Cabbage Patch Kid Inspired Crochet Hats

Light Brunette

Oh my goodness. It has been too long since I last posted. I promise I have a really good reason. My crochet Cabbage Patch Inspired crochet hats went internationally viral a few weeks ago from Etsy and Ravelry. It was totally unexpected! I had no idea they would ever get so much attention! It's just crazy. That's all I keep telling people when they ask me about it. Just crazy.  But it has been a really fun ride. (If you are interested in purchasing a hat or pattern, you can find links and info at the bottom of this entry).

First of all, I've got to thank the customer who took the photo of this little girl and sent it to me and allowed me to send it to all of the media that called me asking for photos to use in articles. No, she is not my daughter. She is the daughter of one of my customers, one whom I have never met. And as adorable as the little girl is in the photo (she IS sooooo cute), I am so dumb when it comes to marketing that when I used it on my listings in my Etsy shop and elsewhere I always put it as the last photo on the page as my "example" photo. It's been that way for months. But finally I saw that photo coming up on my Pinterest boards--not pinned from me, but that others had found the photo and pinned it to their boards, hence my photo showing up in my Pinterst feed!

Light Brunette

A few days after that happened I received a message from a reporter in the UK asking for an interview who had apparently found the photo of the little girl on Facebook and wanted to do a story. I was totally shocked! And on the weekend of June 18, the article was published online in The Daily Mail and in some of their other associated news sources. I had no idea what in the world was about to happen next, nor was I prepared for the overwhelming response from potential customers from all over the world who were asking for orders.

Light Brunette

After the Daily Mail article I received numerous calls and emails for interviews, from MSNBC  for NBC's Today Show's Parenting Blog, and ABC's Good Morning America/Yahoo News and many more! I did every interview I possibly could that week--but with the stress of all of the attention it was wearing on my pregnancy and I am so sorry for those people I had to turn down for an interview. I really did want to do an interview--but my little baby girl was wearing me down!


There were many other articles published even without an interview, and it was shocking to how far and quickly my quirky hats spread!  Some people raved about my hats, some thought they were creepy. Either way, I thought many of the articles were hilarious and I had so much fun finding, reading, and sharing them around. The Huffington Post, Perez Hilton, Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Houston Chronicle, to even this hilarious (and one of my faves) YouTube report from OneMinuteNews by Keri Lumm (so should I send a hat to Kim and Kanye, or even the Duchess and the Prince? Now THAT would be wild!)

One thing I do want to clarify after reading some mis-information published in a few of the articles is that to all of you other ladies that created their own versions of Cabbage Patch crochet hats before I did, some of the articles made it sound like I thought all of your hats were ugly or even one place considered them a "lesser effort". Those were their terms and not mine. I don't think for a second that your work is below par. In fact--yours looks like today's Cabbage Patch Kids. From all of the photos I've seen on Etsy and Pinterest the work you all are doing is of high quality and really is adorable!  I think it was the ABC News and Christian Post articles that demonstrated more clearly that I really did think everyone else's work was just the cutest thing! I simply set out to design a different hat that looked like the 80s version Cabbage Patch Kid dolls like I had as a kid. After shopping around recently trying to find CPK dolls still in stores, it's clear that the hats you all created look much more like today's CPK dolls. I guess my hats are the "retro" version? :)  I wish you all the best on the sales of your patterns and hats. I do not in any way want to detract from your work or business in your hats, and I'm very sorry if some of the things that came across in the articles hurt your feelings. It was certainly not my intention, nor my the way I felt about your work.  Keep doing what you love, my crochet sisters!

Bright Blonde

Red

Custom Made Hat Information
All hats are hand made.
Your choice of hair and ribbon colors.
Hair color: Light Brunette, Dark Brunette, Bright Blonde, Sandy Blonde, Red, Black
Ribbon colors: Over a dozen to choose from
0-12 Month Size  $30
13-24 Month Size $35
Child Size (Age 2 years+) $38
Teen & Adult Size $40
Want to make one yourself? Purchase the pattern at Etsy or on Ravelry for $5.99.

Glitter Wine Glasses

 Glitter Wine Glasses

The glitter wine glasses are back! Finally!

I first made a set of these from a pair of yard sale wine glasses. I posted them for sale in my Etsy shop last year and they were super popular among treasury lists. They finally sold in March, and I have no idea why it took me so long to make them again!  I just love the glitz.

Want to make a pair for yourself? It's easy! Find the glassware you want (I like to shop at Ross) and use Martha Stewart's Multi-Surface Glitter acrylic craft paint. The color Sunburst Gold has been my favorite so far. Then grab a brush and go to work! You can paint the base or the sides, or the stem...anything is possible! Once you've painted until your heart is content and the paint is dry then bake the glassware on a 175-200 degree oven (in a pan and on top of parchment paper) for 20-30 min. The bake time helps cure the glitter and the paint to the glass better in my opinion.

A few word of advice, though.

#1 The glitter density in this paint is very thin. It took many coats and I tried to keep the coats thick. It took half of a 2 oz bottle to make one pair of glasses. Make sure to let it dry completely between coats.

#2 Be sure not to let the paint touch any of the drinking areas (lip area, and especially not inside the glass). The paint is non-toxic but it's better to be safe than sorry.

#3 The color does change in the oven. I first tried making glasses using a beautiful midnight blue glitter paint. But after curing in the oven some of the blues changed into an irridescent green tint. It still looked pretty cool, but I really was hoping for the blue color to stay. I can imagine that with some experimentation with paints you could make some really cool looking glasses with variable irridescent colors! The paint bottle says that you can cure the paint by leaving it to dry for 21 days, but I'm not usually that patient and that is why the oven cure comes into play. If you want to be sure the color does not change then you might want to go this route instead.

#4 The paint bottle says that after curing 21 days (out of the oven) the paint is safe to put in the dishwasher on the top shelf only. I've not tried doing this, even after doing an oven cure on the paint like I mentioned above. I tell customers to hand wash the glasses. But if you're brave enough to go that route, you probably can!