I'm BAAAAAACK!

OK, so I am literally a fair weather friend to my blog. My blogging picks up every spring and dies every fall. Why? The dark, gray weather challenges my (already limited) photography skills so much that is very hard for me to take pictures that are remotely decent and I like blogs that have lots of photos. The second reason for my blogging vacation is due to the fact that fall and the holidays are really busy for me and I don't have time to blog when I madly trying to keep up with orders! Oh well.

Anyway, let's not dwell on the past...onwards and upwards, right? I am teaching a workshop this Sunday at The West Seattle Fabric Company in which we will be creating bunny skirts for little girls.

Skirts are a terrific beginning project because they are quick and easy to whip up. I went with the bunny so that people can learn how to applique and because it is timely due to Easter. Oh, and 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. In this class we will discuss different ways to customize a skirt through trims, using different fabrics, appliques, pockets, etc. When I was done making the skirt this morning, I remembered that I had a plain white T-shirt lying around that could be used to make the skirt into an outift. After considering various applique options, I caught a glimpse of that green dotty rick rack lying on my work counter and decided that would be a quick and easy way to coordinate a shirt with the skirt. Adding pink buttons to the top of the trim was easy and seemed like a sweet little touch. This is an easy way to use trims to accent a basic T-shirt and it could have been handsewn onto the shirt if a machine was not available. So, now we have an Easter outfit that will work well beyond the holiday.

Hmmm, maybe tomorrow I will get organized and figure out how to upload a PDF of that rabbit applique...

A Lovely Etsy Find!

I'm not trying to rush summer--I mean, seriously, summer has not even really started in Seattle yet--but I did find the most amazing Etsy seller the other day via an Etsy Finds email. Maria of Intres makes the most delightfully creative treasures in her shop. I have ordered one of her felt trees in autumn colors with a family of owls to use as a centerpiece on my dining room table this fall. Now I need to remain patient while it arrives from Spain.

Just had to share...

A Pumpkin for Your Pumpkin

We are very excited to give a peek of one of the new dresses that will be in my shop within a week for fall! Can you see the excitement on Caroline's face? This dress is made out of teal-colored jersey so it is supersoft and it has trim and a pumpkin applique is in a cotton print by Erin McMorris. I have at least 3 more similar dresses coming in organic orange, purple, and chocolate-colored jersey and they will be in slightly different styles. The comfy style of these dresses is perfect for playing and heading back to school on crisp fall days. What do you think?

West Seattle Garden Tour

My mom and I did the West Seattle Garden Tour today and there were a lot of lovely finds and inspiring gardens. We even spotted a hummingbird nest with 2 little babies in it--it was the size of an espresso cup. Amazing. Mari Malcolm's garden in particular was absolutely incredible. She and her husband have created the most amazing treasure trove of gardening delights mixed with fascinating objects. This little still life below captures the spirit of their garden.



Of course, my pictures don't do the garden any justice, but I did my best. Anyway, Mari creates these terrific succulent arrangements using found objects as her pots and I was completely fascinated by them. She is thinking of eventually offering workshops to create containers and I can't wait to take one of her classes.

This one below was really incredible because it had something that I have never seen in a pot before. Look closely...see it?

See it? No? Try this close up.

Yep, those are dentures. I tell you, this garden was full of surprises.

Sneak Peek of Fall...

Wanna sneak peek of some of my new work for fall. Pssst...there is some stuff for boys!!! Although the weather has been toasty here in Seattle (well, maybe not today), I have had fleece on the brain. Combining my interest in using my blanket fleece for more projects and creating some fun products for boys led me down the path of critters and monsters. One of my favorite things is catching a glimpse of a kiddo rockin' a Halloween costume in April (or any other month for that matter), so I wanted to combo costumes with things that kids could wear every day, so here we go...

A fleece bear vest with little ears! I've got these made up in chocolate brown with prints that can be for boys and girls (fabric is on the ears and the fabric-covered buttons).Last fall, I made Caroline an octopus poncho for Halloween. She loved it so much and we got so many compliments that she started wearing it all of the time. It was so easy to get on and off and it grew with her so well that I wanted to make more. These have been made up with supersoft fleece, organic T-shirt jersey liner and the eyes are lightly stuffed with eco-friendly bamboo fibers. As you can see below, they come in lots of colors.

Oh, and little Caroline is actually sporting a lime green frog vest that is perfect for boys and girls.

And here is Henry in a one-eyed monster vest! A girlie monster is on the way too.

Including some fun stuff for boys and girls has been one of my goals, so I hope that you like it all! It will be listed in my Etsy shop (with more colors and styles!) within the next couple of weeks. Please let me know what you think!

I am T-Rex Girl, Hear Me RRROOOAAARRR!

I came up with my first dino dress last summer and have been meaning to make a T-Rex dress ever since, but things just keep coming along to distract me. Anyway, I finally just got the kick in the pants that I needed when a custom order came in last week through my Etsy shop for a pink T-Rex dress. Aha!

So, the early stage of sketching has been documented (below). I'm often asked if I use clip art for my appliques, and the answer is, "Nope." My handbag is loaded with pieces of paper on which I have sketched out designs and everything is always done in freehand by moi. After scoping out books, signage, the zoo, and wherever, I have an idea of how I want something to look. With the T-Rex, a fierce stance was needed that I could soften up by going with a super-girlie print. I use tracing paper so that I can keep parts of an image that I like and edit by sketching in new areas on the parts that don't work.

This T-Rex image was a little tricky for me because the tail was hard to get right, considering it had to be positioned on an A-line dress. Should the tail be up? Down made it look too droopy. As you can can see from the finished applique below, I went with a happy medium!

Here she is in all of her hot pink glory. Photographing the dress was a whole other challenge that I will save for another post. Getting my little model to tolerate a thousand different angles, backgrounds, etc. is not easy, but she kept at it for me. Just don't ask me to reveal how many gummy bears I owed her when we were done!

Lazy Afternoons

I think that every parent of small children knows what I'm talking about when I refer to the "dead zone" of the day. Finding something to do in the zone between afternoon nap and dinnertime can be a bit of a challenge for us. With two birthdays in seven days, a dance recital, school getting out, and a husband who is out of town for the week, this "dead zone" has been a real challenge for me and the girls this week. So, let me introduce you to my new best friend...the bubbler. Target, Bartells, toys stores all carry these little gems. They're essentially buble guns, but I'm trying to refrain from using the word "gun." It seems that Caroline may get a mild allergic reaction to bubble mix, so I have to stay away from the mouth bubble blowers because her lips get all inflamed, so these little fan blowers work like a charm for us and keep the girls completely occupied and happy. Anyway, this is how we spent our afternoons this week and it has worked out pretty well for us. Plus, I've been having a great time with my camera and the bubble hour, and this picture has made me really happy. I've mentioned that I got a new camera (a Nikon D3000) and it has been a real treat to play around with it. Although I bought the "Nikon D3000 for Dummies" and have studied it (kind of) closely, I still have no idea what I am doing!

I also have to put out a little shoutout to little Miss C who celebrated her 2nd birthday today. We enjoyed a good time at the park this morning and then a little lunch at Luna Park Cafe, complete with milkshakes--yum!
Okay, now it's time to get down to business. About a week ago I mentioned that there was a new dress coming up and here it is. As a nod to Wimbleton and summers spent on the tennis court, here is a girl's tennis dress in bright pink. I normally don't do much hand-stitching but it seemed like a hand-embroidered string area on the racket was exactly what was needed on this project. Let's hope this one is a winner!

Your Birthday is a Wonderland!

I am still recovering from Saturday morning's 5th birthday party for Kate. The forecast for the weekend had looked terrific until about 48 hours before the actual party when it suddenly shifted to a much crummier prediction. Still, I tried to remain optimistic that the we would be able to turn our backyard into a wonderland for the party. I remained optimistic (or "in denial" is probably more realistic) right up until waking up Saturday morning and seeing rain. It then became a mad dash to set up indoors. Kate's preschool teacher was generous enough to loan me a little table and ton of little chairs, so we were able to set up a long table in our dining area and I hung the Chinese lanterns above and it looked quite festive (I think!). Throughout the week, Kate and I had worked on making tissue paper flowers that were supposed to conjure up the Garden of Talking Flowers in Alice and Wonderland. She loved working on them and it was a great way to incorporate her into party planning. As you can see from the picture above, I had made her a dress so that she could be Alice and she was really pleased in her costume that was complete with a circle skirt and crinoline underneath so that she could get some twirling action going!
We had Sally the Great from Giggleworks, a company that she owns with her husband, come to do a magic show and balloon art and she was terrific! She had them all laughing within the first minute of her show--I was terribly impressed by how much energy she brought to the show and the magic tricks were fabulous. Her ballon art was also incredible and all of the kids absolutely loved it! Here is Kate with her Alice in Wonderland balloon...

and Henry with a T-Rex balloon and Jack with Spiderman on his shoulders...and Claire with a dolphin! There were so many incredible balloons and the kids were mesmerized watching her create them.
Now, I'm off to work on my recovery by eating a leftover cupcake! (Psst: The toppers were part of the fabulous packet that I mentioned in an earlier post from PaperAndCake.)

Biker Chick

Every year I make the girls each a dress for their birthdays; this tradition began with Kate's first birthday. Since Caroline is in love with bikes right now, I thought that it would be fun to incorporate a bike somehow into her birthday dress. I had been keeping a look out for a cute bike print but wasn't seeing anything that seemed right for her. While reading the Etsy Merchandising Notes for June, I saw the mention of the Tour de France--aha! I decided to combine Caroline's dress with a little shop merchandising and make a yellow dress in honor of the Tour leader's yellow jersey. I should have made a trike applique since Caroline loves her little Kettler but decided to go with a girl's bike, complete with banana seat. I used Amy Butler's Love print for the bike applique. After lots of different sketches and putting it together initially with little rick rack handle streamers, I discarded that detail for a simple outline. I'm really pleased with how it came out and was delighted to see how excited Caroline was this morning when she tried it on for pictures. Unfortunately the photos came out pretty dark, but with a better forecast on the horizon for this weekend's weather, my fingers are crossed for a better photoshoot within the next few days.

I'm continuing my sporting theme, and will have a new dress to show in the next couple of days...

Birthday Party Planning is Underway

When K and I went to Disneyland in April, K's princess obsession was interrupted (a little) by discovering Alice in Wonderland. It helped that she loved riding on the teacups! When we got home, she announced that she wanted her birthday to be a mad tea party inspired by Aice in Wonderland, and this sounded like a fun idea to me so we started brainstorming. I found this darling birthday pack on Etsy from PaperAndCake and our planning took off. We used the invitations from the pack and I plan to use the cutouts on the cake and on goodie bags.

We also decided to try our luck on a backyard party. Given Seattle's weather this spring, this is seeming like a bold plan but we will hope for the best. We got an Alice in Wonderland book and K has been studying it carefully every day for details. She noticed the Chinese lanterns on the tea party page in the book and remembered the lanterns from the Teacups ride at Disneyland and wanted to get some for the party. I did a little online research and ordered some from Luna Bazaar, figuring that we can hang them in K's room after the party. She also wanted to use real teacups but I chickened out a little on the vision of smashed china all our back patio. One of our neighbors has some teacup and teapot garden art so that inspired me to look into glueing stacks of teacups together. After seeing this on Etsy, K and I took off to some local thriftstores in search of mismatching teacups to use as garden art. So now we have a bunch of teacups, Chinese lanterns, and a cute un-birthday partypack. Normally I wouldn't really get so into all of the decorating for a kid's birthday party, but K is really into it and it's keeping her engaged--plus, she has some great ideas! Next up, costumes...

A Dress Just Right For the Pacific Northwest

I really wanted to create a whale dress for this summer and spent a lot of time thinking about different designs, but never really settled on something...until the grandmother of one of our little friends ordered a special custom dress. I met with my little 6-year old client and ended up with an orca whale dress concept. This was absolutely perfect because orcas are frequently spotted off the beach a few minutes away from us here in West Seattle. In fact, a few years ago, I dropped Kate off at preschool and took the dog for a walk along Beach Drive. As we were walking, I absent-mindedly looked offshore toward the water and instantly saw the tall black dorsal fins that are distinctive of orca whales. It was so exciting to see a pod so close to home and I was thrilled to have serendipitously seen such an iconic example of Pacific Northwest wildlife.


So anyway, back to the dress. My client really wanted a blue dress, and I immediately remembered having seen this Michael Miller print at Fabric Crush in Wallingford. It seemed just right for this orca whale dress because it was geometric print that reminded me of sunlight refracting through the water. I then studied images of orca whales, sketched some out, simplified the coloring on the whales a little, and designed the applique for the whale. After some sewing, voila, the dress was complete but it seemed like it needed a little something else. Hmmm. A few years back, I bought some really cute sailboat ribbon ago at Esther's on Bainbridge Island and I thought would look cute with this little marine-inspired dress, so I used it to create a coordinating handbag. So, now here is a Pacific Northwest-inspired ensemble!

Honk if You Love Trucks Dress

My almost 2-year old is in a huge trucks phase...HUGE! Since she already has strong opinions about what she wears, I knew I had to construct a trucks dress for her but I needed inspiration. When I saw this new Alexander Henry print called Truck Stop, I knew I had found my start. A pair of old, really soft J. Crew jeans were in my stash of fabrics and I had been waiting for a good project to"upcycle" some old clothes into something new...so here we go. Honk! Honk! It's an eco-friendly dress for girls who dig something a little bit different.

Oh, and don't worry, there's a blanket coming too. :)

An Educational Personalized Baby Blanket?

Get schooled with this personalized baby blanket! Here's my latest one in this terrific ABC 123 print. I really like this blanket because it would be great for boys and girls and it has a ton of color possibilities. I would love this in red, orange, and or navy blue fleece and am eager to make it up in some other colors. So, want to order it??? :)

Personalized Baby Blanket in Paris Park

I have been feeling really jazzed up to get some of my new blankets listed! This newest one is really cute (I think!) and I fell in love with the vintage-inspired print with little kids playing in the park with balloons, dogs, birds, and cats. This design is a fun departure from the usual pale pink and blue blankets and I am happy to have these great primary colors in the mix.

I'm also exploring the different ways to photograph the blankets. It is not easy to capture the personalization and the fabric print in one photo since they are on opposite sides! I'm also trying to include little kids and babies in the shot since I love seeing the little faces and the kids provide some scale so viewers can get a sense of how big the blankets are. Getting my little models to work with me is another huge challenge! I am pretty much having to bribe my almost-5 year old to pose for me (she's a diva!). My youngest is more amenable to being in pictures but she is much less predictable. The continuous shooting option on my new camera makes it much easier to get some decent shots of her, yet it is still not easy. One of my new goals is to overhaul my listing pictures and get more of our little friends in the pictures so I have a variety of little faces looking out of the pictures. Wish me luck!

Personalized Baby Blanket Bonanza

I am enjoying a great week--the weather has been fabulous, I'm not preparing for any shows so I actually have time to design some new products, and some terrific new prints have arrived in my studio. Today it was this delicious new personalized blanket for my shop in Michael Miller's Disco Dots. Oh, and have I mentioned how much I love taking pics with my new Nikon D3000? Things are really coming together here. My laptop has been acting funky but I have been backing everything up regularly, so my fingers are crossed.

Yesterday was also terrific because I started off the day with a lovely email from a happy customer who was emailing me to tell me how much she loved the dino princess dress that she had ordered for her daughter's dino birthday party. It was so nice to get that email because my two little ones both woke up in very cranky moods, so it felt great to know that someone out there was happy! I was walking my cranky almost-2-year old later that day and my phone rang. It turned out to be the owner of a shop that just received a package of my dresses and she was calling to tell me how thrilled she was with everything that I sent--yay! Indie Banditas on Bainbridge Island is now going to be carrying my dresses so I am eager to send them more one-of-a-kind dresses. A great day was wrapped up with one of my dearest friends sending me a message on my Facebook page that she had spotted one of my blankets at a playground in New York City and the owner had raved about how much she loved it. It's amazing how good feedback can make you feel...wahoo!

A New Blanket for a Glorious Day!

Yay! A glorious day meets a brand new personalized baby blanket! I love this 2-D Zoo print from Alexander Henry and now I am carrying it in the chocolate color scheme. I was planning on asking my neighbor's darling boy to pose with this new blanket but I spotted the gorgeous sky and knew that the orange had to be photographed up against the brilliant blue. After months of cloudy weather, finally we enjoyed a glorious afternoon here in Seattle. Finally!

trying to spring forward...

I have been working on some new items for spring and I'll give you a little preview. These will be posted in my shop when I can find a few free minutes to write up the listings and get some better photographs!

Oo La La Dress -- once little Caroline starts feeling better, I will be able to get this on a live model.
The spring version of the Itsy Bitsy Spinder Dress in Fern.

A new blanket in a new color scheme of my most popular print.

A leafy, feminine pink and red leafy print for a new blanket.

Vintage-inspired floral print for another new blanket.

Scarlet Bird Frock.

And my favorite new dress...Daschunds Are a Girl's Best Friend Dress!

A New Twist on a Classic

I had a great day a few weeks ago when I learned that I had won a blog giveaway on Preppy in New England. I confess that I entered because I was coveting one of the darling dresses from TheTrendyTot and didn't pay too much attention to the details of the giveaway. After finding out that I was the lucky winner, I discovered that a little Nantucket basket from the lovely UpMySleeveBoutique was part of the winner's package. Scoping out this online shop introduced me to Sarah Laubinger's darling line of cute, updated Nantucket baskets and jewelry. When I was a little girl, I remember lots of women carrying these classic bags around to coordinate with their Lily Pulitzer dresses and other preppy accoutrements. Well, Sarah Laubinger (WAHM of 2 little ones) has taken this icon of classic New England and given it some modern touches appeal to today's audience.

I was able to customize color and font of this darling little basket. It's a good thing that I decided to design it for my 1-yo, because it was so cute when it arrive that it was all I could do not to steal it! Needless to say, my daughter will not be receiving this anytime soon because it is too precious for her destructive little paws. Someday...

Are You There Blog? It's Me, Elise...

Blog, sorry, I've neglected you! It has just been a busy, busy fall since coming back from vacation, having friends visit, returning to preschool, and keeping up with orders. Yes, orders have been coming in - yay!

Now let's get down to business because I have several things to report. First of all, we had an amazing trip down to Sunriver, OR. We did a lot of biking, swimming, golfing, and relaxing! The only downside to the trip was that it was a VERY long trip down and back. It took us about 7.5 hrs on the way down and (gulp) 10 on the way back! Argh! Note to self: we will do a Saturday to Saturday rental next time so we're not stuck in terrible I-5 traffic on the return. Fortunately these sweet little peg dollies from ImogensGarden entertained Kate for part of the drive. She was delighted to have a princess and mermaid and the dolls provided a much-needed reprieve to the endless playing of "The Little Mermaid" on the portable DVD player.


I enjoyed a lot of knitting time (since I was away from my sewing machine) and worked on a few fun and fast projects. I bought a fabulous hat pattern called Charlotte's Web to work on from one of my new Etsy "friends," knitwear designer Kate Oates who runs an Etsy shop called TotToppers and MakeTotToppers. I modifed the pattern and put the spider on a basic pumpkin hat to make it fresh for Halloween. The hat is for Caroline and love how it came out. The only problem? Getting little C to stand still long enough to take her pic in her new festive hat!



My other knitting project became a hat that my sister-in-law tipped me off on. She had spotted this great hat on this crafty woman's blog, so I emailed the knitter and asked her if she had any interest in selling me the pattern. She promptly sent me a message back saying that she was trying to put something together this fall or winter. I was already in love with the hat and couldn't wait so I modified the spider pattern (with some advice from Kate!) and was able to conjure up something similar for my beloved new little nephew.

I haven't had much time to knit since getting home because I've been catching up with a lot of sewing projects and orders, so I'm glad that I got some downtime in Oregon.

Last but not least, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I win this terrific dress from TheTrendyTot. In fact, I'm reluctant to even let you in on the information about the giveaway because I do not want any more competition! Oh well, check out Jen's blog for more info about winning one of her darling dresses. :)

Ciao!

Modern Ponchos

I'm still recovering from our heatwave here in Seattle last week, so why am I working on warm clothes? Because I have discovered some trims that begged for a good project. Yummy cakes, Little Red Riding Hood, panda bears...

And I have some monsters and spacemen for little boys...

I started off making ponchos for Kate a few years ago because she wanted to dress herself but didn't quite have the skills to put on a jacket or sweater. Since then, I've refined my pattern from upcycling old sweaters to using the dreamy double-sided fleece (that I also use for the personalized blankets). Last year I was in a rush to get out of the door and threw one of Kate's old ponchos over Caroline's head quickly and that's when I realized how perfectly convenient these ponchos are for babies too--size is not a big deal and no more fighting wriggly little arms into sleeves!

So, here are my latest Etsy listings. First, the panda poncho....

and the cakes poncho...

Summers go too quickly here so I don't know why I'm rushing things ahead, but I just can't help myself. Enjoy! There are more to come...