Boat Makeover

About a week and a half ago a returning customer called us up and wanted us to recreate the bedrooms in his boat. The only catch was that he wanted them by today. We couldn't turn this opportunity down. The theme for the design of the bedrooms was nautical, blue and white with a little red accents. Bethany at Kirks Korner Embroidery digitized our designs and embroidered all of the pillows. It was so much fun to design the rooms with each element adding it's part to the decor. 

Here's a look at the boat we were working on.

Embroidery in the making!

getting started on the cushions

 Of course every job isn't going to go perfectly as planned and this one definitely didn't but we did learn alot of good things about communication in business that will help us alot  in the future.

 Last night we worked until 11:45 and this is how it looked at the end of the night.

This morning and afternoon we finished up the job and installed it all this evening. The finished product looked amazing and the customer loved it!

ROOMS BEFORE:

 ROOMS AFTER

Room 1 - COMPLETED!

Room 2 - COMPLETED!

a closer look

So Much Happening...

There's been so much happening lately it's hard to keep up on blogging! Just a little update of what's going on!

We've been creating about 4 different pageant outfits.

We are starting some custom bedding for the inside of a boat.

We've got another custom dress just starting that is 150 steps long but will be gorgeous when completed.

And there's stacks of alterations

All this to happen by July 3rd - so don't be too surprised if there's not an update until then!

Portland Adventures...

On Friday morning at 7am Victoria, my mom and I started our trip down to Portland, OR. Yes, we were going to Fabric Depot again (and some other fabric stores). 
Our first stop was EE Schenk. This is a wholesaler's warehouse full of all sorts of fabrics, notions, and patterns for sewing and quilting. 

EE Schenck

 After about an hour we met up with Cherie and some other friends and all ventured off together to the Fabric Depot. For the next couple of hours we gathered all sorts of fabrics and trims. We went with quite a long list for specific jobs but also got extra fabric for some children's clothing. We found everything we needed which was quite a relief! Next we headed to the Taylor's for a scrumptious lunch in the sun!

Fabric Depot

Lots of Elastic Lace

 After some of the ladies took off back home, we decided to take a walk along the boardwalk with our sister Naomi and Faith. On a sunny day this is definitely a "must do" in Portland. It was so beautiful! We stopped at a little ice-cream shop and got a double-scoop ice-cream cone. If you want a full portion of ice-cream this is the place to go. Their scoops were huge! I couldn't even finish it. Later we went out to dinner with Sarah then to another friend's house for games...

By the River in Portland

Delicious Ice Cream!

mmm...

 We rested up on Saturday and went fabric shopping again. This time we went to the Mill End first...if you are looking for a wide variety of silks, brocades, wools, jean and homespun fabrics, this is the place to go! Then we went to Fabric Depot again...(we just can't get enough of it!)

The Mill End

The Mill End

 Later we went to a cupcake shop and out to coffee with Elena. It was so nice to be able to fabric shop with a wide variety, and to spend time with our friends in Portland...

Ver, Elena, Vic

The Ride Home

How to Sew a Binding on A blanket...

Here's an instructional video that teaches how to sew a satin binding onto a blanket. It is very simple to do so you can make cuddly blankets and even give them away as gifts. Let us know if you have any questions about it!

What went on this week!

This week we had a lot of orders for little children's clothing. A few baby dresses, one 8 yr. old dress and one toddler pageant dress. It's been a while since we had this many children's clothes to make in a week because mostly we either do alterations or custom adult clothing. Besides the little dresses we also had two custom women's dresses we made, a maternity jean skirt, doll dresses and a few other little things. It was definitely a cranking week and that's the way we like it. It was so much fun setting goals for ourselves everyday and trying to beat each goal. I think it helped us get more accomplished! 

All the little dresses we made!

Here you can really tell how small the dolls are!

Taffy Pulling

In the old days groups of people would get together and do taffy pulls. It was the time to enjoy being with your friends and getting to eat delicious taffy! Well, last night we did our own little taffy pull. We were just experimenting with it because we hadn't done it since we were little but I think it would be fun this summer to get together with some people and do a big taffy pull.


We tried out peppermint flavoring with pink food coloring. Maybe tonight we will try some root beer flavor, then we will have pink and brown for our shop!


The only ingredients you need are:
Light Corn Syrup
Sugar
Vinegar
Food Coloring
Flavoring
Candy Thermometer

Eloise was helping us sew yesterday! She really liked the buttons :-)

Garage Sale Find...Recovering Chairs

For a very long time we had been searching for chairs to put in our shop that we could use for meeting with customers or if sewing class mothers wanted to sit and read during lessons they could. We also wanted to make sure they matched our decor (antique looking...) A few months back we went to a garage sale and saw two matching chairs. The fabric was very ugly but the chairs were sturdy and just the style we were looking for! We got them for $25 each! We immediately set out to recover them. About 3 weeks later we had them finished up and they look so beautiful in our shop!

Before we got started :)

See all those gold tacks? Each and every one had to come out before new fabric got put on

One evening we worked on them!

Here's what they look like now that they're completed!

Just a Reminder that You're All Invited!!!

I just wanted to remind you all that you're invited to our open house tomorrow and Friday from 10:00am to 5:00pm. You won't want to miss the good refreshments and the discount too!