The Handmade Dress

:: The Caffee children were taken to be spoiled and coddled at Granny's house. :: The mama and daddy are to stay at home ALONE. :: The rules are: It's just like vacation, mama don't cook, mama don't clean, and mama and daddy get to sleep as late as they want. :: No phone, no email, no business....unless they want to. :: The only things mama and daddy eat will be things that WERE NOT PREPARED BY MAMA!!!! Glory halleluiah!! :: Mama finally gets to see all of those movies that people are always saying "What? You've never seen that? Where have you been?!" about. :: Daddy gets to google until his little heart is content, and mama gets to catch up on all of those blogs that she never has time to read. :: Mama gets her very own eight pack of the cute little bottles of her beloved Diet Sunkist!!!! Oh, and Dove Chocolate! :: Daddy gets a whole box of Chicken in a Biskits. I'll be here show-doggin on the couch until Monday evening. I like s...

So can you stand it? I know I may sound prejudice, but seriously, this has to be the cutest set of twins on the planet! Lily is in the purple "Miss Lily" dress, and Iris is in the "Miss Alice". These two angels just melt me! They call me "Pantha". Most of my friends and family call me Sam, but Ben's brother's name is Sam too, so to curb any confusion I started calling myself "Aunt Mantha" to them. "Mantha" is what all of the Caffee kids started off calling me so I thought it would be easy for them too, but they changed it! I'm "Pantha" and proud of it! LOL! My brother Simon is "Himon"! LOL! I guess I should mention the trunk show now....not as much fun to talk about, but I guess I should! (Fabric # 646) All of the fabrics are from Fabric Finders. If you've never tried their fabric before you are really missing out, it's top notch! The day they delivered all of th...

Jenny! From Petalz and Finz! Thank you all so much for playing along! It was so much fun reading through all of your sweet comments. I was also thrilled with the response to Miss Mary! Thanks friends! xoxo, Samantha PS. I'll be back tomorrow with a cuteness overload....Lily and Iris (my twin nieces) modeled the dresses from my trunk show for me! Oh my goodness those curly headed girls are angelic! I can't stand them!

You know how important it is to me to be able to provide feminine, modest, yet stylish patterns for our older girls...well as far as Molly and Mary (my 12 year old sis-in-law) are concerned, this version of Miss Mary is a winner! View B is a skirt that is slightly A-line instead of gathered. Molly likes it so much that she's already begging to wear it Sunday to church, that's a really good sign! It sort of reminds me of the shirtwaist dresses that I've read about in my Grace Livingston Hill novels. In dressy fabric it could be quite elegant, no? Now I will explain some of the particulars that I sort of skipped in my excitement yesterday! Miss Mary has a lined bodice, but not skirt. It could easily be made reversible by adding a skirt to the lining, it would use up a good bit of fabric, but you would have the option nonetheless. The front skirts overlap almost completely so that modesty can be maintained, even with very active young maidens. There...

Isn't she lovely?!  Oh, I'm so happy with her!  Little Miss Mary is a quick and easy sew too! I think I've said this before, but I really mean it this time, I think she's my favorite! Just you wait until you see View B....I think our older maidens will really like it. Miss Mary will have a size range of 6 mo-4 and 5-12 yrs. Let me know what you think! It's now or never, give us some feedback, I promise I always listen!

Hello friends! Lot's of new and exciting things are going on here at The Handmade Dress loft! We have several new shops that have just started carrying our patterns, we are about to send off our very first trunk show, we have new business phone numbers for Ben and I (I'll give you those at the end of this post), and a new design is in the works! During the next week I will be showing off all of the sweet dresses that are heading out for the trunk show, in beautiful Fabric Finders fabrics, and I may even be able to give you a peek at the newest "Miss" pattern that should be finished in March. With all of this exciting pattern talk going on I decided to giveaway an entire set of our patterns (that's 8 patterns!) to one of you! All you have to do is leave a happy comment (anything nice or funny will do just fine), with your name and email and I will let the random generator choose the winner on Thursday morning. UPDATE: Anyone can enter, I don't care where you...

Just moments ago we woke suddenly to loud thunder and lightning. Maddie was stirring so I scooped her up and kissed her sleepy little face, she put her tiny arms around me and squeezed....then, with a sleepy voice she said "When I sleep with my Sissy, she holds me and kisses me too, and I kiss her back." "Really?" I said "Why?" asking just to hear her little voice again "Because we love ashother!" she said with a sleepy smile "Because why?" I asked, again, this time just to hear that word again “Because we love ashother!” she repeated “Well what about Mama?” I questioned as I kissed her again “We love ashother too!” she answered with a smile, that I could hear in her tiny voice. Thinking about it now I'm almost sad.....Why do they have to grow up and learn to say things right?! I may never get to hear that little made up word again, or I may get to hear it for only another week or so, but I already miss it. Before long she will ...