New Winter Fox Collection & Make A Fox!

We're so excited to be launching our Winter Fox Collection this week.  This beautiful design captures the quiet magic of a wintery night in the countryside and is inspired by treasured family holidays when my children were little.

As a business, we are keen to help support new and upcoming designers.  This very special design has been created by a long time family friend of both mine and my children.  Imogen, now a young, talented illustrator and graphic designer, has captured the quiet magic of wintertime family adventures perfectly, making this collection full of warmth, story, and meaning.

When my children were small, we often holidayed with Imogen's sister and their Mum and Dad. We loved escaping to nature for long countryside walks, wildlife spotting, renting quirky cottages, enjoying open fires, pub lunches, winter picnics and nature quizzes to make the children walk just that little bit further! Those memories of frosty mornings, curious foxes, and cosy evenings have stayed with us, bringing the connection full circle with this beautiful new collection.

The Winter Fox Collection includes Linen Bread Bags, Tea Cosies, Tea Towels, Placemats, Napkins and Aga Pads.  All these lovely products are available in Navy, Raspberry Red or Sage Green Linen.

Celebrating With The Team

We love a reason to celebrate with our fantastic team and decided as part of the run-up to the launch of the Winter Fox Collection that it would be fun to make our own winter fox toys.

We searched around and came up with this wonderful pattern from Elle at My Fabric Heaven; a great source of sewing patterns for toys that are sweet and straightforward to make.  Not all our team are naturals with a sewing machine!

We enjoyed making this pattern so much that we thought it might be interesting to find out a little bit more about Elle and the development of her business, which mirrors my own in many ways!

Introducing Elle From My Fabric Heaven

Hello there, my name is Elle and I'm a wife, mum, step mum and now a Nana too, so life is full if a little hectic at times!

Going way back, I originally trained as a primary school teacher but was employed by a bank before leaving to have a baby and eventually working for a small business taking care of their accounts and payroll.

My favourite hobbies are sewing, photography, gardening and reading, but I think my creative spark was first nurtured by my maternal grandmother. She patiently taught me how to make pom-poms, to knit and sew from a very young age and she gave me my very first sewing machine! The creative dexterity I've enjoyed as an adult takes its roots in those practical lessons she taught me as a child, and I'm so very grateful to her.  I intend to do the same in my turn and pay it forward to my own grandchildren as they grow.

My Fabric Heaven was born in 2012 and it all began with a little rag doll named Sarah that I created as a special Christmas gift for one of my step children.

I'd always loved sewing rag dolls, so Sarah was quickly sketched out on bits of scrap paper then sewn from pretty fabric remnants. She turned out so sweet that I thought why not draft the pattern properly and write an instruction booklet so that other people could make her too?

I tweaked the design a little, wrote the instructions and listed the finished product for sale later in 2012. I remember being so excited to receive my first order that I began designing a new toy pattern almost immediately!

At this time I also had a part-time day job, so I spent all my weekends and evenings designing, sewing and dreaming up new toy ideas. My aim was to create friendly and attractive step-by-step guides to help beginners successfully sew their own softies with enjoyment and ease using minimal supplies, and that is still true today.

I worked so hard in those early days balancing family, home, job and new business, but I was so inspired and motivated that I was happy to make the sacrifices. I was also lucky enough to be blessed with a kind, helpful and understanding hubby which is no small thing! Over the following year I added more designs to my growing range and happily fulfilled the orders from our dining-room table.

When thinking up a name for my business I wanted something to reflect the core of what inspired me and that was gorgeous, beautiful fabric, so My Fabric Heaven seemed just about perfect, and I still love it!

Very soon I had enough regular sales to open an eBay shop for my fledgling business and then my own website myfabricheaven.com. It felt so good to have my own cosy little corner of the internet and within a few years I was able to work exclusively for myself.

Initially most of my products were paper based A5 photo-tutorial booklets with A4 pattern templates that were printed and posted.  As the internet developed I was also able to offer digital PDF Files that included more detailed information and large colour photos on sites such as Etsy.  Now, the digital versions of my toy designs are the most popular and are purchased daily all over the world, which is much more sustainable. However I do maintain a limited range of legacy paper booklets on my website because they're great for birthday or Christmas gifts!

On the subject of sustainability, my legacy designs encourage the idea of up-cycling, meaning that you should be able to find most of the materials needed to create your softy at home, minimising the need to source and purchase expensive extras. In fact many have found these patterns to be perfect for sewing keepsake or memory toys made from treasured articles of clothing such as baby clothes or school uniform. You can see some of my customer photos over on my website gallery page and I think you will notice how each customer creation has its own unique personality!

Over the coming year I'm thinking of adding a much smaller addition to my dressable doll range, perhaps with a fabric doll's house too. I've also been approached by a well known publisher about the possibility of writing a craftbook!

If you're thinking of starting your own small business, I think the best piece of advice I can give you is what has become my own mantra - "keep it simple".  I started my little business with a sewing machine, a laptop and a printer, so it is possible!

Make A Winter Fox Soft Toy

As a team, we all got together one summer evening to celebrate the completion of the Winter Fox Collection and make our fox toys.  Helaena and India had cut all the pattern pieces, using off-cuts from our rust red and natural linen and little pieces of bamboo towelling for the ears.  This meant that the non-sewers in the team were able to quite quickly work out how the pattern went together! 

Helaena and India demonstrated each step with us and with some help, we all managed to come up with soft foxes that looked, more or less, like they were supposed to. 

We finished the evening with a delicious takeaway from Pit & Pickle who run a pop up food stall at Maker Heights over the summer.

What do you think of our foxes?  Do you have a favourite?   We used off-cuts and fabric remnants from larger products for these toys.  You can buy printed or plain fabric remnants from us here.  Do you use off-cuts to make your own stuffed toys or other craft projects?