Bohemian Wedding

 

Recently I was approached by a bride for a custom wedding dress. 

Putting together the sleeves she liked from one look, the bodice from another and the skirt from a third, I came up with this sketch. 

The dress will feature a v neck bodice with an empire waist.  An A line skirt flowing into a slight train. And flowy sleeves in lace reminiscent of medieval apparel.

The back of the dress also makes a v down to the zipper. 

Matching Valentine's Dresses

 I'm sure by now you've figured out Valentine's Day is just around the corner.  I've been posting about it for a bit now.  

To wrap up the Valentine's Day blig fun, I am putting together matching dresses for my favorite nieces for their dolls. One has a #welliewishers and the other a #hearts4hearts.  

I've recently resigned the #elliesstyle Lisle dress for the #welliewishers which allows me to pull this off. 

The #welliewishers dress is white with pink hearts accented with a pink fabric with white hearts (you might recognize these descriptions from the recent #Barbie post). The #hearts4hearts dress is in the pink fabric accented with the white fabric. So while the match, its not exact.

I look forward to delivering this #valentines wish to my favorite nieces.  

Watch for Megan and Shola modeling these looks on Sewdolledup.blogspot.com.  

Costume Contest

 Having moved last month, I am still going through the process of unpacking and settling in.  In this process, I stumbled across a picture from the BHS 2001 A/R Costume Contest, of a Victorian child. 

In the picture the green dress is made of velvet and lace.  The style is reminiscent of the Victorian era, with the high collar, leg-o-mutton sleeves and the lace bodice inset.  The skirt also has a lace feature towards the hem.  The dress is accessorized with a matching green velvet hair bow.

To finish the look a doll in a custom wedding dress is included.  This doll was a restoration project and loaned by the owner to complete the look.  When I received the doll to work on, she was bald and only had underwear.  The dolls dress also has a bit of a Victorian feel with the high collar and leg-o-mutton sleeves, but the skirt is much fuller.  The top layer of the circle skirt is made of hand beaded lace.  

Watch for the pictures of this 2nd place winner on SewDolledUp.blogspot.com.

A Barbie Valentine

A few weeks ago, I turned around at church and into my view came the most adorable little girls.  Seeing them sitting there with their dad reminded me of when my favorite niece and I started attending the church a couple weeks after the memorial service for my college sweetheart fourteen years earlier.  

My story gave my favorite niece an idea.  And this project was started.   

Using #Simplicity 4719 view C and some #Valentine fabric I found while unpacking in my new workshop, two dresses emerged. 

#Simplicity 4719 view C is a strapless princess line short dress. 

The first dress was made from a pink cotton with white hearts in a flower arrangement print. 

The second dress was made from a white cotton with a pink heart print. 

For the picture,  my tall fashionista #Barbie modeled one of the dresses putting in her first appearance on the blog. 

To see how these dresses turned out,  check out sewdolledup.blogspot.com 

Trip Through History via Fashion

All anyone seems to be able to talk about right now is navigating these unprecedented times.  

Instead of providing opinions on how that might work, I thought it would be more fun to take a trip through history using fashion. 

This trip will include looks from the middle ages to the Gibson Girl.  And to keep it interesting,  the posts will be in a random order as opposed to following a timeline. 

Distract yourself from the pandemic and enjoy the #Ellie'sStyle history trip.

Fashionista in Blue

While shopping in the toy department during the holidays, I gave into the temptation to pick up a couple of the new Barbie Fashionistas for myself. 

I added two of the curvier dolls and one of the tall dolls.

And so temptation drew me back to my design roots and working with Barbie again.

For my first look, I worked with a curvy brunette. I went for a look that was sleeveless  with pleats just in the center front. 

Then to set the look off, added a gold and blue beded necklace.

Interested in how this turned out? Check out Sewdolledup.blogspot.com.

Shola's Christmas Memory

The #Ellie'sStyle Emily dress for #Hearts4HeartsGirls features a halter neck dress with a high/low circle skirt.

Interested in the original inspiration?  Check out the post here.