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.