The Last Market

It looks like skies are finally clearing as I am getting ready for the Young Designers Market today at Southbank in Brisbane. If you are in the neighbourhood, please come by and say hello. The Thea & Sami fashion clearance continues with the last of the Brisbane Skirts - nothing over $50! I have lots of fabric and scrap packs and lovely homewares for Mother's Day gifts or for yourselves.

I have decided that this will be the last market that I will be doing. I am seriously exhausted and need to start getting products ready for the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show. It's quickly sneaking up on us. Hope to see you today!

Linen Tea Cosies

It's been busy over here at Thea & Sami HQ. I have been calling and visiting stores, showing my wares and orders are slowly rolling in.

The linens are the popular choice at the moment and I have just listed these tea-cosies in the on-line store. The design is Little Hydrangeas and is available in a creme or navy print.

Fully quilted and insulated with bamboo wadding, you never have to drink cold tea again! The interior is lined with a natural linen/cotton blend and the seams are professionally finished with binding (interior view below).

I will have some of these babies with me at the Young Designers Market this Sunday at Brisbane's Southbank. Fingers crossed that the rain will subside by then. Mother's Day is not too far away for the few of us who like to plan ahead :)

Thank Goodness

I'm thankful for the lovely designers that are sewing our hand-printed fabrics because I just feel like things aren't happening as quickly as I would like over at the Thea & Sami Camp. Am I just impatient or do many of you feel frustrated that you're not where you would like to be at any given time?

On a positive note, it is gratifying when people choose our fabrics and to see what they make with them. I love this bag by Margaret at Konstant Kaos using our Marguerite print in red on hemp/organic cotton. Fully washable, this creation will be one available at the Northside Makers Market in Melbourne on Saturday.

Margaret has also created a range of ever-so-wicked Wizard of Oz bags and purses. Fun!

We make our own range of hemp/organic cotton tea-towels from our printed fabrics but I love the retro spin the Shimi girls have put on theirs. The set of two, comprises of a bamboo fabric hand-towel featuring our Fretwork design in red and includes a tea-towel in the same fabric.The sets are also available in other colours here.

I spent some time looking around in the Shimi store and discovered that they have a range of very innovative maternity fashions and for new mothers. How stylish is the LBD - that's short for Little Breastfeeding Dress. The cleverly designed split-level front allows for discreet baby feeding.

Speaking of markets, I will be peddling my wares in Brisbane this Sunday at the Young Designers Market. If you are in Southbank, please say hello. I will be sewing some new products tomorrow and will bring plenty of fabric and scrap packs along for your crafty types.

Christmas Shopping

Many designers and makers of fine hand-made goods will be at the Young Designers Market today selling original and locally-produced designs. The Market is located along Little Stanley Street in South Brisbane opposite lots of lovely cafes and restaurants. Today will be hot so I thoroughly recommend an ice-cream waffle cone from Movenpick. My favourite is the Pistachio. Delicious!



















Don't forget to say hello to me at the Thea & Sami stall. I will be selling hand-printed tableware and other goodies to tempt you including many organic cotton t-shirts at giveaway prices.

Get Ready for Summer!

I'm back! I am happy to have solved all my computer problems. I was smart enough to have backed all files onto an external hard drive so nothing was lost. If you don't do this, buy one tomorrow! Sooner or later, your computer WILL crash.

The next step was to steal Voyt's lap-top and to then ask computer whiz Chris Herford of Executive I.T. Connections to install all necessary design programmes for me. I highly recommend her services if you are in Brisbane.




















I will be updating the website over the next couple of weeks as time permits with new products. Our Summer Days Tote bags are now in available in our on-line store. Made from our "Airlie Beach" 100% organic canvas hand-printed by us. 

The Deck Chair and Retro Bathers motifs were designed by Eleni Papadatos aka Curlyhead Design. When you work in the Thea & Sami studio, you are required to do everything including modelling. Luckily, Eleni got into the spirit of things and came prepared with sunnies and beach caftan. She even wore bronzer! I love a girl who is serious about her craft.

You can also see our products this Sunday at the Young Designers Market including fabric packs.

Kimono Reincarnate

With Brisbane's Young Designers Market on again next Sunday, I thought I would introduce you to my neighbour from the last market. Melanie Gray Austin creates the most beautiful jewellery, recycled from kimono fabrics collected during her years for of living in Japan. Her label is appropriately named "Kimono Reincarnate".

These hand-made kimono flowers make up this stunning "kanzashi"

Kimono brooches and necklace from Melanie's market stall last month.

I bought these fabric-covered pegs for myself.

This week I will be unveiling some new hand-printed products in time for next weekend's Young Designers Market. I wonder who my new neighbour will be?

Studio Assistants & Giveaways

I have missed blogging this week but it really has been a busy time. In between moving the last of my belongings from the old studio yesterday; I have been training eager helpers to print the new organic cotton canvas fabrics with me.



Meet Karen Gaffney from Dragonfly Interiors who is also a trained interior decorator. You can see her screen-printing here with great concentration and you also have a peek at our new striped canvas in the yellow & white colourway.

I met Karen after sending out my monthly VIP e-news. I was looking for a screen-printing trainee preferably with a background in interior design/decoratoring and Karen had wanted to learn how to screen-print fabrics for some time. Is that fate or what?



Karen has a soft spot for dragonflies, okay it's really an obsession and she is currently giving away a lovely coffee set on her blog; available in your choice of red or blue. Karen imports hand-made ceramics and silk lanterns from Vietnam.



My other lovely assistant is my cousin Eleni Papadatos. Eleni is a natural-born screen-printer and THE colour queen! This girl can mix any ink colour in no time and is currently studying graphic design at Southbank TAFE. To find out more about Eleni and to follow her new blog, please visit Curlyhead Design (I wonder how she came up with that name?)

Karen, Eleni and I did attend the ABCD (Brisbane Artists + Bloggers + Crafters + Designers) evening on Thursday and it was fabulous! It was wonderful to catch up with old and new friends. Unfortunately, I was unable to take any photos on the evening but you can see some great images of the evening over at Bondville.

I did manage to take a photo of some of the lavender pillows I made for the goody bags. Nothing like a good aroma for people to remember you by. The fabrics were various printed off-cuts and the lavender was sourced from a farm that organically grows it.

As you may know, I give away a mystery prize at the end of every month to one of my followers as a way of saying thank you. I am a day late but I used random.org to choose follower no. 121 who is Tess Curran of A Beautiful Calamity. I have met Tess as she is a Brisbane girl who works as a freelance journalist, particularly for one of our favourites; Peppermint Mag.

It's funny how good karma goes around as I also won a blog giveaway this week for being a follower of Emjie. You can see the adorable owl I won from her blog here. Thank you Melissa! Funnily enough, Emjie will also be receiving a gift from me for signing up at my Pay It Forward post.

I will be at the Young Designers Market tomorrow so please come and say hello if you are in the Southbank neighbourhood. I will have a bargain bin of hand-printed goodies plus the new printed organic leggings. New products for sale at the market and to be posted here soon include hand-printed placemats.

Vintage Clothes Rack

The Young Designers Markets are on again this Sunday at Brisbane's Southbank. I have always felt that these are THE markets in town to find the best of local talent AND they are now a monthly event which I am especially excited about.



A few weeks ago, I scored this vintage clothing drying rack or whatever this is (does somebody know?)



I tried it out today as a display stand for my hand-printed linen and hemp tea-towels. What do you think?



Look out for the Thea & Sami stand if you are visiting and please say hello. On offer will be craft packs, fabrics, homewares and some organic clothing.

Oh and we have now added a currency converter to our on-line shopping store to make things easier for our international buyers. Keep checking as we are adding new products weekly.

Will I see you at the Young Designers Markets?

Glamour Mouse

Here is the more glamourous version of our Eco Door Mice. We ave sourced some fabulous vintage brocade fabrics from the 50's and 60s. These are very limited edition because once these fabrics are gone - they are never coming back!

If you simply must have one or two, then please order through Glamour Mice. Alternatively, if you are or will be in Brisbane, you can visit our stall on Sunday, December 7th at Southbank.  

Thea & Sami will be selling all of these new products plus clearing some fashion items at the Young Designers Market.