I know it's been a long time since I've updated the blog.  Business exploded, the machine gave up, college classes started up again full time (and we're talking advanced level courses this semester) and we had a little vacation and post vacation illness going on.  Not a great time to be chained to a computer.

As you can imagine, between the illnesses and the machine, my orders have been significantly delayed.  In some cases, cancelled.  I have had many understanding, patient customers.  I have had some not so patient customers.  I'm processing orders on a standard machine, without the fanciness that my machine brought to the table.  Buttonholes aren't as pretty as they should be, gathering takes about 20 minutes per foot, and I'm finding myself seam ripping more than ever.  One dress takes about three days where it normally takes two hours.  I have customers who expect that their handmade item looks as if it came out of a department store.  I appreciate their faith in my talent, but they are handmade and will reflect that.  So, stress is the order of the day and has been for the past two weeks. 

So, I sit here totally without motivation to finish these last two orders.  Seriously.  Just two sewing orders left.  Then I can tackle the hats which are relatively new orders. 

I used to love doing this.  Lately, I just don't feel that way.  I really hate feeling this way.  Especially as this business helps me stay home with my littlest.  Who I seriously miss.  Disney Junior has been her babysitter since we got back.  How sad is that?  Let's not even talk about the time I have to squeeze in to work on my school work.  Perhaps Christmas break can't get here soon enough.  School full time, family, and a successful business is a lot for one person to handle.

It has been kind of quiet...

You know those times in life where everything seems to go crazy all at one time?  That would summarize this past week.  My college classes started, my littlest has been sick, my older two kids have been preparing for school to start this week, and my husband went through the fun of buying a car for the past two days.  I'm in need of a serious supplies run and some one on one time with my machine.  

So, sorry to be so quiet, but I promise lots of updates in the next two weeks!  We leave for Disney in just 24 days, so I have to get it all in when I can.  : )

Progress on the Merida Dress

So picking up from yesterday, we started the custom Merida dress for my sweet seven year old.  My entire day yesterday was consumed by making it just right all the way down to performing alterations along the way.  Liv has tried on her costume about 100 times, but has yet to complain.  

Let me explain what we're doing here.  This is a completely orignal design.  We based the entire thing off of a sketch from the movie, Brave, and have designed accordingly as we go.  You aren't going to find this pattern at Joann's or online.   Liv did not want the tacky dresses offered at the Disney Store or at places like Target because they did not look exactly like the movie's dress.  Can I blame her?  Not one bit.  If you want to look like a princess, sometimes it's nice to look authentic. 

 This morning, we started with the assembled shell and one sewn sleeve.  The sleeve would prove to be a pain.  Literally.  I explain more below.  For all of you sewists (we are not sewers, lol), I would be glad to post a how to on making custom sleeves if you all would like to see that.  It's CRAZY easy. 

Normally, patterns call for you to gather sleeves.  I say...  too much work for 7:30 in the morning.  Pinning and hand gathering is how we roll around here.

So here we are...  We need the gold collar and the belt.  And a serious trim of all loose strings which I always do last because, well, who wants to do that?  Ever?  Yeah, me neither.  We find strings everywhere...

Gold trim.  The closest I could find to Merida's gorgeous gold accents.

 The back.  I fear zippers no more after this project.  The zipper was a breeze and look, no pucker!  Many times, you'll see puckering at the bottom of zippers in fitted clothing. 

Back of the dress, with a focus on the gold trimmed sleeves.  Now let me say... Gold trim was NOT in my plans!  But, when you measure a little girl who is stiff as a board...  You get really short sleeves.  Ugh.  So, we had to make up for that with a little gold trim.  We looked at our reference picture and although not *exactly* the same, it looks to be acceptable.  

 Sleeve close up.  It is even all the way around.  It just needs to be pressed...

I'm still pretty thrilled with it! Next time you see her, she'll have a nice, gold, square neckline and the perfect belt.  I *think* I've found the right circle medallion for that belt.  Because we're going authentic here.  ; )  Now to convince her that it's okay to wear her crocs at Disney with it. 

A Little Bit of Everything!

After a crazy fun weekend celebrating my littlest's third birthday, we're back hard at work completing orders, making new things and dealing with domestic duties.  Anyone who knows us knows we'll be in Disney World next month to celebrate my oldest's 10th birthday.  Because of that, we'll be attending what may be my favorite thing ever, the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  What does that mean?  Costumes!  Normal moms buy costumes.  This mom is not normal.  Not for a second.  Especially when a certain little girl wants to be the newest princess but doesn't like the over glitterized Disney Store editions.  So, three yards of satin later and a yard of $15/yd brocade, we start on Merida's teal dress! Here's the front piece sewn together so far, ready for the top lining to be sewn in.  We'll update this project as we progress.  These *might* be available for ordering, but I can't make any promises just yet.

Pretty, pretty teal

We debuted our adorable clips today for Halloween on Facebook.  They will make it to Etsy some time this week as well.  : ) Isn't this little cute the cutest?

Being that it's Monday, its time for a new preorder product.  This time, we have the mini hair clip tote.  It's more like a hair clip wallet though, in being that it is only 5x3 inches when folded.  It features a zipper side for hair bands, and two ribbons for barrettes.  Our preorder price is just $7 plus $3 shipping.  You get your choice of fabrics and ribbons.  Wouldn't this be the cutest thing for a trip to Disney?  Or to ballet?  Or a sleepover?  My girls think so!  These are Facebook only preorders and last until Friday!  There are only 10 available, so claim yours quickly!

Now, back to finishing doll orders, starting the Monster orders, and working on that Merida dress.  See ya tomorrow!

Personalizing...

On today's agenda was a rush job that involved embroidering names on linens.  Two pillowcases, two high pyle blankets, two pillowcases.  The customer wanted her daughter's name on these items for a daycare/school that the child would be attending.  What a cool idea!  Way much better and less smelly than the Sharpe's of times past.  (Okay, I still totally use the smelly Sharpe for my kids' school supplies)

Anyway, similar to in the hoop, we start with hooping (I use 4X4 most often for this) and use some of my favorite thing ever-adhesive spray.  It is awesome on just about any project... BUT, once you spray your hand, every little piece of lint and dust will find its way to your hand..  Hey, at least we know it works, right?

Many people hoop the fabric with the stabilizer but I cheat.  I spray that awesome adhesive on the hoop stabilizer, and then place the fabric over the sprayed stabilizer.  Fitted sheets are some of the toughest things to get to lay flat.  I guess if folding them is a pain, I should have known better!  However if you really work on stretching the fabric flat and place it firmly on the stabilizer, you'll be good to go.  We did the personalization on the side of the sheet so it does not run against the child's skin.  Embroidery is fun, but not when you rub against it in your sleep.  ; )

Finished fitted sheet.

My favorite part of embroidering names.  The weird stabilizer skeletons from pulling the tearaway off of the back.  Don't judge.  ; )

 
We are running dolls too, so this is what my trashcan looks like at almost any time of the day.

Wow, another booooring post.  Sorry about that.  I promise, the next blog update will be a little more exciting.  ; )  Monday's post will bring the preorder details for our newest product...  A girl's hair accessory tote!

Behind the Scenes... Making a Princess!

One of the most popular items in my shop right now is the Very Pretty Princess Felt Paper Doll Set.  So, today I will show you how exactly one of these princesses are made.

A new trend I'm exploring within my shop includes items that are done solely with an embroidery machine and completed in the hoop.  With machine embroidery, the material a person intends to embroider must be hooped to keep it in place while the embroidery machine stitches out the selected pattern.

We start by gathering the fun materials that go into hooping.  Stabilizer is a paper like material that is placed in the hoop first.  See that ginormous roll?  That is 100 yards (read: 300 feet!!) of stabilizer purchased specifically for my felt creations.  There are many different stabilizers out there.  We chose tearaway for our projects.  I am also using an approximately 6X10 hoop.

Once the stabilizer is in, the fun begins.  We find our Caliegh pattern on the machine, attach the hoop and thread the machine.  You probably can't see her, but she is in the middle row, all the way at the end.  : ) Cell phone camera pics and a digital screen clearly don't mix.

Hard to see, but there she is.  : ) 

Now, we let the machine do its magic.  Starting with the outline, then attaching color by color, and finally the details!

Waalaah!  She's done and ready to be trimmed and cut away from the extra felt!  Total time?  About 20 minutes per Princess doll.  

Kind of a boring first "real" post, but I thought it would be fun to show you how I spend pretty much every hour of my day.  ; )

Getting it together.

Today, I take the bold step of starting this blog to give you guys a glimpse of how things run around here, provide previews of new products, provide reviews of products I use, and even give mini tutorials on some of my projects. It's going to take a while to get used to blogging and to get this place set up so that it is all pretty and professional.  I promise though, we will have fun along the way.

Xoxo,
Stacey