Spinning in circles

Well, at least that is what I feel like I am doing. Maybe not in circles, as I do get things finished, but definitely spinning - nearly as fast as the wheel on the side of my sewing machine, LOL.

I have all the initial and follow up fittings done for the bridesmaid dresses I am doing for a local wedding and am now officially ready to cut the "real" fabric. Hopefully, I will have those ready for the (crossing fingers) final fitting sometime between Wednesday and Saturday of next week. I am also making some flags for the pews that will be monogrammed so I will be taking them over to the store tomorrow for her to sew on then I have to finish them - very doable though.

(This is a sketch of the bridesmaid dresses I am doing. I have it

backwards here though as the main color is orange with a
pink sash that will tie behind and underskirt.)

I also have the curtains done for 3 rooms of the house I am doing completely finished and helped hang the 2nd set Sunday. I will be delivering the curtains for the 3rd room tomorrow. These are some fun ones! They are for the girl's room and are pink with white dots and zebra, and they are 106 inches tall!!! That is a LOT of fabric, LOL. I hope to have some pictures for you all soon. I will be doing the valances for a bay window in her living room and for the windows in the eating area of her kitchen once I am done with the girl's room. They are an awesome leopard print! Then, only one room left to go!

Other than that, I finished up the order for the lanyards from the alchemy section of Etsy. It turned out that I had to do 175 lanyards total. Whew! that was a lot of denim. I don't think I will ever get all the denim lint out of my sewing area, LOL. I also did another alchemy order for 5 pocket squares (the handkerchief in the pocket of a man's suit) Monday and got them shipped out.

I would have never thought to do pocket squares in red with white dots, which I assume are for a wedding, but I think they will look quite nice. I have been told I have won the bid on another alchemy request, this one for a roll up for make-up brushes, that I will be getting the final order on this weekend. On top of that, I have a custom order for a Razorback dress and another person interested in an adult version of my Razorback apron! Yeah!!!

(Seriously need to retake this picture!)

Things are really picking up for me and I hope the trend continues. There are so many alchemy requests I want to bid on, but I have promised my hubby that I won't seek out any more sewing work before we get the house ready to sell. :( Oh, I about forgot though, I am in the process of submitting a quote to a furniture store to do the decorator pillows for a special furniture order for OBU (crossing fingers again). This could turn out to be a great opportunity for me even after we move, so I am really hoping to get this job.

With all that said, I'd best get back to my sewing machine as these things don't get themselves done for some reason! Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day!

Girl's Easter Dresses and Jesse's Birthday

This year I got to go back to my previous tradition of making the girls Easter dresses! They picked out their fabrics and the dress pattern themselves. I think they turned out pretty good if I don't say so myself, LOL. The little girl in the front is my niece. My mother made her dress.




Of course, I just had to show off my little boy in his Easter outfit. Rather handsome, isn't he? :)


My boy's 1st birthday was this year and it landed on Easter Day. I had this shirt made by the friend I have do all my monogramming. It turned out so very cute, though it is a bit hard to see the whole thing in the picture. He wasn't wanting to sit very still, LOL!


He was so cute when we sand Happy Birthday to him. He kept looking around at everyone with the cutest look on his face. He was clapping so we started clapping too. Of course by the time this picture was taken, he had stopped clapping. Figures!



At first, he just pinched off pieces of icing and ate those.



At this rate, he was going to stay pretty clean. Wow!!



However, before long he decided that it would be much easier just to eat the darn thing!



Oh yeah! Now were talking!



Not long after that, he decided to just try to crawl up on the table and go after the entire cake! We didn't let him though but he did manage to mash his piece of cake!

How fast are you daddy??

Finally, we got all cleaned up and our presents opened. Here he is after all the excitement playing with one of his new toys on my Mother-in-Law's kitchen table.



Even though it was very busy, it was a fun weekend. My husband's mom and dad as well as his siblings families were there. My mom, dad and niece were there as well. So, he had all his cousins there for his first birthday. It isn't very often that all of these people are together at once and it was great to see everyone.

This week, I also finished up the trial run of the bridesmaids dresses and did our first fitting. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out (size wise that is since they aren't made from the final fabric). I have only a few minor changes to make and we're all set to start the real ones. I also finished the curtains for one room of the house I am doing and am finishing up cutting the denim strips for the large order of lanyards. I will try to get pictures for you later.

Well, it is time to get back to my sewing room.

Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day! :)

Custom "Yuppy Koozy" for Beth

Just a quick post tonight. I have all the bridesmaid dresses resized and the trial fabric cut for the first fitting. My youngest daughters Easter dress is cut and ready to sew and the fabric for my oldest is waiting to be cut even now. I finished a custom koozy order for Beth of Kiwiarts and wanted to post some pics here so she could see it before I shipped it. I am definitely going to be using this in custom listings to show that the larger sizes for "adult" bottles and cups can be done as well. I LOVE the green and pink brocade fabric and it turned out quite nicely. Hope you and the "yuppies" like it Beth, LOL! :)



These next 2 pics are a little blurry, but you get the idea :)





That's it for tonight. I will post pictures of the girls modeling their Easter dresses next week when we get back from my MIL's house.

Have a wonderful and blessed day :)

Meet Megan and a special designer friend Marisela of Magnoly Designs

Hope you are all having a wonderful day. :)

I just wanted to introduce you all to Megan. She was very influential in my decision to try to turn my sewing from simply something I did for family into a business that I hope will eventually turn into my full time job. Here she is

If you'd like to learn more about Megan, simply click on her name or the photo to be taken to her page in my store and you can read all about her! Megan is the first dress style I decided to offer for public sale and she has been one very popular girl. I think what makes her so special is her versatility and her colors. I make her in all different colors and patterns. I have a very large selection of fabrics that can all be seen either in the Customize It portion of my shop or in 2 of my FaceBook albums here and here. I can also do these in the ever popular Minky fabric, which I order as requested. See available colors and styles here. I will be updating this album to include many more choices very soon.

For the month of April when you purchase a dress from my shop, you will receive your choice of a matching headband for FREE!!

I have met a lot of really great people on Etsy and have to give a special shout out to all those who participate in a very special promotional thread in the forums there. (you all know who you are!) Everyone there is so very nice and encouraging. It has been great to find such a large group of people who help each other with things from promoting, photo taking, customer relations and just about everything else, all without any of the drama that is so often found in places where you have so many people. It has been great and I appreciate you all so very much!

One of these special people is Marisela of Magnoly Designs. When I discovered her shop, it was like visiting the shop of a kindred soul. She has a wonderful shop filled fabulous baby booties that match my dresses perfectly. She also has handmade magnets, many of which perfectly match some photo frames I have made but haven't listed in my shop yet. Since I have shown you Megan in brown and pink fabrics, I must show you the matching booties available in Marisela's shop.


Just click the picture to be taken to this product in her store. While you're there, you should definitely browse through the rest of her shop. She has many great items available.


Well, I must be off for the day. I have bridesmaid dresses waiting for me. Have a wonderful and blessed day! :)

Busy weekend ahead and a huge sale!

Wow! Where does the time go?? It's April already and I haven't even begun to make the girls Easter dresses. I'm wondering now if I will even have the time to get them done, though I am going to try. This weekend is already shaping up to be a busy one. There is a wedding in May that I am making bridesmaid dresses and pew flags for so I am getting that going. I plan on working mainly on getting the dresses for the 1st trial fit done by Sunday evening. I actually make the dresses twice so I don't waste any of the good fabric on the first fitting. I would just die if I had to go get more fabric because one of the dresses needed to be remade. Plus knowing my luck, I wouldn't be able to find the exact match either, lol. If I get those done, then I will continue to work on a special order I received on Etsy.com. I am making over 150 (started out as 100!) lanyards. The customer wanted them made from recycled materials, so I am making them from these -

.....old jeans. I knew there was a reason I had kept all those old pairs of jeans with holes in them, lol! :)

I am cutting them into long strips and finishing them with a simple zig-zag stitch so they keep that old, worn out look. I am making sizes for adults and little ones.






This is what they will end up looking like. Of course, they will have a ring and clasp on them!



Apparently, my son was having a lot of fun with this project too. He was so cute playing with the "trash." He would pull the seams that I had thrown away out of the trash can and put them back in. Then he'd push the trash can around the floor. I managed to snag these shots of him playing with the cut up jean legs as I finished with them.












































Isn't he just adorable?? :)

I am also making a custom koozie for my friend Beth of KiwiArts. I especially love the pink and chartreuse fabric she picked out. I'll post some pics of it once I finish it.

Speaking of custom orders, I finished one this week. It was an order I had from Mom's Mall in Little Rock. I really like the fabrics she chose, especially the brocade. I even made a couple of headbands for it to match each side of the fabric.



















I really like the headbands and have decided to offer them for FREE with every dress purchased during the month of April! Just visit my shop. Make sure you let me know at checkout what fabric you want your headband made out of.

Last, but certainly not least, there is an awesome sale taking place on Etsy this weekend. The Etsy Supply Street Team is having hosting a First Weekend Shopping Extravaganza from April 2nd through the 5th. Visit their team blog for more information on some of the great shops participating in this sale. They have opened it up to every seller on Etsy who wants to participate so there will be a little bit of everything!

Well, I suppose I'd best be off to bed for the night. Have a wonderful and blessed day. :)