Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I'm a stay at home of 3 beautiful children and I love to sew! I have been sewing ever since I was a little girl and my gran taught me everything from machine-sewing to cross-stitch. I started making Barbie clothes this past Christmas for my daughter and I loved it! It's so much fun to design and create fashions for the ultimate model - Barbie! I opened a shop on Etsy in May of this year and I have met a lot of talented artists that I enjoy networking with. So, take some time to look around, read my posts, and enjoy!

Crystal

Etsy: www.BarbieBoutiqueBasics.etsy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BarbiesBoutqieBasics

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Customs & Church Happenings

Good Saturday Morning!! Computer issues kept me from blogging yesterday, so just like last week, I'm a day late. Sorry, dolls! I hope this day finds you well. It finds me well and busy, busy, busy...

I completed Aurora's custom order on Wednesday night - well, early Thursday morning actually. Here is the last photo from that order:
I'm not going to lie - re-sizing those jackets was quite a challenge. But look at the end result! I love how they turned out.

And just like with this custom order, as it was being completed, I received a new request for another custom! This one is for 2 Ken size doll outfits. Each outfit will have a sweater crocheted by Granny Gloria and a pair of jeans by me. One sweater will be maroon, the other will be green. Gloria should have them completed by tomorrow!

In addition to all this, I'm participating in several bible studies at my church including a Beth Moore study which I'm very excited about! Also, I'm making pouches my boys' Sunday School class for each child to put the papers in. AND today the pumpkins arrive for our church's pumpkin patch!! Every year we hold a pumpkin patch and the proceeds go to different missions. It's a wonderful outreach - so many people see the pumpkins and come by to see what we are up to. The kids and I are looking forward to unloading all those pumpkins this afternoon. My husband was so bummed he had to work today and can't be there to help - he missed it last year too!

So, as you can see, it's been a pretty busy time for me, but I'm loving every bit of it! This coming week, I hope to start my daughter's Halloween costume, so maybe that's what I'll blog about next week.

Until then, have a great week, dolls!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Custom Order Progress -- Almost Complete!!

Wow, what a week it's been!! I've gotten so much accomplished in just 7 days! Thanks so much to my wonderful husband who gave me Tuesday to work all day while he took care of the kids and house (and even ran to the store for me when I ran out of Velcro!). What would I do without him?


I was able to complete the jeans & t-shirt set and workout outfit for all three dolls. Last time I posted, I only had Barbie's done. I'll post photos of the completed outfits at the end of this post. I also created the Barbie gown with matching stole and created the patterns for the gowns for the Tyler and Emme dolls. The skirt portion of the gown is a full circle for Barbie, meaning it's about the same in diameter as a poodle skirt, but this gown is long enough to hit the floor. For the Tyler gown, I had to had 1 1/2 in. to the waistline and 2 inches to the hemline. You can see in this photo, the original pattern piece for Barbie dolls and then my pencil drawings for the Tyler-sized gown. For Emme, I added an additional 1 1/2 inches to the waistline and 1 inch to the hemline. In the photo, you can see the pattern piece for the Tyler-sized gown on the fabric and my markings for the Emme gown. I laid the tape measure down to see how long the diameter of the skirt was. It's 23 1/2 inches!! Wow!

I've really enjoyed working on this order and challenging myself to enlarge my patterns to fit dolls other than Barbie. This has been really good for me. I've definitely learned to think outside the box! This week I'll be focusing on the last outfit - the business suit in purple and lavender. Each suit will have a lavender sleeveless blouse, a purple skirt and a purple midriff jacket. The jacket & skirt will be trimmed with lavender ribbon. Resizing the blouse I think will end up being difficult because of the darts and the facing, but I'm sure I can handle it! I should be done with the order early in the week. I admit, I'll miss working with the larger dolls. Emme is so lifelike. I think I'll add her to my list for Santa....

Have a good week, dolls! I leave you with photos of the completed outfits: