After spending our third straight Saturday watching it snow, and the fact that it is now March, I am getting antsy for all of the spring flowers that are surely close to revealing themselves to us. I can't wait to get my hands dirty in my flowerpots and unpack the cute sundresses and sandals. And speaking of cute dresses... 

 

 

 

 

 

I am so smitten with these dresses I spotted on etsy created using a collection of vintage textiles. Soho Mode is the sweet company created by Louise Hedley. Born and raised in England, Louise developed a love for old world glamor in her teens. Due to a very modest childhood, she was taken with vintage fabrics and the way a dress could transform her self confidence. In 1998, she moved to NYC, met and fell in love with her husband, and with his encouragement, she began sewing. Soon, she was selling her clothing created from her treasure trove of fabrics at the Chelsea Flea.

With her collected vintage fabrics, Louise and her team offer a huge selection in their etsy store or they can create one-of-a-kind dresses, cinched belts, ties, and skirts. In 2004, Barney's began to sell her tea dress collection and since then, many brides have embraced using her dresses in their weddings. I just love the eclectic charm of the combination of the vintage dress patterns with the cotton floral.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

via

 

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Like Louise, I too have quite a collection of vintage fabrics, tablecloths, pillowcases and tea towels that I have sewn into little dresses for Maris. As a matter of fact, I am quite certain that some of the fabrics pictured were also hanging in my childhood closet {or as sheets on my bed!}. Browsing Soho Made's collection of online fabrics, I am flooded with sweet childhood memories of the dresses my mom and grandmother used to sew for me as a little girl, many of which I still have packed away.  

 

 

 

 

 

I have always had such fun making things for Maris over the years. I started smocking her little baby gowns just after she arrived. Then I created little dresses out of vintage pillowcases, created jewelry, headbands, purses, decorated shoes...I love that she has been so accepting of my wearable art. But you don't get to do much of that for little boys. So, this year for Christmas I was excited to finally make something for Jack to wear.

 

 

On days of swim meets, the swimmers have to dress up to go to school. Jack didn't have a lot of ties, so I decided to try my hand at personalizing one for him. Because I had no idea if this would work, I invested in a very inexpensive tie from Wal-Mart. The perfect shade of Smoky Mountain blue.

 

 

 I bought a very fine tipped paint pen from Michaels and coupled that with my fine-tipped Sharpie

 

 

I didn't know if either would bleed, so I tested it on the back, under the hem. no bleeding! I sketched the mustang mascot very lightly on the tie with a sharpie--yea, big deep breath anytime you have to sketch anything with a sharpie. Then I filled it in with the silver metallic pen. To add the blue mane, I used a little blue acrylic paint. After I was finished, I went back and added some heavier black outlines.

 

  

 

I was a little nervous to see his reaction, but he loved it! He will wear it tomorrow for the first time and I am pretty sure he will be the only one rocking a SMHS tie!  

 

For all of my pretty preppy peeps, there is a new{ish} shop in {web} town that you are going to love!   

 

Preppy and Pink is a NC company that offers really cute paper and party supplies. I was really excited when Wendy sent me a picture of these new monogrammed bracelets that they have recently added to their line.

 

Each one is hand-painted and comes as a set of 2. They are obviously very popular. Here is a shipment all tied up and ready to ship.  

These would make a great graduation gifts!

I have kept the sewing machine hot this week. It is Spirit Week at our high school which

 means a different theme/outfit everyday. Monday was ‘Decades Day’, so, of course,

Maris decided to don her 80’s attire. She couldn't find any pink legwarmers {need I remind

 you that our little town doesn’t have any malls, teen clothing stores, Claires—nada..within

 60 miles} I searched Wal-Mart with no success.

Enter plan B:

I bought a big pink sweatshirt for $7.

Know where I am going here?? Look closely and you can see the legwarmers in the above pic.

I cut off the sleeves, straightened up the hems a bit and folded

over the top to create a small hem.

  

 

I thought she rocked the 80's .

Tuesday came along and it was all about the 'Pink Out’ in honor of Cancer Awareness Month.

Remember when I made the volleyball team these? Well, this week I got busy with this pile:

 

 

A few minutes at the sewing machine and 6 yards turned into these pretties:

 

 

 

 

The JV team {on the floor} made awesome tie-dyed pink shirts and the Varsity team sported

Breast Cancer Awareness socks with their sparkly headbands.

 

 

There was pink support everywhere.

 

 

Even the ball was pink!

Then we moved on to today..

'Character Day'.

 Maris decided to go as, well, who else..baseball legend, Roger Maris.

For those unfamiliar with Roger Maris:

 

 

My Maris isn't named after him, but, she does get questioned about it often *. We didn't have time to order an official Roger Maris Yankees shirt {and I am cheap} so I bought a long-sleeve blue t-shirt from Wal-mart along with a pack of iron-on letters.  

 

 

 

 

After 'Maris' was ironed on {which was super easy}, I used frog tape to make a #9.

Using a combination of white craft paint mixed with textile medium, I started applying this

 in thin layers to the 9. 

{make sure you put a book or a piece of cardboard inside the shirt to prevent any bleed through}

 

 

 

 

It's really important to do this in thin layers so the paint doesn't bleed under the tape

{I used a hair dryer after every layer to speed up the process}.

 After I pulled off the tape, I was left with this:   

 

 

     

 

 

I turned it over to add the New York Yankees logo to the front. I found this image online:

 

 

 

 

I taped off a 4" {ish} area on the front left chest of the shirt and used chalk to sketch out the logo.

 

 

 

 

With a small paintbrush, I painted over the chalk lines. When it was dry, I used a damp cloth to wipe off any chalk lines that were left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She threw on some baseball pants and called herself a Yankee

 

 

 

 

but, only for today.

 

Twin Day is tomorrow followed by the Talent Show and Homecoming on Friday.

I guess Mr. Sewing Machine and I will have yet another midnight rendevous. 

 

* we actually first heard {and loved} the name Maris on the TV show Frasier. Maris was Miles' never-seen

wife...remember??