Post Love :: Heart and Habit

We love when bloggers, or anyone takes pictures of their adorable little ones in our clothes! The latest sweetness is on the blog, Heart & Habit featuring her daughter wearing our Aurora June Leaf print dress. How cute is she? Those little knees sure make us smile!

20% Off Holiday Collection!

Ho Ho Ho! 

We're getting into the holiday spirit this year by creating a Holiday 2012 collection, and for the rest of December all the items in it are 20% off!! 

Pictured below are just some of the goodies that are currently reduced!

Press is the Best!

We were VERY excited to be included in A Cup of Jo's Holiday Gift Guide for 2012!!! 

For more of our press, just check our Pinterest. We'd love to have you!

Sneak Peek :: Women's Clothing

Though we're more known for our children's clothing, Winter Water Factory has been creating women's clothing for years, and this season we're releasing a limited edition of dresses and tops in our favorite prints! 

They're 100% organic cotton and entirely made in the USA. They come in sizes extra small, small, and medium. You can see them all here.

The limited edition women's clothing will be up on our website soon, but until then, we thought you'd enjoy this sneak peek!

Behind the Scenes at the Babiekins Shoot

Our summer intern Pam was able to go behind the scenes at the Babiekins shoot and take a few snapshots.  She even helped out the photographer, Andrea Chu, a bit with lighting (and clearing up some pesky cupcake crumbs after the tea party scene).  More pictures after the jump!

10 YEARS

It's been 10 years since I went down to the Brooklyn County Clerk's office and signed up to "do business as" Winter Water Factory. I walked out with my stamped and sealed certificate, proud and amused that the factory my sister and I invented many years ago on her snowy balcony in Germany was now a real thing. I was at the time knitting hats and sewing bags for a little store called Johnson on the Lower East Side, and thought I better make it official since I was putting winter water factory labels on them.

Vintage Pic - Steffi modeling hand-knitted hat (the ones we sold at Johnson)

Little did I know what would become of this endeavor, and looking back I have to say the best part as always was the people I met along the way! Kim Johnson, the owner and creator of Johnson, is still a friend of mine. I run into her and her super-awesome kids at the playground up the street from the studio (with her daughter wearing a visibly worn-out wwf dress), and she's just one of many others.

The other good parts - at least looking back - were all the crazy struggles and weird situations that come along with starting a company and figuring it out as we go along, but those might have to wait for another post.

The things that we're most proud of are some decisions that we made early on, some basic rules for us that we've stuck with and that looking back have sometimes made it harder for us but in the end have made it all worthwhile. When we learned about how many pesticides are used in conventional cotton growing, we decided to only use organic cotton. From the start we said that we would only produce everything in the US, and make sure our supplies are made here as well. We're glad we've been sticking to these rules for many years - they turned out to be the right choices!

The design and the inspiration, well, that's the fun part, and we're really thankful that our customers and their parents appreciate our style and have been supporting us and helped us grow over the years. That's really who made us who we are.

We can't wait to see what the next 10 years will bring! Thank you for your continued support and love!

xoxo,

Steffi

Winter Water Factory

Screen-Printed Tea Towels DIY, Part One

This summer, we decided to try out one of our newest prints on some tea towels!  It was a little tricky trying to line up the triangles, but we made it work.  More pictures and the first half of the tutorial after the jump.

Last week Nicole Balch, the creator of Making it Lovely, got to (quickly) interview Martha Stewart. We loved what Martha had to say (pictured above) about American-made products and bringing them back. As a company that focuses on producing only American-made products, this really resonated with us. 

As mentioned in the blog post, Martha Stewart is behind the American Made event that is happening this week (October 17 & 18) in New York at the Grand Central Terminal.

We're happy to announce that we'll be at the American Made event, selling a selection of snapsuits and rompers (due to limited space) as a part of the "our finds" marketplace. 

The editors of Martha Stewart Living selected their favorite American makers to sell their wares, and Winter Water Factory is part of a table that is shared by crafters that work at Martha Stewart! Our very own Stefanie Lynen will also be there on Thursday afternoon, helping with craft workshops and demoing craft projects.

We hope to see you there, and learn more details here!!

It was exciting to see our High Seas dress in the current issue (number 10) of Babiekins Magazine! Our good friend Andrea Chu shot the pictures, and we love how it turned out!

We loved seeing this post by Joy about her Oh Joy! for Winter Water Factory collaboration, and all the little cuties that have been spotted wearing it! You can find the lovely collection here.

We're thrilled to be one of the items featured in this year's Pregnancy & Newborn's 2012 Buyer's Guide!! How awesome is that?

We're pretty excited around here - it is always exciting when you see celebrities (well, their children) wearing your clothes! We've had a week of that, and we must admit it has us feeling pretty great! Jessica Alba's daughter Honor was seen wearing our Trees print skirt - which is currently on SALE!

Then our Bridge & Tunnel romper was captured again on Jennifer Garner's little boy Samuel, but this time featured over at People.com. 

We feel very lucky when anyone supports our little business, so thank you!

So this happened...yep, a celebrity baby (Samuel Affleck) was caught wearing one of our rompers. We think that is pretty awesome! The romper featured was our Bridge & Tunnel print, and it, among our other products is currently on SALE! 

Yay! Receiving awesome press is the best! Those are both our dresses from our Fall 2012 collection (arriving soon!) on the cover of the September 2012 issue of Kiwi Magazine. Looks like back-to-school season has begun!

We're delighted to be included in Earnshaw's "Born in the U.S.A." feature for their July 2012 issue!  The article focuses on domestic manufacturing and the increasing demand for stateside-made products.  "Even if domestic production is more expensive, for both buyers and manufacturers, supporting the U.S. labor force and American-made products seems like the right thing to do," according to the article.  Says Stefanie Lynen, "All the money that I pay to make my product is paid to people who live in the community. They pay taxes on it and keep jobs here and money here and that gets reinvested in the community."  To read the rest, click here.

Our Organic Snapsuit in Danish Flowers (yellow & grey) was featured in the June 2012 issue of MilK Magazine!  This item is also available in seven other prints.  Check them out here! 

The Fall 2012 Collection Is Almost Here!

Production is underway for our Fall 2012 collection!  96 rolls of fabric were delivered today to our cut-and-sew factory in Sunset Park--almost twice the amount from last season!  We have a whole slew of new items lined up for this upcoming season, including several new prints, dress shapes, and even stretchy pants!  Stay tuned for more updates as the Fall 2012 collection takes shape!

Oh Joy! for Winter Water Factory

Photos by Bonnie Tsang

No-Sew Headband DIY

There's no shortage of fabric scraps here at Winter Water Factory, so our summer intern Pam has been cooking up some cloth-related DIY projects for the next few weeks.  Our first DIY is a no-sew headband.  This quick and easy project takes about 10 minutes to make and is perfect for days when you're feeling crafty but running short on time (and energy).

Pinterest-ing!

Hey everyone!  We now have a Pinterest.  Follow us here.

Printing Sunny Meadow

We recently worked with Maruja NYC in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY to print one of our new Fall 2012 patterns on some upholstery fabric and canvas for tote bags.  Below are some pictures of the process!

Sign Making!

Last week, we made a fancy screen printed sign for our booth at the Brooklyn Flea!  Come see us at the Fort Greene location every Saturday from 10 am - 5pm! 

DIY Mini Pocket Notebook

Blogger Natalie of Crème de la Craft posted this simple tutorial for making mini pocket notebooks from recycled cereal boxes.  Check out her blog for the complete tutorial! 

Chrysanthemum Spoon Mirror

 

This stunning chrysanthemum mirror was created with a scrap mirror, pre-cut MDF wreath forms, and six packages of plastic spoons!  Each spoon was hand-painted to create the ombre effect to mimic the shades of a real flower.  Head on over to Addicted 2 Decorating for the full tutorial.

DIY Animal Hooks

 

These DIY animal hooks are an easy way to spruce up any nursery or kid's room!  The Martha Stewart site has provided a tutorial and templates to create the coat rack.  Though the project involves some tricky painting skills to make the animals look more realistic, the carpentry skills required are fairly basic, and the project can be finished in an afternoon.  Head on over to Martha Stewart for the full tutorial.

Ohoy Wallpaper

Looks like we've got some high seas competition!  Drawn by 8-year-old Otto Dunker for Fine Little Day, this adorable wallpaper print was nominated for Formex Formidable 2010--Sweden's largest professional meeting point for nordic design.  This wallpaper is available at photowall.eu. 

A Baby "Shower"

Crafter Lisa Storms created this whimsical--and literal--take on a baby shower using a variety of Fiskars punches.  The gender-neutral theme features a dessert bar of cupcakes, cake pops and marshmallow pops.  For the full scoop, check out the post on the Fiskars blog.

Uncommon Thread

Children's furniture and bedding company The Land of Nod--who are also Winter Water Factory collaborators--commissioned maricor/maricar, twin sisters from Australia, to create this beautiful embroidered typography for their Winter 2012 catalog.  Head on over to their blog to learn more about the design process.

Tee(pee) Time!

 

Check out this awesome DIY teepee over on Jen Loves Kev.  Perfect for rainy day adventures, afternoon naptime, or bedtime stories!