Let’s revisit Meeling from teabagz!

Where are you from and tell us a little about yourself?
I’m originally from Canada, but have been a Southern California girl now for over 16 years and don’t miss the cold winters one bit! I have a wonderful family, my husband and kids are my main focus in life. There’s never a dull moment in our house, one college kid and two teens who play soccer…life is busy but great! I work with special needs preschoolers, and it’s a job I absolutely love. I look forward to going to work everyday. I learned to sew back in middle school and I can still remember the first thing I sewed. It was a baby blue shirt, made out of this awful shiny fabric…yuk! You wouldn’t catch me wearing it now, but how I loved it then!!!

Why did you start your Etsy shop?

A lot of what I sew is given as gifts; birthday’s, holidays, showers etc…and they are always well received. I’ve sold at craft fairs and had good success too, so when I happened upon etsy online one day, it just seemed like a great place to put my stuff.


How did you come up with your Etsy shop name?
I love sewing with vintage fabrics, especially tea towels and since I sew a lot of bags/totes, the name just kind of made sense…and so teabagz was born!

What is your favorite item in your shop and why?
Probably my favorite item in the shop is the diaper bag, I fell in love with that tea towel the minute I saw it and it just turned out so pretty and girly! I had a lot of fun making that one.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/52313709/vintage-fabric-diaper-bag-pink-linen-and

Do any of your pieces have a memorable story behind them?
There’s usually a story behind each piece, where I’ve found the fabric, which flea market I tracked it down at. One of my all time favorites isn’t actually listed in my shop. It is a sun hat I sewed for myself out of a calendar tea towel from the year I was born. I wear it all the time, it’s a fun item and I always get compliments on it. I don’t often keep things I’ve sewn for myself either so it’s a special piece to me.

If you had to choose one other medium in which to display your “creativity”, what would that be, and why?
I really enjoy decorating, especially for the holiday season, I look forward to Christmas months beforehand, and am always on the lookout for that special and unique item to display. The place I probably show off my creativity the most though is with food. I love to cook! Weekends especially when there’s more time, you’ll find me and my husband in the kitchen conjuring up some special recipe.

What aspect of creating your art/craft do you find the most enjoyable?
I enjoy it all. Living in the Los Angeles area we have some great flea markets where I can hunt down fabrics, the Rose Bowl being my favorite, you’ll find me there almost every month. Then I get to play with fabric combinations and see what works well together and then actually sew it. It’s neat to see something that was destined for the trash in most cases end up turning into a piece of useable art.

Any other sites you can be found on?
At the moment I’m just on etsy www.theteabagzlady.etsy.com but maybe in the future I’ll be in more places. The online world has limitless possibilities.  **Since these questions were answered Meeling can also be found on her blog at http://thehairypeachblog.blogspot.com/. 

Anything else you would like us to know?
I’d just like to say thanks for this opportunity, it’s been fun. Hopefully I’ll see some more people wander into the etsy community and stop into my shop because of it.