Classes and Dresses and Talent, oh my!

I finally remembered to take pictures of my awesome sewing class!  I am SO proud of these kids!  They are so talented.  Everyone finished their projects (well, almost - one is close to done and she'll finish on Monday) and these kids are SO creative!  The beginners improved so much in just 4 days.  You could actually see a difference in their work as the days went on.  I am super excited that most of them will be in my other sessions!

This is what the studio looks like.  It is PACKED.  But everyone has a good time. 

Look what some of the kids made!  

This was her second project, and her FIRST time sewing ever!  She made this super cute apron!! 

Not only did Brookelyn make this awesome pillow, she also made the pajama pants she's wearing!  It was her first time sewing, too! 

This is one of my more advanced students.  She is AWESOME!!  She made this super cute polka dot pencil skirt.  I want her to hurry up and turn 16 so I can hire her to sew with me!  

I'll keep you posted on what we make next week. I'm pretty excited, I have some fun things planned!! 

Aside from classes, I worked on the pioneer dresses for Art Needlework Shop in Nauvoo.  I made 3 sample dresses.  They're more than dresses, they're ensembles. Each dress comes with a bonnet and bloomers.  2 styles have aprons.  All of them are high quality and super cute!  When we were in Nauvoo, I didn't see anything as well made or cute as these ensembles are.  I'm not just boasting about it - it's true.  That's one of the reasons I was so happy to make these cute little outfits.  Because in all of Nauvoo, there's nothing this cute! Until now.  So, if you're going to Nauvoo, stop into Art Needlework Shop and say hi!  

Shandi finished this cute little dress by sewing the little rosettes down the front.  This dress is seriously SO cute!  

This is  actually pink and purple.  The apron is off white with green and blue muted colored flowers on it.  The colors in the picture are SO off.   But it's still super cute! 

This is the dress Shandi was "wearing" above.  SO DARLING!  

And here's the last design.  All of them have ruffles and lace and extra cuteness.  I'll let you know if I get more orders for these adorable dresses!  

Until then, I need to get back on track with Princess Amerah outfits and Charlie Brown.  Keep and eye out for some excessive awesomeness this coming week!  I also need to make myself a new backpack... I might just show you that as well.  Unless it comes out ugly.  Then forget I even said anything.  

Happy Sewing! 

I Miss Routine

Soooo... I really love my life right now, but I really miss the routine we had going a couple weeks ago. With the littles home from school it's hard to accomplish all I need to do with work - without feeling like a horrible parent.  So, between filling cups with milk and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I've been up to some new, and fun things.

The second week of sewing class ends tomorrow.  AND  I'm so super lame I keep forgetting to take pictures.  I have 8 kids in my class, and they are all so talented and creative!!  They've made skirts, pillows, pajama pants, back packs and tote bags. (not everyone, just some have made several things, others work on their own projects).  Today, after class my daughter and her friend were upstairs making things for their stuffed animals.  I was sewing in my work room and I heard Rachel ask her friend if she wanted to hand sew something.  The friend said, "do you do that with the sewing machine?"  Classic.

You may be wondering what I was working on!  Well, I'm going to tell you even if you weren't wondering.  I finished up the first outfit for Princess Amerah.  It looks like this:

The skirt is a full circle skirt with a full circle skirt attached petticoat.  The underskirt has the fancy gathered lace around the edges that sticks out.  Fancy lace picture here:

As you can see, it's longer in the back than in the front.  Princess Amerah received it today and is thrilled with her new look!  Which makes me happy because I like to make people happy.  

Between that, having family in town for the weekend (what an AWESOME weekend it was! ) and the crazy task of taking family pictures (don't worry, I"ll post those when I have them), my friend told me about her horrible experience with a dressmaker.  Her girls are in the Cinderella pageants and they have a huge pageant this week.  Well, she went to pick up the costumes she had custom made and they were all messed up.  Badly.   I offered to help her and was happy to do what I could to salvage the mess the other seamstress made.  I don't know the other lady, and I'm sure she is really good at whatever she does but wow.  I have NEVER seen such a disaster.  The linings didn't match up to the garment, things were uneven and just crazy.  So, I just want to say that if I've EVER messed anything up I did for anyone please let me know so I can make it right.  Because I will.  Once they were off to the pageant I got back on track with my own projects. Well, kind of....  

I received a call from a little boutique in Nauvoo, Illinois.  One we had shopped at a couple years back when we went to Nauvoo.  When we were there I left my business card for the owner of the shop.  Well, guess what?!?  She called me and asked me to make some sample pioneer dresses for her to sell in her shop.  I'm making 3, in 3 different sizes, colors and styles.  The first one is almost done.  I need to hurry up and get the next 2 done pronto and send them out.  I also need to work on the Princess's costumes AND I have 2 shows that need my attention.  Whew.  

This is one of the dresses, lots and lots of ruffles and lace.  Plus apron, bloomers and bonnet.  Um hum - serious cuteness!  I'll post pics of all 3 outfits before I send them out.  

AND... just when you thought I was all caught up with the skinny... tonight I was honored to attend my first production meeting for Little Shop of Horrors at Theatre Works. 

 Seriously a LONG drive, but everyone is SO super nice and I'm pretty excited to work on the show.  I also get to make the soft parts of the plant.  YAY!   Actually there are 4 Audrey II puppets to make.  :)  and a TON of cute, very bright outfits for the cast.  Oh, and a goth/punk dentist.  Yup, life is good.  Now, can someone PLEASE make the days a little longer???  

Maggie, The Best Dog in the World

It's a sad time at the Wardrobe.  If you've been here, you've met Maggie.  She is the sweetest, and smartest dog I've ever met.  BUT when someone comes to the door, she will bark like she's going to eat you for breakfast.  And, if you come in the house uninvited, or try and scare the kids, she will protect us with everything she's got.  Maggie is the best.  She is my friend, and my buddy.  Maggie passed away yesterday.  And my heart is breaking.  This is a tribute to Maggie May, who will forever live in my heart.

10 years ago we bought little Maggie.  She was curious and brave, and we soon found out she was VERY smart.  Maggie never liked to be left alone.  She was a person in a dog costume.  Once, when we went on a trip and left her with a house/dog sitter she ate the couch.  Seriously people - ate the couch.  (now the couch has been reupholstered and is all fixed).

When she was two she gave birth to 11 cute little puppies.  On my living room carpet... but I'm just grateful we got her off the couch.  She was a trooper and such a great mommy.  Maggie was so curious about all of her little babies.  She was so smart that frequently, in the night she would somehow let her babies out of the kennel they all shared (it was a BIG kennel) and let them poop in the family room.  Then she'd somehow get them all back to the kennel to refuel.  We have no idea how she did that, but she did.  Some mornings we'd wake up to loads of puppy poop all over and Maggie on the outside of the kennel, but her babies on the inside.

Maggie is so smart she could open the doors in our home.  We frequently had to leave the front door locked because she could open it.  One time, our friend Andy came to fix our A/C.  We were out for the day, so he was here working on it alone.  He came in to use the bathroom and while he was mid-pottying, he saw the door handle moving and the door opening.  Of course he thought we were home and walking in on him.  Andy started freaking out until the door opened and it was Maggie.  This story will always make me laugh.  Another time last summer I went out to get the mail.  Maggie wasn't happy that I didn't take her with me and when I got back to the door she had locked me out.  Seriously people, this dog is smart.  I stood there at the door looking through the window asking her to let me back in.  She actually SMILED at me like she knew exactly what was going on.  I decided it was time to go around back and crawl through the doggie door. As I walked away to open the gate Maggie opened the door for me.  She was so proud of herself.  Silly Maggie.
                                  

As most of you know, we have a huge family.  We often didn't notice if a friend was at the dinner table.  On several occasions Maggie (and her buddy Peter) would sit in the chairs at the table like people, waiting for their people dinner to be served.  Because they were so well behaved at the table, honestly we didn't notice there were dogs at the table until we took a double take.  Of course we didn't let them eat at the table, but they made some valiant efforts - and they made us laugh.

Little Miss Maggie loved car rides.  She'd ride shotgun whenever we'd let her.  She took the littles to school with me every morning.  Maggie would sit in the seats like a person and was super well behaved.  She was always smiling in the car.

I will miss my car ride buddy.  I'll miss looking over and seeing her smiling face. 

Maggie would hug me when I was sad, she would listen to me.  She would keep us safe.  Maggie would do anything I asked her to do, but not much what others asked her to do.  Maggie LOVED food.  She is the master pizza stealer.  She'd steal pizza right out of your hand if you were looking the other way.  It's not her best quality, but it was her.  Maggie was more than a doggie, she was my friend.  Maggie loved me, and I love her.

This morning I knew she wouldn't be here to say good morning.  Our house will never be the same, but she will always live in our hearts.  She has forever changed us for the better.  We love you, Maggie May.  You're the BEST doggie in the whole world.   Daddy said it best last night - Maggie is one of a kind.  There will never be another Maggie, and there was never one before her.  Rest well, Maggie May.

Little Shenanigans

Around here, you kinda get used to walking into strange things.  Yesterday I came downstairs and found these little crazies...  Um yah. These are my kids.  Then I found the dog, who was trying to be sneaky...

As if I couldn't tell it was really Casey.  :)  

Seriously though, we do have tons of fun around here.  And we do tons of work.  This means that the Hairspray laundry is all washed, mostly put away and I can see the living room floor again!  It also means that sewing classes started today.  It was my first day with a class of 6-8 yr old kids.  I usually don't start them until they're 8 and over.  It was... fun... and stressful... and I'm so glad class was only an hour today. The kids did great, they all said they had a lot of fun and I am looking forward to helping them finish their projects on Thursday.   Here's what the studio looks like now...

After class, the littles decided they wanted to keep sewing.  I've decided that the downside to teaching sewing is that the kids who live here want to keep sewing all day.  Now that's not bad, but they still need lots of help... which takes me away from actually getting things done at a reasonable time.  I am grateful that the kids are so creative and not afraid to make things.  Today, after the sewing class kids left, we made Angry Birds.  The kids did fantastic!  And they had SO much fun.  

These boys are Angry Bird CRAZY!  And SO happy with their new angry birds.  And I'm happy because we didn't spend $10 on a stinkin angry bird. :)

The kids were thrilled to design their own birds.  Tomorrow I promised to make the king pig and another couple birds.  

As for work, other than teaching, I was able to finish one of Princess Amerah's pieces for her new music video.  Tomorrow I'll finish the skirt and pants, but today I finally got this coat done. 

Julia (my dress from) is old and kinda crooked... and the collar is actually super HOT PINK, not red at all.  There's french cuffed sleeves and an inset in each sleeve.  Here's what it looked like making it. 

This is one sleeve, with the purple sparkle inset.  

Then I added the dark purple stripes for definition on each side of the inset. 

And here's the almost finished sleeve.  There are now buttons on the french cuffs.  

Here's the back of the jacket.

I think it needs a bow or flower or feather something-something at the small of the back... we'll see, I have to think about it.  Tomorrow I'll show you the pants and skirt.  Super cute!  And I have so much more to make for her!  I seriously went crazy at my super favorite fabric store, Creative Home Fabrics.  

Here's just part of the store.  It's HUGE and there's row after row of beautiful textiles.  It's my Disneyland.  Ok, maybe not as amazing as Disneyland but I still love shopping there.  

There's more fun Princess Amerah costumes being finished at the Wardrobe tomorrow - hopefully I'll remember to take lots of pictures and tell you all about it.  Rarely am I this excited to make things.  Mostly because usually I get to make 8 of the exact same thing and that's just... not so fun.  But this - this is SUPER fun.  And I wish the pictures of the coat were better because it's so vibrant in person.  And, most of all, I really hope Princess Amerah likes it, too!  

Ok, off to my evil vice of late night Farmville and TV watching.  Always multi tasking... 

Annie Awards and Hairpsray Strike

True to form, my life double booked itself again.  Hairspray was ending and thus a trip to the Mesa Arts Center to collect the ever sweaty costumes was in store.  Half way across the universe (ok, maybe not THAT far) the Annie awards were starting at Desert Foothills Theatre.  As quick as we could, and even before the show was over, Austin and I loaded the Hairspray costumes into the car.  I honestly thing it was the quickest strike ever.  Sadly, I didn't get to say goodbye to some friends.  :(  It's ok though, now I have reason to see them again soon!  Side note: Hairspray was AWESOME.  Seriously, I think it was the best production (or way high up on the list) I have ever been a part of.  Between the amazing cast and designers I was able to work with along with the fantastic direction and amazing MET team it was just incredible.  I actually had a dream about it last night.  In my dream I was talking to Becky Martinez (president of MET and actor in Hairspray) and she was telling me that the MET group was worried about finances for Hairspray. I asked her how that could be, since Hairspray was their highest grossing production to date.  She then told me about how they had spent all this money on some super crazy stuff (none of it really existed and was all ridiculous).  I was left wondering why they would spend all their money on nutty stuff and we agreed to figure out where all the money went.  We then proceeded to go through receipts together.  Now, if you know me you know I HATE paperwork.  Numbers and little details with paperish stuff are NOT my forte.  I guess that makes this crazy dream more of a nightmare.  Ha ha, but it wasn't.  It was Becky and I just having a good time going through receipts and wondering why they had bought weird stuff.  (stuff I can't even remember but I do know it was super silly to have purchased)

Ok, enough of that rambling on and on about my dream.

So, after loading the car (literally grabbing costumes as the actors undressed), Austin and I made our journey to Desert Foothills.  We got there literally RIGHT after they finished.  Seriously.  We knew we'd be late, and we're ok with that because we had RSVP'd and I was wanting to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while.  Funny thing, as we walked in and started seeing friends people started congratulating me.  I really didn't know why, other than I gathered I had won my very first Annie Award!  Honestly and truly I didn't think I was going to win.  I was nominated for Beauty and the Beast and Music Man - but Lois Meyers did the costumes for another show and was also nominated.  I was pretty sure she was going to win.  And that was super ok with me.  I like Lois, and have nothing but respect for her and her work.  Wandering farther into the crowd we found Meribeth Reeves.  Meribeth is the fantastic woman who runs the show.  She is such a hard worker and so dedicated!  More than that, she is a genuinely kind, friendly and caring person.  I am fortunate to call her my friend.  Meribeth was super excited we were there and told me I had won for the Beauty and the Beast costumes.  Here's a picture of Meribeth and I with the Annie award.

We're so super cute.  :)

After mingling with some friends and seeing Kim CooperSchmidt - admiring her in her beautiful dress and congratulating her on her well deserved win, do you know what happened next?  Well, I will tell you because it just proves how nice Meribeth is.  Meribeth told us to sit down and she replayed the media dvd for us and gave us a verbal play-by-play of who won what and what happened.  Seriously, who does that?!?  Meribeth does that.  It was a bummer that we missed the ceremony, but it was super fun to be there and such a great experience to have a personal screening of the awards!  

After that (and a super fun visit with the Sera family! - LOVE them!) Austin and I got into the car for the ride home.  It took us a minute to get used to the over powering smell of show laundry that had been festering in the car, but we quickly got into some funny and weird discussion on strange, funny and just bad movies we had seen.  How stinky laundry goes into movie discussions I do not know.  

Congratulations to the HAIRSPRAY cast for a fantastic run - and Congratulations to all of the Annie award nominees and recipients.  What a great day!  Now back to the show laundry... my house smells like armpit.  Ugh. 

Wedding Dress = DONE!

 On occasion, and only when I really feel nice, I say yes to making or altering a wedding dress.  A couple months back the cutest girl came over with this wedding dress.  It was HUGE.  Well, it was a size 4 or something but it was HUGE on her.  She wanted me to alter the dress so it would fit her...  my advice?  I said, "I could do it, but it would be cheaper and easier if I just made you a new dress."  So I did.  She sent back her $1000 something dress and I made her a new dress.  Just for her, exactly how she wanted it.  Today I finally finished the dress!  yay!  And, in case you're wondering, I think I'll put wedding dresses on the back burner (unless it's my daughters... then they're stuck with me! Ha!)

          Left is the after, right is before.









So, midst cleaning up after Beauty and the Beast, getting things cleaned up for sewing classes and starting projects for Princess Amerah, the wedding dress was made.  Here's the original dress, all pinned up on her. These were taken at our first meeting.

As you can see, this is the back of the dress.  It's pinned up over 2" above her shoulders.

This is a close up of the embellishment.  To alter the dress, I would have to un-pick all of the lace and beads, alter the dress, and replace the lace and beads.  Um yah... no thank you sir!

And these huge saggy boobie pockets simply won't do.  No no no.


Here's the dress today:

This is the bodice up close.  It is really, really beautiful. 

(She really doesn't like this picture, so don't tell her it's on the blog! )  But you can see the whole dress.  And a huge mess behind/beside her. But that mess - it's just your imagination.  It's not really there.

Here's the back of the dress.  Instead of being sheer and low cut, I put a piece of skin colored lycra covered with tulle in the insert.  The picture isn't so great, but in person it really looks like it's her skin - not just all covered up.

This is the bottom of the train in the back.  The original dress didn't have any embellishment on the train, but her sister suggested it the other day and we all agree that it looks fantastic!  

I am super happy with the way it turned out, and the bride is thrilled, too!  She's seriously the cutest girl, and I am sure her wedding will be as beautiful as she is.

Setting Things Straight

It seems as though my last post has caused some hurt feelings.  That was not my intention at all.  Just to set things straight, my decision to work with DFT and DST has to do with the following facts:

1. They asked first. Routinely, I start getting offers in January/February to consider costuming shows for the next season. I was offered several different jobs for the following year, from several theatres.  Other theaters did not offer positions.  I chose DFT and DST.  It took me a couple months before saying yes, as I waited for other offers so I could best plan my year.  Not stated in my previous post, I have also agreed to do 2 shows with TW.  Their offer came in after my post, and their shows fall into places where I am not currently full.

2. They made offers that are financially beneficial to my business.

3. They're doing shows that I am excited to costume - things I wanted to do.

4. The schedule of shows will give this coming year balance and stability, working with people I enjoy and respect.


It's not that I didn't enjoy working with anyone else in the past, and I have the highest respect for everyone I've worked with.  I greatly enjoy my job and the opportunity to work with different people, to learn and to grow.   I have no ill will towards anyone I have worked with in the past.  Please understand that my work decisions are business decisions, not personal attacks or dis's on anyone.  I love you all and I hope we are able to work together in the future.