The Original "Clara's Dress"

Wow! Thanks so much for all the wonderful emails and comments about "Clara's Dress"! Many of you requested to see photos of the original dress that I made for Abby last Christmas. We took these photos at  a very special location right down the street from us. Lucky us, Santa has a satellite office right here in Williamsburg and he visits quite frequently. Evidently, he really loves the weather here and it's a nice little get-a-way from his home at the North Pole. Sadly, the day we went to take these photos he wasn't in, but one of his helpers told us he had to rush back to headquarters because the elves were unhappy and were threatening to go on strike if Santa didn't comply with their wishes. It was rumored that they were demanding additional milk and cookie breaks throughout their workday and they also wanted more comfortable shoes! Abby was a little sad that Santa wasn't there as she was really looking forward to having a chat with him to let him know how fantastic she had been and she also wanted to remind him how badly she wanted a kitten for Christmas. I have to admit, I was secretly thrilled that he was out for the afternoon. We had a great time visiting anyway and Abby signed his guestbook and I snapped a bunch of photos. So, here is the dress that started it all . . .

Dawn

Merry-Go-Rounds...and...Bumper Cars ....and....Roller-"Toasters" ....Oh, My!!!

As a big surprise I decided to take Abby & Henry to Busch Gardens ...crazy, I know. But thankfully a dear friend of mine came along for the fun. Living here in Williamsburg and having "BG" right down the street it's kind of one of those things that you have to do. This was Abby and Henry's first time to an amusement park and they were truly mesmerized ...especially by the "roller-"Toasters"! Both of their eyes were as big as saucers as they watched these massive contraptions and saw all the people strapped in and having an absolute blast. Of course, they both need to grow a few more inches before they can experience them first hand. Thankfully, they both were anxious to give some of the other rides a try. The Merry-Go-Round being one of their favorites. Abby of course insisted on riding the pink horse...imagine that! They rode just about all the kiddie rides, we had a yummy lunch and saw a great show, and now Henry has decided that he loves "Rock & Roll"! It was a day of new experiences and lots of sensory overload but of course mommy knew when it was time to call it a day. My munchkins were starting to fade and so were the grown-ups. When we got back home they were both anxious to play in our yard and do the things they love the most...the simple things.... like playing hopscotch, jumping rope and collecting ladybugs.

Dawn

Remember This One....

I received a ton of compliments on this version of "Meg" that I made up the other day ... Thank you! So, Abby and I both agreed it was too sweet not to have a modeled picture of it. But I decided that this little dress needed to have matching pantaloons to go underneath made from some cream cotton trimmed out with antique lace and then a simple little black satin ribbon and little bows. When all was said and done and I looked at the outfit all I could think about was one of our favorite books "Linnea in Monet's Garden".

See what I mean? Oh, how I wish I could have found a lovely spot like this to take photos but sadly we are not in the south of France, but rather the south of Virginia. We compromised with taking photos in one of the gardens of one of the historic homes in Yorktown. Not quite the same, but we made due. Plus, Abby was not nearly as thrilled as sweet little Linnea because once again her horrible mom dressed her up on a super hot day and she just about melted. I honestly don't know how all the early colonists wore all those clothes in the summer around here ... talk about roasting to death. Not to worry, Abby survived and I was very quick. Afterwards, she quickly changed into something cooler (the dress in the photos from the last post) and we had a fun rest of the afternoon. On the drive home Abby requested a simple butterfly net for her "payment" so we stopped by the Dollar Tree to pick one up. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in our garden catching butterflies to add to her growing collection. She has a butterfly house where she is hoping the butterflies will "get married" and have babies. She is completely fascinated with them right now as we watched them change from caterpillars into butterflies recently. 

Dawn

A Few More Photos From Florida

Here is another one of the outfits I was thinking of using for the "Sew Beautiful" article but as you can see the photos aren't the best, which is such a pity because I really really loved the way this little outfit turned out. It's a combo of three of my designs. "Emily" made from a gorgeous small floral print from Lecien. "Bridget" made from a super soft and pretty pink batiste and "Annie" made from....believe it or not pillow ticking! LOVE THIS!!! I also made big pockets on the pants with left-overs of the Lecien and then trimmed out the bottom of the pants with some antique lace that I found in one of my antiquing adventures. I can't wait to make up more of these combos as I think the 3 pieces go so well together!

Dawn

5 Easy Pieces

I received the most gorgeous fabric from Terri the other day called McKenzie from FreeSpirit! I just swooned when I saw the fabulous prints and colors and was instantly inspired to make all kinds of separates that could mix and match together..kinda like my version of Granimals...remember those??? I started off with my "Isabelle skirt" (which will be out soon) then made a gorgeous little peasant style top  my way with pretty puffed sleeves and a beautiful satin bow that ties in the back. Then my latest creation "Cecily" which is so stinkin cute...and so versatile. It's a sweet little pinafore top with ties on the sides...LOVE it!!! That pattern will also be coming soon! Then Abby needed a fun little pair of pants that could mix with these pieces so I whipped up a pair of fun little trousers....finally one of my favorites...a little swing top made from a gorgeous large print which really showcases the design. I also plan on making a black feather wale corduroy bubble skirt and "Brooke" to go with all these cute pieces and maybe a few more as well. I really love that these all look so cute together. After I took these pictures this afternoon and I was going through them I couldn't help but think "Oh my goodness...she is really growing up. Where is my little girl?" BTW...she gave all of these pieces a big two thumbs up and said "Mommy, I really love these...they are Funky!"

Dawn

A Trip To The Beach

This afternoon I got Abby all dolled up in my latest creation...can you tell that I am going through a phase of loving the 1920's? I am completely in love with all the beautiful clothes from that era. The attention to detail is just amazing. I wanted to play with different shapes and see what I could come up with. Once again this is a drop waist dress in yummy butter yellow and I used a ton of vintage lace on it and little white ribbon roses. Underneath are white dotted Swiss pantaloons trimmed out with more vintage lace and butter yellow ribbon and of course no outfit from this time period would be complete without a hat to compliment it. I had so much fun with this one and I was able to exercise a little pent-up creative energy.

Dawn

My Dream Design...

Literally!!! This is what I saw in my dream last night...exactly! Pretty good dream..Huh? I woke up at 3am after having that dream and instantly went to my sewing room and started creating. No pattern, nothing...I just started cutting and sewing. I used up lots of antique lace and ribbon given to me from my grandmother. I absolutely love it all, but the hat is TDF....I honestly have no idea how I did it as I was just on a mission and I LOVE how it turned out. Believe it or not I was completely out of cream cotton so I scrounged around in the linen closet an found an old futon cover and used that. Of course there was tons of it so I made the hat out of that too. I even made a rose out of leftover scraps from the lavender linen to dress up the hat...talk about using every last little bit of fabric. The dress is a fuller version of your classic drop waist dress and I dressed it up with the antique lace and 6 little pearl buttons down the back. Then of course I couldn't resist I had to make her some fun pantaloons to go with it too.

Pretty good for 6 hours of work... I hope I have another amazing dream like that again soon. It was so much fun to bring it to life from my dream.