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.

Lace 'M Up Tight.

'Mrs.P' and 'Mr.Ray' have been looking to get their young one a new pair of footwear and are having a ruff time at finding something reasonable to their likes and needs. So being the way 'Mr.Ray' is, he decided to give a go at building an ankle boot style for their little 'Stampede'. Since he is older and running all over the place 'Mr.Ray' wanted to build something a bit more stable that the amazing little kicks that 'Mrs.P' has been building.
Here is a small overview of the first sample stages and what goes into building something new from scratch...

Rough sketch...
Now he needs to take that sketch and hack out a pattern. This is the hard part...

Now he has a pattern. He now cuts out the pieces for a sample in cheep fabric. Here the 'upper' is sewn together...
First sample roughed out. We use this to test fit and to get an idea of what the final is going to look like. If we do not like what we see or something is wrong in the fit then he goes back to the pattern and remakes it. So far so good...
Now to get out the leather and see what we can do.
Will keep you posted on the process and building of a final sample so check back soon.

Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'
& The Littlecrow Family

Keep em on Their Feet.

One of the projects brewing here at Lc headquarters, that we plan to explore, is the building of footwear. 'Mrs.P' took an idea she come up with and with the help of 'Ol' Mrs.White' built a great pair of 'crib shoes'.


They are made from soft 100% cotton micro brushed herringbone twill. Super soft yet nice and durable.
These are great.
More to come later.

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

All Button'd Up.

Have been away for a long while. I have been working on a side project to support the family as this collection of goods is still growing and not yet to a place were it is the only provider. (Soon, I hope) Unfortunately the project I was building had been put on hold via the powers that be. So now I have all the time of the day to refocus and make this happen.

Before the above mentioned project came into our life we had just finished our first woven shirt sample. A 100% cotton, size 2T woven shirt.

Front view.

Inside neck label detail.

Bottom hem label detail.

Back view.

Split back yoke.

Well, since there is no more distractions on my side of things we hope to begin production very soon. We can not wait to get these out into the market.

Cheers,
Mr. Ray &
The Littlecrow Family

Our first Neckwear Samples.

Our first batch of tie samples are almost complete. Just waiting on our order of clips that will be used for the closure around the neck.

We are building our ties using Wool, Cotton, and Polyester. Simple basic and fun while being durable. We will also be offering styles re-built from vintage men's neckwear. 'Mr.Ray' is so excited!

Our neckwear are available in two sizes 0-18 Months and 18M-4T. We created them to be worn on more than just 'nice' occasions. They can stand up to any ruff housing a little guy can put them through. In the construction we have used reinforced stitching and use of bartacks through out. They are also washable*. We suggest hand washing because it is gentler but they can be thrown in the ol' machine but then always line dry.




Our neckwear will be available soon. Will update and let you know when.

'make it fun'
Cheers,
Mr. Ray &
The Littlecrow Family

*Note: that some ties will be wool and though they can be washed it must be in cold water. There may be some shrinkage and twisting after washing but that just adds to the caricature and life of the piece. We believe that if you are going to spend your hard earned cash on children's clothing that they should be able to be themselves while wearing it and you should not have to worry about it. Our wool ties may actually be sold already washed. We are testing a few out and will let you know the best way we have found before we will sell them in the shop. We want all our ties to be able to be washed cause children+clothing=dirty clothes. FUN!

Cut of the Cloth.

Have started cutting and building shirts. Should have actual goods soon. Very exciting! More later.

Cheers,
Mr. Ray &
The Littlecrow Family

Hang Tag By Hand.

'Mr.Ray' is a strong believer in doing what it takes to get it done. He follows the ol' pioneer saying of "fix it up, wear it out, make do or do without." Being a small 'mom n' pop' start up apparel company, when it comes to the labels and hang tag for 'The Littlecrow Collection' he takes the approach of making do. Instead of spending heaps of unavailable funds on developing labels and hang tags for our garments, not to mention the time and hassle of finding a reliable and cheep vendor to make them, he instead has figured out ways to make do with what he has at hand. keeping with the handmade aesthetics these too are all hand made or hand finished. We hope that it is the extra care in focusing on the little touches and small details that will set 'Littlecrow' apart from others.

We start with cutting 'oak tag' (manila card stock paper used in pattern making) into us letter size (8 1/2"x11") With the tag layout already drawn and worked over on the computer we then printing both sides out on our simple little ink jet printer. After we hand cut each piece. Then when each piece is cut it is individually hand punched to allow for a piece of tea dyed string (yep, a cup of black tea and soak the string for a while then set in the sun to dry) to loop through that is used for the 'hanging' part of a hang tag... get it? hang tag, it hangs and is a tag...

Anyway. after that it is 'distressed and ruffed up for that nice 'aged' look that is part of the feel of littlecrow. Here is the back view of the tag. And as you can also see, we use a paper clip witch is used to attach the tag to the garment or item.

Yes each paperclip is hand made as well. I know a little over the top... 'Mr.Ray' has purchased large quantities of paperclips and tags from the office supply shop but he just does not feel it is the right look, too clean, too perfect, missing caricature. So he makes his own.


There you have it. We hope that in some way this might be an inspiration to you to make do with what you have and look at how simple things around you can become so much more with a little imagination and a drop or two of elbow grease to make it happen. Remember 'make it fun'.

Cheers,
Mr. Ray &
The Littlecrow Family

Labels.

We have been working on getting our label package created and all the details worked out. Here is a view of the layout we are using to print the labels. It shows what we have built so far as a layout for the main label, size and care instructions.

It is coming together and we are very excited to see how it is going to turn out. We hope you like the finished products and the look and feel that we are trying to build.


Will share more of the labels on the actual items when they are complete.

Cheers,
Mr. Ray &
The Littlecrow Family

Tie 1st Sample.

As we begin work on The Littlecrow Collection we have decided to start building the collection with ties and woven shirts. The reason we decided to go with a focus on ties is that we can not find ties for the little ones in out life except around Christmas and Easter. Being that we attend church once a week and dress in our 'Sunday Best' we feel that it is important to dress our boys to look their best as well and that includes a tie. So feeling a miss we decided to start here.


Recently we completed the first sample of the tie. The ties have an adjustable neck and will be available in two sizes that will cover a range for the little ones. 0-18month and 18-4T. With the size range, like most children's clothing it may be a little big to start out but they will fit sooner than you think. They also are constructed to be washable, which is a must have since all of our young cubs seam to have a constant drip from their mouth.

Our production will begin soon so keep checking back for updates.

Cheers,
Mr. Ray &
The littlecrow Family.