My Love/Hate Relationship With the Fabric Store

Thanks to Melinda for the photos and Carrie for the models!! http://www.melindabryantphotography.com/

If you've looked at my blog before you've seen the eyelet dress that I used to have. It was unbearably cute and was the undisputed top seller in my shop. The last time I sold my eyelet dress I used the last of my fabric to make it. So, I went to the Joann's to get some more. Gone. I called around to the other stores. Gone. I looked online. Gone. As in, discontinued, never to be seen again. Okay, here is the 'hate' part of my relationship with Joann's. They discontinue stuff all the time. Without warning. The Sweet Treats apron fabric - also gone forever. Lucky for me I found out about it and ordered every yard I could find this side of the Wasatch Mountain range. Seriously, I had yardage shipped in from other states.

So, I had to find new eyelet fabric. This comes from fabric.com - I LOVE them. I have it in white and Ivory. It is FANCY!

The cute hats and ice cream cone rattles are by http://www.nadiasplace.etsy.com/

New Apron Pictures!

My children's aprons and chef hats aren't new...I just never had good pictures until now. Thanks again to http://www.melindabryantphoto.etsy.com/





When people ask me about Etsy and having a shop there, one of the first things I tell them is to get good pictures. It is unbelievable what a difference a picture makes. I've had this apron and chef hat in my shop for almost 2 years and it hardly got looked at. Now it gets viewed all the time. And Nadia is a super cute model, too!


Also featured, cupcakes!! by http://www.nadiasplace.etsy.com/

Here's Nadia tossing a cupcake with a whisk and spatula...ya know, like you do. When I'm over at their house, Nadia likes to fry up a cupcake in a frying pan. It's super cute and fun :)

Oops, got that pic in twice.

This is my cherry apron and one of Carrie's crochet cherry pies.

Rolling out your imaginary pie crust.

Mixing your pie dough with a spatula...ya know, like you do :)

My Shop Needs New Stuff!!

I've been dying to get some new stuff in my shop for awhile now. And with my new little model ready to go, I got some ideas out of my head and into production:)

The pillowcase dress is the same style. My new bloomers are shorter than the pantaloons - more like a diaper cover but with ruffles at the legs instead of just an elastic casing. Also, coordinating flower appliques.

Also new, coordinating fabric hair clips. I LOVE these :) I've started making them for the dresses I sell at shows. I've also made a bunch for my girls.

All of these fabrics are by Amy Butler. She has some AMAZING prints and is one of my favorite fabric designers.

Every year, during my Easter sewing season, I get asked if my eyelet dress comes in Ivory. Yes, it does...and now, here it is! All my girls had Easter dresses out of this fabric this year :) So, the project to use up all of my fabric continues on. I'm doing a pretty good job of clearing stuff out. The stacks of fabric are definately getting smaller. I also have new designs to show off...just need pictures!!

Back To Business!!

Okay, so it's the end of September and my last post was in May. Part of me wants to say that I'm a failure as a blogger. A bigger part of me answers back, "Hey, I had a baby!! And I was BUSY doing stuff like this..."

Anastasia Miriam (Taya) was born on April 13 after a whole 2 1/2 hours of labor. Slow for me...which was awesome because we made it not only to the hospital, but also into an actual delivery room!! Now that you all hate me...here are the cute Blessing Day pictures :)

So you might be wondering to yourself, "What sort of dress does a seamstress have her baby blessed in?" The answer: One like this!! I'd had my eye on this fabric for almost the entire pregnancy. It's from Joann's. I have an extreme love/hate relationship with that store. The fabric is an embroidered organza...which I hand beaded. The dress pattern is my mom's design.


Of course, I made pantaloons and shoes. The shoes have an overlay of the dress organza...also hand beaded :)

I think these shoes are one of my crowning achievements :)

Taya is 2 months old in these pictures. Check out her little ponytail!! I love this baby's hair! Carrie (www.nadiasplace.etsy.com) made the cute little crochet hair clip for me. Thanks Carrie!!

The AMAZING photography is by melindabryantphotography.com I'm SO glad that I know Melinda because she's a ton of fun and also because she posses skills that I lack....desperately lack.

Taya is the most happy when she has something in her mouth.

FAQ's for this dress...
Q: How long did that take you?
A: The dress/pantaloon/shoe assembly only took 5-6 hours, the beadwork I'm guessing about 20 hours. It's hard to tell exactly with having to stop and feed a baby intermittently.

Q: How did you find time to do that?
A: I didn't cook or clean or sleep for a couple of days...which is it's own punishment. Then I spent every spare minute beading.

Q: Did you make all your girls' Blessing dresses?
A: No, my mom made the first 2 and I made the last 2. They are ALL fabulous:)

Q: Why would you do that...the baby is only going to wear it once?
A: Because I can. And my baby wore her's to church twice...once for the blessing and the next week so that everyone could see it. And I made sure that EVERYONE saw it :)

Q: Are you insane?
A: Possibly :)

More Easter Stuff...

Here is a family picture that shows the older girls Easter dresses :) This was taken at my Mom's house with her awesome cherry tree in the back. So here's what's funny about this pic. My husband - who is annoyingly stubborn sometimes - wanted to take pictures at our house...right after church. Do you know what kids are like 'right after church'? 'Horrible Demons' sounds about right. They were awful. At any one point half of them were crying. One of them was ALWAYS picking on another one. One was running away. It was awesome. Finally, I looked at Rob and what I wanted to say was "you're a freaking idiot"...but I resisted and said, "Seriously, you thought this was a good idea?" to which he replied (yelled) "I JUST WANT A FAMILY PICTURE!" Yeah, these are ALL keepers. They're so bad I'm not going to post them. I will, however, save them - so I can reference them later...as evidence.

But then we got to my mom's. The kids had had a snack and watched a movie in the car. Whatever 'church' does to them had worn off and they were almost human again. AND there was someone else to hold the camera so Rob could be in the family picture.


So, I can't resist a project. This is a Martha Stewart project I saw a few years ago. I had to google it to remember how it goes. If you want a chuckle, go find the original tutorial - search 'silk dyed eggs'. I could put up a link for you but then I'd have to go find it again.

Basically, you go to your local thrift store and find some silk ties - gotta be 100% silk. Then you cut them up into squares big enough to wrap an egg. Wrap up raw eggs in the tie fabric - tight as you can without breaking the egg. Use a twist-tie on the top. Then wrap them again in fabric that's like a bed sheet. I used leftover eyelet because I have piles of it laying around. Then you put your eggs in a pot with enough water to cover them plus 1/4 cup of vinegar. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Then unwrap your eggs. If you want to shine them up, you can rub some olive oil on them. I didn't.

Mine looked like this...
Pretty fancy, huh?! I'm totally doing this every year!! Everyone who saw them was super impressed :)

What else did I do in April??

So I sort of let my blog go for a few months. Mostly because I was too busy making Easter dresses for other people to make anything new to show off on the blog. I thought you'd all get tired of "This week I made this many white eyelet pillowcase dresses and this many white eyelet bloomers"... seriously, that was what my life was like. And then, just as business was slowing down, Taya made her grand appearance and threw my groove off.

But she is SOOO cute!! These pics are courtesy of my sister Anna who takes amazing pictures :)


The seamstress in me had to have matching Easter dresses for the girls if it killed me.

I made Ivory Eyelet pillowcase dresses and bloomies for the little girls...partly because I've got this pattern DOWN and they are fast for me and part because I think they're SO cute on little girlies. The bloomies are almost unbearable to look at - they are so cute!

Anna found this cute tea cup at Joann's and we were trying to get some pictures of it for her blog. Sadly, this is one of the better shots. Taya is NOT selling this tea cup at all. Really, she was too old for this shot - we needed a floppier floppy.

I love baby feet more than a lot of things...especially baby feet with painted toe nails (I did that in the hospital) surrounded by frilly bloomies!

Here's Talia in all her Easter glory :)

The older girls are too old for pillowcase dresses. Kenzie wanted a sundress. So Kenzie and Jade have matching sundresses out of the same fabric. They are super cute but I don't have a good picture of them right now. But guess what? These dresses weren't just for Easter - Nope. My sister, Anna, is having her wedding reception in June. And my sister, Ashley, is getting sealed and having her reception in August. These dresses are going to both of those so pictures will follow!!

SHE'S HERE...Well, She's been here :)

Anastasia Miriam Berthelson (Taya for short) charged into the world on April 13th at 6:05 am. This labor was a little slower than the last two which was awesome because we made it to the hospital in plenty of time to get into an actual room AND the doctor made it!!

First things first...Here is me leaving the hospital in size 4 jeans that are buttoned. This is the end result of about 168 hours of gym time (and over 500 miles) over the last 9 months.

Here's my cute husband, Rob, who was determined to not like the surprise baby. Yeah, al he had to do was hold her one time and he was hooked.

Our almost-3-year-old, Talia, was SO excited when the baby came home!

All the kids think she's the greatest thing ever. She never goes more than a few minutes without being mauled by one of them :)

Bowen is the least impressed. But he's a boy - the only boy.

Jade kissing Taya. Notice how Tali has managed to be in almost every shot?

Check it out - it's all the girls in one shot :)


Okay, so my New Year's Project has sort of been on hold. Easter dress season and a craft show up in Idaho kept me busy, busy, busy. Oh yeah, and that business with the new baby. I had to hold a tiny baby for a couple of weeks :) Anyway, the next show is the Kottage Kupboard up in Idaho next week. After that I will be back in business and working on The Project.

Of course, I made the girls Easter dresses. Pictures to follow...

The Jacket...Finally!

Isn't this cute!?! Doesn't it just make you want to cry? This project has only been in my head for about 6 months. I found a jacket for my baby girl that had a chenille outter layer and a cotton lining and I LOVED it. It was exactly the sort of jacket that I was thinking about making - but hadn't seen a pattern for. So when you can't find the right pattern what do you do? You make your own.

I love everything antique/vintage! One of the things my husband and I love to do together is go antique-ing. How lucky am I? One of my favorite things to look at in antique shops is the fabric and another is the quilts.

The outter layer is actually made from a vintage chenille bedspread that I got on ebay. It was a terrific find - all the vintage charm but damaged so I didn't feel bad when I destroyed it to make this jacket. Everyone who I showed the blankets to has said, "My parents/grandma had this on their bed" so funny - that's what I love about antiques.

The inside lining is a light-weight cotton print. It is pale pink with white polka dots. You know how I love polka dots - they're very important to the world. I did ribbon tabs instead of button holes because I LOVE (obsess about) ribbon and HATE making button holes. Then I had to find buttons. So I went to my happy place (JoAnn's) and picked these out. Yes, I had to buy buttons. Not because I don't have any - there are about 1,000 buttons in my house - but I didn't have the buttons. In fact, I didn't even know what the buttons were until I found these. This is actually the back side of the buttons.

So - like everything else I make - this little jacket is fully lined. All the seams are hidden. With a lighter fabric on the outside, this could be reversable.

This pic is of the back of the jacket. I centered the back over one of the star patterns on the blanket.

So, I'm pretty happy with this project. I have to tweek my pattern just a bit before I put these up in my shop - but as prototypes go I think this turned out awesome!

Aprons for big girls...

Like my new manequin? Her name is Gertrude - but we call her Gerty for short. She is the greatest apron model ever. She stands at the side of our booth wearing an apron and a scarf (Carrie makes those - they're awesome www.nadiasplacetoys.blogspot.com)

When we were at the show in Reupert (yes, we went to Reupert for a show and it totally ROCKED!) Someone asked if I could make a teal/brown apron. I told her no problem and she took my card so she could get back to me. The only problem was that I didn't own any teal fabric. All my fabric is pink. So I was at Joann's (the happiest place on Earth) and someone else at the cut table had this fabric out and DING,DING,DING - I knew it was the one. So the next time I was in Joanns (the next day - since I practically live there) I got some for myself.

You should have seen people go nuts over this apron at Mindy Mae's. It's a wonder that it didn't sell. I really thought it was going to. I'm sort of glad that it didn't because when I got home there was an email from the lady in Idaho. So I sent her pictures and she loved it and a check is on the way.

Someone at the People's Market asked if I could do a more "Earthy" sort of apron. So, I made this one. She never came back to the market to see it but that's okay because it can come to other shows. It's sort of getting lost in the fall leaves. This is Amy Butler's Morning Glory and Oxford Stripe fabric. I love this apron style - the gathered top looks really cute on flat girls like me because it gives the illusion of a figure.. It looks REALLY awesome on girls who actually have a figure.

Gerty has a spectacular figure. She's really busty - both my husband AND Carrie's husband were super quick to point out that feature.

Jungle Baby Blanket

Don't you just LOVE Facebook! My friend, Kevin, found me about a month ago. Kevin and I grew up together. Our moms' were best friends and we were in every class together from kindergarten to 4th grade. The summer after 4th grade I moved away. We went to different High Schools but we lived close enough that we dated for a couple of years. Anyway, I hadn't seen Kevin since his wedding reception about 12 years ago.

Anyway, we were chatting away on Facebook and Kevin asked me to do a blanket for his one year old boy. AWESOME!! I asked him what kind and in true male form he replied, "oh whatever, something boyish". Okay, non-helpful. And honestly, I wasn't worried that Kevin would like it, I was worried that his WIFE would like it. So after a few more "no really, what kind" questions from me I decided to narrow the scope. Jungle, Dick and Jane, Stars, Ocean. Kevin picked 'jungle'. HOORAY!! I searched all over for the right jungle fabric. I looked at Michael Miller's stuff and Alexander Henry's Urban Jungle - just not quite right for this project.

The first time I saw this jungle print I wasn't that excited about it. But when I came back to it a little later I remembered all the coordinating fabrics that I already had and BAM that was the one. It's from Joann.com (of course they didn't have it in the store - isn't that just the way it always goes?).

I love the texture of the lined chenille in some of the blocks and I way, way, love all the trims that I used. There is no batting. I love the blankets that don't have batting because they are so light and comfy. My kids prefer them as well. The backing is just blue and white gingham flannel. To hold the back and front together, I top-stiched around the center grouping of blocks and around the next layer of blocks. Next time I think I'll just do a few squares by hand. I think it will take the same amount of time.

I wish I'd taken a close up of the binding. It's hand stiched and the corners are mitered. I think the blanket measured at 46X55.

Then, the moment of truth...I was actually going to be driving by Kevin's house so I offered to drop it off. I know, so nice of me. I REALLY wanted to see the look on their faces when they saw it. So, Kevin's wife (who is super cute) says, "Okay, I'm really nervous - because when Kevin said he bought a blanket without me seeing it I was worried." No kidding. So I pulled out the blanket (hold breath) and they loved it. In fact, Ana said the colors were perfect to go with the little boy's room (exhale). I'm telling you what, all my fabric purchases are INSPIRED!!