hand-sewn details from marie emily

Over the past month, we've been stationed in NC with our families in transition to our impending move north. You might remember that my mom opened a fabric shop in my hometown a few months ago. I've been fortunate enough to spend my days lately working on a few things at her shop, Gloria Sews. She's been adding inventory, working on a few custom wedding gowns for clients, and other typical shop things -- and I've just been there to lend extra hands and work on a few of my own projects.

We created a dressing room space (pictured above) for her shop out of an original wood door of the downtown building that she's located in and a curtain I made from a few of the fabrics she sells in her shop. The floral print in the curtain is an Amy Butler fabric that I love and is pieced together with a few scrap pieces she had.

Remember the Sweet Dress Recipe book I was super excited to get a few weeks ago? I finally had the time to make my first dress (pictured above) with a gorgeous purple plaid fabric I helped her pick out to sell in the shop. Although the pattern book is in japanese, everything went pretty smoothly. The hardest part it tracing the pattern out, ALL of the patterns are on one sheet of paper...lines crossing everywhere! See more photos on my flickr. 

And LASTLY, I helped my mom open up an etsy shop to sell her fabric, notions, and other creations online. So be sure to check it out if your in the market for some good quality fabric. She sells everything from Amy Butler to Batiks with more coming. Below are a few of things she has in her etsy shop...

What I'm hoping is in my mailbox today....So excited for this book to get here!

(images from pomadour24)

I have been saying for months I would attempt to make the hub a collared-shirt and this weekend I finally did! It was so nice to be able to fit someone besides myself -- I'm pretty happy with the results and so is the hub. I used the Simplicity 5366 pattern, and by the way, just like the men's section is smaller in retail stores so is the sewing pattern section.

Remember this shirt?

It was great while it lasted -- I accidentally stained it with chemicals while working in the darkroom. Terrible, I know. I need to wear a scuba suit while I work in there!

SOOOooo...I decided to remake it. I had a stack of this tic-tac-toe fabric I had not found a use for yet and went with it. I paired it with a few wooden buttons to offset the tiny pattern.

Several months ago, the Wal-Mart in my tiny hometown supersized and in the process stamped out the fabric portion of the store. My mom, Gloria, saw this as a perfect opportunity to venture out and create her own fabric shop! As you know, she created my wedding dress last year and has since been busy creating dresses for other brides. So while she specializes in custom wedding and formal dresses, she thought filling the void of a fabric store in western NC was necessary as well. 

I've been able to help her pick out fabrics, buttons, and other inventory. She is renting the top floor of a local gift shop in downtown North Wilkesboro, NC so it has been fun challenge to rearrange the fixtures and figure out where everything should go. 

I wish her all the success in the world :) If any of you happen to pass through northwestern NC in need of fabric, be sure to check out Gloria Sews.

I'm very satisfied with my first attempt with a Colette Pattern. This line of patterns is so lovely and I can't wait to move on to the next :) 

above is the macaron pattern

image from colette patterns

My jaw literally dropped when I stumbled across this line of fabrics by Alabama Chanin. The embroidery on this 100% cotton is just unreal. I love the shapes, textures, and patterns. Wow, right?

A local fabric shop, Fabrika, was having a sale this weekend that I couldn't pass up. So I made my first attempt at creating a dress by my own pattern. After many a trial & error, I finally finished! So voila! Not too shabby...there a few things I've definitely noted in my own head to work on for next time...But I must turn the sewing machine off for a few days! My eyes are beginning to cross..

I have been glued to my sewing machine for the past two days working on this little party skirt. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome -- I embellished it a bit and added a pleated hem, just a cute plum twirl skirt :)

I had fabric left over from this gingham skirt so I decided to make a summer tank. I'm currently enrolled in a sewing class through the fashion design program at SCAD -- although I already knew how to sew, this class has really helped  me slow down and sew more accurately. It feels so nice when everything lines up :)