Featured seller - Baggie Aggie Too

I love the Folksy shop Baggie Aggie too, which stocks phone and kindle covers, and other accessories in gorgeous fabric, all handmade in Wales, and ideal for a gift.

So over to you.....

My name’s Rosie, originally from the Home Counties in England, and now living in Wales with my partner and cute cat. (I’m now in Wales because I met an old schoolfriend through Friends Reunited. He’d moved to Wales years before, and returned to our old stamping ground on a business trip. We met for a drink, fell madly in the love, and the rest is history!) 

What do you make? 

For BaggieAggietoo I make a variety of fabric-based items – phone cases, business card / credit card wallets, wrist key fobs, eco-friendly loot bags for kiddies parties, and anything else I’m asked for. I welcome custom orders, so if a customer wants an iPad or Kindle case for example, I’m their man (so to speak!). I have another Folksy shop too (BaggieAggie) for which I make bags (felted and fabric). It’s looking rather empty at the moment as I’ve spent the last few months building up BaggieAggietoo and couldn’t manage both, mainly due to unexpected time constraints. But that should be remedied soon, I hope. 

Why do you use that medium? 

Now that’s an easy one to answer – I adore fabrics! I used to make all my own clothes and soft furnishings, so, long before I began selling online, I’d amassed quite a large fabric stash. Now of course it’s even bigger! 
 

When/ how did you start crafting? 

I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t knit and sew. My mum taught me both skills before I started school, so crafting’s always been a natural part of life. 

When did you start selling your stuff - where do you sell? 

In early 2010, while searching the ’net for interesting yarns, I stumbled across a fantastic US knitters site called Ravelry. I saw that designers were uploading their patterns to Ravelry’s database and selling them, and thought: I can do that. So I began designing and making knit-and-felt bags, and writing and uploading patterns. To my surprise, they sold (and are still selling) quite well. Then I discovered Folksy, through a writer friend who’d begun buying there in preference to Etsy. I’d never heard of either, and had no idea such crafting sites existed! Selling the felted bags I was designing seemed the logical next step, so BaggieAggie was born on Folksy in the spring. I began making fabric bags too. Then, in the summer, I decided to make smaller fabric items and opened a second Folksy shop, BaggieAggietoo. I also have a shop on Etsy, mainly for felted bag patterns, which for some reason sell much better in the US than the UK. 

What do you love about your medium, what do you hate? 

What I love the most is sourcing the fabrics and ripping open the packages when they arrive. It’s almost orgasmic! (I know, I know – I need to get out more, lol!) I don’t really hate anything, but I do worry about the sewing-machine breaking down! 
 



 

Where do you get your inspiration from? 

Well, my wrist key fobs, for example, came about because of the difficulties of juggling car doors, kids and shopping. The answer was to wear my keys on my wrist so there’d be no more dropping them in puddles, or searching one-handed through pockets and bags. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find wrist fobs in the shops so decided to make my own. When a complete stranger came up to me in Tesco’s car park and asked where I’d got it, I realised they were saleable. And that’s actually how BaggieAggietoo came about. It was a similar thing with my card wallets – I couldn’t find anything that I liked enough or that would hold a decent number of business cards. Otherwise (and I think it goes without saying!) I’m inspired by colour and pattern. 

What is your favourite music to craft to? 

It depends on my mood. Anything from Mozart to Metallica, though I more often listen to non-music radio or audio-books while crafting. I’m currently listening to Dawn French’s novel ‘A Tiny Bit Marvellous’. 
 

What is your favourite piece of your own? 

My favourite changes with the weather, but at the moment – in BaggieAggietoo – it’s ‘Earth’, this gorgeous card wallet:  I love the retro look of the fabric and the earthtone colours. 

Where do you do your crafting (specially built studio - sofa??) 

At the dining-table and ironing-board! I’m planning to turn the spare bedroom into a workroom (currently used as office, storage space and junk room). It desperately needs doing as, through necessity, my materials and tools are kept in so many different areas of the house. I’m worn out with continually running from room to room, and charging up and down stairs!