Long Dress

This idea came to me Friday afternoon.  This is my first attempt at strapless and there will be more to come!  I originally was imagining this dress to be short, which I still might make later, but then I decided yesterday morning to make it long.  I am loving long dresses for the summer.  I think I will wear it to Liz’s graduation party.  The ruffle at the top makes me think of something my mom would wear when she was my age.  I just ordered fabric to make the other long dresses with the sweetheart neckline for M!

Graduation Dress for my Mom

I am making 2 new dresses for my mom so she can wear one to my graduation.  This is the first one.  I hope it’s long enough.  I am almost done with the second one, but I am waiting for my mom to send me buttons from a store in Columbia so I can finish it.  I plan to make my graduation dress today, but I need buttons for that one too.  The buttons should be here next week!  I will have pictures up as soon as the buttons get here!

Other 2 Clover Styles

First, I want to say I am so sorry to all of you that have commented under my posts.  I had no idea there were even comments there.  I am new to this blogging thing and I am really sorry I did not get back to any of you.   

Most of you want to know how to get the dresses.  There is not a way to order them online right now.  Emily from M boutique and I are working on a way to make the dresses available to those of you who are from out of town!!  I will keep you updated!

I am really happy with the way all 3 of the styles turned out and I can't wait to send them off to Jacksonville!!  I am so so excited to have ellen&ollie dresses at Clover!

Clover!

I am so excited for my next project!  Clover Boutique in Jacksonville, FL contacted me a few weeks ago to ask about ellen&ollie dresses for their store.  I am thrilled to have my dresses there!!!  This is the first of three styles I am making for Clover.  I really like the way the peacock fabric looks in the one shoulder dress!  

Fun Summer Dress

I finished this dress for M this weekend. Looking at the picture now, I really want the dress for myself.  I would love to wear it this summer.  I will have to make another.  This is one of my all time favorite fabrics.  I wanted to make a drawstring type waist, but there was just too much fabric that it didn’t look right.  I still want to create a drawstring waist for a dress, so expect to see that sometime soon!

Fashion Show!!

A few of my dresses were featured in a fashion show!!!  This was my first ever fashion show, so of course I had to bring my mom and Laura Lee along wearing their ellen&ollie dresses!  The show was amazing.  I have a few pictures, but I am not the best photographer.  The Shop Tart has videos from the show!

I made this dress for the show.  I took the sweetheart dress I made earlier this week, changed the straps and made it long.  This is my first long dress! 

Laura Lee and me after the show!

Sweetheart Neckline Dress

I woke up at 8:00 yesterday morning and didn’t have to be on campus until 10:30, so I started a new dress.  My mom is going to think it’s a top because it does look a little short, but it was past my fingertips.  I was just about to sew the zipper in (with the newly figured out invisible zipper foot) and I had to leave for school.  As soon as I got parked, walked to class and sat down a teacher walked in to tell us class was canceled.  That would have been just enough time to finish the dress if I would have known and stayed home.  Since I was already there and I had classes all day I couldn’t go back home.  I had to wait until 5:00 to finally finish it!  I wore it last night to our Kappa Senior Dinner, where I ate entirely too much and came home to then eat dessert.

I want to change the straps into some kind of ruffle.

Stir Magazine dress

I tried to tell myself I was not bringing my sewing machine home with me for Easter weekend.  I sewed so much last week that I thought I could survive without it for a few days.  I had to do a photo shoot for Stir Magazine on Friday and I thought I would just pick a dress I already made.  Stir Magazine is writing an article on my dresses!!!   While I was packing to go home, I decided I wanted to wear the new dress style with the side ruffle!  I told myself over and over to just leave the sewing machine at school and not worry about the dress for now.  So as you can probably guess, I cut the fabric out and started sewing.  BUT I did not bring my sewing machine home.  I decided to finish the dress at home with my mom’s sewing machine! 

Laura Lee's modeling debut!

I always make my best friend, Laura Lee, try on the dresses to make sure they look the way I imagined them.  They look much better on her than on a hanger!  These are the new ones for M!

Circle Cut Out Dress

Once I have a dress completely figured out in my head, I am ready to start right at that moment.  The worst is when I figure a dress out right before I’m ready to go to sleep.  I made this dress a few nights ago at 12:00.  I worked all the details out in my mind and I knew from experience I could either start it right then or think about it to the point where I can’t fall asleep and eventually get up and do it.  Thankfully this dress didn’t take too long to put together.  I think I am going to wear this one on Easter!

After making the dress, I wanted to make 2 more for M Boutique.  I decided to make the cut out circle in the back slightly more dramatic and move it down a little. 

I can’t decide about the belt.  I might not add it to the dress, but I feel like the pattern needs to be broken up with something.  I also like the way it looks to bring the dress in at the waist. 

Cars Dress

I am planning to have 12 new dresses for M when I come home this weekend.  So I have been sewing like crazy.  This is one of the dresses I made over the weekend.  I have this dress for myself and I am obsessed with it!  I wore it in Cabo.  I love the vintage look of the cars!

Pictures of Ellen and Ollie

I have so much to share from this weekend!  First, I can't believe the awesome write up in Chaos Magazine!!!!!!  Check this out:  http://www.chaos-mag.com/

Scroll down to find the title New Fashion Line: ellen&ollie

I was so busy this weekend and I will show you the dresses that resulted later this week!

I went to my grandparent's this weekend and we looked through an old photo album that belonged to my great aunt Molly (Ellen's sister).  I took pictures of a few pictures from the album with my phone, so the pictures aren't very clear.  I am going to have to start taking my camera with me everywhere.

Ellen and Ollie.

Ellen

My aunt Nancy and my grandfather.  Ellen made Nancy's wedding dress!

Another picture of Nancy's dress with my uncle Barry and my grandparents.

Side ruffle dress

After getting over the insane excitement of being on the shop tart's blog yesterday morning, I decided to try a new dress.  This is another dress I have been thinking about for a long time.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, but I knew I wanted to incorporate the side ruffle.  I got home from class at 12:45 and I had to be back on campus by 3:30, so I knew I had to work quickly.  The dress was not a problem and I finished everything but hemming by 3:15!  I am thinking about changing the neckline, but I haven't decided yet.

The pink dress was perfect for last night.  It was so comfortable and everyone loved it, which is a good sign for the white and yellow dresses soon to be at M Boutique.  New fabric came in yesterday!  I will hopefully have dresses made with both of them by the end of the weekend!

Using Scraps

I have thought about this idea for a while, but I kept getting distracted with other dresses.  I am currently waiting for new fabric to come in, so this was a perfect time to use scraps to make the front ruffle.  I made the white and yellow dresses for M Boutique and the brown and pink ones for a sorority function tonight.  The brown one ended up not fitting, so it now belongs to Laura Lee.  I am going to wear the pink one tonight!

New dresses

I loved the dresses I made for my cousins with the tie bow neck.  I wanted to make one for myself, but change it a little.  I decided to bring the waist in.  I would put a picture up of the original, but it sold before I could get one.  But I made 2 more!