104 days of summer vacation

If you haven't seen the TV show Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel, you should- it's hilarious. And it has catchy songs- trust me, we own the soundtrack. So when my boys decided that's what they wanted to be for Halloween, I gladly took on the challenge. The results aren't quite perfect, but considering that I didn't have a pattern to work from, I'm pretty pleased with the results.

In other crazy costume news, I was just asked today to make a whale costume for a teenager for a play. A whale, people! Seriously? I have no idea where I'd even begin...

I'm going to spend some time cleaning up my sewing room since it became quite disastrous in there during the costume frenzy last month and I'm also working on a few new patterns that will be perfect for the upcoming holiday season. While I take a break from new listings, be sure to check my etsy store more more destash items- I've got lots of fabric and patterns to get rid of, and who knows what else!

Almost done!

I'm almost finished with the boys' Halloween costumes. The theme this year is... drumroll, please... Phineas and Ferb! All four of them (including the biggest boy of them all, my husband) are HUGE fans of this Disney Channel show. Of course, there are no sewing patterns for Phineas and Ferb (or their pet platypus, Perry) so I had to construct everything myself. Perry is a mash-up of my animal and Donald Duck costumes that can be found in my etsy store. The hardest part has actually been locating a brown fedora in case he wants to shift into Agent P mode! We found a great black one at Target which I briefly considered spray painting, but then my middle guy started wearing it around the store and he looked so cool! I didn't want to ruin an awesome hat! So, Perry will be sporting a black fedora this year. Deal with it.

Phineas was easy- commercial patterns helped me crank out a striped t-shirt and cargo shorts in no time. My Ferb will be wearing a store-bought short sleeve button down shirt, and I was able to modify an overalls pattern to make his quirky high-waisted pants.

And then there are the heads...

I learned a lot last year when I used felt to make the Animal mask for our Muppets theme Halloween, so I decided to try my hand at designing my own mask patterns for Phineas and Ferb's heads. Phineas is so angular; it was pretty easy to assemble. Ferb's head mask awaits me tonight. I'm thinking it may end up with an oatmeal canister inside it. Wish me luck- I've got less than 24 hours left to pull everything together! I'll share pictures tomorrow when everything is done.

free at last, free at last!

Well, almost!

You see, I have been VERY busy with Halloween costumes since my last post. The grand total for the year is 13 so far: 3 Donald Ducks and 2 Daisy Ducks, a Mickey and Minnie brother & sister set, a polar bear, a black & white cat, 2 Felicity gowns and matching doll dresses, Piglet, and a blue dragon. Now it's time to make my kiddos' costumes, but I'm not quite ready to say yet what they're going to be. I'm doing most of my updating on Facebook and Twitter these days. My Facebook posts are mostly business related. Twitter, well, that can get pretty random. Leave me with a cell phone to publish my thoughts in 140 characters or less, and you never know what you're gonna get!

Okay, that's all. Just wanted to let you know I'm still alive. And show you my super cute little guy modeling the blue dragon, of course :o)

Cheap costumes (or, why to buy handmade)

No, not from me. It's just a warning about what is out there in the world. (by the way, this cool logo can be found on t-shirts in phippsart's etsy shop)

My friend's daughter is in a play, so she went online to buy a renaissance-y costume. The young lady for whom the costume was purchased is a tall-ish slender 11 year old who usually wears a junior size 0/1. The costume they purchased was an adult/misses "one size fits all." Hello: one size does NOT fit all! That must be the most ridiculous clothing phrase I've ever heard. This dress was ankle length on the girl (who is 5'2")- what would it have looked like on a woman who was 5'6" or taller? The dress was made of stretchy crushed panne velour (to look like velvet) so I guess it could have accommodated up to a size 8 at best; but of course the young wearer of the costume was swimming in it. So her mom called me to the rescue.

A wise seamstress friend of mine once told me she would rather make a new dress from scratch than do alterations on an existing dress. She's smart. I should have heeded her advice. But I like a challenge.

So I took the dress up in the shoulders and pinned some very large darts in the back (fortunately, the fabric is very forgiving so I can get away with making somewhat sloppy alterations) and took it home to work on it; knowing that I would have to seam rip the top of the sleeves and reset them once I adjusted the shoulder seam.

As a boutique seamstress, I am very particular about the insides of my garments; everything is pressed, serged, neat, and as professional as I can make it look. Well, apparently "professional" is not the standard for ready to wear costumes. Some of the sewing techniques used inside this dress were just absurd. And the quality of the fabric- ugh! I could not even undo the seams without it pulling holes in the fabric. At one point, I thought I was going to have to make a new dress because I messed this one up taking it apart, but I just took a little extra in on the seam allowance.

All this to say: you get what you pay for. This costume probably cost around $30, and I'm praying it makes it through all 6 performances (and a week of dress rehearsals). I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to be called on again in the coming weeks to repair inevitable snags in this dress. Yes, handmade almost always costs more, but I have found it is nearly always worth the extra money for the trade-off in quality, originality, and passion that goes into the item created. So this year, as you start thinking about Halloween costumes and Christmas presents, if you're not going to make something yourself, I encourage you to buy from a local artisan or one of the thousands of talented sellers on etsy. You'll be glad you did, and so will the recipient of the gift.

(stepping down from my soapbox now)

Technology & Texas

Howdy, Y'all! I'm goin' to Texas. Yee haw!

Those of you following me on Facebook or Twitter have already heard my excited and rambling posts about this. Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm taking a weekend trip to visit my favorite sister-in-law in San Antonio, as well as visiting some of my best boutique buddies including Goosie Girl, The Fab Store, and Living with Lindsay. I haven't seen them in almost 2 years, so I am *super* excited about this trip. Plus, I am getting away for a weekend without the boys and hubby. You know I adore them, but sometimes I just need a break!

In actual sewing news, I'm not the only one with a birthday this month; these two lucky little girls got to go to Disneyland for their birthdays and I was honored to be able to make these darling princess Farbenmix Feliz dresses for them. Their mom tells me they constantly had people stopping them to ooh and aah over their dresses, and even Princess Aurora herself commented that the dresses were nicer than the ones her fairy godmother made!

I'm staying very busy in my studio working on Halloween costumes. So far, Donald Duck has been the big hit of the year with three ordered so far! I'm also working on a Daisy Duck, a Mickey and Minnie Mouse brother/sister set, and a lovely lavender Felicity gown. There is still time to order costumes- check out what I have listed in my etsy store, and don't forget that I love to take custom orders, too!

86 days til Halloween... are you ready?

I know most of you are thinking Back to School right now, but I've got to think ahead to Halloween. It's my busiest time of year when people are shopping for costumes!

And since my studio is nice & clean (okay, not *quite* as clean as it was a few weeks ago, but still very workable!) I had some time to make a few new Halloween outfits: this fun Halloween skirt made with my Peek-a-Boo Pleats pattern, and also a vibrantly decorated Vida jumper. You can find them, and more to come, in the Spooky Wear 4 Halloween section of my etsy shop.

Also, check out the new Destash category in my shop- I'm loading it up, slowly but surely, with a wide variety of fabric, patterns, beads and more at great prices. Let's get it out of my sewing room and into yours!

I encourage you to order your costume(s) early because I am only committing to 3 costumes every 2 weeks thru October 11. That means only 15 lucky customers will have a Monkey Doodle original costume this year (and I just got my first order before I could even post this, so I'm down to 14)! I can do just about anything you can dream up, so don't be limited by what you see listed in my Costume Shoppe category. Convo me with your ideas, and I'll quote you a price. No word yet on what the Monkey Doodle boys are planning to be this year, but I'll share pictures once they decide.

in case you haven't noticed...

I am HORRIBLE about updating my blog.

Nothing new to report. Well, maybe. Last Friday, for the first time in I can't remember how long, I had nothing that I HAD to sew. All orders completed & shipped, sewing errands for friends & family dutifully completed. So I spent the weekend cleaning up/out my sewing room. Which probably hadn't happened since last year. I sew in a 7' x 7' area that was a walk-in closet in its former life. Everything else spreads out into the room that accompanies said closet. And I do mean EVERYTHING.

Take a look at what I tackled on Saturday morning. And Saturday afternoon. And Saturday night. And pretty much all day Sunday. Isn't this horrendous? I am so embarassed to show this to you! But it's much better now... but not quite photo ready :o)