Maxi Dress to Desigual Style

I refashioned my charity shop buy from last week yesterday, I had been looking at it and thought the only way it was going to resemble what I wanted was if I took quite a bit away with the scissors and gave it a proper shape.

Here it is when I had removed the brown beaded central panel and tie belt.

I cut quite a big section of the bottom then I decided this wasn't going to work that way so I also removed the section under the bust.

I then made a panel with double thickness of the fabric to make a fitted waist section. I had to cut the bodice up the sides also to make it fit. ( I measured myself first.)

 I pinned the section to the upper body

I then spaced the skirt fabric out evenly to make pleats which are all facing the centre, I wanted pleats and not gathers so it would have more structure.

I  replaced the belt loops in the new position and added a purple ribbon  that I bought for this purpose.

(trying photos outside for  a change. Ha!)

One more inside just to be sure

£6.50 from St Lukes Charity shop better than £119 Desigual below I think

Yes it's not the same I know, but the fabric and style is what I was aiming for, plus unless some one has the same original dress and decides to chop it up in exactly the same way as me, mine is a one off.  ( Although you are free to copy away if you want!)

Baby dresses on Folksy

I have run up a few of the baby dresses this last few days same as the one I shared with you the other day.  I decided I would put them on Folksy just as it is more commonly known than my weebly shop but I may put them on there too another day. I bought some new cotton prints on Friday just fat quarters, to make a few of these dresses. (I also got a little carried away and bought black denim and Paul Smith shirting to line the jacket I will make with that but I will share that another day)
I have done five dresses and they are all 0-3 month age.

Buy here

Buy here

Buy here

Buy here

Buy here

I thought I would just see how these go for now, but I would be happy to do boys clothing or Baptism gowns if there is a need. I have done communion gowns for a couple of girls before but obviously that usually needs people to be able to get to me for fittings etc.

I had a little go at photographing the dresses outside but it was windy and they kept blowing around (I had them on the line) 

I will have to be more inventive with my photographs I think.  Also I put them on the bench but then they were hung at a funny angle. 

 All this using the little digital camera! When you look at hints and tips for taking good photographs on the craft forums everyone has super expensive cameras! We do have a better camera so maybe I will have to get to grips with that, I also have a book on taking photos for craft selling, this one...

I have to admit that while I have read it I haven't put it to good use, there is always so much to do! While a lot of this stuff is necessary it all takes you away from the main thing that you love to do which is the sewing and creating.  Working full time does not leave as much time for learning all the stuff I would like to, marketing, photography, better blogging, design drawing, pattern making.... I could go on and on.  I will never understand people who are bored, I always have this feeling there are lots of things I want to learn and accomplish but there is never time as the day to day work and general house stuff gets in the way.   

I am going to start today I think and even if I only carve out a little time for myself I will try to learn a little about one of those areas I mentioned each day. You have to start somewhere right?

Baby dress

I was visiting my friend yesterday and her daughter has just had a baby, I had bought her some baby vests but wanted to make her something.  I have some new prints that I bought a while ago but they are only in fat quarters so I thought this would be an ideal time to put them to use.  I got some measurements offline for what size a 0-3 month baby is and drew some shapes, I want this dress to go on and off easily as I remember buying clothes for my children when they were babies and clothes that are a faff to get on and off will not get much wear.  I decided I would do little velcro pieces at the shoulder so that if she has quickly changed her outfit she doesn't want to be messing with little buttons.  I also decided to do it in two patterns, it would need a seam halfway up anyway given the size of my fabric choices but also I think it makes it a bit more interesting.

I lined the upper part of the body but not the skirt, the reason I did this was because it faced it all nicely around the top.  The fabric is cotton and on this occasion as I said I have used new fabrics.  The little recipient wasn't there last night but I hope to see her in it soon, I was told it looked as if it would fit her perfectly, I hope so. 

So this has got me thinking a possible new venture?  I would only use new fabrics on baby clothes and always cotton or cotton jersey, I probably need to do some more research on sizing for baby clothes and I would want to keep it simple.  I think due to the cost of cotton prints I would only try new baby size clothes to begin with and would have to look at where to list, as I said Folksy does not seem to be getting much traffic  for me and I only ever sold  one thing on Etsy in two years and that was because the lady knew me but chose to buy it through Etsy. So I haven't used Etsy since, I think I need to take the plunge, make quite a few items then have a look at how to market them, lots of people do very well on those sites, I have noticed their pictures are amazing however.  Maybe I need a photography course.

How are other people fairing on the big craft sites?  I have heard lots of people say you just have to keep listing regularly and keep adding new items, my worry with this is this ongoing cost especially if you are not selling anything, I don't mind the time as I enjoy the process but buying fabric is expensive. Is there something I am missing? I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on what they do to get sales moving or just make a real start.

I look forward to hearing your ideas.