The Handmade Dress

You can find it in the shop here!    

These lovely ladies!!!! Ginny Carter said...   I would love to win a pattern. I have been trying to figure out a neat carry-all to keep my coupon notebook and my "jotting-down-ideas-book" for my Beloveds writing. Then there is my Bibles that I need to corral in one group--well, I could just go on and on and on for things I could use them for instead of the plastic totes that are so ugly.  This in addition to the endless uses as gifts to people.  Okay, I know this is too long. Maybe I need one to store my too many words.  hehe     Ashleigh Davis said...   Definitely to organize the kids toy shelf, then the laundry room, then one for the car, and a few for the garage... This seems like the perfect tool for many of my OCD summer projects.     kristine  said...   I can think of lots of things I would use this bag for! We do have diapers and toys to organize, but the car trunk could use one too...     Heather  Tull  said...   I would love to use this bag for cloth diapers. We have...

I am so excited about this bag pattern! It's so fast and easy and I'm thinking it will be my new go-to gift for brides, mamas, or birthdays! It has a wire rim around the top (which can be made from recycled clothes hangers), nice rounded edges, the main bag is only three pieces so its super quick, and best of all they are sized so that two mini bags can fit perfectly in front of one big bag so it makes organizing easy!   The official description goes like this: This wire rimmed  bag  can help you organize the trunk of your car,  a closet, cloth diapers, a bookshelf, or a toy area. It can go to the beach, the library the grocery store or camping, and when you don’t need it anymore, it will collapse nice and flat out of the way. The Kitchen Sink Bag can hold your knitting, sewing projects, coupons, or a picnic lunch; it’s also a go-to gift for new moms, brides, or bridal parties! Monogram it, appliqué it, add funky fabrics or a few extra pockets, have fun a...

Finally! I have managed to get a pattern out! My girls call this "the fairy dress", but her official name is Miss Penelope. The official description goes something like this: Miss Penelope is the perfect little top or dress for any little fairy to wear! It’s adorable as a top over leggings, jeggings, or jeans; or as a dress it can be worn in any season paired with a top underneath or cardigan. My girls start twirling and hearing “fairy giggles” soon after donning this enchanting dress.   This cute top or dress even looks good in knit! The one shown here is Molly's new favorite dress. Since you need to size down a size or 2 to use knit you can also go up to a size 14-16 too. You can mix it up a bit by using different fabrics for the skirt layers too!  The pattern is in THE SHOP so head on over and take a look! By the way, to properly launch the new pattern we are having a shop wide SALE! Get 20% off of your entire purchase until Friday! ...

 View A is a dress/gown that has the feel of a smocked bishop (but in two hours or less!). The smocking is done using dots, no pleater or fuss. I did this in about 15 minutes. This was the first Miss Violet. I made it when Claire was just a few weeks old. This one is just simple and sweet with no smocking. When I was looking back through antique baby layettes in some of my old books I noticed a lot of peasant style dresses with ties. I loved the simplicity of the soft batiste fabrics and sweet little gathered gowns. Ha! I thought she was chubby then! This will probably be my new go-to baby gift for a while. I am considering taking the sizing up since many of you asked about that. But how old is too old? Maybe it should be just a shirt for older girls? I need to get this nailed down in the next few days so let me know what you think! Thanks friends. :) xo, Sam 

Yeah, I know I'm supposed to start off with View A, but let's mix it up a bit! I'm so excited about this pattern! This pattern will have no buttonholes, plackets, zippers, or gathering.... It can be made with or without the honeycomb smocking (how to included in the pattern).... It is designed to be used with thin fabrics like batiste, voile, etc...It can be made to look very heirloom! FAST! Little girls look adorable in it, and like to wear it. :) So far it is drafted/ graded from newborn to 18 months. Now I need your help mamas! Speak now or forever hold your peace! Gimmee some feedback.....What do you think? What would you change? What do you want to know? xo, Sam

Ben gave me the go ahead to show off the shop ! It should be much easier to navigate now that it has been redone, and Mac users should be able to shop now too! The last website was a mess, thanks to me. :) Ben took this project over a few weeks ago and I think he has done a really good job. I love the way it turned out! So to bribe some of you to try it out and be our guinea pigs we are offering 20% off for the next 5 days. All you have to do is use the coupon code "blog friends" at checkout. If you encounter any hiccups just email Ben at ben@thehandmadedress.com . Now for the really exciting part! Ben added a forum to the new site! I'm so excited about this! I can't wait for you guys to join, we can have our little virtual sewing circle and share sewing projects now. I'll get to hear about all of your projects for a change! I'm still learning how it works, but the only real way to get the kinks ironed out is to dive in! So head on over ...

I didn't mean for it to take me so long to post about market, but home just felt so good when I first got here and then life threw us a few curve balls....and well, now it's Thursday.  Dawn and I had so much fun! It was all so overwhelming and wonderful at the same time. We stayed up late, got up early, ate food that we didn't cook and didn't have to clean up after! We walked to Starbucks EVERY morning and ate chocolate without sharing! We talked and giggled and dreamed and got inspired. We had a blast and I miss her already!  I decided to tell you about one of my favorite moments of market first....Meeting Anna Maria ! I always thought from reading her blog that she would be such a sweet and down-to-earth mama, and believe it or not, she was even better than I ever imagined! She is such an inspiration, really. She has really MADE IT doing what she loves to do and her family is still her main focus...and to me that's the best kind of success! Thi...

This is a Miss Claire in quilters cotton, you can see the shape is much different than the one I posted yesterday. It's the same pattern, but the weight of the fabrics make a big difference! It stands out so nicely in the quilting fabric. Miss Claire looks pretty cute with that $5 T-shirt too (gotta love that). Molly has requested several more of these skirts for summer (I guess the four she already has isn't enough) and since it doesn't even take an hour to whip one up, I'm in. Maddie wants one with the top like sissy's Easter dress because she wants to be a big girl and wear a skirt to church. Hmmm. I didn't realize that skirts were a "big girl" thing, did you? Well according to Maddie, they are. We are going to need to go fabric shopping soon, Mama's stash is dwindling quick! Summer sewing, how I love thee.....

Because you are always here when I need a good opinion! Thanks gals! I decided to do a little sneak giveaway for all of your help. When I started this post there were 22 comments and the Random Number was 7, that's Amy ! Amy, email me at mamacaffee@hotmail.com and tell me what pattern you would like to own. And for everyone else, I'm going to make that little floral design an embroidery download today and I'll have it up by tomorrow. Let me tell you what I picked. I agreed with most of you, that the first and last were the best for all areas, but that the second one was cute because of the color, so I did both. Whatever I picked had to be lightened to represent the wrong side anyhow, so I chose the top one for the wrong side and the last brighter one for the right side. I like it! I also printed it out in black and white last night and it looked good. They show up in different shades of gray and the outline shows up in black, so it was...

I'm still trying to decide on a color scheme for the illustrations! I think I've narrowed it down to these three variations, but I'm tired of thinking about it. What do you think? I hate when I get hung up on the little details because it keeps me from getting the real work done. But then, the details are the fun part aren't they? I think this one is my favorite. I really like this one too, but I'm afraid that the details will get lost in all of the colors....I really like the colors though. Then there is this one, and now that I'm showing you I'm wondering what I liked about this one in the first place... Can you see how bad I need you? Which one do you like best? Edited to add: How do you like this? It's brighter but you can still see the details well. I think it's probably my favorite so far. Better?

I have been so impressed lately with the pretty dresses (and variations) coming through our Flickr  group, and being blogged about! You guys are awesome! When I saw this picture for the first time all I could do was smile! Kymy  was so sweet to let me share these pictures of her girls in their Miss Mary Easter dresses! Aren't they sweet?! This confirms my belief that twins  make everything sweeter. Here she shortened the Miss Madeline into a shirt and paired it with leggings. So stinkin cute! I came across this dress on Flickr. Can you guess what pattern this is? Trina  made this dress using the Miss Lily pattern and just left out the bubble! It looks like a completely different dress doesn't it?! Now does this look like an ad for Target or what? Alisa  let me share this picture of her daughter in a Miss Mary on a red bike...it's just so perfect in every way. Those gals over on Flickr have some really cute ideas, I love the ...

These are the first two "test runs" for the newest pattern! Let me tell you a little bit about it.....there are pleats on the bodice... ...it wraps in the back (I'm keeping my promise of no plackets, buttonholes, or zippers in my patterns)... (the scratched up face is from an awesome bike wreck she had this week) ...it ties on the sides with either ribbon or a fabric sash (it also looks nice on the older girls just knotted), the front of the skirt is flat and the gathers start on either sides of the pleats.... ...and it's long with and heirloom feel, but it also makes an adorable shirt. This one hasn't been hemmed yet, but I really like the look of an unhemmed dress! I'm always tempted to leave them this way and just let the girls go outside to run and pick flowers in them! Isn't that silly? It's like the hem is what makes it too dressy to run in or something. These dresses were made out of two old worn ou...