July 29th, 2012

Two months to go!  This time in two months I'll  be married!  Crazy days...

Anyway, I thought for this Handmade Monday I'd show you all a little bit of what we've been up to at Lucy Liz HQ...the site isn't quite finished yet, still a few tweaks to make here and there, but here's a little look at what's been going on...

March 15th, 2012

Finally, after what feels like a wait of about 6 months, the first of my new products was finished today!  After the frames arrived on Tuesday I set about putting them together but inevitably with a new product there were a few creases that needed ironing out.  Thankfully I seem to have sussed out the problem and fixed it and now I have the beginnings of my new ranges sat ready for photographing!  Such a great feeling, I love this bit when it feels like all the hard work is coming together!

Just been watching Mary Portas and her British knickers....bloody love that woman!  I have so much respect and admiration for what she's trying to achieve, I only hope she can pull it off and do something towards the state of our economy - us British makers need some help!!!

March 13th, 2012

After weeks of frustration, things are finally moving again with my new products!

I was so organised!  I put my order in for the frames I needed for my new bags and purses, made a list of what I'd ordered and proceeded to cut and stitch all of the pieces so they were ready for the frames arriving.  Got all the sewing done and then waited...and waited...and waited....nothing turned up.  Turns out my parcel got stuck in customs for almost 2 weeks! 2 weeks to get a box through an office, unreal!

But they're here now and I'm back and running with it, so hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'll be bombarding you with nothing but new pics of new products!  Good times!

February 19th, 2012

How on earth is it Sunday night already?  I'm quite sure it was only just Friday afternoon!  Time must fly  when you're having fun, or working like a trooper!

As some of you may have noticed, http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/ is temporarily closed for some spring cleaning.  We're hoping that it won't take too long but it will definitely be worth it as we'll be re-opening the site with lots of new products and a very different strategy for marketing...I'll be honest, what we're doing is a pretty big risk but fingers crossed it'll be worth it!

So today was Day 1 of getting it all started!  Andy spent the day photo editing and exploring new ways to set my site up ( I know exactly what I want, just need to work out if it's possible!), whilst I set about with costings and fabric cutting for the first of the new bags which I love!!  I'm extending my existing range to include some bigger bags which have a much bigger surface area so the fabrics look so much better as you can really see them!

Worringly my To Do list took two sheets of A3 paper and contains 54 things to do, so I should have no problems posting new products for Handmade Monday for a while!!!

February 13th, 2012

(Being a little bit cheeky this week and linking to Handmade Monday  twice, but seeing as I'm blogging every day they're two different ones, so hopefully no-one will mind!)

Two important things to blog about today!

Firstly I must thank you all for the lovely comments regarding the bag I posted yesterday, always so great to get your feedback!  I did say that it wasn't my favourite and that the next one was, so here it is!

I just love this one, London is one of my favourite places ever so this one's just perfect for me.  I've been wanting to do something like this for ages but there's so many restrictions on things like the tube maps and London Underground logos that this fabric was a God send.  For those who've not seen it before, this fabric isn't of the London Tube Map as you know it, it's actually a version that someone put together which is the based on the existing tube maps but the locations are more geographically precise.  Oddly I almost prefer this version as it's not as perfect as the original versions.

Secondly - and perhaps more importantly - Lucy Liz will be closing for a couple of weeks.  Comments and feedback over recent months (and a very exciting bit of news I received today) have lead me to decisions to make some changes about my business, not about my products but more about the marketing and branding.  So the site will be down for a couple of weeks but will be back with a bang by March, loaded with lots of new products!  I'll still be available on email if anyone does want to order whilst the site is down though.

And with that, I'm off to bed!

www.lucyliz.co.uk

February 8th, 2012

A very, very quick blog today!  Absolutely shattered, don't know how or why I'm this tired but I am, had a good evening of making though including 4 new piece, so that's not bad huh?!

As always I need to take the proper product pics, got a ton of photography to do actually, but for now I'll leave you with a peek of my new bag which I am really excited about!!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

January 28th, 2012

Good, good day today! 

Today I finally got to see my Vintage Paris bag featured in Wiltshire View and Hampshire View magazines, I've known it was coming for a while as the journalist had contacted me but I didn't like to say anything in case they changed their minds and didn't include me!  Thankfully they didn't change their minds and the pic is featured! 

If anyone lives in Wiltshire or Hampshire the magazine is available from Waitrose, Waterstones or Bradbeers, otherwise you can see it online here (I bookmarked the pages that I'm on!) http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1ve2w/HampshireViewFebruar/resources/index.htm

Bit strange to see the pic and my name listed as a Stockist alongside Debenhams, Dune and Schuh, but must say I'm extremely proud to have it there!!

Here's hoping it's one of many!!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

January 23rd, 2012

Handmade Monday is here again!  I've never known something come around so quickly, especially when the weekends don't seem to!

Given it is Handmade Monday it seems the perfect day to introduce another new Lucy Liz bag to you all....I need a dollar...

...a dollar is what I need, and hopefully this one will bring in one or two!  Must admit I love this fabric, whilst I really like some of the more subtle prints in some of my other products, I just love how instantly recognised this is, you can spot it a mile off!

In other news, the totes are coming along well, got a couple of new designs I'm playing with at the moment - very bright and very appropriate for 2012!  I've also been working on some coin purses whicch I hope to introduce to you all very, very soon!

Happy Making everyone!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

January 21st, 2012

Long day!  After a couple of days of cutting and pinning and sewing I finally started seeing some finished products today!

I tend to work in production lines, I'll do a whole load of cutting out then a load of pinning and so on, which is great and I find it to be a very organised way to work, but you do tend to find yourself working and working and not seeing a great deal of progress.  So today is always a great day in the production line when suddenly there's lots of bits finished all at once!

Of course I'll be taking the proper product pics at some point ready to go online but for now here's a sneaky peak at one of the new ones....hopefully it's a sign of things to come!

And after a long few days of working I'm looking forward to doing no work tomorrow for a certain someone's special day!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

January 19th, 2012

Long, long day...long but productive so I shouldn't complain!

Andy sometimes gets called for meetings in London which means alarm clocks going off at 5am, I usually get back to sleep but I'm still up earlier than normal so figured I may as well use the time and set about cutting fabric and felt for bags!

I cut enough fabric and felt for 16 bags and 8 coin purses, all with linings...my knuckles feel like golf balls but it's so worth it!  Although I can already hear the sewing machine groaning at me as tomorrow I'll be setting up camp to get the seams stitched before I start the hand-sewing.

So I'll have lots of stock and lots of new bits to photograph, now need lots of sales!!

www.lucyliz.co.uk

P.S. Happy Birthday Bill!

January 9th, 2012

My new bag!!!  It's been a while since I showed you all one of these huh!!!

Following on from the success of the New York bag I decided to keep the theme going, this one is all Vegas Baby! 

The new style of bags are going down really well too!  For those who missed my original blog about it my bags now come with chains that can be unclipped and the hoops fold away, so you're left with a clutch bag only without the empty hoops sticking up.  Genius!!  Hope you all like this one as much as I do!

*Ohh!  Almost forgot!  It's Handmade Monday over at Wendy's place!!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/

January 3rd, 2012

Back to work!  Well, in truth I was never really off work from Lucy Liz but today I was back to work properly - apparently these bags won't make themselves!

Very excited as I've almost finished another two new bags which I'll show you as soon as they're done, some more vibrant fabrics which I hope will go down as well as the others *fingers crossed*

I've also been mega busy designing the new ranges for Spring/Summer 2012 - new designs, new products - exciting times here at www.lucyliz.co.uk !!

Where it all began...

Seeing as I'm wanting you all to follow my blog and my work, I thought you might be interested to know how my little business came to be...

I've always been an arty one, for as long as I can remember, I vividly remember being about 6 and making handbags using paper and a stapler (and whilst my materials may have become more sophisticated, I can tell you that the methods aren't too dissimilar!).  I've always had a love of product, so apart from the period when I was determined to be a colouring-in person for Walt Disney it was probably inevitable that I'd end up with a product-based business.

I attended Cleveland College of Art and Design where I studied Design Crafts before moving on to my degree.  We covered a lot of disciplines there, which was great and gave me a lot of skills but it's also very confusing and I left with no clear idea of my niche and what my "thing" was - on a Monday I'd be making sterling silver jewellery, Tuesday I'd be preparing porcelain for the kiln, Wednesday I'd be fixing fabric dyes and working on the sewing machine...I didn't have a clue what I was meant to be doing.

I played around for a long time but the one discipline I continued to come back to was textiles, particulary felting.  Felt is a great material, hand-made felt is so tactile and so many colours and effects can be achieved, whilst "bought in" felt is just so practical, fantastic for linings.  And so it began!  I started to hand-felt my own bags, with handles that attached to either side (much like my stapled ones!).  I also started needle felting which is time-consuming but I love it - it allows me to be extremely precise, which the OCD streak in me loves!  To the bags I added large vintage buttons and lined them with strong felt, which actually was the beginning of my next product - large flower corsages.  I can't stand waste (nor can I afford it) so I was keen to make products using the scraps of felt left over from cutting the linings.  

Personally I love the corsages, they're real big and I treat them so they're stiff and hold the curves of the flower shape.  Each flower has a vintage button centre making them truly unique.  They've proved popular too!!!

I think that's probably enough for now, will be back shortly to share some more of my products with you!  Good night all!

http://www.lucyliz.co.uk/