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)

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!