Hi Everyone! This week we have two fun things to talk about - Personalizing your project and a fun giveaway to enter! Sounds fun, right?
To kick things off, let's do the giveaway! (giveaway ended on 12/2019)
This past summer I had the opportunity to visit London. It was an amazing trip filled with site seeing, shopping and spreading the word about Sew Powerful at the Birmingham Quilt Festival! While I was there I visited the Liberty London flagship store! It was breathtaking, to say the least!
While I was there, I visited Liberty Fabrics up on the top floor! Wow! So many amazing fabrics! It was hard to pick just a few to bring back home with me!
This week, I'm going to share my splurge purchase with one of you! The giveaway for this week is for two 1/3 yard cuts of Liberty cotton lawn, and one adorable London theme print.
How To Enter:
Comment below by answering this question - "What course topics or specific techniques would you like to see us present in 2020?"
The giveaway will close on Monday, November 18th. I'll announce the winner on Tuesday, November 19th and kick off the next giveaway! The winner will be chosen at random from the comments posted under this blog post. One entry per person.
Good luck!
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Ok, now onto the topic for part 2 - Personalizing your project!
There are several ways to really make your item special! Now it's time to refer to your project planner worksheet and look for ways to integrate the information you've collected.
I'm going to share a few ideas below, gathered from some online inspiration. Then I'm going to pull some instructional content from our video library for the specific techniques to add those elements to your projects.
1. Create a look to match their favorite character, from a book, movie, fairytale, or even a drawing!
The examples posted below are from the Janie and Jack website. They just launched a campaign of fashions inspired by iconic women featured in a new children's book!
In this concept, they're selling the matching children's clothing. For our purposes, I'm using this example to illustrate matching a character for the doll clothes item. The key elements are color, special attention to design elements (like the ruffle bell sleeve on the black dress), and of course the props and accessories. We'll go into the accessories in greater detail next week - stay tuned for that!
The pattern selection for many of these types of ideas is usually pretty basic. The personalization comes from fabric choices and colors!
2. Add embellishments that highlight their love of a specific animal!
In these examples, you can see how simple applique shapes and stitching add to the charm of these basic designs.
Does she love kitties? ThesePJss would be perfect! Animal print knit and a few fabric shapes, create a cute kitty-themed set!
Maybe it's a polar bear or any other cuddly furry animal... In this example, a half-circle sewn on top of the bottom of the shirt with a few added details (eyes ears, and nose) and you have a darling personalized top! Take it one step further and use a fuzzy fleece for the face and glittery fabrics for the nose!
3. How about a favorite color?
In the example below, you can see how they took a classic item, the denim jacket, and created a super girly style! Adding pink sleeves and hood are an easy way to create something special for someone who loves pink. What about rainbows (or hearts, stars, and flowers)? The painted element on the back of the jacket is a super cute "surprise" design element! You can achieve this look with fabric paint, hand made applique or a prepurchased iron on.
4. Add a saying or quote that is special to the recipient!
The "Let it Snow" Piccadilly PJs show this example with the use of a design we created on an electronic cutting machine. Once it's designed int he software, it is cut from a purchased roll of heat transfer vinyl. This is super easy to do once you have a machine and learn to use it.
You can also do this with premade purchased designs, but they might be harder to find in the proper scale.
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- Read through the post and think of a way to add some personalization to your project! Share your progress with us in the facebook group - I'd love to see how things are progressing!
- Jump over the SWC Facebook Group here.
103 Comments
I would like to see a class on alterations, plus tips on exchanging patterns pieces.
I would love a class on how to resize a shoe pattern.. I have a happy kidz gotz doll and her feet are longer and narrower then an American girl doll.
I am a new member, so this might have been covered at some point. But, I’d love to learn how to add embroidery designs to collars, dress bodices, sleeves, etc. with my embroidery machine. Also, it would be amazing if you could add embroidery designs in the store suited for doll clothing. Thank you for offering these useful tutorials. I’ve come a long way in the short time I’ve been sewing, thanks to SWC.
I have learned so much from your classes, I still have trouble deciding how to pick fabric that compliment each other in an outfit. I’m from the old school where you did same colors and never mixed flowers and plaids. I sew with a serger but I am not very good with it. When I bought it they offered classes on how to use it but we moved and I got really sick and missed out on the classes. So I would love classes on different uses for sergers. Thank you for all the classes you offer!
A course topic I would be interested in seeing presented in 2020 is selecting complementary fabrics and trims for making appealing doll outfits.
It’s been covered indirectly within a few topics and somewhat in the design academy, but what I would love to see are a series of examples on how fabric choices and the trimmings all come together. If find this is the hardest part for me. I have a bunch of fabrics, trims and patterns on hand, but how do you make them work together – an outer fabric with a lining or contrast portion on a garment, matching tops to pants, trims or decorative features to embellish and complementing a shoe or purse or hat or accessory. It would be good to hear from different designers too – I’m sure it comes together differently – particularly for historic styles versus modern fashion.