First Lady Ball Gowns in the Smithsonian

Mamie Eisenhower's Inaugural ballgown dress

Martha Washington's Dress

Painted Silk Dress

Today we went to the American History Smithsonian museum and went through the section with all the First Ladies' inaugural ball gowns. They were amazing. Every single one was designed very intricately with lots of beading and lace.

It's Vacation Time!

Today starts the first day of our vacation. We flew to Ohio yesterday and got here in the late evening. I love Ohio with all the amazingly large farms and the peaceful atmosphere. We were early this morning exploring my great uncle's large farm and corn fields. We've been doing yard work at my Grandpa's house and just relaxing. Here are a few photos of the day so far. Enjoy!

To see more about our trip visit: www.historyexperience.blogspot.com

A Bag for our Vacation Trip

First of all we started a new blog for our vacation. You can stay updated with lots of nice photos and videos. Feel free to become a follower!

While we were at Fabric Depot we picked up some material and a pattern for a tote bag for our vacation. I've always liked Amy Butler bag patterns and her material. So I decided to splurge a bit and buy only the best! Tonight was the night for creating our perfect traveling bag. Victoria and I stayed late at work making our bag til it was complete - here's the progress pictures and the finished product!

 It fits our laptop perfectly and has a small pocket for a cell phone!

Our Toy Store!!! - (aka Fabric depot)

Saturday we got to go to our favorite toy store. In Portland, OR there is an extremely large fabric store called Fabric Depot. It covers about 1 1/2 acres and is filled with the most beautiful fabrics from designer cottons to gorgeous silks. We've been trying to make it a habit to go down there (it's 2 hours from where we live) about every other month when they have their 35% off sale, which is one weekend out of each month. On Saturday my mom, older sister Naomi and we took the excursion down to Portland. Arriving at Fabric Depot we hurried in and began to scavenge this huge store looking for cute fall cottons for our children's fall apparel along with lots of other fabircs. Someday if you get the chance you'll have to take a shopping trip there (plan it to be a couple hours at least!) It has everything you'll need if you sew (lots of trimmings, home decor fabric and notions, fabric and more!).

 Lots of fabrics to choose from (where to begin?)

 As you can see our cart was loaded with fabrics (looks a little messy)

 You can't go to Portland without seeing the Rose Garden (so here we are relaxing on a bench in the middle of it - in the 95 degree weather)

Little Red Riding Hood...Our Costume Collection

After last years great success in selling our Little Bo Peep costume we decided that this year we would make a Little Red Riding Hood costume to add to our collection. We got to work. On Friday I started and yesterday I finished it up, quickly ran over to a friends house who had the perfect aged little girl and took some photos! They turned out great and I hope everyone desires this costume for this year's Halloween.

 She loved this costume and didn't want to take it off after the photo shoot!

How to sew a French Seam...

Here is a video we made in just 1 hour yesterday. In it you will learn how to French Seam. This is a very practical skill when sewing with sheer fabrics such as, organza or chiffon. It is a very nice way of finishing seams, although it does take some extra time. In the long run though, you will be very happy you learned how to French Seam.


I love making these 1 min. videos. I hope you learn a lot from them!

Jump into Fall...

I know, it's only August...but it's time to pull all of our fall clothing out, and begin sewing new fall clothes. After looking through everything we had we realized we could get some great photos if we had a few little girls and their friends playing together. I love spontaneous shots a lot better then "posed stand stills". Since everyone loves our chickens, pond and yard we decided it was the perfect location! Here are some of the many pictures we took.

 These are great jumpers for the school days!

 This was our first smocked dress we have ever made!

Our Smocked Dress - FINISHED!!!

Yes, we finished our first smocked dress. Actually, we finished it a while ago but just never got a chance to take the photos. We gave this dress to our friend Leah because she has always told us how much she loves smocked dresses for her daughters. So as a gift for Daisy's 2nd birthday we surprised her with the dress. There is something about the look of smocked dresses that you can't find in others. They are so sweet on little girls. Daisy loved playing with the chickens so it set the perfect scene for the photos. Let us know if you have any other good ideas to add to our next smocked dress!

Oh, and thanks to Martha Liska, Victoria and I learned how to smock in just two classes!