Wham a lamma

Hey all! We are super busy with orders this week and can't wait to get them out to everyone!! We are meeting with a graphic designer next week to discuss packaging with our logo on it, whoot whoot! This includes tags for shirts, onesies, tag letters, and other packaging for bows/bands/clips. Jennifer will be posting another tutuorial soon and it's a cooking one :) Can't wait to share!! It's not healthy, but we can indulge sometimes right?!
The picture is from Christmas, our latest with the three girls :) love it!!!

Super Duper

Today is our first tutorial!

I am so excited to share it and I hope it is helpful. I started this shirt as a way to provide support to a

SUPER little guy, Adlai.

He is currently going through chemo due to a recent diagnosis of HSP nephritis, a kidney disorder that can result in kidney failure if not treated aggressively with Cytoxan (chemo). He is an extremely tough and resilient little man and my heart just goes out to him and his family.

Adlai, like many young boys, LOVES super heroes. I thought that he needed to show a little of his own super hero within himself so we decided to put his "identity" on this shirt to help him get through the hospitalization stays, clinic visits, and chemo itself. I used short sleeves as it's easier for IVs and shots, even though its blistering cold here! I thought maybe I could do a cape to help keep him warm, that might just be a future tutorial :)

I started with a picture of the Superman logo and drew a template of the outer shield onto construction paper. From there I added the letter A to the center. You can use Microsoft word to help with letters or a Cricut, luckily  'A' is a pretty easy letter to free hand, so that's what I did!

I traced the template on to fabric and then onto Heat Bond Lite (my sister likes Wonder Under better, either will do :))

I used an iron to adhere the Heat bond to the Fabric cut out and then ironed the shield onto the shirt.

 Now, on to the shirt!

Next, I used my sewing machine (instead of sewing around by hand) to go around the outsides of the iron-ons. I did a couple of different options, thought I would show both :)

Note, if you don't sew around the iron-ons, the applique will start to fall off in a couple of washing's.

I sure hope this little man enjoys his new super shirts!!!
We will be selling these shirts and 20% of the proceeds will go to the University Of Iowa's Children's Hospital.

We are hoping to blog as often as possible this year! We would love to hear from people about things they want to learn. Also, we're not keeping this to just crafts either. We have some great food demos, kids games/book ideas, picture art, etc! 

Hello 2012!

If you wish to order, please email mariegraceboutique@gmail.com with your desired size and the letter you would like!



Wishful thinking

My goal was that I would have a few blogs in by now but with the holiday craziness, they are not getting done. Bad me! I have a few ideas up my sleeve and I hope to get tutorials put together. I will have things posted within the next couple weeks but my next big hope is to get our website up and running. I will be working on that this weekend! Can't wait to share!!! I'll keep you posted!
Much love,
Jennifer

Welcome to the blogging world right?!

Hey all! I started this blog as a way to introduce our business in a different way.

My sister (Diane) and I (Jennifer) started making hair accessories for my daughter last spring. can't get enough of it! We constantly have ideas running through our head, now if only there was enough time :) I also hope to put up tutorials as well as start some 5 helpful ways to...OR 5 ideas...we shall see how this goes :)

 Little did we know it would turn into a wonderfully fun little side business. I will give a little history for the both of us. We both grew up in Dubuque, IA. Diane currently lives there and is working as a preschool teacher in a small town very close to there. I live in North Liberty, IA which is about 8 miles from the University of Iowa. (GO HAWKS!!) I live with my husband, Ottis, and our beautiful daughter, Hannah. She is our pride and joy. Being the only grandbaby, she is spoiled! I work at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics as a Cardiac Rehabilitation Specialist (exercise physiologist) and just love it. My sister and I have been close our whole life, well, except from when I turned 14 to probably 21, I was much cooler than she was. All of that aside, it would make sense that I have her as my business partner. I'm the fly off the handle, got a spur up my butt kind of girl. She's the cautious, let's think about things before we do them person. Combine the two of us and we are a perfect pair.

  Our business started this past June because of a friend of mine who was opening up a local business in our mall. She loved the accessories we made and she wanted to sell them in her store. We just took off from there. We are overwhelmed with everyone who has supported us each step of the way! We come from a family of 'crafters'. Our grandmother E made everything, clothes, quilts, pillows, crochet items, and seasonal gifts. She is a master of all crafting traits and has taught her daughters and granddaughters well. Our grandmother M would mend everything and even dabbled in making clothes. We, however, did not start to actually start crafting until, well, this year and now we can't stop. We are loving life and are very fortunate to have amazing people to help guide us.
I will post pictures of items I made for family members for this holiday season and list the websites that I got them from. Keep paying it forward right?