Oh, this has made my life sooooooo much easier...

EtsyHacks. Wow. I mean, wow.

Itty bitty khakis

I took down the listing for My Friend Mandy PJs last month and immediately got several convos asking if I'm still making the PJs. Yikes! There really are other Mandy fiends out there. Yes, I'm still making them — I'd just run out of the fabric that's pictured on the doll, and will have to take some new photos. In the meantime, the listing is back up, and there are now five different patterns available.

And then Dawn S. wrote, "Do you remember the outfit...plaid top, khaki pants, yellow backpack? It's a lot like an LL Bean ensemble."

So...I started sewing. I've finished a pair of khakis and just need to put snaps on the shirt. Would you believe, in all of the random odds and ends of notions that are floating around in my sewing machine cabinet, that I don't have the right size snaps? This morning I made a quick dummy backpack out of muslin. Allowing for naps, a preschool pickup, and a board meeting tonight. I should have a finished pack by sometime tomorrow. Watch for the entire hiking outfit to be posted in my shop later this week!

CPSIA compliance

I know, I know — it sounds boring, doesn't it? Last year's Consumer Product Safety Information Act, parts of which just went into effect last month, requires all manufacturers of articles for children to label their products in such a way that they can determine the source of the materials used to make the products.

Yawn all you want, roll your eyes all you want. I had a glorious time coming up with product labels. Well, glorious except for the incident with the hot iron and the polyester ribbon, which was hilarious in its own way, but you really had to be there. And now, when you order something I made after August 14th, you'll get a great little permanent tag with it that says you bought it from Teesies...which means that your friends, instead of having to ask you where you got that adorable baby blanket, can surreptitiously check a seam.