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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Black Friday Specials!


Who's ready for Black Friday?!



Introducing our Black Friday Specials!!! 
Set your alarms and don't miss out! These sales are amazing! 

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All PDF patterns will be 50% off from midnight EST until noon EST, and then 40% off noon EST until midnight EST. Every single one of them!

All Paper patterns will be $2 from midnight until noon, and then $3 from noon until midnight!

All Cookie Crumbs Couture necklaces will be $12.50 with FREE SHIPPING all day long! 



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No more sitting around wishing that the pattern you wanted was chosen for Half-Off Friday. They are ALL half-off this Friday if you grab them on time! Happy Shopping! 

Let's Create!  ~ Kristen

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Free Pattern: Wine Bottle Bag

It's almost here! I love Thanksgiving. This year I will be with my cousin and her family for Thanksgiving. I have been around enough Thanksgiving meals to know it takes a LOT of work and planning to put together. I hope she realizes how much I appreciate it!  (I'm planning to make my special turkey-shaped rolls for the kids too, of course.) Thank you to all of you who are doing the cooking for your family and friends!  As for those of us who are mostly on the receiving end - why not show up on Thursday with a handmade gift that shows how thankful we really are? Here's a fun hostess gift idea for all of us this Thanksgiving:   



It's our new ruffled Wine Bottle Bag! I am sure it will only take a small amount of time for you to create this special gift bag and it will make a huge statement to your hostess! Think of all the different fabrics you could use. 


I just love how this looks. So pretty!  The bag could also be used to hold a bottle of cooking wine with a recipe attached or even to hold a bottle of sparkling cider. (My cousin's kids would love that!) 




And look at the neat little pocket on the front!  It is perfect for a gift card or thank-you note, or any other small token that you want to include.  What a perfect hostess gift for this year! 


Here is the link for the free PDF of our CKC Wine Bottle Bag pattern

As always, we would love to see what you came up with, so please post your pictures on the group page!  (We won't spoil the surprise for your hostess, we promise.) 

Let's Create!  ~ Kristen 

Monday, November 25, 2013

Not Your Ordinary Blah-g!

We have two new exciting features on our blog! We know you're going to love them. 

First up, where do you go to see sneak peeks of upcoming CKC patterns, as well as fun pictures of our kids' outfits and day-to-day projects we're working on? Do you know? 



Create Kids Couture on Instagram, of course! And now we're making it super easy for you to see what is happening with us on Instagram!  We added a live feed right here onto the blog. Take a look over on the right sidebar.  Scroll down to where it says "CKC on Instagram."  Any picture that we post on Instagram will show up right here on the blog in that slideshow. Neat! 




The second feature we added to the blog today is also really exciting - in fact you may have already noticed it. If you hover your cursor over any of the pictures on our blog posts - there it is! An easy round button that lets you pin any of our photos onto your Pinterest boards with just one click! How cool is that?!  Now we can easily share all of these great photos with our friends and save them to look at later. 

We love seeing CKC photos posted on Pinterest by our fans! Thank you! 

We hope you enjoy these new features on our blog. We would love to hear what you think!

Let's Create!  ~ Kristen

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Calculating Fabric Requirements

One of the many things I love about CKC patterns is how easy they make it for me to buy the right amount of fabric every time. Today we're going to talk about that magical chart that you always find at the top of our CKC patterns.   


Have you ever wondered how we come up with the calculations in the charts? If you assume that we're just really smart, then... you're right!  And you can be really smart too.  We will teach you how! You will benefit from knowing this because there may be times that you will want to make adjustments to the patterns and you'll need to understand how to buy the right amount of fabric. For example, my daughter is tall for her age and we like skirts to go past her knee, so I often add some inches to the length. But if I don't also calculate those extra inches into the amount of fabric I need to buy, I could come up short! 


(Here is Poppy's with three inches added to the length. No problem!) 

It can also be helpful to understand our calculations because sometimes you can double up pieces in the same yardage of the same fabric, so you won't need to buy quite as much fabric. If you know that ahead of time, you can buy less and reduce costs.  

So let's get started!  To determine the fabric requirement for each piece, we will follow three steps. I'll list them first and then explain in detail: 

Step 1: Look at the length of the piece. Write it down. This is the number that matters. 
Step 2: Look at the width of the piece. If you are cutting more than one piece and their combined widths add up to more than the width of your fabric, you will need to add their lengths together so that each piece gets the width it needs. Add those up to get your total fabric length in inches. 
Step 3: Convert the length into yards, rounding up to the nearest 1/8 yard.

That's it! 

Step 2 may seem complicated at first but it's not. Let's look more closely. To make it easy, we will be using the cutting chart from our free pattern, Marilyn's Slim Fit Peasant Dress.   


Let's look at the 18 months size and start with the Dress piece. Now follow the steps. 

Step 1: Look at the length of the piece. Write it down. This is the number that matters.   (Answer: 16")
Step 2: Look at the width of the piece. If you are cutting more than one piece and their combined widths add up to more than the width of your fabric, you will need to add their lengths together so that each piece gets the width it needs. Add those up if necessary to get your new total fabric length in inches. (Answer: Our 2 pieces are each 15" wide so they easily fit into the standard 42" or 60". Therefore we do not need to double the length. They will both fit in our 16" length.) 
Step 3: Convert the length into yards, rounding up to the nearest 1/8 yard. (Answer: 1/2 yard) 

So together we just determined that we need 1/2 yard to cut the two Dress pieces for 18 months. Is that correct on the chart way at the top? Yes, it is!

Now let's have an example where we really need Step 2. Look at the 18 month size Ruffle now.  

Step 1: The length is 3.5". Write it down.
Step 2: The width is 30" and we need to cut 2. If we are using standard woven fabric (42"), we will only be able to cut one ruffle in that width. So since we need 2 ruffles, we will need to double the length that we found in step 1.  So 2 ruffles x 3.5" length equals 7".  
Step 3: Now we need to convert 7" into yards, rounding up to the nearest 1/8 yard. That will give us 1/4 yard for the 2 ruffles.  Is that correct on the chart? Yes, it is! 

Some of the fabric lengths that we come up with may be a little harder to convert to yards in our heads. So here is a super helpful tool for helping you convert those inches into yards: 


Did you notice that we even made a column for our metric customers? 

We also made this chart into a PDF file so you can print it or keep it handy in your Dropbox. Download the Fabric Requirements Conversion Chart here

So now that you understand how we calculate the fabric requirements, you can do some adjusting of your own whenever you'd like!  Let's say that you want to make Marilyn's dress two inches longer.  No problem! Just add 2" to your length in Step 1 and make sure you follow through with Step 2 and Step 3. You will have enough fabric every time! Or let's say that you have a nondirectional fabric and you want to cut several pieces out of the same fabric and buy less overall. Just add up the lengths and widths and determine how many yards you really need. 

So now no matter what width of fabrics or what kind of prints or what adjustments you decide to make, you will always end up buying the right amount of fabric!  Isn't it fun to be smart? 

Let's Create!  ~ Kristen

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Free Pattern: Lauren's Leg Warmers!


I have really come to love Tuesdays. Do you know why?  It's the day that we get to share a free pattern tutorial with you!  I can't wait to show you what Morgan has for us today.  Here we go:




Lauren's Leg Warmers!  Aren't they adorable?!  These leg warmers can be made out of knits or wovens and they will sew up pretty fast for you. The pattern does involve shirring, but if you haven't done it before don't be worried at all because the pattern explains how to do it -  and this is the perfect project to learn on!  

This free pattern will make leg warmers for sizes 6 months all the way up to Girls 8!  What better way to keep their cute little legs warm and super stylish?  

(Today one of the little girls in my daughter's dance class had bright pink leg warmers on, and of course now my daughter is dying to have some. I can't wait to surprise her with a pair of her own!)  

Speaking of daughters... Here's Morgan's sweet little girl. You know those perfect photo shoots that we always have at CKC? 



Yeah. Not so much. Even the cutest kids on the planet have their rough days!  This was too cute not to post. (I'm not mean. I just like keeping it real.) She is adorable even when she cries. Plus it's the only picture we have. 

Sooo... how about we have a little photo contest?  We want to see Lauren's Leg Warmers on your little cutie!  All you have to do is download the free pattern for Lauren's Leg Warmers, sew up a cute pair, and get a picture of them on your little girl!  We're going for quality photos so we'll give you until 10 pm EST on Sunday, November 24 to post your photo on the CKC Fan Page.  The winner will win a free pattern from CKC. And who knows - some of our favorite entries may end up on the blog for all to see! 

Here's the link to download the free PDF pattern for Lauren's Leg Warmers

Let's Create! ~  Kristen 

Monday, November 18, 2013

Advertise with Us!


We have a great thing going on here on the Create Kids Couture blog!  Would you believe that this past month alone we have had over 65,000 page views on our blog?! Thank you to our fans for your great support! We know that between our sewing tutorials, new releases, contests, and free patterns, the CKC blog is a happening place!

And now your business can get it in on the action. 




That's right! On the Create Kids Couture Blog we want to create a Sponsor List on the sidebar. It will give our fans some fantastic links that will take them to businesses that relate to Create Kids Couture. This will be perfect for readers and businesses alike!  

If you are interested in having your business's badge/button listed with our sponsors, please email me for pricing and details. We have different tiers available and spots will fill up fast, so don't wait too long to set up the ideal advertising plan for you. 

For more information, please contact kristen@createkidscouture.com, with "Sponsor" in the subject line. 




And for those of you fabulous fans who do not own your own businesses but have a favorite company that you love to buy from (think fabric, tags, notions, etc.), please pass this message along to them! We can all spread the CKC love. 

Thank you for all of your support!

Let's Create! ~ Kristen

Holiday Gift Cards Giveaway!!!!

I don't know about you, but I am so ready for the holidays!!!! Too bad I haven't started ANY of my holiday shopping. Or sewing. Or planning. Hmmmm.... Now that I think of it, I already feel behind! :/


Well, we here at Create Kids Couture simply adore our fans, and we wanted to help you out this holiday season! So, we contacted some of our MOST favorite boutiques, both here in N. America and in Australia, to help give away two amazing gift cards to one of the best fans ever!! One lucky person will win a $1,000 Toys R Us egift card! You will be the best mom in town, hands down. Can you imagine how many awesome presents you can buy your family members?? Maybe get one of those big presents your child has asked for, but you've never been able to justify the cost? We got you!!

On top of that great gift card, we wanted to do something for you. No reason for the kids to get all of the spoiling! So our wonderful sponsors have also pitched in to give the winner a $300 gift card to fabric.com! Oh, I know you already have a wish list larger than that, but I'll bet we'd put a nice dent into it. :) Great for stash building or helping getting your boutique off of the ground.


So, the details. This giveaway is open to residents of the US, Canada, and Australia! The giveaway opens 11/18 and closes 11/26 at 12:01 am est. So, Monday - Monday. :) We will send the winner a Toys R Us egift card, which can a) be used online b) be used from a mobile device in a store, or c) be printed and used in store. The fabric.com gift card can be used as regular money at fabric.com. You will earn one entry for liking each sponsor; we also have additional entries for other tasks. We do offer opportunities for daily entries, also!
Here are our wonderful sponsors. If you don't already like their pages, you'll be happy to add them! Great products and great people. :) Stop by and show them some CKC love! The rafflecopter to enter can be found at the end of this post.






















































 
 

Friday, November 15, 2013

Mashup Video!

We're in for a super big treat today!

For Day 7 of our "15 Days of Thanksgiving," we are offering 40% off Poppy's and Primrose's!




And not only that, but we also have some AMAZING mash ups to share with you using these two patterns.  Poppy's and Primrose's are both strappy dresses that are generally used for warmer months - but by mashing them with a peasant top, they are now perfect for cooler weather! Just look at what Shannon and Tiffany came up with:









Aren't they gorgeous? And here to explain all about how they did them AND to give us a sneak peek into this super fun photo shoot, we have a VIDEO by Shannon and Tiffany!



If the video above does not load properly, click HERE to view on YouTube. 

Wasn't that FUN?!  I even loved the music. Here are some more photos from that shoot, now that you're an insider: 



These girls are totally adorable! (And so are their moms, in my opinion.) 



Poppy's Mashup



Primrose's Mashup



So beautiful and so much fun! You don't want to miss out on getting your Poppy's and Primrose's patterns today. It turns out that they're perfect for this time of year. 



Let's Create! ~Kristen