Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Shoulder Pad, Anyone?

I was just thinking of the nicest story today.

When I first moved to Las Vegas, I worked with a bunch of nice admin assistants in an office.  I guess I used to talk about my sewing creations quite a bit (how surprising) and how expensive it was to buy the sewing notions (thread, needles, interfacing, shoulder pads)....

So one day, they surprised me with a garbage bag full of shoulder pads they had gathered together.  Now that was not only thoughtful but so original and sweet!  Thanks and I'll  never forget!

These shoulder pads are $8.50!

Sunday, February 24, 2013

I'm Resisting, I Can Feel It

I like Fall and Winter because I can finally wear all the great cold weather clothes I've accumulated over the years.  (some I have to get rid of because of a few extra pounds, but that's a conversation for another time)

So here I am enjoying my beautiful, full length, grey wool coat (I even made a matching hat) and here are some women that are all wearing spring stuff.  No fair.

It's not 90's degrees yet!  Please, let me enjoy my winter duds.  Do you know how ridiculous it looks for me in my winter stuff, sweating a little because it's really not that cold in Las Vegas, and you breezing along in the cute spring frock?






Saturday, February 23, 2013

How I've Created Some of my Most Special Items

I was reminded the other day during a casual conversation about my craft, that my most special projects happened quite spontaneously and without much planning on my part.  For instance, I was given several yards of fabric once, all dealing with a music theme. 

Of course, my mind was going a mile a minute as soon as I spread my bounty before me.  Okay, I have 3 yards of the dark fabric, but it's only 45" wide, so that means I'll only have enough for the bottom of the skirt, and it will have to be short, plus the dark color will help hide my...well you get the idea.

And I just let myself dream for days what the finished product could look like.  I didn't let the thought that I'd never seen a costume like this stop me.  It was going to be a CarolJoyFashions original, after all.  And I kept on building on this idea until *pop* I felt like it was time to start sewing. 

It took a while to get it done.  Days, in fact, and because I didn't have enough fabric, I had to piece fabric together.  Didn't care, I was in hog heaven.  Well, don't I look like I'm in heaven?

I especially love that purse, I tied large bells with black ribbons on the bottom of it, I sewed a felt musical note on the front, complete with face and there's a cute dark ruffle at the top.

What's cool about this project is that even though I was given all the fabric, it was like I had shopped for it and bought exactly what I needed.  Because I used up almost every scrap.  Check out the little ruffles on my sleeves.  And I even used up the small scrap of keyboard fabric on the belt and ruffled neckband. 

By the way, I already had a piano pin which I attached to fabric for a "choker" necklace.  I was so excited when I finished this!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

New Line of Dress Up Bags!

These are some of my most favorite bags...I pulled out all the stops, and made they exactly as I thought they should...They actually hold a lot of stuff for a small purse because of the relatively wide bottom.  and they look so cute on your wrist!

Check out these bags on my Etsy shops!