Halloween 2016 - "Stranger Things" style

My family and I started watching the extremely popular show, Stranger Things, one Friday night last month and by Saturday afternoon, we had completed the series. My youngest daughter, Sydney, and I proceeded to watch it again in its entirety a couple days later because we were so hooked and wanted to catch things we may have missed the first time around... yes, it's that addictive!

So, it's no surprise to me that for this year's Halloween, Sydney wanted to be Eleven. Not only is she her favorite character in the show, but she has a very distinctive look that I knew we could replicate with a little bit of effort from both of our parts. For those of you who are not familiar with our Halloween series, here was Sydney's costume from last year, and the one from the year before that. And even her big sister, Sophie, has gotten into the Halloween action. Yes, I guess you can say we take Halloween seriously in the Young household. And it also doesn't hurt that I am a sewing pattern designer and I LOVE a good challenge!

I set out to design and sew a dress that would be as close of a replica to the original Eleven wore as I could. Upon completion, Sydney and I hit the stores to try to find all the accessories:

• White Converse high-tops: we got those at Von Maur
• White crew socks with green-yellow-green stripes: We never found those, so we got plain white ones and some tempera paints at Walmart, and Sydney painted on the stripes.
• Blonde wig: Party City
• Fake Blood: Party City
• Eggos: Walmart

Then the fun began...

In the above photo, believe it or not, we only had 1 box of Eggos to work with. So, since we wanted to replicate the scene in which Eleven is eating *all the Eggos* after she steals the boxes from the grocery store, I shot the first picture of Sydney with the box in her right arm, then she had to sit very still with her arms and legs in the same position, while I moved the box to different locations around her and ran back to my camera to reshoot the photo. Later on, I imported all the separate photos into Photoshop and merged them together. Yes, I know, in hindsight it would've been much easier to run back to the store and buy more Eggos, but, like I mentioned, I love a good challenge!

It took several shots to get her expression just right in the photo above. Either she was too angry-looking or half smiling in most of them. I told her she had to look like she was really concentrating on something. This was supposed to replicate the scene in which they are walking towards the "portal" and Eleven is messing with the compasses.

In the above photo, she is replicating the scene in which she breaks up a fight between Mike and Lucas by throwing Lucas across the junk yard with her mind powers. This was the look on Eleven's face after she realized what she did.

Just another Eggo photo because those were fun to shoot, and Sydney was really enjoying eating all the Eggos.

And lastly, we shot this one to replicate the scene in which Eleven wipes the blood off her nose after she makes Troy wet his pants with her awesome mind powers. Yes, I know, this would've been better shot at a school with bleachers behind us.

Hope you all enjoyed our newest Halloween creation. Want to steal this look? Get the PDF pattern here.

There’s no place like home!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Less than a week ago (last Sunday, to be exact) my oldest daughter, Sophie (13) told me she wanted to go to this Downtown Trick-or-Treat event on Friday because some of her friends from school were going to be there. And, she would need a costume for it. Prior to that, she had expressed no interest whatsoever in dressing up for Halloween. I asked her what she wanted to be, and she said “Dorothy” without hesitation (I’m guessing they must've discussed this at school). She then added, “But you don’t have to make me a costume. I can just get one at the Halloween store.” On Monday night, after her Ballet class, we headed to the Halloween store up the street. The Junior sizes were way too small for her (she is 5’ 6”) and the women’s sizes were way to “sexy” for her. Seriously, they had plunging necklines, bustier-style tops and micro-mini skirts. That is NOT what she had in mind and I would never allow her to go out of the house wearing something like that... Halloween or not! So, she turned to me and said, “Can you just make me one?”

I had literally 3 days to make something, including finding all the right fabrics and accessories. Luckily, JoAnns had the perfect blue check for the dress and solid white for the shirt. I found some inexpensive shoe covers ($6.99) at Party City that slipped right over her ballet flats, and the blue ribbons for her hair I found in my own stash. But, I still had to figure out how to make the costume.





I used my own Avery pattern (available in both PDF and paper formats) View B for the shirt. Yes, this pattern comes only up to size 10, so I had to grade it up to a 14. Since the dress style is drop-waist, the length of the bodice was actually perfect length for a shirt. I wanted it to close at the back, to make it more authentic, so luckily Courtney had recently shared a tutorial for how to do a back closure on the Avery... perfect! The only other modifications I made to it was to add sleeve cuffs instead of elastic to the bubble sleeves and add a straight neck band instead of the Peter Pan collar to the bodice. Both of those were super easy mods!



The dress was another story. I was running out of time and didn’t have time to research patterns for it. So, I just made a circle skirt based on Sophie’s measurements. I took her hip measurement and found out the radius to cut the inner circle opening. From there, I measured her desired skirt length (19”) and cut. I didn’t have to add hem allowance because I knew I would end up adding a ruffled ribbon trim at the hem. Then I cut a rectangular piece for the bib (with its corresponding lining), a waistband piece and two suspender pieces. I sewed everything together and made two casings in the back waistband where I inserted two pieces of 3/4” elastics cut to half her waist measurement. Done!



For the hair & make up, Sophie and I did a ton of reseacrh on how Dorothy (Judy Garland) did hers.

Hair:

1. Part hair down the middle and brush both sides until it is smooth.
2. Divide each side into 3 equal sections, as if you were doing braids. Except the section closest to the face needs to twist, twist, twist tightly until it reaches behind the ear. At that point, begin braiding the twisted section with the other 2 sections of hair until you reach her shoulders.
3. At the shoulders, wrap a hair tie around the hair to keep the braids from coming undone.
4. Use a curling iron to curl the remainder of her hair below the shoulders. 
5. Cover the hair ties with a light blue ribbon tied into a pretty bow.

Make up:

1. Begin by covering the face with a light colored foundation and powder to achieve that smooth porcelain skin look.
2. Apply pink blush to the cheek bones.
3. Apply dark pink or red lipstick.
4. Apply a bit of eye shadow (Not too much)
5. Apply mascara to open up her eyes more.

Now, all we needed was the prefect TOTO. Luckily, we had our Miniature Schnauzer, Duke, who fit the part and was more than eager to help out with the photoshoot.

CAROLINE Downloadable PDF Pattern

I am super excited to tell you about the newest PDF pattern in our shop! This is the Caroline and as the pattern describes...

Caroline is the perfect party dress! It features stunning pintucked detail on the front bodice and a double knotted back design that is equally as stunning. The extra full skirt with pleated hem band adds lots of twirling power and since there are no buttons or zippers to install, your Caroline dress will be finished quickly so your girl can be the belle of the ball. 

Find our Caroline PDF pattern here:

• Our Etsy Store
• Craftsy
• You Can Make This

This pattern comes in sizes 2T (toddler) to 10 (girls). There are 29 pages total in this document, including full-size pattern pieces.

We were incredibly fortunate to be able to shoot the cover and other images for this pattern at the amazing Biltmore Estates in Asheville, NC Here are just a few of the images we captured that day...

 
In addition, we have received some amazing photos from our testers, so I wanted to share these with you.

These below are from Elizabeth Shepherd, who blogs at EbethDesigns. She sewed this version of our Caroline dress for her adorable 2-year-old, Brie, using silk dupioni. Isn't this amazing?

Debbie Clifton's adorable model, Addison Bently (below), is wearing a Caroline dress in size 5, made in Cool Dots Papaya  and Swell Stripe Lime from Textured Basics fabric collection.

Jenny Fish (Sew Pretty Dresses)'s adorable model, Kelsey, is wearing a Caroline dress in size 8/9, made with a mix of designer quilting cottons.

Teresa Martin (Zabree Couture)'s adorable model, Tawnie Jean, is wearing a Caroline dress in size 3T, made with silk dupioni and silk taffeta.

And lasy, but certainly not least, I am completely obsessed by this version sewn by Andrea Thomas-Lambe at Thomas Park Gifts. Her adorable model, Marley, is wearing a Caroline dress in size 6 made with Birdie Damask and Moorish Tile from Andalucia 2012. Photos below are courtesy of Sam Provenzano at Puddle Jumpers Photography.

A huge thanks to all my testers above for the pattern feedback and amazing photos! Again, you can find our Caroline PDF pattern (along with all the others) at:

• Our Etsy Store
• Craftsy
• You Can Make This

Happy sewing!!

Heaven & Helsinki KNITS!

I spent all last week in Kansas City at the International Quilt Market, then half of this week in Des Moines at the Meredith Corporation headquarters, but more on all that real soon (as soon as I download my 300+ pictures and wrap my head around everything I experienced in the past 2 weeks). But, more importantly, I am way overdue for a new knits reveal! I promised to blog this last Friday, but time got away from me, so I apologize. This all worked out for the best, though, because now I can actually share the video we all got to see at schoolhouse last week... YAY!!!



First of all, let me tell you a little bit about the new Heaven & Helsinki knits. These new knits are jerseys (not interlocks, like my previous ones) with a fiber content of 58% Cotton, 38% Poly and 4% Spandex. They are seriously the softest, smoothest knits I have ever worked with. The addition of that teeny-tiny percentage of Spandex means that you can use these for bindings or anything that requires extra stretch, like neck bands, sleeve bands, waistbands or yoga bands, because they have amazing stretch and recovery.

But what most of you will be pleased to hear (as was I) is that the addition of Poly means an incredible decrease in the shrinkage factor. I couldn't believe it when I heard that these new knits shrink less than 1% so I needed to find out for myself. I cut a piece of fabric at 36" long by 63" wide (the full width of fabric!). I took it home and washed & dried it in Normal cycles. As a matter of fact, I just threw it in with some laundry I needed to do because I wanted to make sure it didn't get any special treatment. When it came out of the dryer, I laid it flat and it measured 35.5" x 62", which means it had shrunk a grand total of 1/2" on the length and 1" on the width!! I let it sit over night and then I took it to the studio to sew up my schoolhouse dress... it did not shrink any further over night and as a matter of fact it had almost gone back to it's original length by the time I started cutting! Wooohooo!



So, what about the designs? There are 20 prints in this collection including 6 near-solids which we are loving for bindings, waistbands and such. There are some prints that you'll also see in the woven version of this collection and a few that are new and unique to the knits.

Here is the whole collection, but you can also see it here. They ship in August, but if you want to see them for yourself, we do have some knit scrap bags on the website (along with some Heaven & Helsinki woven scrap bags!) Make sure you specify you want H&H, or you might get an assorted variety.



Now, without much further ado, I want to present to you the video that we showed at schoolhouse last week. It features all the projects from my book, Sewing MODKID Style, sewn in Heaven & Helsinki. This was definitely a labor of love and we couldn't have done it without the help of our assistants, Emalee and Jessica, our adorable little models and the contributions from our sponsors, Chooze Shoes and Fox & Hounds Studio.



Hope you enjoyed the video! Let us know what you thought of it. An abridged version will be found next week on our Amazon page.

Now, for a few quick links:

• Purchase signed copies of Sewing MODKID Style here
• Purchase Heaven & Helsinki KNIT scrap bags here
• Purchase Heaven & Helsinki WOVEN scrap bags here
• See Heaven & Helsinki and pre-order it for your store here
• Join the Sewing MODKID Style Flickr Group and share your creations here

xoxo

Andalucia 2012
Back by Popular Demand!

'Twas the week before Thanksgiving and all through the studio we could hear a loud ringing. Christine from Michael Miller was on the phone and I would've answered faster had I known. She came bearing such great news, they took away the Winter blues. We're re-releasing Andalucia in fresh new colors, she said, and I jumped so high I almost hit my head. But here's the catch, she added, artwork must be turned in by next week, so you'd better get started. But next week is Thanksgiving, I shouted. I know it is, but you can do it, she noted. Adrenaline fueled me the following days, or maybe it was caffeine... and 80's music replays. I turned it in when it was due... I hope you love it as much as I do!

OK, a poet I am not (clearly)... but a picture is worth a thousand words:



Here's a link to the full collection on the Michael Miller Fabrics website. If you are new here, Andalucia was my debut fabric collection, 4 years ago now (boy, how time flies!). It was inspired by our honeymoon in the South of Spain so it is very near and dear to my heart. The original collection has now been out of print for over 2 years and apparently you guys have been requesting it non-stop... and for that, I thank you!!! Really. Nothing has given me more pleasure than to bring Andalucia back in these fresh new colors. Enjoy!

How about some inspiration pieces we've put together the last few weeks? (brace yourselves, I am notorious for sharing lots and lots of pictures on fabric reveal days!)























Phew! So what do you think? I can't decide on a favorite print or even a favorite colorway. But I would love to hear if you guys have any favorites. Thank you again for requesting it... it's been my pleasure bring it back for you guys! xoxo

True story...

The new sewing patterns went to print today and I can finally breath a huge sigh of relief. I wouldn't be lying if I said this was by far the most time-consuming and stressful of all of our pattern releases. And it's probably in part because I became a little (or a lot) OCD in the last moments before handing over the files. Now that it's all over, I think we made the right decisions, but at the time I was second-guessing myself and probably stressing out everyone around me in the process. haha

Case in point, this past Friday I was about to collect all files and burn the disk when I looked at one of our covers and thought it probably needed another "view" shown so everyone out there could easily see that the dress looks so different if sewn with other options and fabric combos. Keep in mind that we've already told the printing company that the files are on their way and they have scheduled their presses accordingly. I called Emalee and Jon over to my desk and presented my idea to them: re-shooting the cover with two models (two views) instead of one. This meant that Emalee had to drop everything and sew a new dress, Jon had to call the printer and say "Stop the presses!", and I had to call my friend Nikki and ask if we could pretty please borrow her adorable daughter for a quickie photo shoot that evening. Luckily all three of these people didn't look at me like I had three heads (or maybe they did behind my back) but we made it work...

Emalee sewed a new version of this dress in record time (seriously, the girl works magic on that sewing machine... sparks fly all around!). Jon got the printing company to agree to receiving the files today (Monday) instead of Friday as expected. And Nikki, brought cute little Anna, all full of smiles over to MODKID HQ after school.

I always let the girls goof off a bit before the real shoot so they can get comfortable with the camera (plus it's a great way for me to play with the lighting and get it just right) so here are a few of the practice shots we took that evening.



Silly girls...



Cracking up...



Cute daydreamy looks...



Then we got the pose I wanted but lo and behold, they didn't both look "perfect" in it, even though we shot over 50 photos of this pose alone! As you see below, the girls each looked better in a different version of the same shot.



So that's where my other pal, Photoshop, came to the rescue. Take a girl from here and a girl from there, even out the background, sharpen a little over here, brighten a little over there, some creative cropping and VOILA!



Then as I was ready to hit SAVE, my computer crashed and I had to start all over again from scratch. The photos were still there, but I lost all the Photoshop work I did for the past hour+. That's when I said "That's it! I'm done for today!" We ordered Chinese take-out, got a couple of beers, let the kids play in the back with the Wii and had a good laugh. On Saturday, I came in and worked my magic, in the quiet and peaceful studio, and the final picture turned out even better than the first one... so I guess everything happens for a reason. ;)

Retailers: if you have a wholesale account, you can log on to our wholesale site and pre-order all the new patterns. For the rest of you, you'll have to wait a couple of weeks to see them all up there... heehee... but I will sneak peek them all as I usually do here, so stay tuned!!

Sewing MODKID Style, Sneak Peek #2

Sorry it has taken me so long to get to this next sneak peek. I know I promised them monthly until release date, but this month has been particularly crazy, with Quilt Market catch up, new fabric & pattern release planning and birthdays/holidays galore. Thank you all for the reminders and your patience.

When I set out to design projects for Sewing MODKID Style, I wanted to create a wide variety of styles that would appeal not only to the girly-girl, like my little Sydney, but also to the young, cool girl (or the 9-going-on-16-year-old) like my Sophie. I know -- from personal experience -- that not all girls love to run around in twirly skirts and cutesy tops, so this book has a selection of projects that are designed for the Sophies of the world. I call it Urban Chic because with the right mix of fabrics and trims you can take these pieces from basic to boutique in a snap!

Here are "big girls" Sophie, Maddie and Emersyn (with Sydney tagging along for good measure) sporting their Not-So-Plain Tees, Leg Warmers and Fingerless Gloves... or as kids like to call them these days... texting gloves, haha.





Above photos by Dawn Bergeron Photography.

The girls had such fun this day playing with skateboards, scooters and cameras...



Sophie is also wearing the Leggings pattern from the book sewn in a denim knit to resemble skinny jeans or jeggings.



That [above] is one of my absolute FAVORITE pictures of Sophie I've ever captured, by the way. It totally helps when a kid feels comfortable in what they're wearing and in their environment. I've learned this the hard way, believe me. Oh, and Sophie's rocking skateboard? You can get one just like it here. :)

If you missed my last sneak peek, you can go back and check out the first few projects I revealed (much more girly-girl) and the book's cover too. So much more to come... stay tuned!

Sewing MODKID Style will be in stores in March of 2012 and is currently available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Overstock, Book Depository, Easons, Books-a-Million and Sew Mama Sew. (Retailers: if you have my book on your site, please let me know so we can add you to the list!) A full list of retailers will be available on the WILEY website.

Something for the ladies

Our new sewing patterns were delivered at MODKID HQ yesterday, so all wholesale pre-orders will be shipping out this week! WOOHOO! As I was looking at the piles of boxes strewn all across the floor, I realized I've only blogged about one so far, so I'm going to double up on my reveals this week because we have so much going on. Today, we'll be talking about the women's wear portion of our line-up.

Gabrielle
Gabrielle is a flirty summer dress, perfect for a family party, a girls’ night out or a casual outdoor wedding. It includes four different options -- Views A (dress) and B (shirt) feature four skinny shoulder straps that tie at the shoulders for a sweet and casual look. Views C (dress) and D (shirt) feature a backless bodice and two wider straps that loop in the back and tie into a long, beautiful bow. Have fun combining fabric designs for a casual, eclectic look or make it all out of one fabric for a dressier look. You’ll soon find that the sizing on Gabrielle is quite generous because it cinches at the waist with a drawstring and above the bust with elastic.

Check out all the different options included within this pattern:



The dress version, View A:





The shirt version, View D:





My sweet tester, Kristen McVane, did two View C dresses, one in woven fabrics (using my Grand Bazaar shirtings) and one in knits (using my cotton interlocks). I love them both!



And my other tester, Marie Villa, did an adorable version of the View A dress in Grand Bazaar's, Sari Wrap Melon:



Annnd... the pattern cover (showing View A and View D):



Juliana
(the women's version of our girl's Julia skirt)
Here by popular demand, Juliana is a sweet skirt that is as easy to sew as it is to wear. There are no zippers, buttons or snaps to apply; just a couple of casings to sew. The double-layer super full skirt can be made with or without the drawstring detail. A template and detailed instructions for creating a fabric broach or hair flower are included within this pattern, for those who wish to add extra embellishment to a pre-purchased top.





A million thanks to my tester, Anna Garner, for this awesome version in Turkish Garden and Spade:



And to my other tester, Marie Villa, for this super sweet version in Mehndi Stripe and Spade:



The pattern cover...



Again, retailers, the patterns are no longer on pre-order status, so if you haven't placed your order yet, you can do so on the site now.

Stay tuned for a couple more reveals this week...