Fab photo shoot pics on the cool new website

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Last year we had our first ever major photoshoot.  This was held on Hastings beach and deliberately included lots of shots of the beach, fishing boats, seagulls, the cliffs and the net huts to promote Hastings as much as our products.

I started the company in the winter of 2008 by making my own Thermal Top out of fleece to save money on heating.  This product worked so well I soon had a thriving business going with people who either work outdoors or partake in sports outdoors in the winter wanting my cosy tops too.  I chose to stick with fleece only as it’s partially made out of recycled water bottles so environmentally friendly as well as saving you money.

I developed the original version of www.SarahsFleeces.co.uk during the spring, going live in July 2009.

During the autumn I took on other people to sew piece work to help keep up with orders.

We use recycled goods and materials wherever possible as we’re an environmentally conscious company, lowering their carbon footprint wherever possible. Even our packaging is made from recycled plastic!

You can follow me on Twitter (SarahsFleeces) and Facebook to keep up with all the latest news and hear about new products as they come out.

For media enquiries please email Sarah@SarahsFleeces.co.uk

Latest new products and news

Hi Everyone,

How’s it going? All set for the winter months?

Here’s the latest news:-

1. We’ve just topped the 350 individual products mark recently so am feeling very proud of ourselves;
2. We’ve got ourselves into another shop local to us (The Pier Shop in Hastings) and our products are selling well there so far;

Our most recent new products are :-

• Socks, the double layered variety, which I’m going to be thoroughly ‘road testing’ (literally) this winter as I’m also a lollipop lady at my boys’ school!
• Full length Ponchos for snuggling up in front of the tv in, unless you’re into camping and then they’re an absolute must;
• Trousers have been added also and coming soon are quilt covers (to go with the pillows), cardigans and seat belt shoulder pads!

Bye for now and keep in touch

Sarah

The process of designing a new Cardigan for a customer Part 2

Hi All,

Following on from Part 1 this is the next stage in the process of designing a bespoke cardigan for one of our lovely customers.

I came up with three basic alternatives on how the cardi could look based on what my customer and I had discussed previously by email.   We discussed it lots more (see the comments at the end of part 1) and have come up with a variation of design number 3.

So I’ve drawn a new version, design 4:-

Let’s see what happens now…

The process of designing a new Cardigan for a customer

Hi All,

One of my customers has requested a cardigan (made out of fleece).  She’s not the only one to have asked for one so I decided to go for it!

I’ve whittled all my ideas down to the three shown below.  I’ve asked my customer to comment on this post so that you can all witness ‘live’ how the process works here with us at Sarah’s Fleeces. Do feel free to leave comments too to let me know what you think of them too.

Design 1                        Design 2                        Design 3

 

 

 

 

 

1. Design 1 has a double layered collar that runs the full length of the cardigan.  This can have buttons to hold it there as Designs 2 and 3 show.
2. Design 2 has no collar at all.  It would have an edge that was folded over and zigzag stitched down to both hold it in place and to look decorative.  This stitching could potentially be in a complimentary colour to the colour of the fleece or the same.  It has one button visible in the right hand corner of the wrap around section of cardigan whereas the other would be hidden underneath the fleece to hold the opposite end of the wrap around section in place.
3. Design 3 would have a similar collar to Design 1 but not as long.  It would have buttons as in Design 2.

Here’s a picture of our jumper to help you picture a cardigan in your head:

Ok feedback time – what do you think?

New Cute Dog Hat design

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I’ve designed a hat that’s a dog with floppy ears, to make it a bit different from the others, which all have sticky up ears, or eyes in the case of the crocodile.

When I’m designing a new animal hat I start by drawing it in pencil on a bit of paper using my artistic flare!  Then I look up the animal in google images to make sure that they’re pretty much accurate.  I deliberately pick animals that have either characteristic ears or characteristic features that are straight forward to create out of fleece and or wool.

I’ve tried using a kind of webbing material that you can iron two materials together with and stuck felt on with it but it didn’t look as cute as hand sewn on fleece features.  Strangely with felt they were alot more accurate but having made the same hat in both styles all my customer feedback was strongly in favour of the hand sewn on features, though no one could put it in to words clearly why they liked them better.  All I can think of is that in this world of mass produced manufactured goods people still like the personal touch…?

So back to the dog.  I’ve given him (or is it a ‘her’?!) wide and long ears so that when being worn they flop down the sides a bit like a labrador’s ears.  They’re in a medium brown colour but can be made in pretty much any colour you fancy, see what’s available on my ‘Colours‘ page.

His eyes are big, round and dark, his nose is black and a standard doggy shaped nose, his mouth is the usual rounded ‘W’ shape made out of black wool.  He’s even got a little pink tongue hanging out

They have just taken off in my local school becoming the latest playground craze!

Related posts:-

Cat Hats

How to think up new products

Pyjamas and All in ones

What Now?

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Things I Love Thursday

How my thermal fleece top saves me money on my heating bill.
Reading time: 2 mins

New Cat Hat design

All about the cat hat’s design.
Reading time: 1 min.

How I think up new products

How to think up new products.
Reading time: 2 mins

Pyjamas and All in Ones

My boys grew out of their winter pyjamas so I made a camoflage coloured All in One set of pyjamas, similar to baby grows but for ‘big people’.

These went down a storm as he was then a ‘soldier’ and any mum with a son knows how lots of little boys love playing soldiers!

Having shown these to a few friends someone else asked for the same idea but as a two piece set. These nicely doubled up as jumpers and trousers too. I made one set with elasticated cuffs on the arms and legs and other with standard straight ones to see how they both worked.  Both worked fine, it’s all down to personal preference.

These are great for vegging out on the sofa in the evenings or on a ‘duvet day’. If you’re a chilly mortal in bed then these are great as there’s no drafts anywhere, whatever you do!  They are also fabulous when camping to combat those cold nights.  If you’d like one with a ‘back flap’ for little trips in the middle of the night then please request this on ordering and I’ll invoice you for the extra £2.99.

My favourite colour one is burgundy.  What colour one would you have?

Cat hats

Then a friend asked me for a black hat for her daughter, so I suggested that I put black ears on it to make it a cat hat. This went down a storm and she gets comments whenever she wears it

It’s made from black fleece with the fluffy pile on the outside. I had to make two hats before I got the size right for her one, discovering that children’s heads are hardly any different in size to an adults!