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| Arts & Crafts >> Bake Sale Designs |
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Bake Sale Designs exist to offer an alternative to the boring, mass produced products thrown at us from all sides. Dreamed up in the early part of 2005 by a gal named Rebecca in Baltimore, Bake Sale Designs went live in late September of last year. Rebecca has a passion for taking vintage fabrics and creating something different. 'No material is out of the question. I can recycle bed sheets and shower curtains into functional things', she says. Named for the feeling you get when you're enjoying anything homemade, it's a reminder that whatever 'it' may be, it's always better when it's made with purpose and conviction. In Rebecca's words, 'there's just something special about a product, whether a cookie or a tote bag, made by someone's careful and deliberate hands.' Something that has some individuality in it, in a time when we're all expected to settle for having the same stuff as everyone else, is more than welcome, it's necessary. |
 Mustachio Tote - $25 |
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'In a consumer-driven society where every big box store has the same products in every town, I think a unique, handmade gift can say a lot. So I started Bake Sale Designs, right now based in Baltimore, Maryland', she says on the shop's website. That general concept is something I hold very dear, and a big part of the massive change that needs to be part of all our daily purchase-making decisions. I'd be writing about this shop regardless I think, because Rebecca keeps it well updated and full of fun goodies, but I'm especially happy to be writing about it, because Bake Sale Designs is really part of a bigger vibe. 'I would love to become more recognized in the craft community', in response to what her long term goals are for the shop, 'that will take some time. Ideally, I'd like to be able to continue with Bake Sale Designs as a part time job.' She is certainty a part of the craft community, adding her designs to all the other cute stuff at Crafters for Critters, a non-profit dedicated to helping animals in need. On the project, 'Crafters for Critters is a great organization where crafters donate items to be sold in the store. Proceeds go to different animal rescue organizations. I'm an animal lover and I just wanted to do it.' |
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With an undergrad degree in literature, and a master's in public health (used in Rebecca's day job), at first glance it seems like an unlikely endeavor, but it's more than a passing hobby, says Rebecca, 'In a sense I have two careers, my day job and Bake Sale Designs.'. I asked her about something she mentions on the shop's site, she said that 'sewing and crafting were never supposed to be a career' for her and I was curious about wether she had started down a different path first, and her response gave me something to think about. She said the statement was more general 'to mean that sewing and crafting aren't necessarily seen as legitimate career choices for women anymore. My parents never would have said when I was going up, 'Oh, I hope our little girl sews for a living.' I come from a very academic family. And sewing and crafting are seen as more of a hobby than a career', and I'm sure that's something a lot of professional (and wannabe professional) crafters face. And really, getting crafty serves a purpose, 'It's like grown up play time and I think that's important. I like to think my products have a playful element, some overtly, like the mustachio bags, but some are more subtle, like the shapes or the bags or patterns used.' So, what was it that made Rebecca the crafty gal she is? |
 Rosy Boho Fabric Pin - $16 |
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Some history please, 'My grandmother passed away a little over a year ago. As I was going through her things, I found a very primitive envelope clutch I had made her. I'm talking about just a scrap of fabric folded over and sewn up the sides with the seams showing! I didn't even remember this thing, but it stirred up old memories. My mom sewed. She sewed her clothes before she had kids. And once she had kids she sewed tons of stuff for us. We always had homemade Halloween costumes. She always sewed school play costumes and toys. I took sewing classes when I was younger and then in middle school took sewing in home economics. When I changed schools in high school there were no elective classes like that except art', she explains. 'I'm really not a good artist. I have to try really hard. But all of my friends were artists. I found photography then. In high school I did some silly crafting. For me crafting can be very playful. I remember making placemats for all of my friends to use at the lunch table. I even covered them in contact paper. That's also when I got into thrifting and I was into clothing because we had a dress code. I made my own pants by taking apart some old ones. I just got so impatient with making clothes in high school.' 'In college and grad school, crafting, sewing, photography - it was all gone. I just didn't do it. I came back to it slowly after school. I always made silly decorations to welcome my boyfriend home, stars and heart hanging from the ceiling. Then I found Craftster.org and it reopened the whole world for me and I got myself a sewing machine.' |
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Everything in Rebecca's shop is dreamed up in her mind, and made by her hands, so no two items are really the same. Her enthusiasm over a great fabric is inspiring, on the collection of the fabric, 'Sometimes I just find a fabric and know what I want to do with it. Other times I know it's a great fabric and I just need to keep it for awhile until inspiration strikes.' And sometimes she comes up with ideas that are solid evidence that she was born to make stuff, she's working on an amoeba bag, people! This woman is serious. 'I have a little idea notebook that I have with me most of the time to sketch out ideas. I'm not sure where some of them come from! I often have thoughts about projects when I'm trying to go to sleep', she says on keeping track of it all. While Bake Sale Designs has bags, scarves and cute hotpads, my favorite by far, are her fabric pins. They're very striking, in that your first thought would not be that it was made in Rebecca's overflowing craft corner in her apartment, or that the fabric was once a table cloth. |
 Sherbert Fabric Pin - $16 |
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| The pins have fabric petals in patterns and colours ranging from red and black paisley to a sharp brown swirl pattern and a load of others. The centers of the pins are sometimes a lone vintage earring or a cute button. My favorite, hands down, is the Sherbert Fabric Pin, it's cute personified and it's not available at Old Navy. :) You can also pick up a set of 5 1" buttons with a fabric pin on each one! The bags should be noted too - totes, clutches, pouches, catch-alls and especially the O and oval shaped ones, with The Mod Circles standing out above the rest (to me, anyway). On bags, Rebecca says, 'I really like different shapes to bags. Some work and some don't.' All the bags are different sizes for different occasions, and with different linings and buttons. And what about when she's made something so amazingly great it's hard to part with? Don't part with it, after all she says, 'If I fall in love with something I'm making I can always choose to keep it'. Not only are the designs and fabrics cuter than (or at least as cute as) your average shop, you're giving your money to the person who made the bag, not one person in a long chain. We've been through this already, but I've said it again anyway. | ||||
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A little more on the fabrics, because this sort of thing is yet another element of why homemade goods are so rad! The gear from Bake Sale Designs is not made from material purchased by the yard off a bolt in a fabric shop. 'You can find great fabric in the most unlikely of places. I go to thrift stores, rummage sales, estate sales, antique stores. I look for more than just neatly folded fabric, I go to the linens for the kitchen and bedroom. Each fabric I use has a story behind it. I found a vintage toaster cover at a hospital rummage sale with a spectacularly lush flower pattern. I used it to accent three bags', she says. Almost everything's made from fabric that was once something else, thought some fabric is found in shops. 'The pumpkin swirl fabric I used for a few bags came from some vintage pillow shams I found at a church sale. They were over as pillow shams, but the pattern of a fabulous mod swirl still had life in it. Wherever I go I'm always on the look out for fabric. Over the holidays I visited my parents and headed off to the thrift stores. I found a great spring green bedspread at one. I'm using it for a lot of the spring bags I'm working on now. It happens to go perfectly with some salvaged fabric I got months ago at the hospital rummage sale.' And who knows, maybe we'll end up seeing original fabrics from Bake Sale, 'I'd also love to expand into creating my own textiles to use for my bags as well as sell to others', she notes, 'but that's a long way off because I just don't have those skills.' Yet. Also available right now are these button-scarves that are nothing short of essential. Shortish felted scarves, with a button/buttonhole just below the neck, to secure it overlapping and to avoid a big hump in your coat! Cute quilted hotpads were in the shop, but have sold out. Stay tuned for hand dyed silk tops and printed tees! You can also get her gear at Crafters for Critters, MYMY (hi Taryn!) and at a local shop in Baltimore called 2 Hot Art Chicks. |
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Rebecca’s Playlist
1. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1(Tunnels) 2. Radiohead - Nice Dream 3. Elliot Smith - Pretty (Ugly Before) 4. The Arcade Fire - Headlights Look Like Diamonds 5. The Ramones - Needles and Pins Bake Sale Designs |
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