Fabric feature Friday // New Apfelschick fall collection // Plus sign fabric

Our plus sign print has been one of our all time faves all over the world. This design keeps selling like crazy for over three years now. But we never licensed a darker version of the fabric up until this fall.

We have licensed some fabric designs to this small online webshop in the past year. This German company run by Dana, mommy of three, sells fabric per meter and doesn’t really turn these into kids clothes herself, ok she probably does, but when we saw this amazing photoshoot with this cute little boy showing off his new plus sign sweater and beanie we just had to share it with you guys and give them a little Shout Out. Our new plus signs are now available in her shop so if you’d like to start being creative and make some fun fashion for yourself of your little one get your hands on a piece of this wonderful fabric before she runs out. Visit the shop!

Photo credit: Eulis Nähwerkstatt

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // April 2016

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection or a series of illustrations for our clients. But with finished fabric designs it is even a bigger surprise to see what customers create. To see how final products evolve when people put their own creative energy in there is amazing.

If you browse around on Etsy for some kids fashion you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints. Most creatives with small home based businesses sell their projects via internet and tag us via Instagram. So we see some amazing things in our feed every month. We love how Little Smilemakers creations are the foundation for other creatives all around the world to work with. So here is our monthly blog post that features some creative results from the USA, UK, France and Poland. This month we selected a whole bunch of adventurous boys themes. Take a look and see if there is something for your little one too. This is our top 5 for April.

Hen House Apparel
Nicole is a mother of two boys living in sunny California who runs a small etsy shop with organic materials and unique prints. You can find a small selection of our designs in her shop, mermaids, guitars, polar bears and our cool umbrella rain design. With our umbrella print she has made some cute boys leggings and these are also available in her shop in different sizes. Take a look and enjoy her fun collection of leggings, shorts, head bands and more.

Sew Kuddly
A few weeks ago some cute lions popped up in our Instagram feed. Jasmin is based in Hertfordshire, UK and handmakes boys and girls clothing using cute, fun and trendy patterns. For this months 'made with' we selected her adorable lion leggings, one of our favorite designs exclusively made for Hemmers/Itex Germany. Jasmin also has some of our other baby animals in her shop. Curious? Take a look and get your little one a pair of these!



Madkouch
We have been working with Morgane for a little while now. Morgane is the driving force behind
Madkouch Boutik a colorful French webshop for kids clothing. She had licensed our tropical tucan, hot air balloons and inky texture cactus design. For this post we selected this cute cactus baby romper from the boys western collection. This cactus fabric is also available as harem pants, leggings, shirt and for adventurous girls: there is also a dress available! If you are looking for girls clothes, do check out the tropical toucan collection. We are so in love with this range too! Take a look into her shop, and check out all products.

Baby & Mother Poland
One of our favorite prints is our our dino palm tree design. A while ago we licensed this design to a company in Poland that has a whole bunch of Little Smilemakers designs available on fabric. if you are located in Eastern Europe this is a great shop to score some of our original design per meter. Take a look!

RoJo Apparel
Rose started her shop because she was having a hard time finding stylish things for her son Joshua (such a beautiful name!). She started out making bow ties but soon expanded her Etsy shop with clothing. For this monthly 'made with' post we selected her geometric dino t-shirts. We just simply fell in love with these cute little boys and had to have her in this April feature. Take a look at her shop for some stylish boys and girls clothes.

Madkouch Boutik // Inky Texture Cactus // Boys summer collection

I remember drawing my first cactus for a gardening calendar I made years ago. That same cactus became a hot selling print two years ago when suddenly the cactus was 'picked up.' It took a while! Trends come and go but after a few years the cactus is still going strong. Our cactus prints are, together with our pineapples, our hot selling designs on fabric.

We have made several designs, western themed, with skulls and botanical elements. But our plain and simple cactus prints sell best. This winter we made a new range of exclusive designs. To offer our business partners more unique prints. We created the inky texture collection. With hot air balloons, clouds, tulips, apples, feathers and other trendy themes.

Our inky texture cactus design was licensed to Madkouch Boutik, a small eco friendly business in France creating gorgeous colorful kids clothes. We have licensed some other designs to Madkouch before but this cactus range has such beautiful photography, such a pleasure to share this collection on the Little Smilemakers blog. We always love to see what our fabrics are used for and we are very pleased with the result. If you are looking to expand your little boys wardrobe take a look on the website. Madkouch has some beautiful baby, toddler and kids products such as leggings, rompers, t-shirts and headbands all made with eco fabric.

If you are interested in licensing one of our Inky Texture designs? Or one of our other surface pattern designs, just contact our studio and we will give you more info about licensing and availability. Just send us a message.

Splash About // New outdoor collection for kids // Raincoats, capes and stomp suits // Rainy day fashion

When I was a little girl I grew up in a little town in Holland. And as good Dutch parents teach you; we go anywhere on our bike no matter what kind of weather. I loved the bike trips me and my friend made during our summer break. We would cycle around for hours and hours until we got thirsty. The warm breeze, the lush country side. It is a great place to grow up, a place where you can let your kids play within a 10km radius, carefree. It was safe and easy. But then fall came, with it's crazy stormy days, bright lights and of course the cold rain.

Every Dutch kid has been brought up to go through whatever weather, on a bike. I have been wearing raincoats and... yes pants too for as long as I can remember. I never liked those sad colored things though, since they only came in sad gray, dark blue and black colors. Oh yes, and there was a great pink, I call the 80's shade. But my mum was too much of a feminine to let me have a pink raincoat. You can imagine how excited I got when I got to make a new outdoors collection (25 years later). Finally we were able to make this wet rainy world a little better, at least during stormy weather, rain and of course snow. Yes, we cycle through snow… We can do anything on a bike. Carry extra people, moving house. So this collection is very welcome.



Splash About makes wetsuits, baby and toddles swimsuits and lot's more water-related fashion for kids. Their swimwear protects little ones from nasty sun burns but now they have also launched a outdoor range. For this collection of raincoats stomp suits and capes we have made a cute girls and boys print. Some cool quirky dinosaurs and colorful Russian dolls.

Take a look into the Splash About webshop and check out our new designs. It will only take a matter of time before we will stumble upon one of these during a rainy day here in Holland. They sure bright up a gray fall and winter day!

Arrow and Indians Cactus theme // Most popular boys fabric // Spring 2015

For a while we have been focusing on more gender neutral and boy designs. There is a fun trend going on in the sewing mommy world. We are so happy to see so many adorable large scales patterns on onesies and baby leggings. It is a trend that has started a year ago and we get so many requests for fun boys patterns that is was about time to post a little something about our most popular prints and designs for boys here in the Little Smilemakers blog.

Half of our work is trend watching and researching designs all over the world. One of our biggest inspirations is are tropical economies. Like Brazil and India. Countries that get influenced by there blooming economies. Prints are amazingly lush, colorful and green. And even though green has been one of the most difficult colors to sell in fabric, home decor and print, we see those exotic colors and natural themes finally influencing European countries too.

But there is another trend going on which has been something to work with. There is much more demand for gender neutral themes. Costumers are still very conscious about making and creating new but efficient products. Like onesies and baby leggings for both boys and girls. We will still add new gender neutral designs to our collection. But with summer ahead prepare for more popping colors too.

Usually we are ahead of the trend and it is always fun to see a theme finally take off after years of maturing. That is what happened with this year's fabric hot sellers too.
All through the winter we have sold an amazing amount of geometric and woodland themes. All indian summer themes were very popular. Customers in Australia were all falling for our summer pineapple designs. But our most popular print for boys this year is definitely the woodland animals and cactus theme. It is a design that was made a few years ago and matured over time with new details and color scheme's. We are happy to see this print take off. The designs featured here can all be ordered via Spoonflower. Check out all boy themes in our Little Smilemakers fabric shop.

> Fabric for the little ones | little boys textiles on Spoonflower

Have you noticed the boys fabric collection by Little Smilemakers Studio on Spoonflower? Lot's of cute boys adventure themes and retro animal series are now available on Cotton, Jersey and silk. But you can also get these prints on wallpaper to cheer up your new born baby nursery. Don't forget to post your creative skills on the Little Smilemakers Facebook Page.

> New retro fabric & wallpaper collection for kids | Spoonflower fall / winter collection

This past month we have been working on a new collection fabric and wallpaper. Over a hundered Little Smilemaker Studio designs are now for sale on fabric, wallpaper and gift wrapping paper. A large series of abstract retro designs, christmas and holiday themes, hipster illustrations and of course new stuff for little peeps, so crafty mommy, be aware! What do you think of the new kids and baby nursery collection?

CHECK OUT ALL FABRIC & WALLPAPER HERE!