Shabby Chic Pinks and Roses

My customers have requested and I have been sewing more shabby chic rosy dresses this week.  This one is a mix of new fabrics from a UK designer and some recycled vintage linens and trims in my stash.  I just loved the stripes of cupcakes, cherries, and roses in the bodice, but it is discontinued and I only could find enough for 3 dress bodices!! 

My first "Reverse Knot Dress"  with the ties in back.  I am liking the long bow hanging down in back

 

One of a kind---this is to fit 12-18 Months  It is the last Ava Rose fabric I can find anywhere!!  The bottom border is an awesome vintage rose ticking fabric.  I have quite a bit of this one, so ruffle pants can be requested with this dress.  I'm thinking about what to make with the rest of the piece I found???  

Isn't this sweet?!

I have one or two more summery rose dresses to make up and then will be working madly on my fall and holiday line up!  I am very excited about the fabrics I have found, and will share more later.

Lily--THE Queen of Everything!--and I bid you

HAPPY PINK SATURDAY!!!  

Here's Beverly's link, too:

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

XOXO

Storybooks and a Storybook Dress

The Brambly Hedge china cup my mom brought Chloe from England.  She also started us out on Jill Barklem's  Brambly Hedge stories of wee mice's wonderful lives amongst the herbs and wild flowers on the edge of a river.  There is one for each season, and more. The Summer Story is all about the community getting ready for Poppy and Dusty's Wedding....This teacup is showing that and here are a couple of beautiful illustrations from that book:

I have always LOVED the sweet clothes and illustrations.  Strongly recommend the books if you haven't found them yet!  (and, no, I don't get anything out of recommending them!)  Here's the link to the official website in the U.K.:
http://www.bramblyhedge.co.uk/frame.htm

At their website you can go into Wilfrid's Playroom to print out pictures for your child to color!  and other fun things.

...And here is the dress I just finished with some rare, Rose and Hubble Brambly Hedge fabric and a few other vintage goodies!!  I think its fun because it could also feel like an Alice in Wonderland dress to a 4 year old, like Alice at the tea party  with all the little creatures!

I'd love to have you come to my etsy store!   www.reimaginedtreasures.etsy.com

I hope your day is full of the beauty and wonder of a young child!......Kathi

I feel spring!

This is one of the dresses I finished this weekend!  It really makes me feel happy looking at it, and I am hoping it will do that for a little 3 or 4 year old girl.  When I am working on these little girl clothes, it brings up such great memories of my daughter running and playing in the garden and park with her brother and her little friends!  Chloe was a flower lover, and frequently picked flowers for me from my giant garden...often the flowers were pulled out roots and all!! But of course, I loved it!

 

What I hope to figure out soon is the whole scanning in process!  I used to paint children, and would love to share some photos of those paintings with you here..but the photos aren't digital.  (This was back in the prehistoric age of F_I_L_M!)  I loved to photograph them in gardens or at the lake or parks doing their thing, not posed, and then paint them. 

 

Here's another little treasure that sold already, but I thought I 'd share anyways.  It is made from beautiful vintage organza-like cotton dotted swiss in blue and white.  I totally fell in love with this vintage rose trim, too.  And the fabric for the apron has little flocked daisies running down it!  TEA PARTY!!  and Alice in Wonderland!  

These ties in back are upcycled and reImagined from a vintage apron.  I just love recycling!!

Progress in Pink

It has taken a while, but the first clothes from my "piles of pink" are here and even listed!  I absolutely am in love with the pants from the Vera scarves.  I hadn't realized back in the 60s that she did cotton scarves.  All my aunts had her other scarves and of course her table linens, but I saw little ruffle pants when I found these 2 scarves, and here they are!

I also have  a lot of the vintage cotton eyelet fabrics which I've been collecting for years.  I really like the peasant tops in it, and little ruffle pants too, but QUESTION!  For you moms with little ones, do you think the little girls prefer a top with or without elastic around the empire waist.  I could make the top more free flowing, but I am looking for feedback from moms!

On my table is a nearly finished Easter dress in froth of white embroidered dots on white and blue cotton and this amazing antique bird trim.  Then I woke up this morning and could barely walk because of some back spasm I have never had before!  Progress is slow.  This has been a real challenging few months for me with my health still.  But this morning in (IN)courage, I read "Come to me all you who are weary....and I will give you rest for your soul"  It immediately made me think of this adorable freebie pic that Dawn at thefeatherednest  had so graciously put out for us!  I wanted to share it with any of you who may also be feeling the need for a big wing around you to give comfort to your soul.  All is not as I had hoped and planned, but, as my friend Connie says, ALL IS WELL.

Cupcakes, Polka Dots and Rik Rak

 

I am having my patience grown.  After 3 weeks of the flu, I loved being in my studio again to create this little outfit for a new baby!!!!.  Since it is close to valentines' day, I did one side in a pink heart fabric; the other is spring polka dot colors, and then the embroidered cupcake!   The little orange and cream buttons were so sweet.  I've been saving them for quite some time for the right outfit!   These little white bloomers in vintage dotted swiss or eyelet fabrics are really fun to make.  I am going to offer them in my etsy shop in sizes up to 4T;  also have some hot pink linen ruffle pants in the sewing machine now, and an AWESOME,  reImagined big pink roses Vera scarf becoming ruffle pants.  I forgot to photograph just the ruffle bloomers for the shop, though, cause the outfit was going out the door to my friend!  So the next pair is going in the shop!    I also got my Portobellopixie pattern in the mail finally, so I can start putting those fabrics together into little girl apron dresses, peasant tops, and even some mommy sized aprons!  Sandy Henderson is an awesome designer;  I'm really excited to be working her patterns with vintage fabrics!

Now, it is off to finish MY almost 17 year old's birthday present!  (No, it's not an apron dress!)

Piles of Pinks

I have finally sorted through my fabrics and kinda gotten organized for 2010!  I am so excited to start on my new line of toddler and preschool clothes!  It is time.  I have been collecting awesome fabric remnants, vintage embroideries and trims, etc  for a few years now, and it seems that my most popular items are for the little ones these days.  Soooo....along with the 1960's VERA cottons that I have been soaking and some wonderful vintage white cotton eyelet fabrics, I am beginning this new adventure!

I think these will be adorable peasant apron dresses and tops with the ruffle pants!

I absolutely LOVE vintage trims!!!  Got to go get started!!  Oh!  and I have boy stuff too...just not in pinks!  later on that!  Feedback welcome!  Requests and suggestions...Thanks
Kathi

Tea and Gratitude

One of my special moments this holiday season was to meet my mom's dear friend who has also been a huge giver of vintage linens and things for my business!  Janelle is a SWEETheart, and our few moments of thrift storing in SoCal this December were cherished by me!  At the end, she gifted me with this Beautiful handpainted pansy tea pot that I had fallen for!  along with another bag of her awesome vintage linen finds, which are soaking, as I write this, in her special recipe that I have found to always work, and am going to share with you all! But first a little gratitude list on this cloudy rainy day!

1. Somehow, there is enough!
2. the gift of being able to create treasures from remnants
3. i am loved
4. my angel dog, Bowser 
5. stacks of vintage fabric waiting  to be transformed into little girls' dresses and ruffle pants
6. the pause and a cup of tea
7. My daughter asked me to take HER  thrifting today                                                    
8.  my Husband has a job interview tomorrow!
9. a new decade to write upon   
10. Inkspot, Lily and Chulita, our 3 cats!                                                               

                  
                                                            

                                     I love handmade cotton lace

                                                                            These will magically become clean in Janelle's SPECIAL RECIPE!  read on...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The only thing I have to add to this, is that some really stained pieces have needed a day or 2 of soaking before they really get stain-free!  IT IS A KEEPER RECIPE! It's kind of like forgiveness and acceptance:  if i soak in them long enough, even some pretty bad stains can be removed!