Ten reasons to shop with Mimi and Will in the next 10 days

With ten days left to place your pre-orders in time for worldwide Christmas delivery, we thought we’d give you ten solid reasons for shopping with us.

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There’s something here for everyone, boys, girls, siblings, cousins and friends.  Whether dinosaurs, animals, nature, the great outdoors or gentler pursuits (ice cream, anyone?) are your thing, we offer a range of designs and colours to suit everyone from 2 to 12.

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We’re so excited to be working with some of the UK’s leading illustrators, and designers from a range of disciplines, including ceramics, comics and other creative things not beginning with c!

It’s not just about t-shirts – treat yourself to a badge or colouring book.  With the colouring books you get an exclusive sneak peek at forthcoming designs which won’t be released as t-shirts for a little while yet.

All our pre-orders include a 10% discount which is valid for a year on your future purchases from us – the gift that keeps on giving!

While children grow so quickly, the quality and finish of our garments mean that they make a great investment for handmedowns and passing on.  Because they’re gender neutral, they’re twice as useful for sharing and giving.

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With your purchase, you’re supporting not one but FOUR independent businesses – the t-shirt manufacturers who’ve signed up to fair labour principles in Africa and India, the British designer/maker who has provided the image on the front of the t-shirt, our lovely printers who run a traditional workshop in Wales and of course, us here in Scotland at Mimi & Will.

We’re at a critical point in our business development – every penny we receive in pre-orders goes towards making the t-shirts, spreading the word about Mimi & Will and commissioning more designs from wonderful craftspeople, artists and designers whose work we know would look fantastic on a t-shirt.

The more orders we receive, the better we can make our business – by improving our website, our photography and our branding – you could be a part of our success story by investing in us at this early stage.  If we exceed £500 of pre-orders this week, our campaign has a chance of making it back onto the front page of Indiegogo’s website – giving us more exposure to potential customers.

Be ahead of the fashion pack – while we’re very new, we’re also confident in the quality, value and look of our t-shirts.  Your kids could be amongst the first to wear and share Mimi & Will clothing, how cool would that be?

We’re making it as easy as possible for you to buy – pay with PayPal or credit/debit card via Indiegogo, or email us for an invoice at mimiandwill.uk@gmail.com – let us know how many t-shirts, badges or colouring books you’d like to order and we’ll take it from there – you don’t even have to make up your mind which sizes and designs you’d like, we’ll follow up with you once pre-orders close to get your preferences.

Go on, make someone smile on Christmas morning – or in our case, today!  Order now at: http://igg.me/at/mimiandwill/x/3097542 – and as many of you have been doing (thank you thank you!) please continue to spread the word and share our link with friends, family and colleagues.

A new way to pay

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With only a few  days to go for pre-orders, here’s a friendly reminder to count up all the children on your Christmas shopping list, to have your favourite designs in mind and your order placed here: www.tinyurl.com/mw-preorders.  Previously, supporters in the UK have only been able to check out from Indiegogo (who is hosting our pre-order campaign) via PayPal, but now we are delighted to announce that you can also pay directly with your credit card – we never see your details during the transaction, but you don’t have to go through the extra step of PayPal to pay up.  

If you’ve decided that Indiegogo isn’t for you, or you’ve experienced problems with the checkout process (we’ve heard it can be tricky on some phones), but you’d still like to pre-order t-shirts, colouring books or badges, drop us a line through the contact us form or via our facebook page and we can send you an invoice to pay direct via PayPal, cheque or bank transfer.

Our Designers- What a Talented Bunch!

They most certainly are. Here are some of the marvellous things they create:

Cats and Castles Patchwork Cardigan by Jolly and Hodie
Cats and Castles cardigan by Jolly and Hodie.

The Classics Notebook by Lucy Farfort
The Classics notebook by Lucy Farfort.

Treasure Tote by Showpony
Treasure Tote by Showpony

A Sinking Night Poster by Neil Slorance
A Sinking Night poster by Neil Slorance

Freckles the Lion by Poosac
Freckles the Lion by Poosac

Waves and Arrows Bowl by Julia Smith
Waves and Arrows bowl by Julia Smith

Two Weeks to Go!

We’ve got two weeks left of our indiegogo pre-order campaign. Here’s a quick round up of what we’ve been doing over the last few weeks, in case you missed anything!

We have seven designers on board for the launch collection and have six sample shirts (we’re still waiting for Lucy Farfort’s design to come back from the printers, but you can see a proof below:

I Love Puddles by Emma Henderson
I Love Puddles by Emma Henderson
Winter of Our Discount Tents by Laura Donald
Winter of Our Discount Tents by Laura Donald
Supersaurus by Neil Slorance
Supersaurus by Neil Slorance
Puffer by Julia Smith
Puffer by Julia Smith
Lion by Poosac for Mimi and Will
Lion by Poosac
Treehouse by Jolly and Hodie
Treehouse by Jolly and Hodie
Jelly Loves Ice Cream by Lucy Farfort for Mimi and Will
Jelly Loves Ice Cream by Lucy Farfort for Mimi and Will

We visited the Children’s Wood for their Bake-Off. Laura Donald came to visit us and blogged about it.

We also sold some of these badges, which we’ve decided to offer as a limited edition reward on Indiegogo.

Supersaurus Badges
Supersaurus Badges

And that’s about it! Remember, if you want to guarantee a shirt before Christmas, pre-ordering is the way to go!

As ever, give us a shout with any questions, queries, or just to say hello!

Lion by Poosac

Kim is the illustrator and maker behind all the wonderful Poosac creatures.

Kim has created a design for Mimi and Will based on her ‘Freckles the Lion‘ toy.

Lion by Poosac for Mimi and Will
Lion by Poosac

The design is taken from an original illustration by Kim, and is screenprinted on a yellow shirt.

Lion by Poosac for Mimi and Will
Lion by Poosac

Design Proofs

Mimi and Will September 2013 T Shirt Design Proofs
Mimi and Will September 2013 T Shirt Design Proofs

Here’s the seven t-shirts in our launch collection. We have had a few enquiries from shops about stocking our t-shirts. If you’re a shop and are interested, please do get in touch!

What are we all about then, part two.

A couple of weeks ago, when we started our Indiegogo campaign, I wrote a blog explaining a bit about who we were, and the reasons why we started Mimi and Will.

As I said in that post, the idea sparked when we wanted to buy a children’s t-shirt by a designer we knew, and discovered that producing screen-printed shirts in a range of children’s sizes wasn’t really viable for independent designers. We saw an opportunity to promote independent design, work with some really exciting, creative people, and make some really good t-shirts.

When we were looking at t-shirt suppliers and screenprinters, supporting small businesses and making really good t-shirts were our guiding principles. Our t-shirts are fairly traded, high quality cotton, screenprinted in the U.K. using eco-friendly inks.

That means we’re doing our bit to support independent businesses (and the environment), but we’ve also ticked the ‘really good t-shirt’ box too; high quality cotton feels nicer to wear and they wash well, last longer than thinner cotton shirts, and so make great presents that can be handed down.

And why are these two things important to us? We’ve both dabbled in the maker/ seller movement and know how hard it is for artists, designers and makers to make a living from their work. And it’s not just ‘creative’ businesses that find it hard- according to Enterprise Nation, 99% of businesses in the United Kingdom are classified as small, but this is a sector that has little or no support in order to promote growth.

We’re only a tiny business, and we don’t pretend that we’re going to make a huge difference on our own. But we’d like to be part of the growing number of people who are trying, in some way, to make a difference collectively.

And the making good t-shirts part? Well, we just really, really, love a good t-shirt.

At the Children’s Wood Bake Off

Yesterday, we were at the Children’s Wood Bake Off at North Kelvin Meadow. We had a great day. We were showing our sample shirts and explaining all about Mimi and Will and the designers we’re working with. The weather was gorgeous, if a bit windy (thanks to everyone who periodically helped us retrieve flying colouring-in sheets), we met some lovely people, got some good feedback on our shirts and had some cake.

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Because it was a bake-off, we brought along some cakes with t-shirt designs on them, and we had a little colouring in station for children to design their own shirts, or colour in our designs.

Read more about the Children’s Wood, or follow them on Facebook for more pictures from the Bake Off and details of future events.

Julia Smith

 

We were at the Children’s Wood today, and had a fantastic time (and the weather was amazing).

Anyone there would have had a sneak preview of the seventh shirt in our collection, by Julia Smith.

Puffer by Julia Smith

Julia’s a ceramicist based near Inverness. She produces ceramics in earthenware clay using traditional techniques and digital decals of her own illustrations. We’re really excited about adding Julia to our list of designers we’re collaborating with; one of our goals when we started Mimi and Will was to work with a range of designers across different disciplines. Julia’s puffer image appears on her ceramics, but we thought it was crying out to be on a t-shirt!

Julia Smith for Mimi and Will

Lucy Farfort at the Fab Little Shop

One of our collaborating designers, Lucy Farfort, has recently started selling through The Fab Little Shop. You can buy some of her prints and cards there, inlcuding this print, which I love,  Light the Way.

Light the Way by Lucy Farfort
Light the Way by Lucy Farfort

If you’ve not checked out The Fab Little Shop before, they’re an online store selling children’s products. They’ve got a nice selection of Halloween things in at the minute, check out these cosy looking pumpkin slippers by Winnibriggs House!