Tutorials!!

Hey dolls! Happy Memorial Weekend! I just wanted to drop in with a quick update - I will now be providing some tutorials, background stories, and how-to-dress-your-dolls pages here on my blog. Last week I blogged about my fave item from my shop - the simple, off-the-shoulder dress. Today, I added an "incomplete" tutorial to making patchwork dresses. Read on...

Barbie's Boutique Basics: Making A Patchwork Dress - An Incomplete Tutorial: As you know from reading my posts, a good friend of my mine creates adorable girls clothing that I, of course, purchase and dress my munchki...

The Story of a Dress...

  Last summer, I introduced the Off-the-Shoulder Dress designed by  yours truly. I started with basic solid colors and then added a contrasting band and then I even tried a couple prints. Today I wanted to talk about the evolution of this dress and how it can be purchased in my shop today.

These first photo is the basic black version of this dress. This is where I started. But really... it goes back before that. Back to when I first started sewing Barbie clothes in December of 2010....

I had been a working mom of three and after 5 years of struggling and fighting to make that work, I gave in and listened to what my heart was saying - I decided to be a stay at home mom (SAHM). This was the hardest and scariest decision ever... aside from the possible financial woes and the stress of taking care of three small children (at the time they were 4, 2, and 1), there was the question of "What am I going to do all    day?".

I started making Barbie clothes after going to the local craft fair and seeing that there was no one making these anymore. It was something I had looked forward to buying for my daughter when she got older. The second pattern that I bought had the pieces to make a shirt similar to the dress we're talking about today. I had never sewn with knit fabrics before and had no clue where to begin. And there was the issue of my dinosaur of a sewing machine (it's 25 years old!) - it was chugging along ok, but it did not like these stretchy knits, especially when doing hems!! So I strayed away from that top and that fabric and moved on. But I kept coming back to wanting to work with these knits. They were so soft and there was so much I could do with them, if only I could get it to work!

Finally, I decided I would hand-stitch the hems. My machine was handling the seams just fine, so I would do the rest by hand. And I did! The first six dresses like this were made with hand sewn hems. My stitches were uneven at first, but they gradually got better. Oh, was I excited! But it was so time-consuming. How could I keep up with demand? How could I afford a cost-effective product? Well, I limited myself to just those six. If they sold, I may decide to remake them, but I wouldn't add any colors just yet.

In November of 2011, just 6 months ago, I bought myself a new machine - a Singer Stylist. Those first few nights sewing with it were a dream! All the issues I had been having with my ancient Kenmore were just distant gripes. I began to get more creative and I designed many more styles of dresses and skirts. I introduced a boutique style line of doll clothing that was made with brilliantly colored and patterned fabric.

Meanwhile, this Off-the-Shoulder dress of mine was selling. And selling often. And I was getting requests to make it in other colors! So the royal blue one came next. While all the others so far were made with cotton, this one is a polyester blend knit. It is still soft and stretchy, but it is more clingy - almost like Lycra, but not really. It is slippery and a little more difficult to work with that regular cotton, but it is so beautiful!

Now, I have begun adding more colorful versions of this dress - as you can see below! I have tried yellow with a white band and a peach ribbon, purple with a white band a lavender ribbon, and lime green with a navy band and lime green ribbon. Today, I took photos of two more of this dress - hot pink with a black band and ribbon, and pale pink with an ivory band and rose colored ribbon. They are too pretty, if I do say so myself.

So, how do you buy it, you ask? Simple! For a basic solid color dress, click here and be sure to specify which color you'd like! You can find the other dresses pictured here. Each dress is $11 plus shipping. And please remember, since these dresses are made brand new each time one is ordered, allow up to one week for completion. Normally it doesn't take me that long, but you never know what may happen and I like to give myself plenty of "just in case" time.

That's all for today, dolls! Thanks for letting me tell you about this fun, simple, and chic dress!

Purple Wall Paper Print

Hello again, dolls! I promised I would be back with more photos for your viewing pleasure, and here I am! 

This first dress, I absolutely LOVE! It features a peasant-style bodice and a patchwork skirt. It's OOAK in that those fabrics will not be used for this style of dress again. I used nine different fabrics to create this look! It comes with the beaded necklace you see on Barbie. Now I know you all are dying to have this dress.... but it sold first thing this morning! Sorry dolls!

This next dress is a simple strip dress with cap sleeves and a ribbon sash that ties in front - though really, you could tie it to the side or in back if you'd like. The dress is created with strips of three different, but coordinating fabrics. The bodice fabric is seen repeated in the skirt of the dress. I love the simply chic style of this unique dress.

This two piece outfit features a purple wallpaper print pleated skirt - wow, say that 3 times fast! I love this fabric and used it on several pieces lately. The waistband is made with a yellow fabric spotted with purple, white, and blue dots. It's embellished with a purple ribbon bow at the waist. A purple off-the-shoulder t-shirt is paired with this skirt. I think it looks best tucked in, so as to show off the ribbon and waistband, but, Doll, you can wear it however! A beaded necklace is matched with this outfit, too.

Do you see a theme here? Clearly I found a fun fabric and used it up! This outfit is actually three pieces - bolero, midriff halter, and skirt. The bolero and skirt are made with this same wallpaper print fabric and the halter is made with yellow fabric that you saw in the two outfits above. The halter ties around barbie's neck with a length of purple ribbon. The skirt is trimmed with black vintage lace. The lace and ribbon came from my favorite supply shop, Griffith Gardens.

This outfit is too fun! A cropped tee with cap sleeves is paired with short-shorts. The shorts are embellished with a purple ribbon bow and the whole outfit is completed with a sterling silver beaded necklace.

These outfits will be posted on Etsy in the coming week.

Well, there you have it, Dolls! This is what I have been up to, when I'm not fulfilling orders. This week I'm working on a line of new pink items. I spent this afternoon on two new dresses that I hope to post on Facebook tonight - they are too cute! Hope to see you there!

Happy Birthday! Happy Mother's Day!

Good Morning, Dolls!  I took last week off from everything (except responding to sales and convos!). It was my birthday and it was a wonderful day! I spent it with my sweet man and my children. My husband helped the kids make candles for me and they used flowers and leaves from the garden to decorate. Here, my boys are presenting me with one of their creations:

That night, my man and I went to see Marvel's The Avengers - we are both big nerds, I know! But it was such a GREAT movie! The actors were wonderful, the story line was good, the humor and fan service was perfect and well-delivered. After the film, we went to eat at Olive Garden. We don't normally eat out and we never eat at Olive Garden, so this really was special for us. I got the Stuffed Chicken Marsala and - yum!! - it was so good. We don't drink, so I can't tell you how good the wine was, but everything else about the meal was wonderful. After dinner, we just drove around town, talking and getting to know each other again. It's hard, in our busy lives and with opposite schedules (he works nights), to be able to spend time everyday with each other and just talk. So these rare moments that we have are full of us chatting and talking and even deep discussions - almost like we were dating again! It was a perfect night!!

The next day was a family day - we went out to several garage sales and found some good deals and we also hit the local farmers market down by the river. After that, we went to a local nursery - they have a special kids event on the first Saturday of every month. This time, my kids got to plant plants (impatients and marigolds) to take home with them. They also picked out a packet of seeds each. Guess what we did that afternoon? Yep! We planted!

Sunday was another wonderful day. We had a great service at church, with my sweet man as the liturgist. It was the first weekend, so we had communion. As Methodists, we do not have communion every Sunday, just the first of the month, but we allow all Christians to partake because Christ would never turn away anyone from his table. Because my husband was the liturgist, he got to assist in serving the communion. An older couple also served us. After service, my daughter and I were privileged to be invited to a Mother-Daughter Tea Party at The Glenn House. This house was built in the 1880s and has been restored and refurnished. It is now used for tours and events like the tea party. So, Kari and I got all dolled up and headed out with two of the most prominent women from our church. It was a wonderful time! Kari was so well-behaved! She was too cute drinking her tea and nibbling her sweets! I was very proud of her! After the tea, we went to tour the house. The highlight was of course the little girl's room that was full of old dolls, doll houses, toys, and even an old puppet theater! Kari just loved it all, of course!!

Well, I'm getting long-winded and haven't even posted some photos that I promised, so I will leave you with a few to look at! I'll post more later!

 Have a very wonderful Mother's Day, dolls!!