RefashionMama on Etsy

Tags

custom clothing, custom made clothing, etsy, RefashionMama

RefashionMama on Etsy

I decided it was time to go ahead and give Etsy a try. I know so many people that love Etsy, that it just makes sense that I finally try it out myself. I’ve been successful with selling just by word of mouth and through my facebook boutique so here’s to opening up to the Etsy community. Wish me luck!

NEW Design: Custom-fit Gaucho Pants

Tags

Gaucho, gaucho pants, knit pants, stretchy pants

Introducing the NEW custom-made-to-your-measurements Gaucho Pants!

I’m so excited to share this design with you as I have only designed tops, skirts & dresses thus far. I love being able to now offer pants…both available in full length or capri & in any fabric of your choice.

These are ONLY $25 now through Friday night during the Early Bird Special!

To order, please go to RefashionMama Boutique

$1 fabric headband SALE!

Tags

$1 sale, Headband, headband giveaway

$1 Fabric Headband SALE will be this Wednesday 4/10 starting at 11 a.m. pst HERE

On facebook, SHARE THIS PHOTO to be entered to WIN a FREE specialty headband (additional entry for each friend you refer). Please make sure you select PUBLIC when sharing so your entry counts.

When the sale starts, I will post a photo of each available headband with the quantity available. You MUST comment with your Paypal/email.

U.S. Shipping is as follows: 1-3 headbands $2 shipping; 4-6 headbands $2.75 shipping, 7-10 headbands $3.50 shipping; 11+headbands $5.35 priority flat rate shipping. ALL shipping options come with tracking numbers. If outside of the U.S., please contact me ahead of time and I will give you shipping details.

Jenni maxi dress w/pockets

Tags

Maxi dress, maxi with pockets

I’ve been making a lot of maxi skirts & maxi convertible dresses, so I decided it was time to make a cute style dress with pockets.

Introducing the NEW Jenni maxi dress w/pockets!

The Jenni maxi is available now custom-made to each clients individual body measurements and in the fabric of your choice. Choose between short n sassy (as shown) or floor length.

Please visit my RefashionMama Boutique

Introducing several NEW custom designs

Tags

flutter top, jagged hem skirt, Keli top, maxi convertible, Maxi skirt, pencil skirt, Penny tunic, pixie pocket skirt, Sasha top, spring fling skirt

This gallery contains 17 photos.

Introducing several NEW designs in my boutique, all made to each clients body measurements and fabric of their choice. Jagged …

Continue reading »

Sewing tip: Easy peasy spaghetti straps with a serger

Tags

serger tip, Sewing tip, Spaghetti strap

Ever try to make spaghetti straps? Seems doable, right? Just sew down one side of a strip of fabric that’s been folded in half lengthwise…then turn it to the right side…wait, how the heck do ya turn it?!? Sure, you can use the old safety pin trick to try and push one end through the other, but what if your strap is too thin? What if your safety pin opens half way through pushing it through?

TRY THIS! If you own a serger, making spaghetti straps just got real easy!

First, make a long chain stitch by serging with no fabric (you want this chain to be the same length as your fabric strip or longer). Pull on the chain stitch to lengthen.

Next, lay the chain stitch down the middle of your fabric strip and fold fabric in half.

Now, serge down the right portion of the fabric strip, making sure to avoid the chain stitch thread. Serge all the way down the strip and cut the end of the chain stitch.

Now, pull on the end of the original chain stitch that’s laying down the middle of your new fabric tube.

Keep pulling so that the tube slides through the other end, pulling itself right-side out.

Pull on the chain stitch until you’ve turned the entire tube right side out. And now, you have a spaghetti strap!

Sewing tip: Re-attaching an existing zipper

Tags

mend a zipper, reattach zipper, Sewing tip, zippers

Ever find yourself with this problem?

I bought this pair of skinny jeans for a mere $8 since the zipper needed mending. I’m a sewer so I figured it’d be a quick fix . Well, time has gone by and I haven’t found the time to mend them until now. Luckily, I had just enough matching thread leftover from another project.

So, I pulled out my zipper foot.

. And I moved my needle to the left position…if you have a Bernina, make sure you do this or you’ll break a needle.

With any machine, I advise you to check your needle position any time you place a different foot on. I do this by manually turning the dial to make my needle move to the down position. This way you know if you need to move your needle position to the left or right (and you won’t break a needle!).

Now, I just placed the foot down on the zipper, turned my dial by hand to place my needle down and made sure it was lined up with the existing stitching.

I sewed a straight stitch down the side of the zipper. It does get a little tricky down at the bottom since it get bulky and you’ll have to smash your zipper down a bit (or maybe just zip it up!). Make sure you reinforce your stitch when you start and stop…maybe you can avoid having to mend it again!

Now, your zipper is back in place! And it’s time to rock your cute jeans again

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Baby Eagan’s auction ends in ONE hour!

Web Store

We’ve started the process of building a web store for the business.  To assist in that endeavor my brother, Joseph, will be posting a detailed description of everything he’s doing to get the web store up and running.  It’s basically going to be his project and he’ll be posting regularly.  

 

Cris

 

Building a web store – Part 1: An Overview

by Joseph Gats

 

Picture yourself as a cake designer when a friend of yours comes in and asks for a cake.

 

“What kind of cake would you like,” you ask.

 

“Oh I don’t know,” he says, “a great cake.”

 

“Do you want it to be a single layer or double layer,” you ask again grabbing a notepad to jot down some notes hoping for some direction.

 

Again your friend is less than specific, “Oh, I don’t know, “he says.  “I just want it to be perfect and for everyone who has a slice to think it’s the best cake they have ever had.”

 

Frustrated you ask for more details.  Equally frustrated they supply only vague notions about what they want.  In the real world no one would expect the cake to turn out exactly the way your friend wants it to if they can’t give you a basic idea of what they want.  But this happens every day.  The friend is disappointed maybe even a little mad that you couldn’t create them the perfect cake and nothing of substance is achieved.

 

This is similar to creating a web store.  Whether you’re creating it on your own or hiring a designer to do it for you it’s important to figure out exactly what you want before you even start.  Be prepared to sit down and plan.  Your webstore is as important to your business as your product.  This is even more of a truth if you lack a brick and mortar place of business.  If you are selling exclusively online, then your webstore isn’t just your marketplace, it’s you.  It’s how the world will see you and what they will think of you. Can they trust you?  Do you have style?  Only your webstore can answer those questions on first sight.  You have to be prepared to answer with an absolute “yes”.

 

Building it yourself:

 

For now, lets assume that you’re going to create the webstore yourself.   Lets go over a few of the basics.  Do you have all the software tools you’ll need to get the job done?  What are those tools?  Lets explore that.

 

Tools:

A home computer.

This may seem obvious, but if you’re planning on building your store at the library or on a computer you only have limited access to your going to find yourself frustrated.  Updates need to be made in real time, files need to be saved, you need a space to work and sometimes a public space just isn’t enough.

 

Image editing software

Pictures drive websites.  Unless your pictures are crisp, clean, and sized properly some visitors to your website will write you off as unprofessional.  Your website will need images of varying sizes and with digital effects added, image editing software is important.  Working on a budget?  Don’t worry there are some low cost and no cost options available that we will explore later.

 

Digital photography of your products.

It’s important that you are able to capture your products in the most appealing light.  Your customers can’t grab your merchandise in real life so they need to be able to see it on their screen so they can make a decision to buy.

 

A server host

You are going to need a place to host your files so that people can access your store online.  You can either buy your own equipment or rent storage online from a server who’s already got everything you need.

 

This is all a lot of information?  Where do I start?  We’ll get into that in the next post.  

 

Joseph

Upgrades

So I read an awesome article online about a clothing company called American Giant. They’re out of the Bay Area and as far as I can tell only make men’s clothing. They have a very industrial vibe. Definitely a “man’s man” kind of deal. In the article (you can read it here) the owner talks about how his dad gave him a sweatshirt back in the 50′s that he still owns today, cause that’s the way things were made back then. It was supposed to last you forever or at least until you got drafted. So the whole company is about making stuff so well you can pass it down to your kids. Genius! I liked the idea so much that I tried ordering one of their zip hoodies. Only I couldn’t. Why? Cause they’re so backed up with sales! I had to fill out a pre-order form instead and then they’re supposed to call me in a few days. They’re actually going to call me…whaaaat?! Just goes to show that people still want quality and are willing to pay for it.
Summer and I were thinking along those lines when we recently upgraded her machines. She had been sewing with a Brother cs6000i that she got for Christmas back in 2011 and also a New Home (now known as Janome) that was about 20 years old. Her serger belonged to her mom and was about 25 years old. I think the brand was called White and I’m not sure they make them anymore.
We upgraded the serger first and went with a BabyLock Imagine. Its got that ridiculously awesome feature known as air threading. It’s been really great so far and Summer seems to love it. The sewing machine is a Bernina 330, also great. Summer is currently taking courses for each machine at the same place we bought them in order to learn all their idiosyncrasies. These babies weren’t cheap but thanks to the fact that we’ve managed to more-or-less avoid debt, don’t really eat out and both our cars were made during the last century we were able squeeze out just enough to get them. Some killer sales and scoring the floor model for the BabyLock didn’t hurt either. Anyway, that’s it for now. Ill let you know when I get my zip-hoodie!

Cris