Custom Orders Filled...

Wow! Well, I've certainly been neglecting this! I had moved all the equipment elsewhere and since I'd been working away from the computer, have not been updating as much as I should.
I have recently been working on some custom orders. Both are aprons...gifts for new brides.

Custom Order for a Bridal Shower- Favorite colors: orange and pink.

Custom Order, Wedding Reception Gift- Wedding Colors: teal/blue and white. Adding rust applique to circled areas in first photo, will post final product when done.

Both of these are styles I had not tried before, and there were a few custom items to each. Such as the applique on the blue one and the buckle on the pink one (which was originally an aged silver toned metal, that we turned into a faux brassy gold to match the fabric).

More Items Listed!

Today we added a few more items, and will continue working through the fabric we bought last week until we have NO MORE! So, keep checking back, there will be new styles, old styles with new fabrics, and at least one item is being replenished!

There is a new "Charlotte" that was posted this morning. Colors are saffron and black, with black vintage/antique buttons and a vintage/antique metal buckle.

Also, the Jackie O style that was posted with the first batch seemed to be the most popular (according to our site tracker). So, since it sold...we replenished the stock. We have three on hand (in the same blue and green leaf fabric). Plus, we have two on hand in the same patterned fabric, except the colors are lavendar and a rosy hue.

Go check out what's available, or look through our inspiration photos and place a custom order!

www.etsy.com/shop/SugarSpiceandNutmeg

First Sells On ETSY!

WooHoo!

I was perusing my Etsy, and working on "ideas"...I have been trying to get my thoughts together for how to proceed with the fabric I have, and the new stuff I bought yesterday, so I can get more product listed this week. My page still said I had 5 items listed for sale..."That's ok", I thought, "I listed them all at once, instead of spacing them like I had intended...and it's only been a-day-and-a-half."

Well, I decided to work on here for a while, get some of the things that happened this week in here before I lose them from my brain entirely. Within about 15 minutes I refreshed my Etsy, and...OH! It says I have 3 items listed....Did I actually sell two??? Yes! Horray!

First two items sold: a "Frances" apron, and a "Jackie O" apron...

So excited! Very motivated to get as many made and posted as soon as possible!

First Items Posted!

Well, after an all nighter last night (I slept for about 40 minutes at 7am) and a long HOT day in the valley with my friend and her Nikon, I have my first five items posted!

"Frances", "Gladys", "Charlotte", "Jo", and a Jackie O inspired aprons are all available for purchase now! (The names reference the style of the aprons).

Jackie O ~

Frances ~

Charlotte ~

Jo ~

Gladys ~

I'm so excited! And I have lots of fabric remaining so I'm going to keep cranking them out until I have no more! Go have a peek! 

Sugar Spice and Nutmeg

Dressing Up My Dress Form

Here is the project I worked on tonight.

My dress form is a dark royal blue color and would not be so pleasing to the eye in photos...I was searching for an antique form or something that was aesthetically pleasing, even if not functional. I stumbled upon a large number of sites describing how to create your own form...one was Just Something I Made Blog. She found an old dress form at a dump...covered it in book pages and Mod Podge and had a new decorative piece! Well, supposedly Mod Podge dries hard, so that gave me an idea...cover mine in shrink wrap, do the Mod Podge project, cut up the sides, and use for photos but remove for function.

First Step: I wrapped the dress form (tightly) in movers shrink wrap. Because it has a large black plastic neck cap, we cut out a block of wood and notched a chunk out for the size adjuster. I covered every part at least twice to prevent the glue from seeping through, and pulled packing tape tight around the neck and waist to preserve the shape.

Next: I began applying Mod Podge...straight to the plastic. I used a sponge brush, and coated a small area with a thin layer, placed a page and then applied a thin layer to the page. Only do small areas at a time, the glue dries pretty quickly. The pages stuck very well as soon as I started the outer coat. I placed the pages at various angles for interest, and when the majority was covered, filled in the gaps with small cut pieces of pages. (I went to Goodwill and bought an old encyclopedia for the book pages for $2...used basic pages for the first layer, and am using pages with line drawings for clothing articles for the top layer...but I have heard of people using music sheets, French books, and horticulture for the aesthetic.)

Well, due to the other projects I was working on and the fact that I had the thing covered by one layer. I left it at that for now. In the next day or so, I'll update and share what else happened...I am intending on doing (hopefully) two more layers, but because I used about half of my 16oz container on the first one, I may only do one. But I think that will help firm it up enough to keep it's shape when I remove it from the form.

A Button Haven

WOW! Can I just say I hit the jackpot tonight! My grandpa has collected buttons...forever...we would always find a tub and sift through all the various sizes and the old and bazaar buttons he's rescued off of old clothes before retiring them to the dumpster...

Well, tonight I was going to go over there to ask for three or four coral colored buttons for one of my aprons. I looked for some at the fabric store but everything was too pink, and I figured he had to have something.  HA! Understatement of the century!

We sifted through jars and boxes of old buttons for about an hour and a half...some were from him collecting, some came from my great grandma's house, other's came from my cousins' grandfather (on the other side of their family). Well, I came home with a baggy full, not just three or four. Some I grabbed because I liked them and thought they seemed common and wouldn't be missed, others he'd grab and stuff them in saying "Oh, these are nice" "Do you like these?" "Take all you want, they're yours"

Check out my loot!!!

Needless to say, I am extremely excited, and can't wait to incorporate these into some of my designs.

Embellishments

Well, today I was laying out the design for "Evelyn", a black and yellow apron, and the pattern sketch I am mimicking has a waistband, but no belt, buckle, or button. To me that is too boring, so I decided to create a fabric flower to embellish it a little.

When searching the internet for "how to make fabric flowers", I came across a blog that had multiple links for these fun projects (depending upon how you want yours to look.) Little Birdie Secrets' post "fabric flower round up" had ideas for pin-cushions, petal flowers with button centers, rosettes, and peonies...even quite a few ribbon and paper flower links. BUT! I was looking for one to embellish my apron...so...I really liked the peony one, lots of dimension, but it wasn't exactly what I was thinking of. I looked up two others and decided on the fabric flower from Wise Craft.

Wise Craft's:

http://blairpeter.typepad.com/weblog/2006/03/fabric_flowers.html

Little Birdie Secrets :

http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/05/buttercup-bag-and-how-to-attach.html

My Attempt:

Mine is not quite so exciting, but...it's my first attempt!

The other fabric flowers I really liked are "tea cup flowers" from Spin Cushion......The other day, I was getting really frustrated with my pins...you know, the generic straight pins that have the multi-colored balls on the end? Well, there aren't allot of things that I am OCD about, but this is one of them...it drives me crazy to use multiple colors!!! This is partially just a weird twitch, but partially for function as well. If I am working with a light colored fabric, I want to use dark pins, so I can see them (and vise versa), and I like consistency so I don't want to have visible dark pins evenly spaced then have a section that looks like I didn't pin it because there's a different colored pin there. My brain just works that way...I'm visual, I compartmentalize in weird ways! So, the other night I separated them all into groups so I could use one color at a time...my husband walked by a looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

The other issue is that I just flat out don't have a pin cushion...horrible I know, but I don't. And I don't like the tomato ones. So, I've been searching for a cute and unique pin cushion...I think I've found it!

http://theobjectproject.typepad.com/the_object_project/2009/08/tea-cup-flower-series.html

I have not yet attempted them, but simply from the five aprons I have completed I have enough scraps to do a project like this...and I am going to make six little flowers (all slightly different), and I'll have one for each color pin: black, blue, green, red, yellow, and white.

I'll post a photo when I've completed them!