preview: primetime emmys celebrity gift lounge products | the artisan group | little free radical

Choosing the 'right' fabric can be easier said then done! So when I decided to do celebrity gifts for the 63rd Primetime Emmy's Celebrity Gifting Lounge, I ended up spending WEEKS trying to decide which fabrics to use for those products! I needed smaller prints that would work well on 4" balls, and I wanted to get a variety of fabrics from various manufacturers so I found myself spending hours on etsy & manufacturer websites looking at options. I also went fabric shop to fabric shop around Boston looking for the perfect prints. But, after weeks of drooling over fabric, I finally narrowed it down to just a couple:

I knew right off that Alexander Henry's 2D Zoo in Chocolate was a MUST HAVE. Anything I've made from it has sold quickly in the store... If it's a customer favorite, then I'm sure the celebrities would love it too, right?

We got a new local fabric shop, Gather Here, in Cambridge a few months back. So I was psyched to find 2D Zoo tiny in their shop since typically I have to order it online and pay for shipping. So I combined 2D Zoo with Amy Butlers  full moon polka dot (in lime and tangerine) for some of the balls!

I was in New York City a few weeks back, since my daughter was modeling for Masala Baby's spring line, so I had to stop off at Purl SoHo before heading back to Boston!

The store was awesome, so I had to pick a fabric combo for a few more balls!  I found these awesome Metro Living Dots from Robert Kaufman Prints and knew these were the one! So I paired it with a couple of Kona Solids! 

I  also needed 10 gifts for the press present at the gifting lounge so I thought I'd alter my elephant pattern (designed by retromama) a bit:

I also love Riley Blake Designs fabrics - I use them frequently in my shop so I had to choose one of their lines to include for the Emmy's! 

XOgigi, one of my favorite etsy shops for fabric got in Alphabet Soup by Zoe Pearn Designs for My Minds Eye/Riley Blake Designs shortly before I needed materials so I ended up choosing this line since they had some great small prints that worked well with the size of the balls, plus they are bright and colorful! It was a fun material to work with! 

I have a few of their other prints  from Alphabet Soup as well! I plan to play with those over the next few weeks So keep your eye out for new Alphabet Soup products in my Etsy shop!

Another favorite fabric line was Cloud 9 Fabric's 2010 line: My Happy Nursery! I saw it last year and HAD to have some - even though I wasn't sure what I "needed" it for - so I bought a bag of scraps with this and and their My Happy Garden collection included. Of course you can only do so much with fabric scraps, so I splurged and bought a few bigger pieces!

My Happy Nursery is part of Cloud 9's  Premium Collection. It's silky smooth 100% certified organic cotton. I love Cloud 9's  environmental commitment:

 Cloud9's immediate goals are to use only 100% certified organic cotton in the manufacturing of our base cloths and eco-responsible low impact dyes for printing and dying. Cloud9 Fabrics' organic cotton and goods are imported from the India subcontinent, where they continue to make great strides in the development of eco-friendly fabrics and finishing techniques. Our aim is to work closely with mills who foster the practice of organic cotton farming and eco-responsible print and dye methods.

The prints were the perfect size for small balls, and looked fantastic as elephants too, of course!

Birch Fabrics are 100% organic cottons, or as they say: treated with love not pesticides! Since our products are {handmade with love} it seemed like their materials would be a good fit for us, right?

Their newest line, Storyboek was another MUST-have from the moment I saw it! It was due to be released in July but there was a shipping delay so it didn't arrive in the US til the first week of August. I was totally stalking Gather Here for it, but the East Coast got it later since it was shipping UPS ground from California, but as usual, Lela at Cedar House Fabrics saved the day and got me some shipped out from Oregon to Boston via priority mail so I could still use it for the Emmy's! :)

Once Storyboek arrived, I went to work very quickly since it was the last of my fabrics to arrive! I needed 2 more gifts for the media so I thought Storyboek was a great fabric to make whales with so I altered a pattern I got from Happy Sew Lucky to make 2 whales!

And last but not least: my favorite pick: Monaco by Monaluna! I fell in love with it last fall when I first saw it! In fact, I re-did my daughters nursery in it because I loved it that much! (photos here!) I needed one display item and a few more press gifts, so I decided that Monaco was perfect for a couple more elephants and my display!  I also did a few balls out of them too!

Like Cloud 9 & Birch Fabric, Monaluna is also made in India from 100% organic cotton and printed with AZO-free dyes. 

For the display piece, I made a stacking ring toy with an altered pattern from patternplay.  Instead of using traditional polyester fiberfill, I used a blend of 50% rayon fiber made from bamboo and 50% premium polyester fiber. I loved working with it, and I loved how the rings felt once they were stuffed! I will be offering this blend in the near future in toys made from organic fabrics for customers looking for more eco-friendly options. :)

Once the balls were completed, I packaged them up and shipped them to California to The Artisan Group who is representing me at GBK's Primetime Emmys Gift Lounge. 

The stacking ring toy will be on display in the gift lounge on Friday September 16th & Saturday September 17th with 25 other artists products, and the balls will be distributed to the 63rd Primetime Emmy's Nominees.

It was a fun project and The Artisan Group was easy to work with! Now stay tuned for photo's of Little Free Radical's products at the event! 

Shop Little Free Radical on Etsy 

to get your playful nursery decor before the celebrities do!!!!

NOTE: if there is something you see & like here, convo me on etsy or use my custom options to order one! (Products made with organic materials will cost more then standard custom options as these materials are $16+ a yard)