Kids Disney Boutique / Customs Clothes

[livndisney]

Hi all,

I have been lurking since this board started. I love all the outfits you all have created. I just started sewing again in April of this year. (Sewed as a child then quit - picking it up again at 31 is not easy! ) I have a wonderful little one who I love to dress up- Lily Kate 1 year. I am in awe of you all. Can I join the group? Please Please pretty please!!!

Lorna

Lorna,

WELCOME!!!!!! to the insanity LOL. Say good bye to your sanity (and you money ) and dive right in!

Start slow and don't be afraid to ask questions. A lot of people started last year on simple pillowcase dresses and have "graduated" to appliques.

Your little one is very cute!

Enjoy and have fun!

 

[revrob]

Hi all,

I have been lurking since this board started. I love all the outfits you all have created. I just started sewing again in April of this year. (Sewed as a child then quit - picking it up again at 31 is not easy! ) I have a wonderful little one who I love to dress up- Lily Kate 1 year. I am in awe of you all. Can I join the group? Please Please pretty please!!!

Lorna

So glad you came out of lurkdom! Feel free to jump in anytime! Everyone here is very helpful, and we LOVE to see what each other creates. Feel free to share soon and often.

 

[HeatherSue]

I actually wonder about this too! I know how much I spend on elastic, elastic thread, thread, fabric, and my time has to be worth something and I totally wonder how people can sell things for so cheap! I guess maybe they are just starting out and hoping to gain a following/reputation? I do understand that but I don't think I would keep doing it if I wasn't making any money. On the flip side of that, I said earlier that I watch a seller whose name has the same name as a famous painting (pm me if you want to know who I am talking about or just look under custom clothes and sort by highest prices) and I seriously question the sanity of a person spending $500 for an outfit for a child (or for me actually) who will undoubtably spill something on it and outgrow it in a year! I know that when people resell her things though they usually make a good chunk of that back, but my DH would kill me! Plus I would be terrified every time they wore it that it would get stained. Actually I'm probably just jealous since I would love to buy something from her for my girls but like I said a couple of days ago, money is tight around here and prices just seem to keep going up! I heard last night on the news that they are expecting gas to hit $4.00 a gallon by this summer ! I guess I'll be walking? On this money question......how many of you when you go to WDW get the park hopper passes? I am trying to minimize our expenses on this trip and I am thinking of skipping the park hopper passes which we have always had in the past. Any opinions on this would be appreciated!

We have always got the park hoppers and we tend to use them. I don't know if it would affect our vacation much if we didn't get the park hopper option, though. I guess it depends on how many days you're oing to be there.

1) Thanks, now she will never let me call her PJ now! I had a pony named Shamrock and a horse named Buddy.

2) When I met my future husband, he sat me down and gently explained that most college students did not spend their weekends drinking cheap wine coolers and watching The Breakfast Club and The Princess Bride over and over. He tried to gradually insert me back into society, but met much resistance.

Well, apparently he was wrong! Er...unless I'm just weird, too!!

Hi all,

I have been lurking since this board started. I love all the outfits you all have created. I just started sewing again in April of this year. (Sewed as a child then quit - picking it up again at 31 is not easy! ) I have a wonderful little one who I love to dress up- Lily Kate 1 year. I am in awe of you all. Can I join the group? Please Please pretty please!!!

Lorna

You better join the group!! We love newbies around here! It sounds like we both started sewing again around the same time. I started again in July after a 15 year hiatus (after a disasterous outfit for my poor baby nephew). Lily Kate is beautiful!! You now need to post some pictures of her in some of the things you've made! Go ahead and post a bunch of stuff so you can get your post count high enough to post pictures. We don't mind.

Hey, we both have kids with "Lost" inspired names! Kate on Lost's real name is "Evangeline Lily". I don't know if you did that on purpose, but it's cool either way! Sawyer is not named after Sawyer on Lost, but his rugged good looks didn't hurt!

(

28 cents!!! Wow!! I guess the secret is to buy in bulk!

On the subject of "making money on sewing". When people ask me if I make money sewing, my answer is usually the same. I don't sew to make money. I do sell things but.... I sew because I enjoy it. I sew because I don't agree with dressing a little girl in alot of the "store bought" clothes I see. I sew because I LOVE to hear my daughter say "my Mommie made this" . I sew because I am WAY too cheeap to pay AG prices for "Matching" doll/child sets

Annnnnd I sew because 100's of my "best friends" online sew and we would have NOTHING lmao: ) to talk about here if we didn't sew LOL

My sentiments exactly!

 

[my*2*angels]

Hi all,

I have been lurking since this board started. I love all the outfits you all have created. I just started sewing again in April of this year. (Sewed as a child then quit - picking it up again at 31 is not easy! ) I have a wonderful little one who I love to dress up- Lily Kate 1 year. I am in awe of you all. Can I join the group? Please Please pretty please!!!

Lorna

WELCOME! Now run out to your local fabric store and spend money you do not have for fabric that you have no idea what to do with! Then you will be in the group!JK I am very new to sewing, I just started back in August and have been teaching myself so feel free to jump in and ask all the questions you have! Everyone here is so nice and helpful, you will soon be sewing things you had no clue even existed! If it were not for this thread I probably would have given up by now, but with all of the help and encouragement on this thread it makes you want to do more! So welcome to the addiction that is Disboutique!

 

[100AcrePrincess]

Hi! I did a quick search of quiltshops.com and found a place that has red dots on white fabric in both the 3/4" and 1/4" dots as well as the red fabric white dots in both size dots. They also have other colors as well. It was funtasticfabrics.com and the fabric is on SALE for $4.50 a yard (50%) off!
Nana

Thanks. They have some cute Classic Pooh fabric too.

Pictures???

They aren't pretty, but they are my daughter's first carrots out of her garden. We planted them waaay back in the spring & they never really grew.

You know, someone once told me that Tessa was a dog's name when I was pregnant with her. The woman had a daughter named Claire. I didn't think of it at the time, but I should have said "Claire is a fat girl's name. She's skinny now, but I could see her pushing maximum density." I actually love the name Claire, but that would have been a great opportunity to show that woman how rude she was being and to semi-quote my favorite movie all at the same time.

I love that movie. Dh & I both like that name, but we couldn't use it because it reminds us of that movie. Every time I hear that name name I think of that quote.

On this money question......how many of you when you go to WDW get the park hopper passes? I am trying to minimize our expenses on this trip and I am thinking of skipping the park hopper passes which we have always had in the past. Any opinions on this would be appreciated!

I say buy the park hoppers. We always have in the past, but since my parents were buying this year, we didn't to save them some money. We all wished we had gotten them. The girls needed to go back to the hotel for a nap during the day & we would've been able to split a day so we could have made all the parks.

 

[sahm1000]

1) Thanks, now she will never let me call her PJ now! I had a pony named Shamrock and a horse named Buddy.

2) When I met my future husband, he sat me down and gently explained that most college students did not spend their weekends drinking cheap wine coolers and watching The Breakfast Club and The Princess Bride over and over. He tried to gradually insert me back into society, but met much resistance.



Whenever I make something for someone, I have no idea what to charge. I am usually using leftovers from fabric I bought for Megan, but then I run out and have to buy a smidge more, and then the elastic and thread. My husband asks if I make money sewing, and I actually have no idea! I am just hoping to break even at this point. Maybe someone more experienced can give us advice!

My DH knows I'm addicted to Sixteen Candles. I have no idea how many times I've made him watch it but now he likes it......but I hate wine coolers! Bad experience with peach Bartles and James when I was way too young to drink them! Haven't touched them since!


I am way far away from ever selling anything I make but it is fascinating to hear how you guys come up with your prices!

Hi all,

I have been lurking since this board started. I love all the outfits you all have created. I just started sewing again in April of this year. (Sewed as a child then quit - picking it up again at 31 is not easy! ) I have a wonderful little one who I love to dress up- Lily Kate 1 year. I am in awe of you all. Can I join the group? Please Please pretty please!!!

Lorna

Welcome! Please get sewing now and show us pictures!

When I sell on I frequently start my auctions low, but I still make money on my supplies. Now, you've all seen my stash, but I buy a lot of estate sales and "store going out of business" liquidations, so my cost per yard tends to be very low for fabric and trims. I can usually balance this out with items I may need to buy to finish an outfit.

For example, this dress for my DD cost me approximately $.28 in supplies to make:

THe blue and white fabric, I bought by the pound on a roll, each roll still has MOST of the roll left, and I paid $5 for one whole roll and $11 for the other. The stabilizer on the embroidery was a bulk purchase where I got all of the stabilizer of a person who closed their embroidery business for $187 including shipping. (we're talking 100+ things of stabilizer). The thread, I bought a set of 480 threads with a rack, and used not much. The piping was from a bulk estate sale. I get embroidery bobbins by the case, etc etc. The most expensive thing on that dress is the serger thread.

IF I were to sell the blue dress (I'm not, DD spilled juice on it at christmas, can't even re-sell!), I know it took 4 hours including embroidery. I would probably start the dress at $20. That's a little less than $5 an hour for my work. Any increase in bids increases my per-hour intake, but I still make a profit at $20.

The big thing that takes time is applique. I have a sewing machine that can applique up to 6"by15" while I just add on fabric as it's called for. People who applique by hand, it takes a LOT longer, but often, they can have more intricate appliques. Thus, the price goes up. You usually won't see intricate appliqued outfits on for less than about $50+.

There are a lot of sellers who buy fabric in bulk and/or wholesale, or they are members of fabric co-ops. Some fabric suppliers will give you a deal if you buy a whole bolt, so they don't have to cut the fabric. Some manufacturers will give you the same prices they give smaller quilt shops, if you contact the manufacturer directly and have a wholesale number.

Sorry, this got long winded and preachy, and I didn't mean it to.

I hope this helped, even if I sound like a mean text book lady.

You sound informative, not mean! Like I said earlier I am way far away from ever making anything for anyone else to buy but I can dream rotfl2: ) and it is so interesting to hear how you guys come up with your prices.

Steph, the big thing is to keep track of your expenses. If you have to run out and buy more of X or Y, record how much you spent on it. If you only use half of it, or whatever, keep track.

Then, keep track of how long something takes to make. SOme people include planning time (picking out fabric and patterns, deciding on colors, etc), some don't. It's your call. I usually don't, but I have a friend who does, and it tends to even out.

This was VERY HARD for me to do, as I am the most unorganized, "whatever" sewer around, but with my business, I get audited if I don't have all of my paperwork in order, so I had to learn.

There are ladies here who do a LOT more business than I do, and make MUCH nicer things, so they might have better advice. I would take their's over mine. Most of my advice is experience from my purse making business, as I am only really getting into kids' clothing now.

Have we seen any of your purses? I don't remember seeing any. Please show pictures if you have the time!

 

[sahm1000]

Thanks. They have some cute Classic Pooh fabric too.



They aren't pretty, but they are my daughter's first carrots out of her garden. We planted them waaay back in the spring & they never really grew.

I love that movie. Dh & I both like that name, but we couldn't use it because it reminds us of that movie. Every time I hear that name name I think of that quote.



I say buy the park hoppers. We always have in the past, but since my parents were buying this year, we didn't to save them some money. We all wished we had gotten them. The girls needed to go back to the hotel for a nap during the day & we would've been able to split a day so we could have made all the parks.

Okay, now I'm feeling guilty about never having seen that movie, especially since my DD2's name is Claire! Kind of wish I had seen it before I named her!



Probably we are going to get the park hoppers. When DH agreed that the kids and I could tag along on his business trip (he's staying at the Dolphin) and extend it by a couple of days I said that in order to save money we would use airmiles for the 3 tickets for us, hotel points to stay at a Doubletree Suites for the extended part of the vacation and that I wouldn't buy park hopper passes to save money. But we are going to be there for 8 days so I am rethinking this. Also, since money has been tight I have been scrimping and saving like a good girl and he went and played paintball this weekend. When he said he was going to do that (and I totally think it is a hokey thing to do, it's like they are still kids again playing cops and robbers and he comes home bruised up with spots from the paintballs - how much fun is that?) I said I get park hopper passes then. I'm not normally like that but it kind of ticked me off that I'm cutting back and he is playing paintball. Of course, he would argue that my sewing/fabric habit is expensive too but that is, of course, way off base ! I mean, I actually make something for my kids to wear so it's worht it right?

 

[CastleCreations]

Hi all,

I have been lurking since this board started. I love all the outfits you all have created. I just started sewing again in April of this year. (Sewed as a child then quit - picking it up again at 31 is not easy! ) I have a wonderful little one who I love to dress up- Lily Kate 1 year. I am in awe of you all. Can I join the group? Please Please pretty please!!!

Lorna

It's so nice to have lurkers join us. You're lucky to have such a little one..I hope you enjoy this thread as much as I do...I hope you feel at home here and post tons of photos!
Lisa

 

[livndisney]

Ooops I almost forgot the other reason I sew......

I may run into Castle creations at a theme park again and we HAVE to be cute

 

[Jajone]

Thanks everyone for the directions. Here's what I came up with using scrap fabric I had around. These will be Tink gifts for the girls.
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[lilysmommy]

Thanks for the welcome!!!!!! I have been making pretty basic stuff since April when I got a sewing machine for my birthday. I can't wait to be able to post pictures!!! Lily turns 1 today so I have made a birthday outfit for her. Although I have pants cut out to match, they may not get made in time for the party.LOL.

I already have a stash of fabric - started one before I had a machine. My hubby is not always thrilled to make a swing through the fabric store/section but he has his obsessions and I have mine.

HeatherSue - About Lily's name. It never occurred to me about LOST until my hubby pointed it out. (He also pointed out that Harry Potters mom's name was Lily and our boy name was James which was Harry's dad. Go figure!) LOST is my hubby's favorite show so he was quick to make that connection!

Lorna

 

[lori123]

I am so excited to use it! My mom got me the JoAnn (Viking) day after Thanksgiving singer serger - well - I took it to Viking and neither they now I could get it to work right. Loose sloppy stitches - just yuck. So I traded up!!!!

 

[phins_jazy]

Thanks for the welcome!!!!!! I have been making pretty basic stuff since April when I got a sewing machine for my birthday. I can't wait to be able to post pictures!!! Lily turns 1 today so I have made a birthday outfit for her. Although I have pants cut out to match, they may not get made in time for the party.LOL.

I already have a stash of fabric - started one before I had a machine. My hubby is not always thrilled to make a swing through the fabric store/section but he has his obsessions and I have mine.

HeatherSue - About Lily's name. It never occurred to me about LOST until my hubby pointed it out. (He also pointed out that Harry Potters mom's name was Lily and our boy name was James which was Harry's dad. Go figure!) LOST is my hubby's favorite show so he was quick to make that connection!

Lorna

Happy Birthday Lily!! My little one turned one last thursday. They sure grow up fast don't they?

 

[phins_jazy]

I am so excited to use it! My mom got me the JoAnn (Viking) day after Thanksgiving singer serger - well - I took it to Viking and neither they now I could get it to work right. Loose sloppy stitches - just yuck. So I traded up!!!!

Woohoo!!! Good for you!

 

[Krispy]

who was it that made this skirt? I remember asking about how you did the triangle ruffle - and now I can't find where I saved that info!!!!

I remember I needed squares and then folding them but I forget the details... TIA for the help!!!

Kristina

 

[Stephres]

Hi all,

I have been lurking since this board started. I love all the outfits you all have created. I just started sewing again in April of this year. (Sewed as a child then quit - picking it up again at 31 is not easy! ) I have a wonderful little one who I love to dress up- Lily Kate 1 year. I am in awe of you all. Can I join the group? Please Please pretty please!!!

Lorna

Welcome! I think our feelings would be hurt if you didn't join us! Lily Kate is the at the perfect age for customs! I just started over the summer for my five year old, and I think of all the wasted years of no custom outfits for her!

When I sell on I frequently start my auctions low, but I still make money on my supplies. Now, you've all seen my stash, but I buy a lot of estate sales and "store going out of business" liquidations, so my cost per yard tends to be very low for fabric and trims. I can usually balance this out with items I may need to buy to finish an outfit.

For example, this dress for my DD cost me approximately $.28 in supplies to make:

THe blue and white fabric, I bought by the pound on a roll, each roll still has MOST of the roll left, and I paid $5 for one whole roll and $11 for the other. The stabilizer on the embroidery was a bulk purchase where I got all of the stabilizer of a person who closed their embroidery business for $187 including shipping. (we're talking 100+ things of stabilizer). The thread, I bought a set of 480 threads with a rack, and used not much. The piping was from a bulk estate sale. I get embroidery bobbins by the case, etc etc. The most expensive thing on that dress is the serger thread.

IF I were to sell the blue dress (I'm not, DD spilled juice on it at christmas, can't even re-sell!), I know it took 4 hours including embroidery. I would probably start the dress at $20. That's a little less than $5 an hour for my work. Any increase in bids increases my per-hour intake, but I still make a profit at $20.

The big thing that takes time is applique. I have a sewing machine that can applique up to 6"by15" while I just add on fabric as it's called for. People who applique by hand, it takes a LOT longer, but often, they can have more intricate appliques. Thus, the price goes up. You usually won't see intricate appliqued outfits on for less than about $50+.

There are a lot of sellers who buy fabric in bulk and/or wholesale, or they are members of fabric co-ops. Some fabric suppliers will give you a deal if you buy a whole bolt, so they don't have to cut the fabric. Some manufacturers will give you the same prices they give smaller quilt shops, if you contact the manufacturer directly and have a wholesale number.

Sorry, this got long winded and preachy, and I didn't mean it to.

I hope this helped, even if I sound like a mean text book lady.

That is not mean at all! It never occurred to me to buy by the bolt. I am so disorganized, if I have leftover fabric from an outfit, I will decide to make one to sell. If I planned better, I could make money!

On the subject of "making money on sewing". When people ask me if I make money sewing, my answer is usually the same. I don't sew to make money. I do sell things but.... I sew because I enjoy it. I sew because I don't agree with dressing a little girl in alot of the "store bought" clothes I see. I sew because I LOVE to hear my daughter say "my Mommie made this" . I sew because I am WAY too cheeap to pay AG prices for "Matching" doll/child sets

Annnnnd I sew because 100's of my "best friends" online sew and we would have NOTHING lmao: ) to talk about here if we didn't sew LOL

That is all very true!

Steph, the big thing is to keep track of your expenses. If you have to run out and buy more of X or Y, record how much you spent on it. If you only use half of it, or whatever, keep track.

Then, keep track of how long something takes to make. SOme people include planning time (picking out fabric and patterns, deciding on colors, etc), some don't. It's your call. I usually don't, but I have a friend who does, and it tends to even out.

This was VERY HARD for me to do, as I am the most unorganized, "whatever" sewer around, but with my business, I get audited if I don't have all of my paperwork in order, so I had to learn.

There are ladies here who do a LOT more business than I do, and make MUCH nicer things, so they might have better advice. I would take their's over mine. Most of my advice is experience from my purse making business, as I am only really getting into kids' clothing now.

I think I am going to start a notebook with all that. I always wonder how much time I spend on something, because I get a little bit done here and there. I bet it adds up to way more than I think it does!

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Cute pillowcases!

Yay! It looks really nice!

 

[princesssfws]

who was it that made this skirt? I remember asking about how you did the triangle ruffle - and now I can't find where I saved that info!!!!

I remember I needed squares and then folding them but I forget the details... TIA for the help!!!

Kristina

That was me. I used 5 x 5 squares for both the skirt and the triangle ruffle (prairie pointes).
For the triangles, just take your square and fold it at corners to make a triangle and then fold it again to make a smaller triangle. All the open seams will be on one side and just sew those to the bottom of the skirt. No hemming needed, which in my opinion is the best part.

 

[tadamom]

I took the fabric in and when I told the lady that I needed to return it b/c after I washed it, she cut me off to say that they didn't take back material once it had been washed. I said but I washed it and the black dye from the polka dots and scotty dogs had bled all over the material, she paused for minute and said "I'm gonna make a judgement call and give you a refund b/c I think that this is damaged". YOU BET IT IS!!!! I was seriously starting to think that they weren't going to refund my money. That material was 15.00 for 2 yards -- I never spend that much money on fabric. She gave me my money back and it got me thinking that I will be much more careful on the fabric that I buy that looks like it "might" bleed.

 

[brightvalleyjrts]

I love this. I just made a Tshirt dress with a tshirt from Target.

And just because my new puppy is so cute.....

Very cute puppy. I have been showing and breeding Jack Russells for the last 10 years. They are my other children. We currently own 4 of them. My only piece of advice is be careful near your cats. There are a lot of horror stories in that area!! LOL!

 

[camelotcats]

So I don't get in trouble, these have all been sold.

I have a separate business making purses, bags, and small luggage. The messenger bag and cube are my design. All bags are made out of rescued estate fabric, close-out fabric, and recycled samples.