Some recent custom orders

Wedding season is in full swing and I've been working on lots of fun custom orders this spring and summer.  I have several still to finish this week, but I thought I'd share some now and some later this week when I'm done.

First, I sewed these three velvet clutches in gunmetal frames. 

 I love the embroidered monograms.

 These flap clutches looked awesome, made out of black satin.  I wish they looked better in this picture, but I almost always have lousy lighting when I'm completed with orders. This picture kind of makes them look like trash bags!

 This bride picked four different colors of silk for her and her bridesmaids.  I love the teal gingham.

Today I finished my new largest order ever.  Twelve nautical clutches!  Four were bow clutches, and for the others she told me to use a variety of embellishments, and gave me the leeway to choose some new ones.  I had a lot of fun with that. The interiors are a mixture of blue, red, and gold.

 These two are my favorite new ones, a porthole and octopus.  I've decided to offer the octopus in my shop as a regular option.

 I've also decided to add pearl and rhinestone nautical clutches as a listing in my shop.  This idea came from a previous bridal order.  I love working with creative brides!

Giveaway winners

Thanks to everyone for participating in my giveaway!

The red clutch goes to Melissa Palmer and the black clutch goes to BlackAsphodel! Thank you everyone for entering, and I'll be contacting the winners!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway!

***Giveaway Closed***

Today Sew, Mama, Sew is having a bunch of giveaways, and I thought I would join in.  Today I am giving away TWO items.  These cute little clutch wallets are some of the very first things that I made for my Etsy shop over a year and a half ago.  I now have gone in a different direction, but I still think these little purses are cute, and they are very convenient for storing everything in and tossing in a bigger purse.  I carried one myself for a long time before I started carrying around another prototype from my shop (that's what I allow myself to keep, just the prototypes!). 

First off, this little pinstriped clutch with embroidery.  Yes, I was having a bit of fun with my new embroidery machine!  I like the juxtaposition of business-like pinstripes and girly flower.

It closes with three little snaps.

 This clutch is made of a soft red suede-like fabric.  I quilted it heavily to create the criss-cross pattern.

 The interior of both has a zippered pocket,

 and six credit card slots.

So, rules for the giveaway!  First off, this giveaway is open to both U.S. and international entrants!  The giveaway goes from today through May 25 at around 8:00 Eastern, or whenever I remember to close it down!  The winners will be picked at random and then emailed and announced in this post. 

To enter, just leave a comment.  If you have a clutch that you prefer between the two that I'm offering, let me know which one you like best.  Make sure I have a way of contacting you, whether through your blog, your email in your profile, or your email in your comment.
To get a second entry, visit my shop and let me know what your favorite purse or wallet is.  Do this in a second comment, please.

So that's it!  You have two chances to win.  If you would like the chance to enter more giveaways for all sorts of handmade goodies and sewing supplies, make sure to go to Sew, Mama, Sew.

****Winners****

The red clutch goes to Melissa Palmer and the black clutch goes to BlackAsphodel! Thank you everyone for entering, and I'll be contacting the winners!

Largest Order Ever plus some new labels

I had a bride ask for 11 purses for this order, but the tricky part was that her wedding is next week!  I bought the fabric Monday, cut it out and interfaced it Tuesday, and sewed it yesterday.  I stayed up until 2, whew!

 These brocade clutches are gorgeous, this picture I took last night shows off the color a bit better.

 For this order, she requested the bridesmaids' names inside.  I have been experimenting with using my printer to create labels.  I have a laser printer, and when I researched online, lots of people said that laser printers couldn't print on fabric.  However, some people said you can, so I gave it a try. 

 First off, my printer popped this out.  Thanks sweetie.

 I will definitely be offering these as an option for custom orders.  They are exciting because they are so customizable.  A name, wedding date, quote, inscription, etc, all are options.  I've been offering custom embroidery, but anything other than simple monograms is difficult for my older embroidery machine, and even those are kind of tricky.  So I'm happy to have an easier option.

 And inside the purse:

 Here's another bridal order:

 And another custom order:

Several custom orders

I loved these brooches that this bride chose for her nautical clutches.  It gives them such a different look, doesn't it? Very elegant though.

 And another order of cameo nautical clutches.

 This custom order was made with fabric that the customer sent me.  It's from Ikea. The inside is teal.

 This clutch is for a wedding, for the mother-of-the-bride.  This fabric is the same fabric that will be use for her dress and a lace jacket.  A friend of mine on Etsy made her dress and referred the customer to me for the purse.

 And here are some fun new listings that I really enjoyed.  I love this metallic fabric and bought it in all sorts of colors.

 And more foldeover zipper clutches:

 And this one I cut out backwards, whoops.  Guess it doesn't really matter, but it bothers the perfectionist in me a little to see it oriented differently!

Some Easter clothes

With Easter and a fancy dinner celebrating my husband's parents' anniversary, I made several items of clothing this week
 I made this dress for my daughter for Easter/her birthday.  I came up with the pattern on my own and am really happy with how it turned out. The hem is done with fishing line to give it the twirly effect.  Super cute, right?

And here is the dress that I made.  It is Butterick 5559.  Adding the top crocheted lace layer made it a bit tricky, but it still came together fairly well.  I had to make a couple adjustments to the neckline, and I added an extra strip along the bottom for length.

 These pictures are kind of dark, sorry.

 I got a few compliments on it today, so that make me happy.

 I also made myself a reversible circle skirt this week.  These pictures are awful, sorry, but Adam was busy getting the kids lunch and so I had to use the timer and set the camera at a funny angle.

 I am not sure how flattering this skirt actually is, and I'm not sure how often I'll actually wear it away from home.  I need a close-fitting cardigan or jacket, I think.

It was a super easy skirt to make.  Here's the tutorial. The original isn't reversible, but it was very simple to adjust it to make it so.    I might make Katrina some skirts like this, since you can whip one up in about half an hour!

And here is a bridal order I finished this weekend.  I love the peacock interior.  We picked a silver silk charmeuse for these.  I typically don't use charmeuse for bags, but it was the color that the bride wanted, and I like the soft silky feel of these.

Custom order, woven and pleated clutch

I had a bride ask me to make her a yellow woven clutch.  Partway through our discussion, she found a purse on Pinterest that she really liked.  It was basically a combination of two of my purses, woven:

and pleated:

So I said yes. 

Here is the original from Pinterest:

And here is the purse I made for the bride:

I love how it turned out and I hope she's really happy with it! It was a lot of work, involving tons of ironing and gluing.  But a very fun result.