Friday, July 19, 2013

Georgia Dress Blog Tour



It has been an incredibly long time since I last wrote! Yikes--it is scary how long my blogging break has been! Blogging used to be an almost daily occurrence for me, but now after this great span of days between posts, I find myself totally out of the habit and having to get used to the tabs and button features and little shortcuts all over again. 

I have great reason to venture out from blog hibernation today though! My sweet friend, Lindsay, is an amazing designer and pattern writer. We met several years ago through her blog, The Cottage Mama, where she chronicles all the wonderful crafty creations she makes for her children and her home. We began chatting a while ago when we realized that our oldest children both shared exactly the same birthdays. When we figured out that our due dates for our third babies were in the same time frame, we speculated whether they too would share arrival dates...what do you know, but they did decide to come into the world only a few hours apart from each other!! We both have two girls and then were blessed with sweet little boys, so we've had some fun sharing stories about the similarities in our families. 

Lindsay has always filled her etsy shop with simply the most beautiful clothing pieces--her eye for fabrics and trims and tiny, sweet details is impeccable. Life with three littles has shifted her focus from creating clothing items to designing the patterns for her pieces themselves. She brings the same attention to detail to her patterns as she does to the loveliness she spins out behind her sewing machines.

I am honored to take part in Lindsay's Cottage Mama blog tour and am tickled to tell you all about her sweet new Georgia Vintage Dress pattern
                                                   
With the girls' back to school dresses and uniforms all finished and hanging in closets ready for big first days ahead, I debated about pairing the pattern with fall fabrics or with Christmas prints. I decided on autumny oranges, deep purples, rich navy blues and splashes of turquoise.  Fall fabrics, especially anything by Anna Maria Horner and Joel Dewberry, have my heart, and I couldn't resist trying to balance out the sweetness and feminine style of the pattern with the boldness of harvest colors and prints. 

To be honest, I wasn't sure it would work and cut out three different sleeve fabrics and cut but then threw out more than a few options for sash prints before I settled on these.
Lindsay's brilliant pattern suggests sticking to three prints and having a rhyme and reason to the way they are combined on the dress. Unfortunately, I had only small remnants of each of the prints I wanted to use on hand, so I had to venture a little outside the box when pairing everything up to make the best use of what I had. It's a little busy but I hoped when putting it all together that the sophisticated and classic style of the Paganelli print on the bodice bib and collar would tone down the loudness of the rest of the fabrics.

While Lindsay's work is full of detail and precision, her easy to read and follow instructions make the sewing of what appear to be tricky and complicated garments straightforward and seamless to execute. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the dress came together and will definitely be making the Georgia pattern again soon!!

I originally designed this fall dress with Miss M in mind, but the size four I made ended up being a little long on her (she is just eeking into 4s so that was not a big surprise).  When it was all finished, Miss R was excited to see something besides uniform sewing waiting for her to try on and was happy to pair a new set of shoes and some sweet new beads with the dress. The fit was perfect on her, which is somewhat rare, as R is pretty tiny.
I am excited for our fall family pictures, trips to the pumpkin patch and any other excuses for dressing up that arise this autumn so she can wear her Cottage Mama inspired dress again and again!

We had a small window of time before swimming lessons to head to the most lovely park for a few quick photos. We're sporting some disheveled hair and there may be a swim suit underneath the dress :) but all in all, we got some smiles! The morning was hot and steamy and we definitely turned some heads parading, the other three of us in swim suits and cover ups but R all fancy and bejeweled, past the sweaty playground and up a few hills to the perfect picture spot!


 as you can sort of see from these photos, the back of the dress features a myriad of button colors...not totally my first choice, but almost all of my sewing supplies are packed for our move next week or in random and hard to locate spots, so I was relieved to dig through tubs to find buttons of similar shape in colors of the butterflies on the skirting and went with that... maybe someday I'll get around to changing them to be a bit more uniform! :)


 While I was focused on coaxing some smiles from R the other two happily found a creek and they all joined in the splashing for a bit before we were off to the pool!
 The Georgia Vintage dress is a must have for your pattern library! Well, frankly, all of Lindsay's patterns are, so I really encourage seamstresses of every skill level and ability to browse her offerings for dresses, tops, and rompers and dig in--you will not be disappointed!! She also has a book coming out soon--can't wait for that one!!
 

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

all about the auction!

I am thrilled to participate in a wonderful fundraising campaign to benefit a grieving family whose center was shaken to the very core last week when a tragic car accident claimed the life of a wife and mommy. I cannot even fathom what Amber's babies are thinking and wondering and crying over right now. I look at my children and hold them tighter. I write them letters, confirming my enduring love for them and my gratitude that the Lord has entrusted us with their care for a short span. Though I didn't know Amber but just a little after writing back and forth, both of us in search of the same sweet fabric, in the spring of this year, her story is ever on my mind and I had to work my hands and machines to help in whatever way possible. Tragedies like hers happen every day. I wish I could know those stories and pray for and tangibly help each one. Pretty overwhelming. But as a hearer of Amber's story, I feel privileged to respond in the way that I would love to help each hurting story... enough rambling! sorry! There are several ways you can help too!
Her amazing friends began a fundraising website and you have to check out this link to see what all has been raised for this family!! 
They then began collecting donations for auctions to benefit the family as well. Kind of confusing but there are a few different links for that:
-and here are links to all the cc items in the auction:
     ~denim petals 3t
     ~denim petals 5t

-a sweet customer also donated a few of my favorite cc items! I just adore those pocket shorts! Remember that they run fairly narrow, but are quite a favorite around our house!
So many of my sewing friends have donated wonderful pieces, so browse through it all and be astonished at their breathtaking creations!!
and another auction page has also been set up! what amazing items at both sites!
Alright, hopefully this post kind of sums up everything you need to know about how to love on this family (and do some fun shopping at the same time!).

Sunday, July 29, 2012

a sweet day


today was a big one for our family! little man b was dedicated at church this morning, and as his parents we committed to raising him in a home that honors the Lord and relies on the saving grace of Christ.  here are some photos of our day today!
i made two new styles of dresses for the girls to wear on this special occasion. i am just in love with this vintage-feel fabric and adore that it can go spring or fall! and the open-back of the dresses is a sweet surprise that the girls got quite a kick out of! :)





Monday, July 23, 2012

july 23 petal shorts and cropped leggings upload notes and details!

Hello, everyone! It seems that there are lots of new faces around chickadee chickadee these days! Welcome to you all and thank you so very much for supporting my little mommy-made shop! Here are some bits of information about how cc uploads work!
~at 9pm EST I will post a new photo album to the facebook page with pictures of every item i will be offering tonight. the items will be organized from smallest (18-24m) to largest (6).
~to claim an item, simply comment on the picture of the item you like with your paypal address. if you do not feel comfortable writing out your paypal address, you can claim the item with a comment that you will send me a message with your paypal address. 
~if for some reason a picture pops up before 9 pm, please wait until the album has been published to comment. If your comment appears before 9pm, I will not count it. I do not like being the bad guy, but I'm trying to keep it fair! :) hope that makes sense!
~if you like an item but it has already been claimed, feel free to comment if you are second in line--with "second"--if the first buyer does not pay the invoice, i will contact you! but please, if you comment to claim, please pay your invoice!! :) 
~sometimes it appears on your screen that you are the first to comment, but when you refresh, there may be other comments ahead of yours. when multiple people comment within seconds of each other, facebook organizes the comments according to who posted first, but you may not see that right away on your screen. i will invoice the first person to comment and all others will be next in line should the first commenter fail to pay the invoice.
~you will receive an invoice for your item(s) by Tuesday night. Please pay within 24 hours so that I can mail out your goodies as soon as possible! All items will be shipped by Friday morning at the latest!
~shipping is $3.50, $1 for each additional item.
~a sizing chart for the leggings can be found here! if this helps at all, my middle daughter is an average size 2.5 year old and fits great in the size 2 petals. My 4-year old is on the petite side and wears the size 3 very well. :)
~shipping is $3.50, $1 for each additional item.
~if you are interested in the dark wash denim petals, please be sure to read these notes
~the petals are made from highest quality, super soft and sweet cotton lycra. All seams are serged and top stitched. waistbands are serged as well. 
~all sales are final--no refunds or exchanges. (but i do know that there will be many cc mommies happy to take any of your items that may not fit!) 
 if you have any other questions please feel free to send me a message! i hope i covered everything!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

June 14th Ready to Ship Upload details

Hello, everyone! In just a few minutes (9pm EST) the June ready to ship albums will go live! Here are some things to know and keep in mind about tonight's sale:
~at 9pm EST I will post two photo albums (one with 3m to 24m sized items and the other with 2T-4/5Tsized items) with pictures of every item. 
~to claim an item, simply comment on the picture of the item you like with your paypal address. if you do not feel comfortable writing out your paypal address, you can claim the item with a comment that you will send me a message with your paypal address. 
~if for some reason a picture pops up before 9 pm, please wait until the album has been published to comment. If your comment appears before 9pm, I will not count it. I do not like being the bad guy, but I'm trying to keep it fair! :) hope that makes sense!
~if you like an item but it has already been claimed, feel free to comment if you are second in line--with "second"--if the first buyer does not pay the invoice, i will contact you! but please, if you comment to claim, please pay your invoice!! :) 
~you will receive an invoice for your item(s) by Friday night or Saturday morning (baby is having his tubes put into his ears in the morning and I'm not sure how that will color our day tomorrow!). Please pay within 24 hours so that I can mail out your goodies as soon as possible!
~shipping is $3.50, $1 for each additional item.
~if you are interested in a pair of shorts and would like a coordinating tee or tank (with applique (name, initial, number or image etc) or fabric flower) I can take orders for those (i know how annoying it is to have a cute pair of pants or shorts and nothing to go with it!!). tees and tanks to match the shorts will be $16 and flutter sleeve tank tops will be $22. These will ship within ten days.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

happy little bow tutorial

here's a short and sweet little tute on how to make a fabric bow.
you will need:
2 pieces of fabric, approximately 3.5 x 28 inches
1 piece of 1/2 in bias tape (double fold, unfolded) or a piece of fabric that measures about 2 x 4 inches (turn the ends of the long sides under  to the middle and iron to achieve the same bias tape look)

I didn't take photos of the first steps because they are straightforward.
~Cut your fabric pieces.
~Take the two long strips and sew them, right sides together, leaving a small opening for turning the fabric right side out. Sew an angle at the ends of the fabric strip if you like the angled edge look to your fabric ribbon.
~Turn right sides out and iron
~Top stitch and be sure to close up your opening with your top stitch
~Mark the center of your fabric ribbon with a pin
 ~Lay the center of the fabric ribbon on your piece of clothing where you would like to position it.
 ~fold on side of the ribbon toward the center.
 ~scrunch a bit to see if you like your bow.
 ~repeat with the other side

 
 ~take your bias tape and position it over the place on your ribbon where the sides of the fabric ribbon meet.
~fold the top and bottom raw edges of the bias tape over the top of the center of the ribbon. 
~sew the rectangle down with a simple top stitch, making sure to enclose the bow! viola!