couple of them for myself though. The rest I’ll have in digital format for future archiving. :)
Myprettyones.etsy.com
Tags: body, collection, Drawing, etsy, female, for sale, form, Illustration, life, london, myprettyones, naked, notebook, nude, ones, original, pretty, shop, sketch, unique
Last July when I was knitting William’s flap cap, I was thinking I’d be in trouble if I ever had to make another hat like this. The flatcap William wears was a spurt of the moment thing! And much to my surprise it turned out pretty nice.
During the holiday my brother asked me for a monkey like William. I kind of knew he wouldn’t be the only one either. William was in fact a popular monkey and sold second to Robert from the batch I did last Summer. I had to give it another go!
William’s flat cap
William Mars Sock Monkey
The second try, even third and fourth, looked nowhere like what I had magically done before. And that’s exactly my problem -I don’t write patterns for the things I make! It takes away the spontaneity and likelihood of those first time accidents that are so one-of-a-kind! It’s just like measuring things when I cook. If I can’t eyeball it, it becomes work and then it’s no fun. :(
If everything I made was for myself, I wouldn’t have to put that much effort into it, but now that my hobby has become my job (which I love!), I have to make it work somehow. And making it work means writing patterns! I set out to buy a notebook and began writing my patterns a couple of months ago. I’ve got some, but it takes so much discipline! It’s a good start though. The fifth flat cap, with pattern, was a success!!
It’s a good thing because I have two orders with flat caps this month! :)
Flat cap fails, exercise book and William flat cap pattern
This is Henry, William’s brother. He’s wearing the fifth flap cap I made while trying to replicate William’s.
Tags: cap, flat, hat, mars, monkey, progress, sock, william
To follow through on my promise to take the Mars Sock Monkey to the next level, I will discontinue to make jewellery, crochet hats, knit rings and Jebby the Whale toy in the future. Although these items will not be available for sale online, they might show up at events and fairs. I’m also stopping promotion of my shop on German-based storefront site DaWanda. I will continue to use Etsy, but there are plans to develop a dedicated website. There are a couple of other sites I’ve come across that I’d also like to check out.
Maybe some of you are already using some of these…would love to hear your feedback.
http://bigcartel.com
http://www.folksy.com
http://www.supermarkethq.com
http://www.1000markets.com
http://www.artfire.com
http://www.mintd.com
http://www.shophandmade.com
http://www.trunkt.org
I’m currently working on a sock monkey for an old friend of mine that will look something like this. So far she’s turning out to be a cutie pie!
February is going to be a very busy month. I have a more customs coming your way. :)
Tags: 1000markets, artfire, bigcartel, changes, etsy, folksy, handmade, made, maribel, mintd, new, preview, product, shophandmade, shopping, store, supermarkethq, trunkt, update
My next custom sock monkey calls for a hoodie with a fruit! My clients are awesome. :)
There are so many options when it comes to fruits, but I picked some of the fruit I thought would do well in knit form and created the starting vector graphics. It includes: a lime, cherries, a strawberry, bananas, a pear, a watermelon, an apple and an orange. Simple yet cute! I’ll probably choose the one that works best with the sock design.
Fruit vectors waiting to become knitted designs!
Tags: apple, bananas, cherries, custom, fruit, knitting, lime, made, maribel, orange, pear, strawberry, sweater, watermelon
Mars Sock Monkey hoodies and sweaters now also come with super cute fury animals: the panda, bear and bunny! I gotta say that I get some great ideas from my custom order clients. I especially liked developing these because I’m a big fan of kawaii!!
This is the finished panda bear design…but the best part is on the top of the hood. Stay tuned!
Tags: animal, bear, bunny, custom, kawaii, knit, made, maribel, mars, monkey, order, panda, sock, sweater
