Bringing it all together!!!

Unfortunately, last week we found out that Mousebee Couture was not asked to be in the Hyde Park art show in the fall:-(
On a brighter side, Jaime, the owner, finally had her long awaited baby boy Finn! Needless to say, I was all alone most of the week busting out more dresses. I was able to attack about 5 more dresses. It felt like a pretty productive week.

This week we have decided to finish loose ends on the dresses that we already have done. We will be sewing the Mousebee tags in the dresses along with attaching any buttons that need to be attached and finishing some hems and ribbons on the waistbands. Hopefully we will finish all of these minor details this week so that we can take more photos of the details and I believe Jaime will be starting an Etsy store with about 30 dresses.

I am still having a fabulous time with this experience and feel my sewing abilities have grown tremendously with technique and speed. I am starting to realize that my time here with Mousbee will be coming to an end in 4 weeks and can not believe how fast the time has flown. I will keep sewing away for the time being but be sure to check out all of the dresses that we have added to the website. There are so many to choose from now! MousebeeCouture.com

The Madelynn Dress

At the end of last week, I had 2 new dresses completed. This was a design made from scratch called the "Madelynn". It is adorable! I completed 2 eyelet dresses and all they needed was Mousebee's signature ribbon to be put on them over the weekend. They are the perfect spring/summer dress. The colors are vibrant and the fabric is light. I love the way they turned out!

Friday, I was also able to start perfecting the "Luciana" patterns along with begging to cut and sew a muslin (imitation) dress of it. I was so glad that we did this because we were able to work out all of the kinks of the pattern along with determining which stitches and hems to use with this particular dress. It will be chiffon over linen, criss-cross top, with a gathered skirt and a left side seam zipper. The chiffon is a difficult fabric to work with and this pattern is a little more intricate design. These may take a little time to make in comparison to the other dresses. When they are done, it will be all worth it because they will be absolutely fabulous dresses for stylish, little girls.

Overall, I am very pleased with what we have done in the past 4 1/2 weeks. I believe the inventory is now up to about 20 dresses and counting. We will continue sewing away! Check out the website: MousebeeCouture.com

Week 4 Update!!!

Okay, so I may have dropped the ball on the blog last week a little!!! We were working extremely hard to complete a large portion of inventory. We managed to attack her re-fashioned dresses and now have a ton of completed pieces. They are adorable! We used old men and women's blouses labeled with Talbots, H&M, GAP, Anne Taylor, Brooks Brother, etc. and turned them into little a center-front, button-up, gathered skirt dress. They turned out to be absolutely delightful. We were also able to take better pictures and update the website with all of the dresses. WOW! Those re-fashioned pieces kept us so busy!!!

At the end of the week last week, we prepared for Jaime, the owner, to appear at the open judging process for the Hyde Park Art Show. She attended on saturday and I think it was a great review. We will sit with our fingers crossed until she finds out at the beginning of May!! So exciting.

This week we will begin refining the pattern for little bloomers and the pattern for her chiffon dress. We are also going to begin making her Madelaine dresses... This will be the start of a busy busy week!!!

YAY! New Website....

I spent all day monday, a couple of hours tuesday night and a couple of hours last night trying to figure out this website!!!

First off, I was introduced to IWeb on my MAC for the first time on monday and if you own an APPLE computer and have not used it yet , USE IT! It was amazing. I am not a pro at website building, but this application made it flawlessly easy to manipulate and build a basic yet cute website. Loved it...

Second off, as easy as it is to go to a webpage and navigate through the website just by the click of a mouse, do not ever believe for a second that it is anywhere near that easy or quick to build, design and upload a new website. When I began building the site, I did not think it would take near the amount of time, thought and effort as it did. Not to mention we used GoDaddy for the web host and that is a whole other process... Let's just say, a GREAT learning experience.

The website is still a work in progress and I will continue to refine and better it through time, but be sure to check the new MouseBee Couture website out!

Completed Easter Dress

Easter Dress is now complete and has been worn for Easter by Lucy!
It turned out perfectly and fit Lucy like a glove. This dress was such a great way to start off this Co-Op. Initially I was unsure of designing children's clothing simply because I have no children myself and my style does not really reflect the cuteness of little girls. This dress has really encouraged me in the realm of children's wear and I am enthusiastic about our projects to come.

Right now we are preparing for a class that Jaime is teaching on re-fashioning this thursday evening. Re-fashioning is a great way to GO GREEN! We take used men and women's blouses or shirts and turn them into a dress. The process can be a little easier than making from scratch because many times you can take advantage of the hems, seams, collars and plackets that already exist. I will be sure to post a picture when we complete one today!

Day Two

Here we at the start of day 3. I am having a great time. We have used this week to get acclimated with our flow of work along with discuss the plan of attack.

We are nearing the end of an adorable Easter dress. It has been a pretty simple task with a few small kinks that needed to be worked out. At this point, we will finish the week by attaching the skirt, inserting the zipper and hemming the bottom of the dress. After the first dress is finished, we will begin to look over patterns of the other dresses and organize our next steps to begin to produce a higher volume of inventory. At the end of today, we will have a flawless plan of attack set up to start to the beginning of next week!

Off I go to sew away!!!

My first day!!!

I am a student in the Fashion design program at the University of Cincinnati and it is a requirement of the degree to work in the professional fashion design industry for 6 quarters. I have begun my first co-op with a new starter company called Mousebee Couture, owned by Jaime Castle. This is a newer, small, children's wear business.

My objectives of this experience is to gain more knowledge and skill in sewing and constructing garments and patterns, especially in children's wear. I will also get to work on some web design, small business marketing along with many other aspects that go along with obtaining a small business.

My second day of working with this company is officially underway. We have made our goals and expectations of each other and the next 12 weeks we will spend together, along with begun our first children's dress together.

This is going to be an awesome experience and I will continue to record all of my thoughts, struggles and successes as this co-op continues on!