sneak peeks

available tuesday february 1st around 8am EST, in the bigcartel shop.

edit: oops! i accidentally typed 'january 1st' earlier, but, of course, i meant february 1st! (thanks, erin!)

thank you so much for the orders from yesterday's zipper purses update! i am busy, busy, writing up orders and carefully packaging each one. those will go out either tomorrow (tuesday), or at the very latest wednesday.

i have been [happily!] sewing the days away lately, taking full advantage of all the snowy and grey days we have had in philadelphia by putting myself to work. i feel so much more productive lately, after taking a few much needed days to rest and re-organize after the holiday rush and new year. it seems i have also successfully replaced coffee with a morning spirulina + flax oil + fruit smoothie. i feel about one thousand times better, and even though i was definitely addicted to the caffeine, (most days i would have about 8 shots of espresso), i seem to have kicked that habit. which is great, since unfortunately the energy it was giving me also ended up making me feel super anxious and stressed. i still really want to drink coffee, not because i feel the need for caffeine anymore, but because i love the taste. but i cannot be trusted to have just a little, so i will stick to smoothies and bubbly water.

but back to bags. there will be new tough ruffles zipper purses and shoulder bags in shades of aqua, olive, deep teal, and grey available in the bigcartel shop around 8am EST tomorrow (tuesday) morning. did you notice the zipper clutch a-go-go in the sneak peek photos? it is the first of many new shades to come.

as promised, new zipper purses in shades that are great for valentine's day (or any day!).

new zipper purses

available here.

vintage floral applique zipper purses

available here.

the zooey bag.

the zooey bag, available in the bigcartel shop. i was only able to make two of these, as i used the very last of the vintage trim, one of my most favorite trims i have worked with so far.

a few things

new zipper purses in valentines shades will be available in the bigcartel shop this weekend. i will post to let you know when they are officially available.

thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway! it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun, so there will be more of those in the near future. i enjoyed reading through all of the comments, and appreciate the feedback about what some of you would like to see from madebyhank this year. i wanted to let everyone know that the ruffle bags with the flaps and leather belt straps have not disappeared from the shop forever. i just have not had the chance to go on nearly as many thrifting adventures as i would like to, but that style of shoulder bag will make a comeback very soon. also, the zipper clutch a go-go (similar to this style) has been requested quite a bit, and will return soon as well. i just received a large shipment of zippers, so that style is at the top of my list as well. other surprises are in store, and i will post about new bags and projects as i am able to complete them.

hope everyone has a great weekend! i am off to the forest to visit a dear friend who is living in a cabin right now while she works on a local farm. it will be a welcome break from the city sludge. my lungs cannot wait to breathe country air, and frances is looking forward to smelling all the leaves and stretching her little pug legs.

xo, hank.

edit: also, thank you everyone who made the first installment of hank's stoop sale such a great (and surprising!) success. the next batch is coming soon, i wll keep you posted.

hank's stoop sale. check it out.

hank's stoop sale

i am really into this new trend i am seeing in the blogosphere of bloggers and makers (like julia and annabel) setting up yard sale blogs to clean out their closets. that is exactly what i need to do, so yesterday i gathered the first results of closet downsizing and put some photos and a new blog together, hank's stoop sale. we have stoop sales in philly, since most of us have stoops and not yards. photos and info are listed with each item, but feel free to make me an offer on any item you are interested in. domestic shipping with delivery confirmation is included with each purchase, and orders will ship within 2-3 business days. email me for international shipping quotes madebyhank@gmail.com.

and the winners are...

phew-- choosing the winners was quite a venture. i had it worked out in my head that i would just cut and paste the comments into textedit and print them out and number them, so that i wouldn't have to count to 300 or above eleven times (i would have lost count several times and ended up re-counting about one million times). that didn't work, because when i tried to cut & paste, it pasted the photos also, and would have been either a ton of work to cut and paste each one individually, or waste about 60 sheets of paper and a whole lot of ink printing all those pages. i decided to write out a list of all of the names, which even though it may seem silly to write over three hundred names, it worked out well. a handful of folks accidentally posted their comments twice, so to this method ended up making things a bit more fair for everyone, because i did not count the repeated comments. then i broke out my trusty iphone and used a randomizer to choose the eleven lucky W I N N E R S !!!

congratulations to: miss priss/morgan, ashley, claire madden, siobhan, grrfeisty, karen, karen barbé, brooke @ clairemontroad, lover mother, jessica jane, and chuck ! ! !

does anyone have any suggestions for an easier method for choosing giveaway winners? any help would be greatly appreciated.

thank you all for your comments and support. xo, hank.

thanks to everyone who purchased one of the bags from this afternoon's update. those will ship first thing tomorrow (saturday).
hope everyone enjoys their weekend and if you didn't have a chance to enter the G I V E A W A Y, there is still time to do so! i am going to leave the commenting open until sunday evening, instead of tonight (as originally stated), and i will choose and announce the winners first thing monday.

new from james ulmer

my pal james ulmer has a new print and t-shirt available through the space1026 webshop. frances and i helped him with some photos the other morning. you can find more of his work through the space1026 site or his blog.

more images on my flickr page.

shop update!

sneak peeks

available tomorrow in the madebyhank big cartel shop.

check it out.

big cartel shop

the madebyhank big cartel shop is back! i added the new geometric totes and wristlets, as well as a one of a kind graphic print tote and zipper purse, and roundy-bottoms in light greys. all of the items are in stock and ready to ship. look for new tough ruffles shoulder bags this coming week. hope everyone enjoys their weekend. oh, and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

G I V E A W A Y ! !

it took me a bit longer than i had hoped to put this together, but here it is! the thank-you-for-being-awesome giveaway!
to celebrate the new year (and how great you all are!) i wanted to say thank you with a giveaway. i made eleven (because it's twenty-eleven) different zipper purses, which means there will be eleven different winners.

to enter, simply leave a comment on this post. tell me about one of your new year's resolutions, or your pet's name, or what you would like to see in the madebyhank shop this year. say whatever you want, so long as it is not mean. because, well, who wants to give a gift to a meanie? not me!


eleven winners will be selected at random. the first name chosen will receive zipper purse #1, the second will receive #2, and so on.

anyone and everyone is welcome to enter, the only requirements are that you are a human and that you provide a way for me to contact you in the event you should win. please leave your comments here before next friday january 21st 2011 at midnight EST.

winners will be announced on this blog monday january 24th. tell your friends! and good luck!

xo, hank.

new totes and wristlets in the madebyhank etsy shop.

**the print behind me is by my friend bill mcright.

new stitchings

i finally put together the images of the pieces i had at sweet jane from flowers, polka dots, kittens, and revolvers, the show kat moran and i had that went up in december. keep an eye on kat's blog for when she posts her images soon. if you would like to see more of my past work, you can take a look here.

from top to bottom:
william and robert. 8"circle
rebecca and jack. 12"circle
everett. 21"x12"oval
sue. 14"circle
audrey and jane. 14"circle
charlie. 11"x5"oval
anne. 10"circle
**please be kind and do not copy any images

oh, and there is a small W E E K E N D S A L E in my etsy shop, 20% off all shoulder bags through sunday january 9th at midnight.

for a friend

i made this tote for a very good friend. i used heavy corded canvas, embellished with scraps of suede repurposed from vintage skirts. i made a small guide, and hand cut each piece, then stitched them on and finished the front with a few antique brass pyramid studs. there is a small dee ring on the front, with a few vintage wooden beads that i strung onto a bit of rawhide (it is removable). you can see a glimpse of the interior here. i wish i had taken some photos of all of the other gifts i made for folks this year, but most of them were stitched at the every last moments before giving them, so unfortunately i was not able to. but i played around with a lot of fabrics, details, etc that i have been wanting to for quite a while, but with the holiday rush and finishing up the stitched pieces for my show in december, i have had to put it off. but you will see many new things from madebyhank this year! i am also putting together some items for a giveaway, so keep an eye for an announcement and details about that next week.