something new

Lately, I have been so busy filling orders that I haven't had time to create anything new, but today it was a pleasure to have some time to create a new design. 


Since my ruffle front dress style has become so popular, I thought it would be fun to come up with a new take on it. 

I started with my father-in-law's classic blue oxford for the dress and then used some left over fabric from a dress I made a few weeks back. (I love keeping all the dress shirt scraps and trying to find ways to use them.)

I am really excited with how the new ruffle front turned out and all the possibilities that it presents. I'm going to continue working on a series of dresses with new ruffle front designs and will keep you updated on the progress. 

busy, busy, busy (busy!)

For the past month I have been very busy trying to get my personal life and business life in order since the newest member of our family is estimated to arrive Easter Sunday, April 8th. Wow, when I put it in writing I realize just how soon (could be less than 11 days...) things will be changing! 

In anticipation of the arrival, I have been trying to turn around my dress orders as fast as possible and I just recently stopped long enough to realize just how many dresses I have made the last few months. I feel truly blessed to have worked on each of these special artifacts.

Here are a few images of the latest Little Grey Line originals (you can see Style 10 has become quite popular which I just love): 

heirloom

While the majority of my work lately has been focused on transforming men's dress shirts, I was recently tasked with a very special request: take these two nightgowns and redesign them into summer dresses. 
  

With the first dress I was inspired to showcase the eyelet fabric located on the bottom of the gown and at the same time I wanted to incorporate the feminine ribbon and lace detail at the neckline in a new way. The result was a simple bodice that meets a slightly gathered skirt trimmed with original lace detail. I repurposed the original shoulder straps from the gown as the ties at the back of the dress. 

For the second dress, I decided to keep the original design of the gown in tact and altered it to fit the new scale of an 18 month old. 

The sweet little girl who will soon wear these dresses will probably have no idea that she's wearing an heirloom, but her grandmother (who originally wore these gowns) and her mother will surely cherish them. It was an honor to work on these truly precious artifacts. 

I am hopeful and excited that these two dresses will open an additional realm of work for Little Grey Line.


UPDATE:  One of the gown dresses didn't fit perfectly so I was able to alter it by redesigning the neckline. The added monogram truly makes the dress in my opinion. 

a dress for a big sister

I have been making a great deal of dresses lately through commissions I have received, but I try to sneak in one for my daughter, Adeline, every chance I get. 

This shirt was one that my husband could no longer wear since losing some weight recently. It is a really beautiful white dress shirt with thin navy blue and purple pin stripes so I wanted to do something special with it. 

Since Adeline will be a big sister in less than two months, I thought it would be fun to make a special dress just for her. Before we found out that our second child would be a boy, I was saving everything I made in case baby number two was a girl. Now that we know Adeline will be our only daughter I feel more comfortable personalizing the things I make for her, thus the monogram.

This dress incorporates a new sleeve design which I really love. I used a portion of the original shirt sleeve, but rotated the seam that is usually located on the underside of the arm to the top to add a new detail. Additionally, I fashioned it into a modified lantern sleeve which is fitted on the upper-arm and then fuller at the fore arm and wrist. 

Adeline wore this dress Saturday to a baby shower my sister hosted for our soon-to-arrive little boy. What special memories I will have of her in this dress. 

two of a kind

These two dresses were made for a pair of friends, Piper and Phebe. Piper's mother is a friend from high school who has been so generous to spread the word about Little Grey Line. During the past two weeks, she has helped me get six orders with more to come thanks to her and her many friends.

Both original dress shirts were really nice to begin with, but I think they make even better dresses!

I really love this classic sundress style because the long straps allow it to be styled in several different ways. 

I delivered these dresses to my friend this morning and her precious daughter couldn't wait to put her new dress on when she saw it after preschool; the best compliment a three year old could ever give me!

Here's beautiful Piper modeling her dress. Many, many thanks to her mother for these pictures and all of the support!

A Pair of Christmas Dresses

 
My father-in-law loaded me up with two bags of dress shirts this summer when he realized how serious I was about my clothing line, Little Grey Line. He had mentioned that he would look in his closet to see if he had any shirts he no longer wore, but I never imagined he'd show up with over a dozen shirts for me to repurpose. (I made a couple of them into dresses for Adeline and her cousin, Reagan, this summer for our family beach trip.)
When I sorted the loot, I saved these two (nearly identical) shirts because I knew the color and pattern would be perfect for Christmas dresses for the girls.

Since I had just finished a dress for a friend that incorporated the front pocket so adorably, I decided to utilize that design for these two dresses as well. Additionally, I thought it would be fun for the girls to be able to put some Christmas treats in their pockets!

The styles are identical but Adeline's dress has a slightly larger pattern which I thought would be more appropriate for a larger size (2T). Regan's dress was sized for 18 months. Each dress repurposes the original button placket for the back of the dress and also incorporates the sleeves and cuffs (resized for little ones, of course).

Judging by Adeline's face in the picture below, I'm not so sure she was impressed with the dress, but I can promise you that it meant the world to my father-in-law to see his two granddaughters wearing his shirts. And because these shirts had probably been washed and worn hundreds of times, they were so soft that it made them absolutely irresistible to hug.

SMB

My greatest compliments for Little Grey Line come when someone asks me to do another dress for them. I made a dress this summer for a college friend's daughter from her husband's shirt and then I received another commission from her before Christmas. This second dress would be presented to her father as a Christmas present. 

 
The most exciting part of this classic, blue dress shirt was the monogrammed front pocket which displayed my friend's fathers' initials. It was very important to incorporate this into the dress so I decided to utilize the entire pocket and make it part of the full skirt.

Since the first commission was a summer dress, I made a winter dress with long sleeves that rescaled the existing sleeves and cuffs from the original shirt.  The button placket from the front of the dress shirt was incorporated into the back of the dress so that it would be easy to remove as well as iron. 

 

I heard from my friend after Christmas and this was her comment regarding the dress:

"I got the shirt and it's the most precious dress ever. My father was deeply touched and impressed with your talents. You are amazing. Thanks again for making Christmas extra special!"

I couldn't ask for a better compliment.