Is Cooler Weather Finally Here!!??

Fall and Winter are soooooooo fun to design clothes for! I can make so many pieces for one look, layer, mix and match - MOOOOOHAH! HAH! HAH!!!!!!!! The possibilities are endless :o)  I got some luscious Japanese knit with a Geisha Doll print and thought the weight and drape would make perfect genie pants.  I know, sounds weird... Geishas and Genies?  But it looks soooooo cuuute! 

  

Halloween is coming!!

Ooooo it's one of our favorite holidays!  This year I made Sofie a set inspired by Disney's Haunted Mansion.  I didn't originally see it in my mind as a Victorian style set, but when it was complete, I totally got that vibe from it. Do you?  It was pretty time consuming and I offered just one other set for sale.  The Mommy who bought it was so great to work with.  I can't wait to see a picture of her daughter on their trip to Disney later on this month.

Here are a few of my listing pictures. I think Sofie is getting so much better at modeling the older she gets. I'm just a little bias though...

"Secret Fairy Letters"

We believe in fairies. What a joy it is to have a child in your life.  Sofie will be 6 soon. I love this age! It's tooth fairies and Easter bunnies, dragons and real gold at the end of a treasure map. Precious. Sacred. Cherished.  


As Sofie and I were watching "Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure" for the 53rd time the other day, it occurred to me that I'd never made her a fairy outfit before.  Well, I had to remedy that with much haste!  Almost as soon as I started Google fairy fabric, I found Michael Miller's flower fairy prints. Perfect.  The color palette was so soft and pastel - so little girl.  So, I built the rest of the outfit around those colors.  I made padded fairy wings for plenty of flying time, an envelope pocket for secret notes, and a little "tube vase" for flowers, magic wands, feathers, pretty pens or anything slender.  We love the way it turned out.

If you'd like to see it on eBay please click HERE


Well, I've played hooky long enough. I've got to get back to work on a Halloween set I'm working on based on Disney's Haunted Mansion - which I'm really excited about, it's just that there is a-l-o-t of sewing for this one! Phew!

Sofie Bell Couture CONTEST! July 6th thru July 13th!

Okay!! We are moved into the new house and unpacked (Well...sort of unpacked) and it is time to add some new friends to Sofie Bell Couture Facebook Page!!  

This is a "whoever brings the most" contest.  Once we reach 50 new fans (354 from 304 at the start of the contest), whoever brings the most new friends to Like SBC wins their choice of a OOAK ruffled embellished twirl skirt for girls, or an embellished fleece hoodie for boys, for the fall season.


**Please note**   you must tell your friends to post on the SBC wall who sent them or I can't give you credit, and you can't win!! So please remind your friends to do this.  I will keep a running tally everyday to let you know the current standings.


Second place will receive their choice of a three color OOAK fleece hat for a boy or a girl.


Thrid place will receive 25% off any of my future listings.


The contest will run from 2pm PST today until 2pm PST July 13th. Good Luck!! 

What a cool, neat experience to be Fairycakes featured guest designer for May!  The theme for the month is "Safari Glam!"  At first, I had no idea what I was going to make for it! I sketched, and fidgeted and noodled over different concepts for days.  Then I finally got the "bright idea" to look at photo's of this year's runway fashions for women and see if I could get some inspiration for a little girls take on Safari. There were so many cool versions of the harem or Aladdin pant I just had to try to make my own kids version. The pants turned out so cute and so comfortable, they were really my jumping-off point for everything else.  Next I came up with the shirred neck tank(?), swing(?), a-line(? I don't really know what to call it...) top I am really proud of.  In those same runway photos I saw a gorgeous kind of halter dress that tied close at the neck with a wide sash - something I would loooooove to wear.  The idea of something gathering in close at the neck is really what lead me to creating my shirred neck tank. Thanks to Fairycakes, my initial panic turned into the work I am most proud of!  Thank you Fairycakes!

So what's up with the spats!!? You ask? hee hee... Well I was in marching band all four years of high school. That pretty much sums it up.  Twenty five pound, wool and polyester uniforms in the heat of summer, with tall white faux fur helmet hats, white gloves - and oh yeah baby, spats. To me, spats are cool, funky and have a little "edge"! - and they just add a really unexpected twist.  Plus, kids can totally pull off the look... as long as they're not also wearing a white, faux fur helmet too... :-)

Isn't my little model a beauty?

This set is for sale HERE until May 31st

This set is also for sale HERE until May 31st

2:00 am And Sewing Away!

Are you ever lying in bed in the wee hours feeling like you have such a great idea you can't go to sleep until you try it? Well, I'm there.  I'm taking a little break - hunched over my keyboard to give my back a short rest from being hunched over my sewing machine.... hmmmmm

I've been mulling over many design possibilities in my head.  Mostly for little girls, some for little boys.  Since I don't have a boy myself, I'm always a little afraid I will create a boy set that looks too girlie... but I think I may have solved that problem temporarily... But I digress.   I have an idea for accessories to my outfits that I haven't seen done quite this way in children's boutique clothing on eBay or Etsy.  I've been quietly "lurking" to check.  I got the idea from my old high school band days.  Yep, I was as marching-band geek as they come, baby.  Oh boy, the hot wool uniforms we wore to parades in the heat of summer... I loved it.   Weird, huh? 

Well, even though our band uniforms didn't have these particular accouterments I always noticed other band geeks that did.  I scoured second hand and vintage shops looking for these items for yeeeaaaarrrrrs afterward.  Now that I know how to sew, I can't believe I didn't think of them sooner!  Forget the fact that it's been eeeehhhhhemmmm... 20+ years since my marching days.... Well I sure hope someone out there likes these accessories besides me!  We'll see tomorrow.  I am excited to be a featured guest for Fairycakes "Safari Glam" launch starting the 11th on eBay.

To abruptly change the subject, I have a beautiful little plant from Chile which has the most gorgeous and unique little flowers on it starting to bloom.  Can't wait to post pics of it.  The rain is supposed to stop tomorrow, so I can sneak some shots in when I'm photographing Sofie in my new outfits!

I should have sewed.  I should have cleaned my house and tackled the mountain of dishes in my sink... The weather was just toooooooo beautiful all weekend for that.  For all my complaints about the expense of living in California (made mostly in the rainy cold weather, I might add....) you just can't beat the weather.  Sunny with a little breeze and 82 degrees.  Love it.  Where I live north of San Francisco, the weather will stay warm and sunny well into November now.

This wonderful weather makes it so easy to garden and grow some amazing plants.  Did you know you can grow just about anything in a pot?  Take it from a long term renter who's convinced her dear husband to move as many as 50 potted plants, shrubs - and oh yes, trees many times over our 20+ years together.  I like growing in pots for many reasons.  If you're silly like me and get attached to the plants your grow and don't want to leave them behind when you move, you can take them with you.  You can change the way your garden looks every year by moving your pots around.  This is really cool. Like the design shows we watch on TV that show us how to rearrange our rooms to get a fresh look?  We can do this with the garden too, only the plants change so much from season to season, you really do get a much different look.  Another great reason for me to grow in pots, is it uses less water and it's sooooo much easier to prune and care for plants in pots. Oh, and one more thing, you can grow more types of plants that many not normally be for your growing area because you can move them into a garage, shed, living room or porch during the winter.

I am no expert on potted gardens, but there are a few things I've learned from trial and error over the years.  Every 2 or 3 (or sometimes 4) years, you've gotta transplant your leafy friends into a larger pot.  When you are talking shrubs or trees and they are already in big pots, you've still gotta take them out of their pots, trim 1 to 2 inches of roots off all sides (I use a long bread knife for this) and them put 'um back in their same pot with new soil all around the space you just made.


Keeping your plants fed with good nutrients will keep them happy and healthy in their pots.  I use Superthrive with a 10-10-10 fertilizer every 2 weeks when I water.  I also give drinks of worm poop tea and mulch the tops of the pots with compost.  This combo has worked great for me.