FROM THE WORKBENCH OF THE MADE COZY STUDIO:
A COZY THINGS NEWSLETTER
March 1st, 2024
After a lot of prototyping, material sourcing, cutting and sewing, our first children's toy is launched! I wanted to give you a little introduction:
Aster Cottontail is the coziest heirloom bunny to befriend small hands. A unique yet timeless children's toy made of all natural materials is hard to come by so we designed a contemporary, playful take on a classic toy rabbit. Aster is inspired by the New England Cottontail rabbits we see outside of our studio windows and is made start to finish in our Western, MA studio in small batches.
| Specs: -100% organic cotton soft sherpa fabric -100% cotton, yellow micro-corduroy belly -100% wool stuffing ethically sourced from US farms -Bowtie is 100% linen -Hand-embroidered face -9" tall (from foot to ear) -Made in MA, USA |
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We believe that a high quality bunny deserves thoughtful packaging. Each bunny comes holding a small booklet with care instructions, and is carefully tucked into it's own hand-stamped kraft gift box (made of recycled materials and tied up with string). |
We spent a lot of time considering every detail of Aster and finishing each by hand. We hope the craftsmanship and care comes across. We timed this launch to coincide with Spring and Easter gifting. (FYI Easter is early this year so if you are hoping to add Aster to an Easter basket, now is the time to purchase.) Purchase Aster here.
And now, for come cozy thoughts for the end of winter:
1. Homemade Maple Candy: Here in Massachusetts we've started to see sugar maple trees with taps and can smell the warm sugary vapor from local sugar shacks starting to boil their sap into syrup. We decided this was a good time to make maple candy from the jug of last years syrup in our kitchen. The process is surprisingly simple and as a bonus i t will make your house smell like maple syrup. I used the directions from the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association.
| 2. Sewing something just for me?: I've recently started spending more time learning new technical sewing skills, and garment making is a great way to practice those techniques. I made myself a work vest out of waxed sailcloth using the Ruby Vest pattern. The pattern maker, Sydney Graham, even has a video tutorial for making this. This is a great beginner garment sewing pattern and I would recommend it to anyone else interested in getting stared making clothing for themselves. |  |
| 3. Garden planning season!: My favorite thing about March is planning our garden for the year. I gave up on growing most veggies because they tend to get eaten by critters so I stick to mostly flowers and herbs. Last fall I planted something new though that I'm hoping will sprout as the weather warms up: culinary mushrooms! I ordered mushroom spores from a small business in Maine, North Spore. They suggest wine cap mushrooms as a good beginners variety. If you're looking to try something new I'd peruse their website. They have a lot of educational resources and if you also have lots of shady, wet areas of your yard it might be worth trying. |  |
4. Something I've been wondering: Can you compost fabric? As you can imagine, I have lots of teeny tiny fabric scraps from these bunnies. They are made of 100% cotton. What do we think, can they safely be composted? Should I worry about the dies or any other chemical processes they went through to become fabric effecting the soil?
Thank you for all the feedback already on this bunny project! I hope that this is the first of many Made Cozy toys.
Have a lovely weekend!
Haviland