A Nursery Makeover

We had the fun of doing a makeover of a room for our  brand new niece.  What fun that was!

 I bought plaques that I painted and also wooden letters that I painted and glued to the plaques.

And I stapled ribbon to the back to hang them up.  Pretty simple for a nice look.

I made the bumpers just like you would make a pillow and stuffed it with stuffing.  The piping adds a nice look to it.  This was also very simple.

 For this wall decor, I bought fancy frames at the craft store and painted them.

The curtains before the valance was added.

And the valance.  A simple box pleat. It gives an elegant look.

Hanging Curtains with Grommets

There are several ways to hang curtains.  There are casings, tabs, rings, etc.  On these curtains, we put in grommets.  It makes for a nice neat look.

Havilah is preparing the curtains for the grommets.

You must make sure your measurements are accurate.  Once you cut, there's no going back.

 How nice does that look?

 Isaac, our construction man, is hanging the rods.

 All hung.  These were quite large curtains to go on these doors and windows.

 This gives a very orderly look.

A Fine Finish on Wedding Gowns

When altering wedding gowns, much of it can be hand sewing.  Even in this day and age when sewing machines do much of the work, there are still times when sewing by hand is still needful for a fine finish on a gown.

Emily, our assistant, is doing some of that work on one of the many gowns we have done this summer.

The recent happenings of Bella Jean...

Good Morning Everyone! Glad to be back with you on our blog.... Its been some time since we've done a post, but that means lots to show you with what has been happening around Bella Jean.

In the last months we have been working on quite the assortment of jobs that have been creative and exciting for us.
From custom bridesmaid dresses to custom curtains, to girls dance dresses, our work has been unique, challenging and exciting. I can't wait to take on more custom jobs for you that will help make you or your home different than any other.

In the meantime we have also tackled a few DIY projects for our shop and nieces (who we also have been teaching to sew!)

Custom Bridesmaid Dresses

Patches added and coat steamed

Custom dining seat cushions

Custom Curtains for a wall of windows

Re upholstery done by sub contractor

Custom dance tutu!

Our ruffling technique being added to the tutu

Teaching our Nieces to sew!

Before- tv cabinet to be turned into a play kitchen

After- kitchen for the nieces

Wedding Gown Alterations

For the past several months we've had an array of wedding gowns come through our shop. We've done many different alterations to each gown. Each dress is very unique in style to every other one but it makes it fun to work on each dress.

Embroidery Hoop Nursery Decor

Since my new niece, Juliet was recently born we wanted to make her a set of embroidery hoops with her name on them for her nursery. Here's a step by step tutorial on how we made them. 

First, if you don't want the original wood color of the embroidery hoops you can paint them. We painted ours white.

 Before printing the letters you have to decide the layout order of the embroidery hoops because they will be different sizes. Next, print out each letter according to the size of the embroidery hoop it will be going on.

Cut out each letter.

Pick your fabrics and trace with chalk on the wrong side of the fabric around the embroidery hoop. Cut 3/4" past your marking line.

 Here I've cut almost all the fabrics.

 Cut out each letter with fabric and fusible interfacing. Fuse the interfacing onto the letter. Pin the letter in the center of your fabric circle and stitch an 1/8" in from the edge of the letter. We are creating a raw edge applique.

 Put your fabric in the embroidery hoop and trim the excess material away. You are now finished!

Here's what all our letters look like in the end.

Learning to Sew at an Early Age!

Eloise, our niece loves to come into our shop and watch us sew. She has been learning to say so many new words latetly so it's fun to hear her talk. Here's a little video of her talking away with us in the shop the other day.