Great Britain Bound

We will be visiting England and Scotland :o) I will be gone until the 29th, but I will answer all emails when I return. Please pray for a safe trip for us. Thank you!
Angela

Sunday's Best.....

I have a client whose daughter competes in a type of beauty pageant called a "Sunday Best" pageant. This is a non-glitz pageant where little girls actually look and act like little girls. :o) When I heard the word "pageant," all I could think of was the TLC show "Toddlers and Tiaras" lol Fake tans, fake fingernails, flippers, etc. :o) However, in these pageants, the little girls wear hand smocked bishops and hand smocked yoke dresses, and patent leathers............just adorable!! So I created this dress for my client. It is a peacock blue silk dupioni dress. (the one I pleated in my pitiful tutorial):

Here is the closeup of the smocking:

This was the first time that this little girl was competing in an older category. She is 3 and she had to compete against 4 and 5-year-olds. I am very happy and proud to say that she won QUEEN!! So congratulations to her!! :o)
Angela

Shabby chic country set finished!

Here is the set that I showed a sneak of a week or two ago. It includes the hand smocked suntop, double layered twirl skirt, matching purse and headband........what little girl doesn't love accessories??

Please excuse the fit on the mannequin....it is a 2-4 and the set is a size 5
Here is a closeup of the top/headband:

Here is the matching little purse:


If my friend, Pat from the UK Sewing Room is reading this, could you please email me at angela@dandelionavenue.com? I will be in England next week and we will be visiting the Yorkshire area :o)

The weather here is absolutely gorgeous. I LOVE Spring!! The flowers are stunning this time of year. I hope everyone reading has a great day!!
Angela

Pleating silk dupioni tutorial

I needed to pleat a dupion silk dress for a customer today. Since I have had several people ask me for tips on pleating silk dupioni, I decided to make a little video :o) NO LAUGHING! lol I know I sound like a Smurf! I had to make it in two little videos because I couldn't hold the camera and turn my pleater handle. This is just a VERY simple tutorial, not anything amazing or elaborate, but I hope it might help someone.

Another work in progress...

I am working on a custom sun top and skirt set order. This sun top features smocked panels with embroidery in between the smocking. Here is a sneak peek of some of the embroidery. The flowers match the flowers in the fabric of the skirt. :o)

I'll post the finished product next week :o)
Have a lovely week!
Angela