A dress for my Niece....

The Sophy Collection is pretty well ready to launch on my website - the grading is all done. In fact, if you rummage around, you can find the Sophy Dress (I guess it's not cheating if I link to it ;) ). Anyway, the plan for today was to take more pictures, but the weather is not cooperating. I need a bright, sunny day to make best use of natural lighting. No luck today, what with the rain. At least it's rain and not snow! I will do a blog posting once all the products are live.

Once again, the last bit of grading drove me crazy. I find it more difficult to maintain precision and accuracy when doing things entirely by hand. I had to check, double check, and re-do some of the grading. In some ways CAD makes it easier to be lazy on some steps. I have graded with CAD for a long time now and certain procedures and steps are ingrained in me. Give me a pencil and my eyeballs and hands don't know what to do, but my brain is still going through the steps taken in CAD. Not that any of it is all that difficult - just more tedious. Thankfully, it is done now.

The project on tap for today is to start a new dress for my niece made from this fabric:


The buttons come from her Great Grandma's button box. I love the print and color but it was difficult to match it with trims. I think these buttons work. Does anyone else save buttons? I think I inherited my grandmother's habit of saving buttons. It is kind of fun to include them in a new project.

What is a line?

In terms of fashion, a line is a group or collection of 5-7 related pieces. Sometimes it is more. Sometimes the pieces are actually sets because children's lines tend to be sold as sets (bringing the total pieces to around 10-20). The point is that the pieces are related. The pieces have similar colors, tones, mood, feel. From a manufacturing end, the pieces repeat fabrics to minimize and utilize fabric purchases. The clothes have a consistent fit.

Some say a line tells a story. That is the more difficult thing to interpret or even observe. Not too many customers care about your source of inspiration unless it is an integral value that they share. Usually customers care about price, fit, comfort, and finally, "Does it look good?".

To muddy the waters, newer children's designers on Ebay and Etsy do collections based around a fabric grouping. They offer up one of a kind outfits that utilize a particular theme or fabric print. They will call that one outfit or piece a collection. Some of these designers evolve and manage to present a true line. In any event, they are inspiring some RTW collections.

A good example of a well merchandised line can be found at Tea Collection. The Ancient Elegance boy's collection does some things really well (I am not posting their pictures here - I don't want to get into trouble). They have repeated fabrics. The pieces can be mixed and matched. It has a consistent feel, colors, and look. Each piece looks like it belongs. You could even say it tells a story. Can anyone else see it?

What about the Bold Batiks collection for girls. Do you see the same types of things?

What lines are out there that you like? Post links in comments.

Hawaiian Sun Dress - Sold!

I had re-taken the photos of a one-of-a-kind Hawaiian inspired sun dress I had listed on Etsy. I was planning on doing a blog plug for it. Of course, time got away from me and I didn't get to it right away. A week or so after the new photos were posted, the dress sold! I hope the new owner likes it.

The idea for the dress literally flew into my head (almost like the idea of Harry Potter for J. K. Rowling). I had fabric left over from a project for Black Pearl Designs. The owner, Scott, designed this fabric from traditional Tahitian motifs. What to do with all the left overs? Not one scrap was big enough for a whole dress - but together it could work. The idea floated around in my head and bugged me until I took the time to put this together. It was fun to make! I wish I could make more of them but I am completely out of the green, so the dress is a one of a kind.

Sophy update

DH and I watched this little bird for a few hours this morning. It really acted confused and a bit cold - seeing as there is 2 inches of snow on the ground. The bird and his (or is it her) buddies had trouble finding food. We probably should look into putting up some bird feeders.... I am not confused so much as frustrated. It is after all April 24th!

In the mean time I have started grading the styles in my Sophy collection. Thankfully, only two pieces need grading. I did my fitting a week ago and none of my pieces needed to be adjusted. I do have an elastic waist skirt coming. I really wanted to have the adjustable elastic, but it is 4 times the cost of regular elastic. I think, perhaps, in my holiday collection - which I need to get started on. I do plan on adding 4-6x sizes, but I have only just started working on that. The basic block pattern is ready, it just needs grading. And then I will have to draft and grade all the styles I want to offer in that range. Lots of tedious, mind numbing work..... It will eventually get done though. I am ready for a CAD system. I am learning a lot by doing it all by hand, but I am tired of it.....

Design Loft Disaster #3

I guess Murphy's Law kicks in when you decide to do a remodeling project. The bath remodel is currently on hold until I pick out my tile. And with the nearest tile store 50 miles away and gas at $3.50 a gallon.... Well, it might be a while.

In the mean time, other things have decided to break down. My kitchen faucet keeled over and gave up the ghost. I would take a picture, but then decided no one really needed to see my gorilla taped, corroded faucet (the tape was to prevent water from spraying on the wall until I could drive 100 miles round trip to get a new one). I could have taken a picture of my shiny new faucet, but you can see plenty of those at the Lowes.

Anyway, the stove and washer are both competing to die next. This is what happens when you buy an old house. Thankfully it is starting to warm up enough to start hanging clothes on the line...

For Earth Day, hubby and I started planting our vegetable garden. I know it is crazy with the weather forecast predicting snow this weekend, but I needed to get things started. This year might be a short growing season (hey, where's that global warming). Anyway, we planted stuff that likes cold - peas, onions, spinach, lettuce, radishes. And yes, we are committed to organic gardening (as much as possible). And there is no better (or cheaper) way to get organic vegetables than from your own backyard.

I am still drooling over this composter from Nature Mill for my kitchen and a garden gourmet bin for outside.

What did you do today?