Christmas Special... Little Girls Dresses...

Merry Christmas Everyone!
As a special for this week, I wanted to share with you some of our Christmas dresses, and a comfy sherpa coat that any girl would love for snowy days!

I love playing with fun sparkly fabrics, that make a little girl want to twirl all day!
So, without further ado... here they are!

Christmas Home Decor...Tips and Tricks!

I have so much fun decorating for the seasons. Before beginning the seasonal change, i always decide what "theme" I am going for. This helps me stay on track and not get too over whelmed with ideas or clutter. So for this winter I decided to go with the Pacific Northwest rustic theme.

I started by looking at a lot of pictures... Then you want to look at the areas in your house and decide what can be decorated that is bare, or what will people see throughout the room when they come in, and what be overly cluttered. In my house I have my "go-to" areas: the mantle, tops of side cabinets in my living room, the piano in my family room, the dining table, and my entryway hutch. Notice all of these areas are not just in the same room. I want to have my seasonal decor tastefully in each room of the living space. Also each of these areas are flat top open spaces.

Next we begin to accumulate all our goodies from the past year, and decide where we need new and fresh pieces. This year I did my spending on the greenery, since in the past I hadnt done too much greenery.
I also got an old window I collected a couple years back, for about $10. Look around your house, garage, shop and woods for anything that can be used, without having to spend a penny! Because we all know how much it can add up!

I then saw lots of ideas with logs and candles, so I went out to my log pile and found a few! I cut them to my length, drilled a few holes, and popped some candles in. For my center piece on my dining table, I did the same idea, but laid the log sideways and drilled the holes.

Opposites attract in decorating, so with the rustic I knew a little bit of the crackled silver glassware would be the finishing touch! It helps balance the look, without it being too overboard on glassware, or too overboard on logs and green!

You always want to stand back and try to balance out your decor. If you have an arrangement of flowers or foliage, then have a shorter candle and a medium frame, like on the piano. This is pleasing to the eye, without everything matchy matchy.

Last but not least, I love changing out my pillows with the seasons. Its pretty inexpensive, if you reuse your forms and just make new covers with zippers! I like to warm rooms up with texture, so I found a fur blanket at Marshall's for $20- I cut it into 7 18"-20" pillows! You cant beat that price on material! I then bought some cheap but beautiful sweaters, and cut them into two pillows each! Also about $3 a piece for materials. This adds a cozy feel to our living room! 

Anyways, hope this helps you with your decorating! Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions :)

Merry Christmas to you all!

Custom Crib Bedding...

Recently, we sewed crib bedding for a friend who was preparing to have her first child.  She was looking for a classy design using the neutral colors of taupe and cream.

The materials we used were from Ty Pennington...  
Home Decor Impressions Tudor Taupe
Home Decor Impressions Lace Taupe

For the design we took a basic crib bumper look, added a solid taupe ruffle around the whole top edge. We then made the ties about 1 1/2" wide so they would tie a classy bow. For the crib sheet and one side of the blanket we used a cream minky material. Minky is super soft so it is very nice for babies. The crib skirt we made a three tiered ruffle all the way around, using the three coordinating materials. 

As in most designs you never want to stick with just one material, it is always nice to have three materials that coordinate nicely. This creates a pleasing yet balanced look!

Heirloom Christmas Party Dresses...

The last couple of weeks we have been sewing up some Christmas party dresses. The thing I loved about both the styles we made, was that they were heirloom dresses. What I mean by that is, they have unique details that you would see on a lot of dresses in the olden days.

Pintucks on the bodice, with hand embroidery over top, dupioni silk, flat piping on the collar, sleeves and bodice, and buttons down the back instead of a zipper.

On the second dress, we made it of a chiffon bodice, with elegant long sleeves, and a cuff with lace and buttons. The collar is edged in the same lace as a the cuff, and the buttons down the center front complete the look. The skirt is made of a suiting material that has a rose velvet print over top.

All the details on these dresses display a vintage look, that is appealing to the modern eye.

A Fall Dress, Cozy hats, new furniture!

Lately at Bella Jean we have been working on some fun fall items. We are making a custom dress for a customer. The unique thing about this dress is, it looks like a skirt and blouse, but it is really a dress! Corduroy is a great fabric for these fall days. It's soft and has great texture with the lines.

Knitting is also a nice hobby for these dark chilly evenings. The other night we made a hat for a friend. We used organic cotton yarn, which is super soft and has a wavy texture. It also is more eye catching to use different colors on one hat, so we used cream and pink, as well as a variegated yarn to spice it up. To top it off we added a large flower for the side. I think Maddie likes her hat!

We also acquired a new piece of furniture...It is another great little work station!

A Stylish Upgrade...

A few weeks ago, we were trying to figure out a good way to display our ribbons and lace, but also make them easily accessible. After looking at many pictures online of ideas, we finally decided on the design. Off we went with our brother to Home Depot.

We got 2 wall mounts, a piece of smooth plywood for the top, some dowels, and a nice trim for the edge of the shelf to finish it off.

It's so easy even you can do it! Just paint everything, measure and put it up! I love how it turned out, and all the colors of ribbon draw you to it.

Painting

On a side note...Here is something we just finished for a customer, it is for a first birthday. I think it's a cute idea for any little boys first birthday!

The front of the onesie...

The back of the onesie...

Alphabet Bean Bags...

Recently one of our customers requested some alphabet bean bags for her toddler. What a great idea! I pulled out 26 different scrap fabrics from our bins and began cutting squares. I then had our embroiderer put the letters on with the applique embroidery method. We used felt for the middle of the letters. Each one looked so nice, and unique in its own way.

They are now going to be for sale, so if you have children that you would like to start learning the alphabet let us know and we can make you a custom set!