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.

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

Shop.

Check it out Here.

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.

If it is Broke...

As mentioned a while ago we have moved and have been settling into our new place out in the country. As you settle it sometimes takes a while to get into the grove of things and get back into following plans and checklists and whatnot. Well we have started to do just that with the 'Littlecrow Collection', building and sewing and creating in our new space. When all of the sudden the trusty little White home machine,'Ol' Mrs.White', decided she was not feeling well and so stopped working in the middle of stitching. This is not good when what you are doing uses this very tool to complete and build. So 'Mr.Ray' sat down with her and removed a few screws here and there opened her up and with a few 'love taps' with a hammer on some parts, a nice brush off of old lint build up, and a few sips of oil in all her moving parts she is back on the boat working away as smooth as the day she came into his life.


Now when all this happened and she was out of work for a few hours 'Mrs.P' went to use one of those fancy new sewing machines that her sister has with all the computer controls and self threading options. It got us all thinking, maybe it is time to look into one for our operation. I mean the automatic button hole stitch is a mighty fine feature to say the least..... Though that would be nice, 'Mr.Ray' could not just pop her open give some love and nurse it back to health if a situation arose. The fancy computer operated machines we have today all have to be taken into a specialist to get fixed up.

Needless to say we are back and running and even with the thought of one day getting a "fancy button hole maker" the ol' white machine will continue to be one of our work horses. Got to love the things you start with when you are young. God bless 'Ol' Mrs.White'.

Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'
& The Littlecrow Family

Comming Soon.

We will keep you posted on our new online shop opening soon... This week even!

Cheers,
'Mr.Ray'