Austin Craft Riot Summer Show!

Earlier this year, we applied to become members of a local craft collective called Austin Craft Riot, in order to grow our little sewing venture. Well, it has been a whirlwind of learning, product portfolio building, sewing room time and it all culminates THIS WEEKEND! Holy cow, I’m so nervous!

Ruth isn’t nearly as nervous as me, which is why we make a good team. Anyway, Hammer and Thread, along with 70 other local Austin crafters, will be presenting the Austin Craft Riot Summer Show, this Saturday and Sunday, August 16 & 17 from 11-6 both days. It’s $2 per adult to get in and FREE for kids. In addition to the awesome vendors, there’ll be a huge kids activity area with arts & crafts, games and prizes.

Hammer and Thread will be selling our famous lounge pants, recycled hoodies (yes, the Lil Blue Boo pattern!), 3 sizes of snack/sandwich bags for your kiddo’s lunchbox, our NEW belts and NEW adventure pouches. The pouches slide onto any 1” belt and can hold whatever treasure your adventurer finds along the way.

I know our blog has been very quiet lately, and now you know the reason. We now have an Etsy shop, a Facebook page and an Instagram account (@hammerandthreadshop), too!
If you’re in Austin, please come see us and say hi!
 
 

What I made this weekend

This Saturday I had a baby shower for a baby girl and a birthday party for a 5 year old boy. Since I had procrastinated all week watching Breaking Bad with my husband at night, Saturday morning I grabbed a cup of coffee and hit the sewing room.

For the baby shower I made a 3 tiered skirt using my serger to do the gathering. It was a breeze. Too bad I don’t have girls or I would be cranking these out regularly.

I also threw together an oversized flannel fox blanket with some handmade bias tape.

Then for the 5 year old I made some old man pants. I picked up some ugly old thrifted plaid pants and used the Parsley pattern to make a much cuter pair of pants with some bright turquoise pockets.

Not bad for a morning sewing session.

Hammer and Thread in person

Last September, we attended our first ever craft fair here in Austin. We had been discussing this for a few months and finally the timing worked out for us to sew up a large amount of our Lounge Pants and design a set of reusable snack bags to sell. We attended 4 fairs between September and December and it was a good learning experience for us. Two of the four events had major weather issues and the other two were very small. All in all, we did not have the sales success we had hoped for, but we now understand the logistics involved in selling our wares. Here are a few photos from our booths.

This is the set of snack bags we designed. Sandwich, snack and cupholder size. The cupholder bag had a fold-down top that holds it open for easy snacking.

Ruth cut a hammer and thread stamp and we stamped the tablecloth and shirts for us. We even made a pair of lounge pants for our boys. I whipped up a quick half apron for money management.

Our first ever booth inside a kid’s playplace.

 

Our second fair. This one was outdoors and a huge thunderstorm blew in causing the organizers to cancel the remainder of the event. Here’s the lovely booth before…

 

…complete with custom, homemade lounge pants racks…

 

…a beautiful stamped tablecloth, with our name in iron-on vinyl cut on the Sillouette…

 

…and after…everything was soaked. We tried to wait out the storm, but as other vendors and ALL the customers ran for cover and then left, we decided it was time to throw in the (very wet) towel.

 

Our third booth at a small store front event. Complete with Ruth’s youngest as added cuteness to draw in customers.

 

Our fourth booth. You can’t tell, but it’s about 15 degrees in this picture. Needless to say, the only customer we had was…

Santa Claus, himself. He, and hot cocoa, helped us stay warm that day.