Littlecrow Project: Thaw Collective!

We have been invited to participate in the first ever Thaw Collective Indie Kids Fashion Show... that sure is a lot of words... this July 10th.... Lot's to do to get ready. Bunch of fun ideas are being laid out on some random scraps of paper, who knows it might actually make some sense when it is all said and done.

Stay tuned for more on the idea building process and the actual building of the goods, even a few sneak peaks at the finished goods, if your good and eat your broccoli,  I like broccoli it's yummy....

Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'
& the Littlecrow Family.

Get The Rust Out.

It has been a very long time since 'Mr.Ray' Busted out the 'ol shears and chopped up a nice men's necktie to be built into a kids adjustable necktie.
Well, this weekend 'Mrs.P' went out garage sale hopping and came across a few good specimens that needed to have a little TLC and a breath of new life blown into them. So let's follow along as 'Mr.Ray' does just that.

The Goods in question.

Split them open and pull out the insides.

Lay out a new pattern and snip snip.

Pin it up and give it a nice stitch'n.

Wrap the new cut n' sewn pieces together.

A nice 'New' necktie for the wee ones.

Oh and don't forget the label.
All done...

Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'
& the Littlecrow Family.

Weekend Deals.

This past weekend we packed ourselves in the 'ol truck and headed out to find treasures and man did we do a mighty fine job!
Here are a few of what we were able to score doing a little rummaging through a few garage sales here in the Pacific North West.
Two plastic yard toy's with slides ...
and a nice bike trailer for the boys.
All and all we only spent about $30! Now that is a deal, for sure, since most of these items cost over a $100 brand new!

Hope your weekend was good and your week is even better.

Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'
& the Littlecrow Family.

Kids Alright.

I have been away from working on.... well even doing anything with Littlecrow as we have been trying to get settled into our new home, new job, and just a whole new environment here in the Pacific Northwest of these here United States. I do hope that once the dust settles to ramp up and clean off the ol machines and start building the many ideas that have been flooding the idea pond.

While doing the regular internet searching and keeping touch came upon a nice feature over at A Time To Get about Trico Field. Now these are some well designed childrens wear for sure. Check out their site here. And if you get a chance jump over to A Time To Get and drop and post up a comment or to on his well done blog.

Be back soon, promise.
Till then.
Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'
& the Littlecrow family

Slow & Steady Keeps You in The Race.

Yes the light is still on.
It has been quite a long time since our last post here at 'The Littlecrow Collection' and we do apologize for the lack of updates. It seams that 'Mr.Ray' has been kept very busy away from us here because he is in the process of building up his other work to try and convince the powers that be at a large 'Corprate' apparel company in the Pacific Northwest that he is the man for them and they need him as their designer. This will be a great blessing for him and our family as it will give us a chance to settle down into our own place again as well as have a little more expendible income that will help us in supporting our endevers here. The only big down side of full time employment is it will take more time away from building our goods here....
Please if any of you are left out there who check our posts here keep us in your prayers, or thoughts, or whatever you do to wish people well. Thank you from all of us. And once a decision has been made and we get settled into a good routine again we promis to stay on top of the posting here as well as producing and building heaps more goods.
Cheers & Best Regards,
'Mr.Ray'
& the 'Littlecrow' Family

New Cutting.

Working on building new ties for the shop. Check back soon.

Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'
& The Littlecrow Family

Tools: Pattern Making.

Have been working on a few new ideas as of late and it involves building new patterns and testing them out by sewing samples out of cheep fabric, in our case muslin. Since the building of things need and use tools thought it would be fun to share with you the tools that are used in building patterns and samples. So here we go:
(a) Tailors Shears: used to cut out the fabric for the samples. "Mr.Ray" loves these shears.
(b) Pattern Shears: used to cut the pattern out of the pattern paper. These "Mr.Ray" got while attending fashion design school.
(c) Clear Tape: used for all sorts of things but in this case mostly to hold cut pieces together when correcting or changing the paper pattern.
(d) Razor Blade: used for detailed cutting and to rip seams of samples when they need to be take apart for corrections or changes. "Mr.Ray" learned to use blades to rip seams and remove buttons when he was working in the alterations department at a department store. Very helpful.
(e) Drafting Mechanical Pencil: used to draw out the pattern shape on paper and to sketch out ideas and designs when they come. This one has a great balanced weight to it, makes drawing even more fun.
(f) Red Felt Tipped Marker: used to make corrections and final lines on the pattern paper.
(g) An Awl: used to make marking holes in the pattern and to help "walk" the pattern pieces, such as the arm hole and sleeve, to make sure they will work before cutting out the pieces in fabric.
(h) French Curve: used to make nice smooth arcs and curves, like armholes and neck openings. Very handy little tool.
(i) Hip Curve Ruler: used like the french curve to make curves but more for things like hip shapes and other gradual curves.
(j) Clear Plastic Ruler, 2"Wide x 18"Length: this is very handy and used all of the time for taking measurements and cause it is clear it has so many more functions that are very helpful.
(k)Yard Stick: long and straight lines come from the use of this handy tool.

Hope you enjoyed a little insight into what is used to make a pattern by hand.

Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'
& the Littlecrow Family.