A Blue Christmas

This year I picked blue and white for my girls' Christmas dresses.

This was inspired by a similar dress in one of my favorite catalogs.


This dress was supposed to be sent to Washington but when my life crashed the week it was supposed to go it stayed here to be a well loved Christmas dress. :)


My oldest feels that sometimes I pick far to babyish clothes so she picked her own pattern and got to make decisions about her lace and the length.


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Frog Princess- Shades of Green

Here is the other version of the Frog Princess.

This client requested the dress to be more like this, in different shades of green.







I learned a few things from version 1 and I took better notes and patterned all the pieces this time around. This version is $575. More expensive fabrics and more layers added to the price.

Frog Princess - Take 2

No, the next one isn't done yet. It's underway and is going okay. The customer who ordered the last one wasn't totally pleased with the skirt so here it is with the middle ivory layer longer and pointier.

I have to admit I was not happy to dismantle the entire under skirt, re sew all the petals, and figure out how to make them longer, but I did it. I understand that my dresses cost a lot of money and I really do want everyone to be very happy with what they purchase.

The Frog Princess dress starts at $500.
It really does take that much work and that much fabric but it really is that worth it!

Frog Princess

I think I did a good job, what do you think?

It is less wide than what I was trying to imitate but I figured the girls wearing it needed to fit through doorways. :) The one to be sent next week will be different colors.

Is it done yet??

The new Frog Princess dress is still in progress.

Through various circumstances, clients needing to get measurements from actresses and my own personal life throwing me curve balls the dress I'm anxiously waiting to see completed is still alluding me.

The first dress to be completed is about 70% there. I did want it to be done for today but this is the first time I'm making it and I'm still figuring things out and I want it to be great!

It will be done next Tuesday and the second one will be done the week after that!

Check back for pictures - it's going to be great!

Arabian Princess

This makes Arabian Princess #3 and if I ever do another it won't have trim just like this one! The trim I used on the top is vintage and this was the last piece I had of it which was miraculously the exact right length. The sleeves are pinned to the sides of the dress form they aren't really attached there.

I was very happy with the way the beading turned out on the belt. I couldn't find enough beads in one variety to make the entire thing so I mixed and matched and really like the look it gives.

The sleeve isn't broken in the above picture I'm just trying to show how far off the outfit it will come. It is attached with trim.

My next project is the new Frog Princess and I'm very excited to get working on her!

Green Fairy

Another Green Fairy, this one is headed to Texas.

The customer also requested little green shorts to go underneath to keep her covered when playing at the parties.

They weren't as problematic as I feared they would be.

Repurposing Special Moments

A wedding is planned for over several months, or years. It lasts for one very (hopefully) happy day and then the flowers are dried and hung, the presents are opened and used, or regifted. The dress is hung at the back of a closet or preserved, never to be seen again. I always thought the dress was the best part of the whole day and it was sad it wouldn't be reused. These items have been made out of various wedding dresses or special occasion clothes.

This Baptism dress was made out of my wedding dress.

This is the same dress as above on my older daughter.

This outfit was made with new fabrics with buttons from the same wedding dress that was turned into the above Baptism dress. The rest of the dress will be made into a baby girl blessing dress in the future.

These baptism pants were remade from a pair of ordinance pants

This outfit used fabric from the train of a wedding dress for the pants and the buttons on the vest are also from the dress. It has new fabrics for the shirt and vest. The rest of the dress will be turned in a baptism dress to be used next November.

Holding onto the memories of my wedding day keeps them safe but sharing a piece of that precious day with children has made the memories grow by leaps and bounds.

Halloween for my kids

One of the perks of having a costumer for a mom is the fabulous Halloween costumes you get to have. Each year my kids pick what they want in late August or early September, they can change their minds up until the time that I buy fabric and then they're stuck. My middle daughter had a fancy store bought costume.

Aramina the green Musketeer

The baby Duckie

Wendy Darling

I made something new! This little darling is headed to CA.

It will zip up on the customer, she's just smaller than my dress form. :)

Children's Clothes

I've decided to send a few items to a Boutique Sale my friend is running in WA. Here is the first piece. I will be working on a few other items in between the other things I have going on this month.

It's my middle daughter's birthday (the brunette in the pictures) and Harvest Festival at my children's school and I'm PTSO President. It's our biggest event of the year. I have their Halloween costumes nearly done, only a few details are missing. My oldest is going to be the teal/green Musketeer and my youngest is going to be a duck. My middle daughter picked a costume I couldn't find fabric for so she got a store bought costume this year.

OOTI or What I did on My Summer Vacation

Alrighty! Here it is! Some pictures of what I have been up to since I got back from my vacation to Washington in June, what I've been mentioning in facebook status updates and the project my cute kiddos have been living without a kitchen table for (they really didn't mind).

The costumes were designed by Steve Huntsman (also the director).

The constuction was a collaboration between Sandra Huntsman and myself. I did the most on Asaka and the least on Armand but I sewed (even just a tiny bit) on every single costume. :) All of the distressing was done by Steve and Sandra.

Asaka

Lil TiMoune

Ton Ton & Daniel (who does wear a red sash earlier in the show)

Andrea

Taka (Armand's Mistress)

Mama Euralie & Ton Ton

Mama, TiMoune in her ball Gown

Taka, Armand, Agwe

Papa Ge, Agwe, Armand, Taka

Erzulie (who forgot to put her green over skirt back on) & Mama

Andrea, Lil TiMoune, Asaka

TiMoune & Daniel

I had a lot of fun with this project and as an added bonus because they are peasants and the costumes were being distressed I didn't have to hem anything!

The costumes can be seen live at Spring Mountain Ranch Wed - Sat until Aug 29th.