Morning Mayhem

Well, I didn't get my work done last night. At 9:30 I collapsed out of sheer exhaustion because my little one had been up much the night before with some mysterious issue that kept the both of us awake for a good part of the night. So today, I'm trying to play catch up, but as many of you know, trying to get work done with kids underfoot is really not very easy! So, I'm throwing in the towel again, and instead of writing the blog I had planned for today, I'll just share a little of what I was trying to deal with this morning and you can get to know me and my family a little bit better....

Where are all the Pattern Testing Calls?

If you've been one of our fans for very long, you've probably noticed that in the last month we have not put out any of our usual calls on Facebook for pattern testing. Lots of folks have been asking us about pattern testing and what we are doing. I've answered a few emails and posts on Facebook and thought it would be best to address it here on the blog as well for those who might not get to see the other posts.

So what's going on?

August Boutique of the Month- Pumpkin Pants!

Our August Boutique of the Month is Pumpkin Pants which is owned by longtime Create Kids Couture fan Jenoa McNamara. Go like her Facebook Page and and her Etsy Shop and show her some love!

What's hot this month- Fabric Consultant

Hi everyone! My name is Brenda and I own Pink Castle Fabrics. I'm interrupting Shannon and Tiffany's regular post today to talk to you all about fabric!

Each month I'm going to stop by and let you know what's coming up in the next few weeks and point out some things you should look for. The fabric industry is stepping up it's game and putting out more and more great lines and it's easy to get lost in everything that is coming out. I will do my best to highlight things I think are going to be big winners so you don't miss out!

To recap last month we talked about:

The Birds and the Bees by Tula Pink

Cameo by Amy Butler

Hope Chest by Josephine Kimberling

This month has been pretty hectic around here! New lines just keep filing in and each one is better than before. You may want to hide your wallet somewhere safe before proceeding to read this post!

Chicopee by Denyse Schmidt

How to Measure for Fit

One of the most confusing things about the fashion industry is how each brand has their own sizing. If you've spent any time shopping, you already know this. For children, Old Navy, Baby Gap, and Gymboree tend to run bigger than say, Carter's in the same size.

Well, if you're sewing a CKC pattern, how do you know what size to make for your child? If you haven't made one of our patterns yet, you may not know the fit of our designs, so you should probably measure before cutting your fabric. Each pattern includes the measurements for the finished garment in each size. Once you measure your child, you should choose the garment size that is closest to her measurements, and when in doubt, size up!

We've created this super handy chart for you to use while measuring your little one. Print it out and fill in her/his measurements to keep them on hand, and update it when needed. Here is the link to the full size document.

Magnetic Attraction

You may remember a while back I posted about needing a sewing room makeover. Well, it's very slow going over here, but I thought I would share, little by little, some of the things I am doing to make my sewing room more user friendly.

I have 2 tables set up in and "L" shape with my sewing machine on one and my serger on the other. In between the two are all my little tools that I am constantly grabbing as well as my bobbins, etc. Except, I kept losing things. And they kept rolling off the table. And my precious little Gingher chintz scissors finally hit the hardwood for the last time!

So here's my solution: My lamp has a metal base and I just happened to have a bunch of little magnets left over from some other crafting project long ago...

So, I decided to put them to good use!

See, there's all my little favorite things, stuck right to the bottom of my lamp right in between my two machines. How awesome is that? Now, I never have to go searching for my extra serger needle again! Or that tiny little screwdriver I need to put it back in! Or the tweezers to rethread my serger at 1am! It's all right there, handy dandy! You can do the same thing, even if you don't have a metal lamp...any piece of metal will do. You can get a small flat piece from the home improvement store, or a big piece and mount it on the wall for even greater magnetic storage!

So tell me about your best sewing room invention...I'd love to hear...

robin@createkidscouture.com

Don't forget about our 2-day sale!!! Use coupon code LETSBEFRIENDS on our website for 30% off all patterns!!! Ends at midnight!!!!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner....

So excited to share the 10 lucky winners with everyone. One of them could be YOU! We contacted everyone by email and we're still waiting to hear from them. They have 48 hours to contact us and then we will choose another winner!

Thank you to everyone who donated and helped make this giveaway a success 99,846 entries!!! Just under our 100,000 goal, but we'll take it! To everyone who entered the giveaway, even if you didn't win, I hope you plan on sticking around and getting to know all the boutiques you fanned! We are doing a two-day sale to celebrate all the new fans we gained! Check our last blog post for the details. I'm sure others are offering sales as well, so be sure to explore all those new pages <3

a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats!
Shannon and Tiffany

Let's have a SALE to Celebrate!!!!

Well, the Back to School Giveaway and 8,000 Fan Celebration is officially over. Since we started the giveaway, we have gained so many new fans that we decided to celebrate again this week by having a sale!!! If you're one of our new fans, we hope you're here to stay, and if you're one of our loyal customers, we want you to know we appreciate you too!

So here are the details: This is a 2-Day Sale. It will run from right now,  Monday August 20 through Midnight on Tuesday. Tiered pricing is not in effect during the sale. Use the coupon code: LETSBEFRIENDS to get a 30% discount off all patterns. And stick around, because later this week we will be releasing several NEW PATTERNS!!!


                                                        www.createkidscouture.com

Happy Shopping! Thank you Fans!!!

How-To: Adding Piping to Outfits

One of my favorite things to do on the Create Kids Couture Facebook page is to scroll through all the posts made by our fans. I hear about our fans stalking our page all the time, looking for testing opportunities and new pattern releases...well, I spend my time reverse stalking our fans! HEHEHE! I love looking at pictures of your work and I'm always impressed with your creations. And every once in a while, I'm really "wowed." Well, that happened a few weeks ago when our fan Tina Martin-Nims posted a photo of her gorgeous Whitney's Ruffled Neck Romper.

First of all, forget about the romper and look at that baby!!! She is soooo cute!

If only chubby leg rolls were just as endearing on an adult, I'd be all set! Wait, back to the romper...check out the gorgeous piping Tina added to the neck ruffles! It adds dimension to the piece and really makes it stand out.

Like any good stalker, I immediately emailed Tina and asked her if she would be my bff   would be willing to do a little tutorial for our fans to teach us how to do this too! And she said yes!!! (I'm not sure if she felt threatened by my persistent stalking and that's why she agreed, or if she really is just an awesome person, either way, I'm thrilled!)

Tina is a hardworking military spouse and stay at home mama, so I hope you all will show her some love for taking the time out of her busy life to do this for us! Go visit her Etsy Shop Damsels N Dragons and add her to your favorites.

You can find the tutorial here on Tina's brand- spankin- new blog. Whether you own this pattern or not, you should really check out this tutorial because piping can dress up just about anything and Tina does a great job showing us how to use it! 

Thank you so much, Tina for sharing your work with us!

Think you can rock my world just like Tina? Send me your best creation at robin@createkidscouture.com.

Free Tutorial Tuesday: Callie's Lace Socks

When we were making our most recent free pattern for Fabric.com we wanted it to be a school-girl theme just in time for back-to-school. What goes better with a school girl skirt than cute little knee-high socks? But if you know us, regular 'ole knee-high socks were not gonna do, so what's a girl to do? Of course, we put our CKC twist on them, and made them lace knee-high socks. The only problem was, we weren't gonna spend $28 on a pair of socks, so naturally, we decided to figure out how make them ourselves! And this is what we came up with....

When I finished these socks I did a little happy dance because it actually worked--yes, we doubt our abilities sometimes and surprise ourselves often! With fall coming up we *know* these socks are gonna be a huge hit as we have seen these socks selling at high-end children's boutiques for mega $$$. They are fun to personalize as well, add a little satin bow and pair with some dressy boots and you have a whole new look! Oh, the possibilities!

So here is our newest tutorial:

Callie's Lace Socks 

8000 Fan/Back To School Giveaway

With our latest milestone of 7000 fans--which we thought was pretty big!--we decided we wanted to do a giveaway since it's been awhile. When we sent out the memo, we certainly didn't expect to get the overwhelming response that we did. Even more so, we gained 1000 new fans in just 2 weeks. It's mind blowing. Thank you so much to all the generous vendors and thank you most of all to all of our incredible fans; you guys inspire us to push our limits and keep us motivated. If it weren't for our fans we would not be where we are today being able to do this job we love! This giveaway is definitely all for you! 

CKC Sewing Meme Contest Winners

I cannot tell you how much fun I had this week with the Sewing Meme Contest!!! Every time I opened my email there was something there just waiting to make me bust out laughing. We had a hard time coming up with just one winner, so we decided that we'd also give out a few honorable mention prizes of one free pattern each. So...

Honorable Mention- Diana Kinsella

Honorable Mention- Faith and Glitter

Honorable Mention- Sarah Corn

And the 3 Pattern Pack winner is...Lauren James!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated! You're all superstars!

 If you are one of our winners, please send us an email at createkidscouture@gmail.com and tell us which pattern(s) you'd like and we will email them to you!

Half off Thursday!!!

Well, what do you know, it's Half Off Thursday! I am especially excited about the half off pattern today. Why??? Because I don't own it already!!! My collection has definitely grown a lot over the last couple months, but this is one I didn't have yet, so YEA, I'm going to buy it! What is it?

Helen's Maxi Dress

Stunning, isn't it?

This pattern comes in sizes 12-18 months through size 8 girls.

I can't wait to make one for my little girl!

So, I'm off to buy mine. Adios.

Oh,wait! Don't forget about the Sewing Meme Contest. It ends tomorrow, and in case you missed the update, we've opened it up to any kind of sewing related meme, so even if you're not into hot guys, you can still participate. If you haven't taken a chance to browse the photo gallery, you can do that here. Beware: there are some doozies in there!!!

Just one more thing, we hit another major milestone yesterday, reaching over 8,000 fans on Facebook!!! In-freakin-credible!!! Thank you fans, for your loyal support! We really appreciate every comment, every "like," every post on our wall, every project you share, every time you share our page with your friends! THANK YOU!!! And stay with us, because we're only getting bigger and better!



Half off Wednesday!

Well, we're half way through our Half Off Week and our Sewing Meme Contest and counting down the days to our HUGE Back to School Giveaway and 7,000 Fan Celebration. Except it's going to be more like an 8,000 fan celebration! Whoop! We're sending out a huge thanks to our fans for sharing our page with your friends and we know that we owe this all to you!!! You are not going to believe how incredible this giveaway is going to be! Stay tuned...

And now, for our half off pattern of the day! Lucy's Apron Halter Knot Dress and Top

How Cute is this Dress???

Am I the only one who loves a pattern that come with both top and dress measurements??? It's like getting two patterns in one!!! Wahooo!

And for only $4.00 today, you can't beat this deal!!!!

And don't forget about our Sewing Meme Contest!

We've expanded the contest to include any and all sewing related memes you can dream up!

Send your submission to Robin@createkidscouture.com

Have a Great Day!!!

Meme Contest Update and Half off Tuesday!!!

OK, first of all can I say this is the BEST JOB EVER??? I cannot tell you how awesome it is to wake up and drink my coffee while sifting through an inbox full of hilarious and hot memes sent in by our fans! Now, a few of you don't find this as amusing as we do, and we're sorry for that. It certainly is not our intention to offend anyone and it was all planned in good fun, but in order to make the contest a little more inclusive I'd like to invite you to send in ANY sewing related memes you can create.  Just make me laugh. And keep it original.

I hope to see some funny stuff in my inbox between now and Friday. And actually, I'm really looking forward to some variety. After all, you can only look at hot guys for so long before getting bored.

Of course, I have to apologize for the assumption that all of our fans share the same preferences. I'm sorry. I just wasn't thinking. Plus, I forgot about the handful of male fans that like our page! Geez, don't want to leave them out!

Anyways, now what you've all been waiting for: The Half off Pattern of the Day!!!

Oh, I love this pattern! Serena's Stripwork Double Layer Dress is only $5.00 today!!! Wohoo!

Here's my first Serena's...

And my second...

Don't forget to show me yours!!! Send pics to Robin@createkidscouture.com

Happy Shopping, Happy Sewing, Happy Meme Making!

See you back here tomorrow!

Best. Week. Ever.

Yep. This is it. The best week ever. First off, my inbox is going to be chock full of hot guy pics every time I open it thanks to our Sewing Meme Contest.

And...Shannon and Tiffany decided that every day this week there will be a half off pattern!!! No waiting until Friday!!! How awesome is that??? Can you say Best. Week. Ever. ???

To kick it off they're offering Bella's Ruffle Fabric Romper for only $4.00!

This is the perfect little romper to finish out the summer!

So yea!!! Go shopping and meet me back here in the morning to find out our next half off pattern! See ya!!!

Hey Girl, It's a contest!!!

We got quite a bit of feedback over the weekend about our Ryan Gosling Create Kids Couture Memes that were posted on Facebook. Well, of course we did, he's hot!!!!

mmmm, mmm, mmm

Anyways, who wants to see more hotness on the CKC page??? We do, and we're willing to pay for it! In patterns, of course!

Here's the details...

1. Create your own sewing meme. You can use any photo editing software to do this Just download an image of any Hottie-- does not have to be Ryan Gosling!!! And then add your text. If you don't have an editing software, you can use Picasa free here.

 2.Email it to Robin@createkidscouture.com.

3.Watch for it to get uploaded into our new Facebook Album Sewing Memes.

Share this contest and our album with all your friends...

the more, the merrier!

On Friday, we will choose a winner! The winner will get a 3 pattern pack!!! Now, that's hot!!!

Dream On....

I really wanted to share this with everyone because I just love it and it is such a great message. Tiffany had it posted on her wall when I woke up so I definitely stole it from her. lol. Obviously it spoke to both of us. Everything we have right now is from pure hard work and having a goal to reach. You have to be driven and I suggest you set a goal for your business today--if you haven't already. You may have NO idea how you're gonna get there, but that's part of the fun! I'll tell you what our goal is/was and I would love to hear some of your goals! Tiff and I decided around Thanksgiving last year that we wanted to have paper patterns and go to Fall Quilt Market. We had absolutely NO idea how to do any of it. But we took it step-by-step and here we are with paper patterns and a booth paid for at Fall Quilt Market. After we get back we'll have to figure out a new goal, but you can bet that it will be BIG and we'll have no idea how we're gonna get there! That's what keeps our job interesting and going in the right direction. 

Now....what's your goal?!? We would love to hear! And if it's not hard to get there, then you aren't dreaming big enough!!!

Happy Sewing Dreaming!

Shannon and Tiffany