New Blog Site

I have begun making most of my posts on tumblr. We have decided to use this site because the photos are better displayed and easier to upload. Check out the new blog at http://anniesclothesline.tumblr.com/.

Why does girls clothing have to look so....?

I was shopping over the weekend at one of my favorite big box stores. My husband and I split up to find what we needed and as he strolled through the girls department he heard two women comment to each other, "Why does girls clothing have to look so trashy?"

Yes, why does it? I have two daughters, ages 6 and 3 1/2 and when my first daughter was only an infant I asked the same question. The answer to my question was the birth of Annie's Clothesline. At the time I didn't think about it getting worse with the age of the girl, but of course it does. Now that my oldest daughter is wearing clothing from  the girls department and not the baby/toddler section I find that shopping for her is much harder. I don't want my daughters wearing short-shorts, cropped shirts, tight fitting pants, and clothing with inappropriate sayings or images of commercial characters on them. Alas, that's what we find available at those big box stores.

I'm thankful that I can sew and that I love to create and my business partner feels strongly about the same issues. Again, we'll resort to what we know best, our own skills of creating quality clothing that is age appropriate, does not overwhelm with gender specific colors, and is reminiscent of children's clothing styles from eras of the past. I think we may see a bigger push than I anticipated to expand Annie's Clothesline to sizes larger than 5. There is a need for clothing for girls that keeps them looking like a girl and not so....well you know...

Layette a New Annie's Clothesline Product

Expectant mothers of baby girls beware! You may love this!

I'm too excited about our new product idea to wait any longer to talk about it! A friend from college contacted me to make a dress for his soon-to-be-born daughter. He wanted her first outfit, the one she'll be leaving from the hospital in, to be made by someone he and his wife knew. What a nice sentiment! In response to his request my partner (my wonderful mother-Happy Mother's Day, mom!) and I created 2 hats and 2 dresses. One hat and dress in size 0-3 months and the other dress and hat matching in size 12 months. The idea is that her first outfit will coordinate with a dress for her to wear on her first birthday. As a result of this opportunity we were able to pilot a new hat design (it has a chin strap, is reversible, and a double ruffle) and create 0-3 month clothing. It was a success! I hope his wife agrees. If we make this again it will only be by request/special order. I love the idea, maybe someone else will want to purchase it too...

0-3 Month Hat and Dress

0-3 Month Hat and Dress with Hat Reversed

12 Month Hat and Dress

12 Month Hat and Dress with Hat Reversed

Custom Orders for New Customer

I have been pleased to make the acquittance of a lovely woman from Solsberry, Indiana. She has seven children, four boys and three girls and she loves Annie's Clothesline. As a result I have made 2 custom Washboard Girls Easter dresses for her twin daughters and plan to make 2 more within the next month. Her daughters are 7 so it was an opportunity to expand our Washboard Girls collection into size 7. The dresses turned out great and she and her daughters loved them! We don't plan to add size 7 to the Washboard Girls collection but I will continue to make them for her as long as she orders them from Annie's Clothesline. The moral of the story is, if you like it ask, maybe we can do it for you too! I love making things for people I know. It's much more fun than pushing out dresses for a rack in a store.

Size 7 Washboard Girls Custom Easter Dress

Size 7 Washboard Girls Custom Easter Dress

Fun at the Fashion Show

We had a great time at the fashion show. The girls (my daughters and models) enjoyed their walk but preferred the other activities more. They also got to play dress-up, have tea, and listen to a story. They agreed to do it again next year and I will probably have to listen to my 3 year old talk about it over and over for months.

Attendance was awesome at the O'Child Fashion Show and Tea at the Fountain Square Ballroom

Annie's Clothesline models on the right

We now have some more dresses in O'Child. There is a new Washboard Girls style and the 2 dresses featured at the fashion show.

New Washboard Girls style at O'Child

Our display at O'Child

Vintage-inspired Rue Bee dresses to appear at fashion show

My 2 beautiful girls have been invited to model Annie's Clothesline at the O'Child Spring Tea and Fashion Show on Sunday, March 27th. They will be modeling two new Rue Bee designs. The dresses are vintage-inspired and one (the shirt-waist dress) is modeled after a pattern from the 1950s. The other (princess dress) is modeled after our princess coats. Take a sneak peak at the shirt-waist dress. The fabric has a little girl walking French poodles on it. It's so adorable and we absolutely love it!

 

    

More Items at O'Child

 We finished a new set of Washboard Girls dresses and they are now available at O'Child. I really like the minty cool green of this dress and the pocket on the tee makes it playful.

New Items Available at O'Child

We have worked very hard over the last 3 weeks and completed 14 Rue Bee Princess coats and 6 Washboard Girls dresses for this spring. The items are available at O'Child in Bloomington. The coats look fantastic! They are in a great location in the store; at the front! They can be seen from the sidewalk outside the store on the Square. We love the Windsor blue most but we know many people will love the fuchsia more. The 6 Washboard Girls dresses are rose colored with flowers at the neck line. The flowers are darling and the colors make you anxious for spring.

Rue Bee Princess Coat, fuchsia

Rue Bee Princess Coat, Windsor blue

Washboard Girls, rose flower dress

Next up, more Washboard Girls dresses, Princess dresses (bias cut, button front with sleeves), and shirt-waist dresses. The fabrics are fantastic and the styles are a perfect match! We'll post pictures when they are done. Not to mention, you can view our models and clothing at the O'Child Boutique 2nd Annual Spring Tea and Fashion Show from 2-4 PM on March 27th!

Last project and the next

Side View

Fabric Lining

I may have plenty of work to do, what with 2 stores to fill this spring and 3 young children to raise but I still pushed through a project of my own. I'm totally in love with this bag so I felt the need to share. It was on my to-do list for 8 months and that makes me even more excited that I'm through with it. My love of the bag mostly comes from the love of the fabrics I choose (Moda!) but also for the functionality. It's meant to be a diaper bag for a while and then, if it's not too beat up, just a plain bag to carry. I'm getting pretty good at these and I'm already looking for a reason to make more, alas they don't fit into my business plan at the moment. 

 

So speaking of business I'm not moving on to making flowers for those cute Princess swing coats that sold so well in the fall-winter of 2010. We are making them in fuchsia and what we're calling Wedgwood blue. No doubt they will be showing up at O'Child soon. 

Business Expansion

I have a few unanticipated free minutes and I thought it might give me a chance to post a blog. We'll see how long those "free" minutes last...

Annie's Clothesline is still looking for a few possible new stores that will carry our products. We've investigated several stores in the state of Indiana and one or two out of state. We would like to add a new store or two but can't seem to make the ultimate decision until we know we can handle the increased work load. That means we need to hire one or two people to help us sew. Just a little help is needed for some piece working especially on our coats, since they are one of the most desirable items we make. We welcome any comments or interest.

I would also like to thank O'Child Boutique for the support over the last year. Selling our items in that store was one of the best decisions we made because it has opened a some doors for us. Thank you Nancy!

Spring/Summer 2011 Fabrics Purchased

On New Year's day we made a trip to our favorite fabric store, The Stitching Post in Washington, Indiana. We were able to select many fabrics for a great deal of what we will be making for our spring/summer collection. We love our new fabrics and feel they will represent the upcoming seasons well. You should see our new collections at O'Child Boutique in Bloomington and Ballerinas and Bruisers in Zionsville. We're disappointed that the 3rd store that carried our collections, Ragpickers in Jasper, is closing. It is motivating us to find 2 new stores to carry our products this spring.

Washboard Girls
We plan to make short sleeve t-shirt dresses as well as tank dresses with these fabrics-

 We also plan to introduce a new item to the Washboard Girls collection, skirts.

Kate and Izzy
Featuring the following fabrics paired with vintage barkcloths.

Rue Bee
More Princess Coats for spring out of fuchsia and a powdery-royal blue. We are also going to expand the Princess Coat design and make it into a dress with the following fabrics-

One more new design will be a shirt-waist dress with buttons down the front. We think this fabric below will be perfect for the introduction of the new design.

RJ Clark
Yes, we have a boys collection! We chose this fabric for RJ Clark. We will make boys overalls with shorts for spring and summer. I know we'll add more designs and fabrics for the boys collection, since now we have a few boys in the family to clothe.