NEWS AND UPDATES

15 September 2008

August and September have been very busy dress making months. So much so, that I didn't manage to get both patterns finished in August, I only managed the one. It will  be available for download shortly.

On other news: the October issue of Sewing World Magazine, popped through my letter box the other morning. I do like reading Sewing World, it's great for inspiration, and is always great reading with a cup of tea. However, this issue has a superb competition. Normally they just ask you to fill in a coupon and send it off, but this is an actual sewing competition. There are two categories, the first is evening wear and the second is recycling something old into something new. And as you can guess I've decided to enter. I have a lack of old things to recycle, so I'm going for the evening wear category.

There are 3 age groups over 30, under 30 and 10-16, and each age group has a different prize, the main prize of each is a new (and very stylish) sewing machine. And of course there are runner up prizes of other sewing related goods.

This will be the first time I've entered into anything sewing related to compete against others, so I'm going all out. The entry's don't have to be finished until January 09, which gives me plenty of time (although if this last month is anything to go by, time is very precious!).

I've decided to make something I would like to wear to an evening function, as I can never find anything suitable, although I'm not sure if I'm meant to make it to fit me, or to fit someone else to model - that's not particularly clear (if anyone has entered this competition before, please let me know!).

The colour will be navy blue, although I'm still searching for inspiration for the rest of the design. I will pop some pictures up when it's finished for all to see.

Best wishes, Laura

10 August 2008

I have decided to start offering my custom made dress again. I can only offer this in the one style at the moment as I'm spending a lot of my time working on new pattern designs for the site and ebay.

The current selling price is £69.99, which I think is a very reasonable price. You will be able to choose your own colour combinations (based on the range of colours I am able to purchase), and I will make the dress to fit your measurements, no matter what size you are.

This is the ideal dress for anyone who has trouble fitting in to standard shop clothing, for example, if you're a few sizes bigger on the top than on the bottom, it can be very hard to find dresses to fit.

It's a nice easy wearing medieval style dress, which will be made from crushed velvet and taffeta fabric, with the signature long sleeves, and both back and front lacing.

If you can't quite stretch to £69.99. I'm happy to take reasonable offers, but please remember each dress will be hand made to fit you, to your measurements in your colour choices.

I also have another 2 patterns in the pipeline, unfortunately it's not a speedy thing, as I make and digitize each one by hand, however, they should both be ready by the end of August, so check back soon!

Best wishes, Laura

26 June 2008

As you can see from other areas of the site, I have decided to diversify. Everyone has been hit hard by the recent "credit crunch" especially those of us who need people to part with their hard earned cash in order to make a living. It has been hard making things financially viable in the last few months, so I needed to create a way to make things look a little rosier. Patterns seems to be the way forward.

There has been an increase interest in home sewing, in recent months, where people have been much more interested in sewing their garments at home in order to save money. I intend to reach out to this market by offering my own range of home sewing patterns for sale. They will probably also include patterns made for the dresses I offer for sale (although I do ask that any thing created from the patterns I create is not sold for profit, as I own the Intellectual Property Rights to all the patterns.)

The patterns will be digitally based, so you can either buy on a CD or have them as a download, they come in a pdf format, and once you receive them you simply print them off on your PC, stick the paper together and cut out the size you need. And hay presto - you have a full sized pattern suitable for sewing!

Does this mean an end to the dresses? No, of course not, I just love sewing. However, I'm not currently taking on any new custom design and dress making work. But I will still try and produce a few dresses for sale each month. But generally speaking, I'm slowing down on the sewing to spend more time creating the patterns. I hope to create a whole range of costume (not fashion clothing) patterns, for women, men and children, and at some point to migrate across to a proper e-shoppee rather than my current venue of ebay. Although I will need a large collection before that is viable.

So for all of you out there who need to save money on those costumes, make sure you check out the catalogue section of the site to see what is currently available.

Until next time, best wishes, Laura