Ivy & Co.: fringe

Showing posts with label fringe. Show all posts

Sunday, November 23, 2014

The Ultimate Baby Bundle

I love making gifts for new babies. Putting all the little gifts in a refurbished vintage train case puts the icing on the cake.

gift for baby boy vintage train case baby bundle burp cloth soft block bunting clothes pins

You may recognize this blue train case with the grey and white arrow/tribal herringbone on the inside, from my post on how to re-do the inside of a train case (click here to see that post).

Well, sneaky me, I had it in my mind that I was going to give it to a particular little baby (whose name I didn’t yet know at the time.) This baby was set to be born this past summer on the very day we moved from Maui to Kauai. Ivy and I got off the plane, and went straight to the hospital and met him: Baby Boaz. I know his mama really well, and it was such a treat to meet him at just 5 hours old. (Remember when this blog was called “Jed & Ivy”? Well, Jed is Boaz’s older brother!)

Boaz’s mom loves grey, mustard, arrows and all that jazz. I love baby soft blocks, bunting, burp cloths and clothes pins. So he got all of the above.

How adorable is he, sleeping under the bunting?!

Ivy and I get to see him (and his big bro and parents) once a week for dinner. He’s such a good baby, and watching him grow is definitely one of the many perks of being back on Kauai.

Aloha,

Rebecca

Monday, March 24, 2014

Custom Orders & Projects

I've been busy. But good busy, not bad busy. I've really been pushing to make my Etsy shop thrive and taking steps to make "Ivy & Co" grow in general. I've had a ton of requests for custom orders, and then there's always those special presents I make for friends.

A friend from the East Coast contacted me about making an apron for her 4 year old daughter. She had one request: purple. Ironically, that's one color I barely ever buy. But I knew she'd give me the liberty to get creative, so out came this apron and matching head band. The vintage fabric had the slightest bit of lavender in it!

I love the color of the felt heart, the yellow pom pom fringe, and I must say, this looked awesome in the packaging. I love when random things like packaging make me happy!

lovey baby soft block head band zebra pink

My good friend Katie was heading inter-island to visit her niece and new nephew and gave me some zebra print and pink fabrics. She said she wanted a baby soft block, a head band and a blankie. I've never done any sort of blankie/lovey thing, but here's what transpired.

Ivy's little friend was turning 4 last month and I whipped up this apron. Ivy insisted that I make a rag for the pocket (that polka dotted fabric in the pocket). But she told me, "it needs to be a rag for dancing, not a rag for cleaning." Let me explain...

I first made this style of apron for my dance company, (Ampersand Dance Company), to wear about a year and a half ago. It was for a piece where we were a sort of "desperatehousewives/maids/meangirls" character. I custom made cleaning rags for the dance and we danced with them, threw them at each other, dabbed our make-up, etc. Ivy's seen the dance a million times, so now she thinks cleaning rags are for dancing, especially when you're wearing the heart pocket/pom pom apron.

ampersand dance company I Don't Care aprons brooms

Pardon the messy backstage area. All in all, I really need to just call this the Ampersand Apron already. Oh, and you can read my Peter Pan Collar tutorial here.

Next up were two custom baby bundles for twins! A boy and a girl. This was such a fun project. I had the blue/grey scallop print, and I knew Sew Special carried it in pink, and I thought it would be perfect for a twin bro and sis! Ironically my 2 new fox fabrics matched perfectly.

I just started carrying baby bundles in my Etsy Shop! They come with mini-bunting, a baby soft block, a burp cloth and three matching clothes pins.

I love when my friend Jamie calls on me for projects. She owns Sophie Grace Designs, an adorable jewelry boutique. She uses semi-precious stones, recycled coral, freshwater pearls, and a variety of metals. Her jewelry has landed in the Sports Illustrated 2013 & 2014 swimsuit edition the past two years! Whenever I wear her designs, I get so many compliments.

So my first project for her was 3 grey polyester table cloths and white suede squares for a poolside location. I ended up making 10 more of them for all the other vendors in the area…!

As we were finishing putting all the table cloths on, she brought me back to her section and inquired about me making 3 earring displays. She wanted them light colored as to make the earrings stand out, and heavy enough to hold up against wind, but not bulky.

Those are the Tusk Earrings. One of my students actually gave them to me as a gift. Aren't they awesome?! Seriously, go check out her website: www.sophiegracemaui.com. If you're local, her main shop is in Paia right on Baldwin Avenue. Browse around. Tell her I sent you. Here's the direct link to these earrings: http://www.sophiegracemaui.com/jillian-earrings.html

With a few art canvases, some fabric, hinges, and a little help from my dad, (I just need to learn how to use a table saw already), I got them done and they're ready for pick up!

On top of all this I finally finished my Line Sheet for people interested in purchasing my products wholesale. That was a big accomplishment, because now I can venture out to having Ivy & Co products in shops across the world. Ok, maybe not the whole world, yet, but you know what I mean. (Send me an email if you are interested in carrying Ivy & Co.)

So that's what I've been up to. Busy, but fun busy.

Oh, and have you seen my new head band "model shots" in the Etsy Shop? Let's just say my professional photo shoot got rained out, so my impatience got the best of me, and I made Kit do a photo shoot with me in our dining room. Hahahahaha.

ivy and company mom and daughter hugging

Aloha, Rebecca

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Super Hero Cape Tutorial

Yesterday we made a cape.

You heard me.

I guess I should back up. It's not every day you make your kid a cape.

Well, we were at a baby shower on Labor Day (pun intended) and Ivy and a little friend were stealing the tissue paper and ribbon from the opened gifts and making capes. All week, Ivy's been begging to wear the tissue paper cape, but it's pretty much ripped to shreds. So I got tired of the disappointment in her eyes every time I told her we weren't going to wear the ripped cape, and asked her, "Should we make a better cape?" Of course she said, "Yes!" So we went to my fabric and she picked out this magenta fabric with chartreuse root/coral/dead tree print on it. Girl's got style.

First I cut it out like so:

Ivy is almost 3 years old, and tall for her age.

The bottom is about 24 inches across.

It's 22 inches from the bottom to the base of the neck, then I eyeballed the part that goes around the neck. It goes up to about 28.5 inches from the bottom.

It's 18 inches across the top (part that sits on the back of the shoulders)

I used a white piece to line the cape.

Then I created the letter "I" in white fabric, and sewed it over a black circle. I didn't like it alone like that, so I added a white square around it. Plus, I hate sewing circles, so it was much easier to sew a square to the cape. You can see in the photo below, I just sewed straight lines up and down the circle to fasten it, rather than actually sew a circle. It will fray, but what good super hero's cape doesn't show some wear and tear from the crime they're fighting in the world? ;)

Before you sew it all together, sew on some velcro to the neck pieces. Think about which sides you're going to sew...

Then I placed the two pieces of fabric together, so I could sew them. I did add a little "super power" to this magenta/chartreuse cape... Black leather fringe along the bottom. I picked it up at a garage sale in San Diego earlier this summer. This cape demanded for it. Look closely at the photo below on the right-- you can see I pinned it inside, so it would be included in the stitch.