Merry Christmas

From our family to yours. Hope this holiday season is good to you and you are surrounded with the people you love! Looking forward to more blogging in the new year and of course a little more sewing!

Fun with Photos

There really are some of the coolest sites out there on the internet. I was having a lot of fun today at THIS site. I remember seeing this site on Matilda Jane's blog a while back and I bookmarked it after playing around on it. Am I easily amused? Maybe, but give it a whirl, show your kids and kill some time over the holidays with this activity. It's fun! In this particular instance, it's fun for me to dream right? Dream that one day, a clothing design of my own would be on lifesize billboards in a store window. For now, I find enjoyment just thinking about the dream!

A sneak peak at the Audrey Dress

Well, I know most people are in that anxious mode as we get closer and closer to Christmas. I'm trying to split my time between the holiday chaos, the family.......... hey wait, I've already mentioned them, they're the chaos part!!!......and then some quality time with my sewing machine and all the lovely new fabrics I've gotten in. I am excited to have a few new girls who are going to model some pieces for me and this new sneak peek of a Spring Dress is the "Audrey" To keep these pieces seperate in my mind, they're all getting a name, their models name! Very original I know but it's fun. This one is delicate and girly and would be perfect for Easter, a tea party or for those folks who live in Texas, the customary pictures done in the bluebonnets. Can't wait to see what this looks like on as I love how it turned out and am planning a sister coordinate for it. As my girls have gotten older, they love skirts so we're going to mix it up a tad.

After these pieces, up next we'll have Brookelyn!

We need help!

As of February 10, 2009 ABC (fill in the blanks with all the other small business names) Clothing Co. and thousands of others in the children's industry will be deeply affected financially and or will be out of business.

Remember the outcry last holiday season over lead in imported toys? In order to combat such safety issues, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has passed legislation called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The law sets stringent guidelines for children’s products containing lead and phthalates (a chemical used in some vinyl products).

It is supposed to go into effect February 10th, 2009, and after that date any product intended for children ages 12 and under must meet these guidelines, and have a certificate of compliance from a CPSC-accredited laboratory. This includes not just toys, but clothing, jewelry, blankets, sheets, books, bibs, strollers, carriers, and anything else that a child under 12 might come in contact with. Sounds great, right?

In theory, maybe. But in actuality the law is so far reaching that it may succeed in turning the economy upside down. For starters, the CPSIA requires end unit testing on every product intended for use by children under 12. It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to do this testing, regardless of how small the business. That means that manufacturers (like myself ) will have to pay to get every different product they offer tested. These tests have to be done at a CSPC accredited lab, and cost tens of thousands of dollars. For example if you offer 3 different types of dresses. Each dress contains 2 different fabrics, as well as buttons, and thread, so that's potentially $600 to test one dress. But if you have 3 or more styles, that's $1800. And when you get a new bolt of fabric, you need to start all over again.

At present, there are no exemptions for small businesses and "micro" manufacturers and most handcraft artisans. There is no exception for quantities made, where the garments/products are made or anything else. Nor is there an exception for unadorned fabric components, unfinished wood components, materials which, by their nature, are free of lead and phthalates.

Also, the Act takes a "guilty until proven innocent" approach, which would treat a handmade, unfinished wooden toy that doesn't meet the certification deadline of 2/10/09 as a "banned hazardous substance" which would be illegal to distribute in this country. Each infraction carries a $100,000 felony charge. This legislation is also retroactive for any pre-existing inventory as of February 10th, 2009. This means that everything on the shelves in those big (or small) stores will also be "banned, hazardous substances" - contraband.

Larger corporations that can afford testing will incur thousands, maybe millions of dollars in fees, and this expense will be handed down to the consumer, probably making the prices for children's products go through the roof.

This also means that after that date, even selling your kids old things on eBay or Craigslist will be illegal. Charities will not be able to accept donations without a certificate of compliance either. February 10, 2009 is being dubbed “National Bankruptcy Day” by many people in the apparel and toy industry. If this legislation is not amended, it will affect everyone from port workers to parents looking for legal products. Billions of dollars worth of children's products will have to be destroyed because they can’t be legally sold, and this will cause major environmental problems.

While we all for higher safety standards and keeping our kids safe, this law is so overreaching as to put thousands on manufacturers of children's products out of business -hurting our economy and causing even more loan defaults. Though this legislation was well-intentioned, it cannot be allowed to stand as is.

Please help us defend the American dream and our entrepreneurial spirit! This law affects every stay at home mom trying to help put food on the table and every grandmother knitting blankets for the local craft fair. It makes the thousands of us who have found a niche in the burgeoning children's market have to make a tough decision - continue to produce items illegally and possible incur a $100,000 fine, pay the enormous fees and raise costs of goods sold, or close up shop!

Please help us!Contact your Congressperson using this link: http://capwiz.com/americanapparel/issues/alert/?alertid=12274476

It only takes 30 seconds!If you have an extra minute send a hard copy of the letter as well!To sign the online petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofCPSIA/index.html

Read more about it here: http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/

Plenty of Dots

I started on a new piece and when I look at it in it's entirety, I think of my friend's daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth has a personality that is all her own. She's full of spunk, endless energy and is always on the move. What better style to dress her in than an easy to move around in peasant style top. I see her eating ice cream for breakfast on many Mondays. Is this her mom's choice? Heaven's no, but we start each week by meeting for a cup of coffee and breakfast tacos at our local coffee shop, Cups & Cones along with some beginning of the week chitter chatter. It's the begging and pleading that any mom of a 3 year old is all too familiar with that gets her her cup of ice cream! When I think of my favorite ice cream as a kid, it was always the bubble gum flavor. I'd get a cup and put them all in there eagerly counting my final tally of gumballs. For some reason, when I saw this fabric, it took me back to my bubble gum ice cream days as a kid. These days, I'm not ordering a whole lot of gumball ice cream, but I do enjoy sitting back and watching Elizabeth.

I'm really excited for the holidays but I'm equally excited to get some photos in my new Spring pieces. If we get some cooperative and unseasonally warm weather, I'll post soon.

A glimpse of a new Apron

I just finished one of the new apron skirts I'll be listing come the new year. This one might be the boldest combination of color but also one of my favorites I've made. I wanted to clarify from a few questions that I've received that YES, this is a skirt, not an apron. I guess some of you have been wondering if aprons are making a comeback in the kid world and wondering why the heck I make so many of them. Well, to shed light on the topic, it's really just what this style of skirt is called. Layering is a big trend these days in clothing and this is just another spot to add a layer in the form of an apron on the skirt. Gives us a chance to introduce some more color and add some depth to the piece. It really made me smile to think a few folks thought that one of my specialties was kitchen wear. Very soon, we'll get some modeled photos of the full piece to share.

First Spring sneak

I've got a friend who just moved here who's daughter just brightens my day when I see her. You know the kind, the child that skips instead of walking and they're just a little ray of sunshine. She's a delicate, feminine little girl who loves her cowgirl boots. I always get a kick out of seeing her with her boots on. My first dress for the new year that I'll list was an inspiration from her. The girly girl meets the cowgirl of the South. Here's just a teaser pic of "The Olivia" dress named just for her. The instructions are easy, just add boots and a cute kid! When she models it for me, we'll give you the full snapshot! Lots more on the horizon and more reveals as the days cruise on. I know everyone is shopping for X-mas but just throwing out a few pics of things to come once the holidays come to a close and the new year begins.

Fun new project!

When it comes to fabric selection for new clothing pieces, I'm always drawn to the floral patterns and welcome the colors associated with Spring. I really enjoy when I start seeing all the new prints that are debuting. Decisions, decisions as there are so many fantastic ones to choose from and I've got them trickling in from all over the place. I'm fairly certain I'm on a first name basis with my UPS man at this point as he brings me these fun packages. Like many moms across the globe, I'm drowning in a to do list now that the holidays are in full swing, but every now and then, I just need to stop, to breathe and feed that creative side of me. Why am I rambling????

Well..... I recently crossed paths and had a conversation with an amazing photographer, Scott, from appropriately named, Scott Stater Photography here in the Austin area. Here are a few adorable girls he's photo'd and his site is filled with portfolios of his work. I'm thrilled that he and I are going to carve out a little bit of time and work on a small project together. I'm going to try and sew in fast forward mode and complete some new Spring designs (great time of year to try and do this for this mom of 3!) He's going to photograph them for me and see how we might be able to help each other out. I'm excited to see what photographs he'll capture. Take a peek at his site, he's got mad skills behind the lens so this should be fun!

A new spot on Facebook

I think I finally found the correct spot on Facebook for my business to be listed! Facebook doesn't make it easy to navigate around for the average user trying to create business page. With any luck, this is the correct place and hopefully I filled out the applications correctly to have the blog feed directly there. To go directly to the page, click the photo below. If you are a member on facebook, you can click "become a fan" and you'll be all set. Thank you so much to those who have clicked, others have found me as a result and it's pretty exciting.

I've got new fabrics coming in and hoping to piece together new ideas in the coming weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We are so blessed that we now live in Texas where it's possible to celebrate Thanksgiving with both sides of our family all at one time. Tomorrow, all of the hungry mouths will be coming to our house to give thanks. We are thrilled we can open up our home, have all of our family here with us, and I'm knee deep in preparation for tomorrow. I'm no floral designer but I wanted to try my hand at a centerpiece for the dining room. I played around with this for a while, shifting things around til I found something I was happy with and Voila! The table is set, we've pulled out the china and are looking forward to filling our bellies! I wish everyone a Wonderful Thanksgiving this year.

I can't believe I'm starting to pull these out

Yep, I've started putting away my Fall/Winter fabrics and replacing those fabric bins with the ones that hold the bright and fresh colored fabric for Spring. I'm not really ready for it but we're heading into the cold weather and sewing is a great activity to do during those indoor days. My 2 best assistants are home from school so why not tap into their brains and see what combinations catch their eye. Here's just a quick glimpse of what my all-purpose sewing room even looks like. Isn't the creative process grand? I have no real method to my madness except dumping it all out, seeing what I still have that I've forgotten about and trying to pull some ideas together with the new fabrics I've got coming in. Anyone feel like playing U Design it? Peek through my photo which is just a small display of possible fabrics! Matt thought he'd join me in my room and try to put together an apron skirt for me and quickly learned that it's not as easy as it looks. If you go the matchy route, it follows a pretty simple formula, if you decide to take the "pair random fabric collections and patterns together" it's not as random as you might think but very thought out. He rearranged things and piled different patterns on top of each other in a variety of ways and I still don't know if he settled on what will go where. We'll debut his first piece soon :) I think that's the start of it in the lower right corner of this photo.

Getting reacquainted with a favorite pastime craft!!!

A friend of mine is wonderfully inventive at keeping her kids entertained by scouring the Family Fun magazine and the local stores for activities that register high on the fun factor scale. She tasked all of the girls in our troop to make swaps for our recent camping trip and we did SHRINKY DINKS! Oh did this take me back to being a kid and the magic of this activity hasn't lessened. My kids had so much fun and T had equal amounts of fun at the tender age of the 3 as the girls did. We are often in Hobby Lobby so bought a package of the Shrinky Dink paper and went to town. I honestly didn't know this stuff still existed! We cut a variety of shapes out, decorated them with phrases and pictures and the real fun is had watching them while in the oven shrink, curl up at the edges, then flatten back out to their final size and shape. I forgot how much fun this was and after a few more ideas thrown at us by our troop leader Mrs J, we're going to make some charms for necklaces, ornaments for the tree and whatever else they dream up. So if you find yourself heading into the holidays wondering what list of activities to do with the kids while they're home from school, we can offer unanimous feedback from our house. Shrinkydinks are BIG fun! Biggest hurdle is fighting for a good spot at the oven window. Get a pack of paper and then some fine tip sharpies and you're on your way. If you want to make ornaments, make sure to get a hole punch and punch a hole in them before you shrink them so that little wire will have a spot to be fed through.

A camping we will go...

or I suppose it should say we went! I've been out of pocket since I went with my oldest daughters girl scout troop camping. It was a nice change of pace even though I freely admit, I enjoy bathtubs, my Sealy mattress along with central air and heat. As far as camping is concerned, this is my dream, log cabins not tents!!! They were great accomodations with lots of memories and fun had by everyone. We're all home, back to the daily routine of life and I'm really thinking about the holidays now. I'm taking just a quick short break from "sewing for hire" so that my kids might have a few things themselves. They often wonder why the kids of a mom who sews don't have of the clothes she makes! That's a hard one to argue so we're going to get some things done for them this next week or so.

A new Holiday twirl

Added something on ebay tonight in some more traditional Christmas colors. You can find the listing HERE. Fun, Festive and lots of twirl!

Oldie but Goodie one last time

added on Etsy. Cheeky Santa is back one more time. He is just adorable! I know I'm biased, sort of like a mom about her own kids :) You know you want it for your trip to Santa! My brain is shifting to some new fabrics this week since this week is a bit more normal paced so hopefully I'll be able to post some new sneak peeks. Looking forward to the monotony of routine. I'm like a toddler, I crave a bit of routine paired with a little one on one time with my Bernina machine.

The Design Group I belong to is giving away a Petti!

I'm a member of a sewing design group, The Girlfriends Manor, and we're giving one of these away!
If you've never had one, they are ridiculously fun for photo shoots! We had them last year for our X-mas photos and just loved them. If you've ever wanted to take some photos you'll cherish for a lifetime that have a special punch of fun, these are perfect to wear. I've seen so many gorgeous photos of girls on the beach in the white ones, the red ones during the holidays or at Valentines or just any fun occasion! You can check out some of the professional photos at Oopsy Daisy's site. All you need to do is go to The Girlfriends Manor Blog to leave a comment and you also need to be an active subscriber to the mailing list! Once that's done, you're entered to win, good luck!