Holiday Shows & Schedule of Events

Holiday Shows & Schedule of Events

Tuesday 11/1 In’s and Out’s of Selling on Etsy – Class Open to All, held at the Darien Library from 10-12pm

Saturday 11/12 Introduction to Hand Sewing – Class for 8-12 year olds, held at the Darien Library from 2-4pm

Thursday 11/17 Coffee & Chocolate – Holiday Shopping Event @ my home 4-8pm (Invite to come)

Friday 11/18 Coffee & Chocolate 2 - Holiday Shopping Event @ my home 10-12 (Invite to come)

Sunday 11/20 Holiday Boutique – Flair Fitness in Darien 4-7pm

Wednesday 11/23 Last Chance to Place Your Custom Order Online

Friday 11/25 Black Friday

Saturday 11/26 Small Business Saturday – remember to register & receive a $25 gift certificate from American Express

Monday 11/28 Cyber Monday – Biggest Online Shopping Day

Saturday 12/3 (snow day 12/4) Holmes for the Holidays – Holmes Elementary School in Darien, CT 10-4pm

Tuesday 12/20 First Night of Chanukah

Sunday 12/25 Christmas Day

Special Reminders

Custom orders can take as long as 4 weeks when requests are high. I am trying to add inventory of gift sets and plenty of ready to ship items to help you with your holiday shopping. If you would like to receive notifications about the above events as well as take advantage of special holiday offers and promotions you must be on my mailing list. I don’t spam and I don’t over send emails. If you do not add me as a contact in your address book, then it will go to your spam folder.

Thank you all for your continued support of a busy mom!

From my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ittybittybag you can click on email list on the left

or click on the link below

https://www.facebook.com/ittybittybag?sk=events#!/ittybittybag?sk=app_141428856257

My best, Jen

A Love Affair With Burlap

It is no secret that I am having a love affair with burlap. It is summer time, the air is warmer, clothes are lighter, more daylight hours, flowers blooming, and love is all around. It is nothing short of a harlequin romance with its simple organic material, clean lines, and a vintage look.

I’ve made many styles of burlap designs, all unique, none of them from a pattern. In my burlap series: Itty Bitty Totes, Small Beach Bags, Cross-Body Bags, Small Totes, Wine bags, and now…a Clutch.

I am always nervous with folding burlap as it can be brittle. The fabric that I use is a designer weight, not like a potato sack and is often used for upholstery projects because of how well it is woven. It worked perfectly for this design. I love creating a new handbag for each event that I attend. There is no better marketing than wearing what you do. I wanted to change it up from my last clutch and do something different, a bit longish and flat.

It is all about the icing design on the cake right? So what do you get when you start off with a one piece flat burlap clutch and add a knife pleat cotton ribbon that gives it a ”candy ribbon” effect down the front and add a few pearl buttons? You get, what I think is my best design yet. A fresh new design using vintage techniques with all new materials to make it beautiful. This design has a soft zipper top, a matching fuschia kiss lock lining, and an iPhone pocket. The full dimensions are 10″ across x 5.5″ tall.

This is a one of a kind item (OOAK) that I made for myself to wear to an upcoming Fundraiser Lobster Bake. I needed a clutch to match my new dress from ModCloth (Cake Artist), with my fuschia pink gauze pashmina wrap (bought locally at Good Goods in Darien) and my denim blue espadrilles (from Piperlime that happen to be the coziest heels I’ve ever owned). I would be happy to make one of these lovely clutches for you in another fabric. The retail price on this item is $30.

**Copyright 2011, The Itty Bitty Bag Company. This is my original design and it is not permissable to copy in any form.

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Framed Purse Clutch, Weddings and Formal Events

Whether you are the bride, it is your Prom or you have a formal event to attend, a framed clutch purse is the perfect accessory. They hold the bare essentials, are light weight, and have a polished look. If you’ve ever watched the Red Carpet before an award show, you’ll see lots of clutches to choose from.

I”ve been making framed clutches for over a year now. As the formal events are approaching, everyone is ditching their heavy bags and lightening their load with a frame.

My first of this season what a white interlock framed purse. I posted a picture of it before I listed it and it sold right away, within moments of listing it.

In light of this one selling so quickly, I knew I needed more. I went over to  the fancy fabric store in town, Good Goods, they always have a nice selection of Nautical and Silks to choose from. When I saw the blue/cream stripe, I knew it was a perfect fit for my next frame.

I’ve donated this clutch to a few charities to be auctioned off, as I think it will do very well and help raise money for some great charities. I did purchase one yard of this material, so unlike the white frame (OOAK) this one I have room to make a few.

I hope to adding more variety of these fine clutches, some will be very elegant as you’ve seen, and I am going to add some retro ones for the light hearted! Bold Prints and Bright colors. Stay tuned….

An event to remember!

Last night, I was invited to a fundraiser and to hear our new Governor of Connecticut speak. It was great to be up so close and personal & to shake the hands of so many great people who are dedicated to helping people. I am not much into politics, so that part of my story is over. Thank goodness right! I am a bag lady not a politician.

I was not expecting that the hostess of last nights event would give the first lady of Connecticut one of my designs from the summer, a pair of cute pot holders. That was a huge surprise. And I really enjoyed meeting and speaking with the first lady. She is so down to earth and such a friendly people person. Nice to see good people be successful and share the same dream & vision.

I also got to see and sit next to, one of my favorite gals, Liz Conover (has led the handbag power houses of Takashimaya, Paloma Picasso, Tommy Hilfiger and Salvatore Ferragamo). She is so sweet. We chatted a little bit about an upcoming Spring event and I am pretty sure she used my name and Chloe Sevigny (former Darien native) in the same sentence. OMG. It is so hard to believe she is such a shark, leading these top handbag companies because all I see is this sweet woman who is always smiling and always has something nice to say to everyone!

After all the fan fare, it was really nice to chat with several of my friends (you know who you are), which seems like forever since we’ve spoken because of this very long winter. Usually I bump into my friends around town or walking by the house but not lately. The weather here has been so cold and snowy.

For the event I selected a dress from my new favorite place to shop Mod Cloth. I had seen an ad on Facebook and fell in love with the dress. It is now out of stock and I was so glad that purchased it when I did and didn’t wait until spring. Hubs and I went out shoe shopping and he found a really cute pair of shoes for me, styled by Jessica Simpson. Love the rounded toe, so classic and the same genre as my dress, it was a perfect match. Ok – so yes, I know I am the supposed to just write about my bags but most days I trot around in my running clothes (old habits die hard), so when I get dressed up, I like to go all out! It makes me feel a bit like Cinderella. I wanted to make a formal handbag, so I decided on a clutch, and then took it one step further with making it even more fancy with a frame. That makes it art! Ha Ha. The color had to be perfect and really what a better time to show off my spring line, a room full of people who just can not wait for Spring. I selected a very nice coral fabric with a matching satin lining. I added a pocket so that my cell wouldn’t get all scratched without needing my every day sleeve (did not go with satin very well). I was really pleased with the results and I hope you enjoyed my recap of last nights event.

This clutch is now being auctioned off at my eBay store and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Go Red for Women.

Clutch to Benefit Go Red for Women

Itty Bitty Bag Company Giving Back

Burlap Itty Bitty Handbag

I approached my friend Kate about donating one of my handbags to a charity event that she was hosting at her home. The charity event was a huge success and was to benefit Kids in Crisis. Kate suggested that another friend/colleague of mine Caroline of Spotted Dog Jewelry also wanted to donate an item and that we combine our items for auction. We both very excitedly said YES!

Here is a picture of the auction which looks absolutely beautiful. Many thanks to Tara Sharma Photography for taking such a cute picture.

Glad I was able to participate and continue my mission of giving back. You can read more about Kids in Crisis a local charity organization at their website.

Trunk Show for a Cause!

Trunk Show for a Cause!

As you know 2 years ago I retired from Financial Services to stay home and be with my family and you all know that I don’t just sit still. I am a happy mom of two little girls, 2 dachshunds and a very happy husband. Despite my bliss at home, I still need something for me. For over a year now, I’ve been running my own company designing and creating handbags & accessories in my home studio. I’ve had great success in the past year.

I’ve decided to team up with some local designer friends after a recent event we had in town that was a huge success. We are happy to announce that we are taking appointments for hosting Trunk Shows right in your home. We have a number of designer friends, the list keeps growing everyday.

Whether you want to plan a simple ladies night in for you and your friends, an event targeting men “Johnny Walker Blues”, or if you’d like to raise money for a charity, we would like to host your event. This is our way of giving back to friends, family, fans, charities or a beneficiary. We can help you plan an event big or small but in order to make this event beneficial for the host and/or charity, it is best for the number of attendees to be at least 15+.

Here are the terms of the arrangement:

If you live within 1 hour of (Darien, Connecticut) we can host a weeknight event but if you live further away then it would have to be on a Saturday.

The Hostess would receive a hostess gift & discounts.

Ticket sales or donation at the door (optional) but 100% of the ticket sales would benefit the charity

A percentage of sales from that evening would go to the charity

You invite your friends or even request a mailing list from the local charity or beneficiary and we’ll bring all of our fine items right to your home.

If you are interested in booking a Trunk Show please let me know. The Vendors will depend upon who is available but could include handbags & accessories, chic home decor, stationary, hair accessories, jewelry, fine art, perhaps a cupcake sampling from a local baker? We have many contacts and can work with you no matter the size of the show.

Thanks so much for your time and continued support.

All the best,

Jen

P.S. Did you kow that according to the US Department of Labor, for every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes payroll and other expenditures, if it is spent at a national chain, only $43 remains here.

Darien Democratic Town Committee DTC 25th Annual Lobster Bake

It was a lot of work but I am finally finished with my order for the Darien Democratic Town Committee DTC 25th Annual Lobster Bake. I completed 100 key fobs to be sold at the door. I am also donating 3 burlap tote bags (2 medium and 1 large) to be auctioned. My favorite item is again one that presented new challenges for me. I made the perfect democrat hostess set. A 1950′s style Apron, 10 cocktail napkins and 2 pot holders all in the democrat fabric. I am sure we’ll put the hostess set in a nice little gift basket with some other items, again to be auctioned off.

30 Key Fobs for the Darien Girl Scouts in Connecticut

I received a custom order for 30 key fobs as an appreciation gift for the Darien Girl Scout Leaders. The time frame was a bit tight, only a couple days to complete the order but so excited and happy to do it.

I gift packaged them and included a printed card that said “You are the key to developing girls of character, courage and confidence in Darien Girl Scouts. Thank you for being a Girl Scout leader.”