Warming Up for Winter!

Yesterday a sewing class student came for class and wanted to make some fleece hats for skiing. She really liked the ones on North Face but of course, being as she is our student her next thought was "why buy the hat? I can make one of these!" We searched online for hat patterns and found the one linked below. It is a great pattern - you can print it out and it only takes about 1/2 hour or less to make (how easy is that?) It really is perfect for your trip to the mountain or playing in your own yard! You can even add embellishments of any kind (buttons, ribbon ect...) or find fleece to match your coat! Anyways, I highly recommend making these for this coming winter season.

Click here for the pattern! 

Doesn't it look really warm and comfortable?

Here's how it should look after you cut it out

This one is for her brother

Oh, and by the way today is Victoria's and my 20th birthday. We are very blessed to be able to teach and be with young girls and be doing a vocation with our mom that we enjoy and can bless others through!

Back to making Instructional Videos...

We are finally back to making instructional sewing and crafting videos for you! My brother Isaac recently bought Victoria and I a new iphone for our birthday! I was so excited when he gave it to me, and couldn't wait to find out how I could profitably use it for my business. Since it has an HD camera we got to work on making some instructional videos. It took us less than an hour to video, edit and publish 2 videos! It was easy and fast. It will also help us to be able to take photos of the projects we are working on so we can post on our blog and flickr more often! Guess what? With this iphone we can download an app for swiping debit/credit cards so we can take them!!! (yah!!! It's kind of embarrassing when someone comes to the shop ready to pay with a card and we have to tell them we don't take it:) If you know of any other great ways to be profitable with the iphone, please let us know! We want to get the most for our money!

Sergeant Peppers is back...

Yes, it's been a while since we've updated. Things have been a little crazy around the shop lately with lots of jobs for special events as well as sewing classes. A few weeks ago we had a request from some little friends of ours (12 and 14 year old boys) to make them replica costumes of Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. They were going to sing some Beatles songs at an upcoming wedding and just had to look the part. We couldn't resist this job! The boys were so excited and couldn't wait to see the costumes come together. Everyday after school they would come over to the shop and check on the progress of their costumes and were thrilled every time. We added our own "designer additions" to the costumes to give them that extra touch of realness. Well, Saturday they performed their songs and I must say, everyone was delightfully surprised at the boy's costumes. All in all it was well worth the time spent to make these costumes. So here are few progress pictures and some of the boys in their costumes. Enjoy!

a little trimmings make these coats sparkle!

very intense ribbon work

one of the boys after school visits to check on the costumes

as you can see they thoroughly enjoyed dressing up!

don't they look like the Beatles

and of course they had to do a typical Beatles pose.

Let us know if you have custom costumes you need made!

Thanksgiving Day Favorites!

Every Thanksgiving without a doubt we always bake delicious cinnamon twists. The recipe originally came from my great aunt Joanna who would make these in the dozens for all the men working at the farm. Well, she let my mom have the recipe and now it's become the family favorite. They are like cinnamon rolls, made with a sweet dough and cinnamon, brown sugar and butter inside except instead of rolling them you fold it in 1/3rds and cut them in strips. Then you twist each strip and place it in a yummy corn syrup coated pan and bake! They are scrumptious, and definitely something you should try for your Thanksgiving party!

Here's the recipe - Enjoy!

Christmas Collection is here...

Being in the clothing industry you always have to think ahead of the seasons. Since it is not winter yet, but needing to get our Christmas line of clothes out, we had to come up with an idea to show "Winter" instead of Fall. We pulled out all of our winter decor and found some huge white sheets to set up as backgrounds. To our benefit we also found a sheet that had snowy sparkles all over it. They were great!

When we had our seventh birthday a good friend of ours gave us a sled. It was the old fashioned kind. We still have it, and I thought it would be great for a prop that the girls could sit on. We also had large pine cones and greenery that worked perfectly. We set it up on the grass so the sled could sink into and make it look more realistic. We were ready to go!

These dresses are all made from designer material and can be custom ordered on our website: www.bellajeanboutique.com

Formal Dresses...a few from our portfolio

This summer a woman came to our shop with her grandmother's wedding dress. The dress was handmade in Germany. It had a high scalloped neck edge and 3/4 length sleeves and was not lined. This bride wanted the dress altered to a strapless dress, a red petticoat, and lining added for her wedding dress. Unfortunately we don't have pictures of the original dress but here are a few from her wedding.

The next dress is a homecoming dress we custom made. Our customer brought in a picture of what she wanted so we designed and created the dress from that. With only 3 weeks to make the dress it was definitely a challenge, but a good one. It turned out beautifully. It's always fun to take on projects that are challenging, we learn more techniques and better ways of doing things.

The skirt of the dress is original - the bodice was made strapless

We added the red sash and petticoat for accents

This is the picture of the dress we were copying

Satin dress with a lace underlay

The dress turned out beautifully and the customer loved it!

Candy Bouquets by Laura

A new product we have added to our boutique shop is candy bouquets by Laura. She artfully creates beautiful bouquets with flowers, ribbons, chocolate and more. They make wonderful gifts for baby showers, birthdays, "get well soon" presents, anniversaries, seasonal centerpieces and more. Laura custom makes each bouquet how you desire it. If you can't think of what to get someone for a present these bouquets are perfect alternative. Here are a few photos showing off her work! Soon she will have an Etsy shop to display these so you can order them!

Here's one for a fall centerpiece

What a great baby shower gift! It's so cute! (the blue balls are chocolate - yummy)

She adds ribbon to enhance the designs

Perfect for a baby girl gift

And yes, there's chocolate in this one too!

for a baby girl (or might I say, for her mother)

They make great Valentine gifts too!