Fluff Factory Auctions are coming!

All proceeds will go to The Heifer Foundation.

Here’s the link.

and here’s a sneak peek of what I have for sale.
Girls Geisha Skinny Jeans

My latest product: Bamboo Cloth Diapers.

I am so excited to finally have these available. My wool covers for cloth diapers “niche” was too limited. Now I can co ordinate sets with diapers, wool and shirts and dresses as well. The design will be front snapping with a tri-fold soaker. Nine layers of absorbent material is wonderful and not too heavy. They are quick to dry too, which is wonderful for the power bill!

Click on an image at right to see what’s for sale.

Flounce Skirt for my Daughter!

Petits Fours fabric by Alexander Henry

This was a fun flirty skirt she asked me to make, it was an off the cuff skirt free cut and sewn in a day.

Custom order, and new coats!

I am still enjoying the challenge of coat making and taking on more custom orders along the way. My latest coat is the Coastal coat, so named as I enjoy the beach the most during cool Fall days.

Wool Coats for Fall and Winter

My new favorite sewing adventure is wool coats for children.  I have made and sold one girls coat already and have three more going up for sale tomorrow. I love working on a more difficult sewing project and hand selecting buttons and lining fabrics. I include a hand muff for the girl coats (remember those?) and a hat with the boys.

Custom dress for my favorite customer!

My daughter.

She sketched a dress for her 8th grade dance coming up, and she has been wanting a dress from this fabric for a long time. It’s just a cotton print that I got in a mystery box of fabric. I thought hmmm pillow cases or something and she saw DRESS!!!

The first pic is before the pouffy skirt is tacked down, it was just pinned to get a feel for how much pouffing we wanted and how long/short, etc.

The next shot is her goofing with her BFF most of the dress is finished but two or three places in the skirt that I had just pinned.. we put it on her to determine the placement of the pouffing.

Oh, ignore her silly face, she’s hamming it up for the camera.

The back. Uh.. I missed closing one of the clasps. (doh!) but it’s a rhinestone closure thingy that I got at Jay’s fabrics.. so cool and more adjustable than a hidden zipper. It gave the back some interest. On the side you can see where I put in some shirring because she said she wanted it tight, but needed to be able to dance too. The shirring served the purpose.

I made this by taking the same bodice that she wanted (strapless! UGH!!) from another dress I made earlier this year. (another kid is borrowing that one for the dance) and then I saw that pouffy skirt idea in an old Threads mag. and Vic wanted that, but short. She sketched out the dress and we worked it out.
It cost about 10 bucks. The fabric was free, the back closure would be 18.99 a yard, but I just needed a forearm length (about 3/8 yd) and I had a 40% off coupon from Joann’s that Jay’s Fabrics takes. Then the lining was free since it was from some crinkly sheer window sheers that I took down a long time ago, but kept for lining etc. Oh, the boning.. I guess that was about 3.78 and thread.. it’s about 10 bucks I think.
I need to get a pic of the inside. I finished the inner waist seam with bias that I had in my stash. the boning casings were grosgrain (soft kind) ribbon from my stash. I covered the boning in soft wool so it doesn’t poke and this is a tip.. melt the edges of cut boning with a lighter to round them, otherwise it’s really sharp and pokey.

Okay, so 2008 didn’t start sooo great.

Sad news.

On Feb. 25th my dear father in law died in my hands. Tiger and I were there to hold his head as he took his last breaths. It was very very peaceful.

The next day I took my four youngest children to see my Mom who was also dying. We said our goodbyes. I thanked her. She died the next day at three in the morning. I was awake and just had a cup of tea. I knew she passed, then the call came. I miss her sooooo much.

Happy New Year

I have a feeling 2008 is going to be fantastic. So far, things are great. I wanted to post about the dress I finished for my daughter’s PCHA banquet. She is a show jumper (ponies) and did very well in 2007. Champion in one class, and Reserve Champion in another.

We both forgot about the banquet until the Wednesday before, and it was on a Saturday! So, off the fabric store at five o clock Wednesday night. She had picked out the pattern, all she needed to do was choose fabric..the satiny purple she picked was not my first choice, but I wasn’t wearing it, and besides, I have learned to never argue fashion with a 14 year old girl!

Then it was off to the cutting table. It’s a Simplicity pattern, #4070. In retrospect, I would have changed the back to have loop and button closures up the back instead of a zipper for added interest and better customization. As it is, I reinforced the waist inside with a ribbon and belt support that attached with a buttonhole elastic, so it stayed up the whole time for dancing, and they danced until midnight!

On a final funny note, at some point in the evening she noticed a pin in the balloon skirt. ha. I still have to fish it out.. but off to more pressing matters at the moment.

My machines are back!

Today I got my machines back!! Hooray! I haven’t been able to use them yet, but the six days with no sewing had my mind going to new patterns and projects. I am hoping to have a great pattern for footie woolens that have a nice doubler for nighttime diapering. Plus a comfort yoga waist band to accommodate the larger and smaller tummies both.

The duckies continue to grow, and are comfy out on the porch tonight with a heater as it’s a chill night here in Florida! My son has an early swim meet in the morning so I have the hot chocolate all ready to go!

Finally, a blog!

I am finally getting a blog set up to post latest news, ideas, hand-made creations, and just the general hustle bustle life of a large family. My first post will be short and sweet as I have homework to supervise and some packages to mail~but let me first put a picture up of what I have been doing for the past week! Ducks!

My daughter wanted ducks for her birthday, and what fun they have been!