{sponsor feature + giveaway: Lady Like}

This giveaway is now closed.

Yeow!, I’m here on this lovely Monday with a seriously AMAZING and cozy giveaway from the Lady Like girls! Diana & Kristy are the XL sponsor this month and I’m excited to be sharing their line of beautiful knit & crocheted accessories with you. Their style has caught my attention many times; it’s phenomenal and stunning — oh yes, super stunning! Before I share with you the giveaway prize I asked Diana & Kristy to share a bit of their story, shop and experience selling handmade with the Gussy Sews community. There’s some super inspiring stuff below — so enjoy! xoxo

Hello! We’re the ladies, Diana “Lady Di” and Kristy (Wrecklessgirl) “Lady Kay” — the mother/daughter team who created and operates Lady Like. We’re a unique combo of mixed talents and that’s what makes us work well together. I create the patterns and crochet, knit, and sew the items and Kristy is our dreamer/designer (color & pattern inspiration), quality controller, photographer, blog designer, and coordinator of all things online.

Lady Like (formerly Ladyknitster) got its start when Kristy asked me to make some crocheted thread flower hair clips with feather embellishments. I used to make and sell afghans but never really made crocheted flowers. We worked up some new designs, sold quite a few at local craft events and the Etsy Shop was born in 2009. We’ve expanded our inventory to include yarn fiber headbands and cowls and we’re excited about new designs we’ve been planning on implementing into our shop in the next year (ideas that have been brewing for years)! We love shopping for high quality yarn with rich color and can easily spend many hours culling through endless rows of yarn picking out the right colors and textures. We shop for our yarn locally to support local business and our lips are drooling with lots of oohs and aahs! I must admit that we are yarn addicts, so we know we’re in the right business!

Our inspiration comes from nature since most of our items are flowers, leaves, and feathers, but we are also inspired by southwestern design, the 1920s-40s, and vintage patterns and fashion. Being ladylike used to be a virtue back in the early 1900s, so we want to inspire others to not be ashamed to be girly or ladylike! Fashion magazines, black and white movies, Pinterest, and creative blogs nudge our own creativity and inspire us to step outside the box. Because a lot of our designs & ideas aren’t taken from other artists, we sketch ideas on paper first as they come to us, and then implement these ideas — making them reality by designing the pattern with knitting and crocheting needles. One idea can develop into something totally different by the end of the process and our craft room & table has a lot of in-between projects we’ve been trying to nail down designs for! Kristy is the balance in Lady Like. She’s got her own sense of style and independence that keeps our designs fresh & our colors vibrant.

Lady Like has been able to stay the course with our headbands even when I wanted to change up the concept at times. I’m proud of the fact that the quality of each item comes before quantity. I love to watch my hands work while the yarn and needles are giving birth to a flower or leaf; there sometimes isn’t enough hours in the day to work our magic. We’re passionate about our new ski/snowboarding headbands, flower headband designs, and of course our cozy cowls! We’re also proud that we offer products made from materials which aren’t commonly sold in many other shops.

We haven’t been involved in the online craft community very long, so we’re still learning — however, we can say that it’s important to give yourself some grace — business isn’t going to boom overnight: use this time to develop high-quality and unique products instead of trying desperately to keep up with the crowd. Start by specializing in a few or less specific products instead of being a jack-of-all-trades shop that has no focus or specialty. Our favorite shops are (like Gussy’s) the ones that have a really strong appearance, branding, and consistent flow online–including a very specific product line and color palette. The online artisan business market is very competitive so it’s helpful to stay on top and get ahead of what’s popular now and what’s just around the corner. Be willing to take leaps of faith with new ideas and most importantly, keep the faith and don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way!

G I V E A W A Y: Diana & Kristy are giving away the above AMAZING bundle: 2 ski headbands and 2 crocheted flower headbands {items 1, 2, 3 & 4} ~ that’s $84 of Lady Like product! For your first entry, please visit Lady Like and leave a comment below with your favorite item(s).

For extra entries: share this giveaway with your online community via Pinterest, Twitter (mention @gussysews & @shopladylike) or Facebook.

Remember to leave an extra comment for each {up to 5 extra entries}; I’ll pick a winner in a few days!

G O O D ♥ L U C K