Spring-Line-O-kokoleo-Sundresses

I get on these kicks where I manically make a bunch of one thing. This past February my thing was sundresses.  Last year at some point I spent a lot of time cutting out sundress parts but never assembled them so I made it a point to tackle that pile and turn them into wearable kokoleos. Here's one, made from my favorite long gone Smokey the Bear fabric: 

 

I even got inspired to seek out some new fabric and cut out and sew some more. One day, during a thrift store adventure, McKenna pulled a Disney princess pillowcase off the rack and said, "Will you make this into a dress for me?"  Disney princesses used to make me cringe in feminist horror and though I still try to limit the amount of it that comes into our house, I couldn't deny the fact that graphically, that pillowcase would make a rad dress. So I relented and made her this:

and then made this one to sell.

and then I made a couple of these. 

Disney will probably sue me soon, I'm sure, since they seem to have a thing against their clothes and toys being manufactured in America. I can't deny the fact that little girls love princess dresses though, so I want to give them an alternative to the Made in China kind.

When I was McKenna's age, I was into Sesame Street:

(Made from my all-time favorite fabric that I blogged about here.)

and Raggedy Anne:

and Holly Hobbie:

She likes them too, but off all the sundresses I was making in my studio last month, when she saw me sewing these:

she asked if she could have one. Of course I said yes and now she's good to go in the kokoleo sundress department for a while. The rest can go to other little girls. 

To see the rest of the dresses, check out my Etsy store I'm in the process of moving all my inventory over there. In the past couple years they've grown by leaps and bounds and created a very user-friendly handmade hub.   Don't forget to become a fan of kokoleo on Facebook for sneak peaks, studio news, and discount codes!

Tutorial Tuesday: Upcycle an Outgrown Dress

I've always liked this dress.

It's made by Gymboree and I got it at a consignment store in Burbank. I liked it so much that even though it was a size 18-24 months, I bought it when McKenna was only 6 months old and it hung in her closet until she was ready to wear it. She wore it when it was too big and she wore it when it fit perfectly and she wore it when it was too small. It's become such a part of her growing up that just couldn't bear to part with it, so I decided to revamp it and eke out a few more years of use.

First, I cut off the top straight across under the armpits.

Next, I folded the waistline fabric over once, did a straight stitch all the way around, left a half-inch opening, and fed some elastic through.

Then I stitched the elastic ends together and stitched the opening closed. In less than 5 minutes, McKenna had a new skirt:

 Since I couldn't bear to let the rest of the dress go to waste, I cut off the sleeves.

 Then, just like I did for the skirt, I folded the fabric in, straight-stitched it down,

added elastic, stitched the ends together,

and made leg warmers.

Then I found a blank t-shirt in my kokoleo stash, whipped up this mushroom out of scrap fabric, and turned that toddler dress into a hip kid outfit.

Now I can watch her dance around in these mushrooms for a few more years.

It's versatile too, McKenna came up with this way of wearing it on her own:

 

That's the future creative director of kokoleo right there.

Custom Plush commission - Love-Love

My latest custom plush commission was based on this drawing by a young girl named Malayna:

It's a character she made up and draws often, so her mom (an artist as well - check out her milkshake crafts) asked me to recreate Love-Love in plush form. Here's the result:

And, I'll probably ruin the surprise here, but since I had some of the fabric left over and because this gift is going to be for Valentine's Day, I whipped up this matching skirt for Malayna:

Just a little extra love-love from kokoleo.

Dear God this was difficult

Two years ago I was contacted by a seminarian at Church Divinity School of the Pacific and asked to create a banner for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. Having grown up in the Episcopal Church as the daughter of a priest (now bishop), I'm very familiar with the Episcopal shield so I agreed and got to work making this:

Nice, right? I was pleased with it. The problem though, is that we seemed to have some mis-communication. See, I thought I was being asked to recreate the Episcopal shield in fabric form, but instead, what she was asking for was the Diocesan Seal, which is very different. After boasting to my father that I had nearly completed the banner, he realized my mistake and sent me the image I was supposed to recreate, which was this:

At which point I felt a little sick. No offense Diocese of Southern Ohio, but that is quite a random assortment of symbols you've got there. A bale of wheat? A plow? Is that water flowing through it? And that crown! Those letters! My head was spinning thinking of all the applique and embroidery it was going to entail. So I took some time to think it over, about two years in fact. Although I always had it written on my to-do list, other projects and jobs and moving came up and the seminarian and I lost touch. But, this past November she contacted me again and said she was still interested so I promised I would have it finished by the end of January. On January 2nd I got to work. First, since there was no way I could do this freehand, I blew up the image 450% in photoshop and printed out 18 pieces of paper like a puzzle and taped them together to make this:

 

to use as my template. Next, I pinned the template to heat-n-bonded fabric and carefully cut out each section.

Then I cut out all the letters and nearly gave myself arthritis.

Then I forgot to take pictures, but I slowly cut out each section and ironed them down onto the banner canvas. It took about two weeks working a few hours every day.

 Next it was time to embroider. Unfortunately I don't have a fancy commercial embroidery machine, so I just shoved the whole thing into my Janome and outlined everything with black thread in a wide and close zig-zag stitch. This part took another two weeks working a few hours every night (about 45 hours total so far). Here are some close-ups:

Next, all I had left to do was turn it into a banner, the easiest part by far, though ensuring it will stay flat and hang straight was tricky. I attached the embroidered panel to a rectangle of red canvas, stitched together the edges and made a channel at the top for the rod (with a hidden buttonhole in the center for a hook to attach it to a pole, if needed), then added some decorative trim along the bottom:

And Praise the Lord, it was finished!

Hallelujah!

kokoleo in Croq

I recently received the Fall 2011 Issue 12 of Croq:

 

It's an indie craft zine put together by Heather Mann who also heads dollarstorecrafts.com and the always amusing Craft Fail.  Croq is chock-full of tutorials, crafty superstar interviews, essays, comics, small business advice, zine reviews, and all sorts of DIY goodness. A while back I submitted a piece I had written after surviving a crazy season of craft shows entitled The Dos and Don'ts of Craft Shows and to my surprise, it was published in this issue.

 

Sweet! Click on the pic to enlarge, or better yet, purchase a copy to keep from the Croq website.

Kokoleo Personalized Banners and Pillows are back!

A year and a half ago I announced that I would no longer be making personalized kokoleo items.  During my hiatus though, I made a few for some friends and longtime customers. Like these banners:

 

 

and these pillows:

 

  

and these pillowcases:

 

 

 

One of my kokoleo banners was even on t.v. last fall! My friend Susan and her husband were featured on the show Property Virgins and at the very beginning, for a few seconds you can see the banner I made for their daughter Lily. Cool! Here's a screen shot I took:

 

 

Now that I'm settled in a new studio I've decided to start offering them again. I'm not advertising this service so I don't get too swamped with orders and burn out again, but I'm happy to make them for my loyal customers, blog readers, Facebook fans, and friends. (Become a fan of kokoleo on Facebook and I'll give you 15% off your order.) Thanks to everyone who has appreciated my work over the years, I'm happy to be making these again.