Top Hat Kits!

http://lauraaftermidnight.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/new-delighthe-marketplace/

Our Laura's been busy creating the super cute and beautifully presented Top Hat Kit!
Read all about it on her blog, follow link above. 
We have them for sale in our shop, and soon on the website too.

                                                                                   

Today I tried out the Gillian Gladrag felt corsage making kit and I chose the 'Plum Pudding' to try and make. Felt is sometimes really tricky to make but this kit wrote out the instructions in such a way it seems possible. It takes some hard work to make the felt but the end results are great. Even putting the corsage together was simple.

We are getting ready for Christmas at Flo-Jo Boutique, I have been given the job of making little Christmas decorations which will hang in the window. The decorations are made out of Riley Bake material, there are small decorations and large. The small ones each have an individual picture printed on them that resembles Christmas and the large ones spell 'Holiday cheer' when put together. There was a lot of sewing and stuffing involved but it was worth it.

Day One Ruby's Work Experience!

My work experience; when I first thought about work experience Flo-Jo Boutique popped into mind because of the variation of things I could do related to textiles and design. My first day went well, just helped around the shop, sorted out orders, and got asked to make a button necklace and cuff. The instructions were extremely easy to follow and the kit provided you with everything you needed. The kit gave you a good selection of buttons and threads to create your necklace and cuff.     

The Button Bag craft kit is being sold at Flo-Jo Boutique for £14.

Nowhere Island

Goodbye NOWHEREISLAND

I went down to the docks in Bristol to wave goodbye to Nowhereisland, the worlds newest nation.

The actual island is made up from a collection of rocks taken from a new uncharted island that appeared from the effects of global warming in the Artic. Rocks were collected and made into an island that has been towed around the coast of England by a tug. 

The Island was declared a Nation and citizenship open to all. The count above being from yesterday. It will exist as a nation for one year.

It has the word's first open access constitution which boasts propositions as, Free ice cream on fridays, and we shall eat together regularly.

The actual island was on its last journey to be broken up at Avonmouth yesterday, when i photographed it.

You can sign up at;

www.nowhereisland.org

Tattoo?

Feeling like a mid-life crisis tattoo? ... well look no further than this! We love these and if you want to go a stage further to embarrass your kids get the nail stickers too! 
Yes Kate Broughton has been our latest shop crush, come in and see her stylish cards and bags.

I blog, they blog, we blog, a nice little write up for the shop!

http://uwecreative.tumblr.com/

Organic cotton shirts

We're really excited about the arrival of our new range of organic cotton prints from Birch fabrics....so much so that I made up a shirt for my boyfriend quick as a flash! It happened to be his birthday a few days after its arrival... talk about timing!
I'm so pleased with the result, the coolest cycling shirt, with a feel good factor. 

Hooray our new workshop program is now live on the website and we are taking bookings! From dressmaking to quilting, from sewing surgeries to all important knicker making we hope there is something for everyone. We are even running a childrens sewing club! Check out the website for more info and lets get crafty!

New unique brooches made by a local artist called Curious Pip are inspired by old Hollywood and Show girls. Each brooch is one of a kind and can be secured to a piece of clothing or a bag. They are hand sewn, stuffed with polyfil, and the faces are hand painted. The materials used give off a vintage and colourful look. Now selling in Flo-Jo boutique for £23.00.

Hello, my name is Angelee Ghedia and I am an Art A Level student. I came to Flo-Jo Boutique to do work experience for 3 days. From the first step into the shop, I was surrounded by shelves covered in different materials and their well known Knicker making kits. There was a retro feel with cute accessories, quirky designs, and 50’s music to set the atmosphere of the shop. One of my first jobs was working on the laptop, typing information on excel documents and heading down to the post office to deliver products. Then with advice and help I started working on the sewing machines, making a doorstop out of fabric. The work experience was fun and also helped me learn lots of different things.

Babyshower!

We had a splendid Saturday afternoon at the shop hosting a babyshower cot quilt making party. We had the lovely ladies from La Ruca and their friends over. From niffty stitchers in the group to novices we had the whole group contributing and putting together a block of patchwork squares and rectangles. The real fun started when we laid out everyone's work to arrange them together to make the pattern most pleasing on the eye. We put together all the ladies work and edged the piece, they chose the backing and the binding which was finished the next day and presented with a card. 

Another happy customer blending into the exterior paintwork wearing their newly bought Koi shirt.

A nice review from happy customers

http://thatkate.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/flo-jo-boutique.html#comment-form

Yayoi Kusama

Whilst in London a few weeks back Erika and i popped over the river and down to the Tate Modern to see an exhibition of Yayoi Kusama s work. It was inspiring! She's one of Japan's best known living artists. She created the bulk of her work in the 1960-70's in New York a major part of the avant-garde,pop , minimalism and performance movements. We have a shared love of polka dots with her!
My favourite piece was the 'Infinity Mirrored Room - Filled with the Brilliance of Life'  a beautiful room filled with hanging coloured lights reflected in lots of angled mirrors.

The gorgeous Sally Gamble is fast  becoming an intergrel part of Flo-jo Boutique and look what she has just finished making  from one of our collection of Collette dress patterns and by popping into Stop n' Sew on a Monday and Thursday.

Let her be an inspiration to us all!!

Bunting on Oxford Street

Erika getting into the Jubilee spirit on Oxford Street! We've sold all our made up Union Jack butting this week, even from the shop window. I'll make up some more tomorrow... Bristol's going to be ready for the street parties!

We had a lovely day out in Liberty promoting our bunting kit in their haberdashery department. Lovely to meet the buyers and all the people working there, including Nina in the wholesale fabric department. Yes we will soon be stocking some Liberty, gorgeous  lawn prints. Gorgeous and very exciting!

Milk and Cereal T-Shirts

New arrivals in the shop.... no not the kids... the T-SHIRTS ! 

100% Organic Cotton and produced by the talented Jo from Milk and Cereal.

Perfect presents for the little people.  £14 each and in sizes age 1-4

Liberty

Erika and i had a fab day out in London yesterday visiting Liberty to do a sewing demo in their fabric and haberdashery department.

We then went next door to meet the wholesale team where we picked out samples from their cotton lawn collection... ummm the hard work we have to do!!

We left the lovely Ali Tillcock in the shop so massive thanks to her. 

Well the new shop has meant there is so much to do that the website has been slightly neglected recently...Sorry!
But I mean to make amends  and have started adding some of the lovely new stock that we have been busy gathering. Starting with these  Collette dress patterns, classic designs and clear layout and    instructions make these patterns lovely to work from.

Let's hope that we soon get the weather so we can wear a summer dress..

Last Saturday we hosted our first knicker making party at our shop. We had a lovely bunch of west country girls in, who all made themselves a fancy pair of pants. They all worked on a garter for the bride to be which you see modelled in the pic. We had help in the shop from Sally who doubled up as the most glamours tea lady ever! The hens finished off with a glass of bubbly and most of their knickers modelled on their heads... yes allot of fun was had!

Get ready for summer street parties!!
We are running a bunting making workshop on 4th May 10am - 1pm at our shop on the Gloucester Road.
£30 inclusive of all materials.
You can choose to be patriotic or opt for cute florals whatever takes your fancy...tea n cake included!
To book a place call 0117 9041498

co-ordinated customers!