Star Spangled!

I woke up this morning to discover my Stars and Stripes Forever set was featured in this adorable treasury by RoughMagicHolidays. Hooray for the Red White and Blue! (There's still plenty of time for me to get it to you by the 4th of July; it's ready to ship in size 5/6!)

Customer cuties

One of the rare treats of an etsy seamstress is to actually see her items on a child. I make things and send them to various homes across the United States (and sometimes the world!). Sometimes the parents remember to leave feedback for me; most of the time they don't. So it really is special when a mom takes time to share a picture of her child wearing something that I made. Here are a few pictures I have received lately.





Don't forget: all ready-to-ship items in my etsy store are still half off for the rest of the month. Tell your friends!

Also, if you really want to know what I'm doing and thinking, you've probably discovered that my blog is not the best place to find me. I'm doing good if I post more than once a month! I invite you to follow me on twitter and facebook (link over on the right sidebar... I'm too much of a commitment phobe to choose a username over there!)

Ready to ship for half price in June!

Hello, etsy friends. I want to buy more fabric. I want to make new things. But I have a lot of things that are already made, waiting for new homes.

So here's the deal: during the month of June, if you buy something in the ready to ship girls or ready to ship boys categories of my etsy store, I will refund HALF of the price to you. Yes, you read that right- all ready to ship boys & girls items are half price in June! All you have to do is ask nicely for your half price discount when you check out. It's a win-win situation: I'll have less inventory and more money to buy more fabric and increase my inventory again. And you'll get a really cute outfit for an unbelievable price!

If you're reading this in May and you've had your eye on something, now might be the time to buy it before someone snatches it up in June. Tell your friends! And tell them to go to my blog and sign up for my mailing list so they'll know about all my other great promotions, too!

Dressing the dolls

You can set your calendar by it: the first week of May, my friend Deborah gets stressed out. Why? because she is the director of Arts Alive Studio and the first of May means one month until production time. This year's acting performance is The Hiding Place, which they have done several times before. No need to make an entire set of costumes like last year. This year's clothing crisis is for the ballet, of all things!

The production they are doing this year is based on the children's book The Best Loved Doll. I've never read it, but the basic plot is that a little girl gets invited to a party where all the guests bring their best-loved dolls. The older students are the party guests and the little ballerinas are their dolls.

I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to look at a dance costume catalog, but they are FULL of amazing costumes of every shape, size and style you can imagine. Unless you are my friends Deborah and the ballet's author/director, Nicole. They had a very specific look in mind that just couldn't be found in any of the catalogs they checked. A sweet, vintage girly look. So they decided to make the costumes.

Deborah, bless her heart, is making pastel leotards and matching skirts for the older girls who are the guests at the party. And based on the sample I saw last week, they are just as nice (if not nicer!) than store-bought ones. The dolls will be wearing dresses in a color that matches their owners' leotard. Deborah had done the rough construction of each of the seven dresses, but needed someone to "fancy them up." Would I be able to help with this?

Heck yeah!

On Friday afternoon, I picked up a bag loaded with pastel loveliness, lace & ribbon and given free reign for embellishing the dresses. Yippee! I culled through my stock of vintage patterns for ideas and have knocked out 3 of the 7 dresses already. Here's a sneak peek of an apron I made for one of the dresses:

Falling off the wagon and climbing back on

Perhaps you've noticed that a week went by without anything new popping up in my store. Perhaps you haven't. Either way, I noticed, and here's the story that I'm sticking to:

I love to sew, and I don't want sewing to become stressful or just something else to squeeze into my very busy day. I don't want to ever feel pressured to make something, and that's how I was feeling last week. I ran into 3 days that were slam-packed with things to do from dawn til dusk (and beyond dusk, I'm usually catching up on recorded TV shows). And then I ran into 2 days of blissful weather where I needed to wind down from the busy week. Then yesterday- slammed again. Today, not so much :o)

I'm happy to say that things *look* like they're calming down a bit in my schedule (but you know how deceptive looks can be...) I actually started working on this dress last week, but between finishing up customer orders and everything else going on, I only got to finish it this morning. Ta da! Lilo's Luau, size 3T (or a top fo a slim 7/8), ready to ship.

I have 2 more Williamsburg costumes to list, one for girls and one for toddlers. I'm still waiting on pictures for those. This weekend, my boys costume was chosen for a treasury highlighting the anniversary of Paul Revere's midnight ride. The treasury has ended, but you can see the link here on Jane's Glorious Hats blog. Thanks, Jane!

What About Your Friends?

I am so blessed to have a great supportive group of online designer friends- the ABSD street team on etsy. I have known and worked with many of them for over 3 years, and am constantly amazed at the new things they come up with. Since I didn't think of anything exciting to do for my 2 year anniversary on etsy (and, honestly, I didn't even list anything for probably another 6 months after I joined, so the anniversary thing is not a big deal...), I am going to dedicate this post to the recent creations of my awesome friends.

Tip Top Applesauce makes the most adorable baby hats EVER! This one was featured on an episode of TLC's A Baby Story! I love getting to those cute little babies wearing her hats almost as much as I love checking out her new designs!

My friend Lindsay hasn't had much time for sewing lately... she's been too busy blogging! Check out Living with Lindsay for some amazing decorating ideas that don't cost a lot of money and can be done by just about anyone!

Several of my friends have recently completed new eBooks... check out The Pretty Baby Boutique's Sami Dress pattern. Did you know the Tie Dye Diva does more than tie dye? These are two of her latest patterns- aren't they adorable? But don't stop there- her shop has even more patterns and ready to ship creations as well!

Les Tissus Bows just completed a tutorial for her fabulous raggie bows. She's also hosting a fun contest on her blog- pop in and check it out!


Those are just a few of my friends... this was a fun post and I'll do it again to highlight others, but in the meantime you can find all of our listings by searching ABSD on etsy.

Here fishy fishy...

Last night, I made this super cute knit set for etsy. I haven't made anything from knit fabric in a long time that I almost forgot how fun and easy it is to work with! How cute (not to mention COMFORTABLE!) would this be for a summer beach trip? The sample listing is size 3T, but I will make it in any size from 12m-5T in this listing. So although I didn't list it last night, I made it last night and listed 2 things today, so I'm still up-to-date with my April Challenge. Only 17 new things left to list... yikes! Does that number seem overwhelming to anyone other than me?