New Dresses on Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp

I just finished a new batch of dresses! Click on the pictures to learn more about them.

Large Draped Collar Sash Dress

Medium Steel Blue Draped Collar Sash Dress

Small Fuschia Leopard Print Draped Collar Sash Dress

Special Order

New Handmade Clothing in Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp

I’m in the middle of designing a completely new line of clothing but am still finishing and adding some of my designs from the past year to Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp. I also have a 20% off coupon up on the site so be sure to use coupon code grand20 for 20% off your entire order whether you’re purchasing handmade clothing, original art, or vintage items. Click on any of the images below for more details.

New Sewing at Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp

Now that I have my new webstore up and running I’m working to fill it up with new goodies. Here are a few of the recent sewing projects I’ve added to the shop, click on images to get more details regarding each item.

Handmade Orange, Yellow & Coral Linen Collage Skirt - Small

Rainbow Bow Bag

Handmade Aqua Horsey Jersey Jennifer Dress - Small

Handmade Aqua, Green, Brown & Black Patterned Cowl Tunic - Small

New Clothing at Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp

****Giveaway alert! This is post number 195! I want you to win a gift certificate to Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp!!! Enter here for your chance to win one of 3 gift certificates for Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp! Just post a comment to win, it’s easy.***

I was just looking back to see what the last new dresses I had posted to the blog and saw that the last 4 pieces I shared with you have all sold already! My dresses are moving fast these days so don’t miss your chance to get one of these. Click on the pictures to see item details on the Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp handmade dress shop on Etsy.

Handmade Yellow & Orange Layered Skirt with Orange Stretchy Waistband - Medium

Yellow & Green Layered Skirt - X-Large

Handmade Heathered Cotton Candy Pink Draped Collar Shirt - Large

Handmade Ikat Printed Jersey Cowl Tunic - Large

Handmade Purple Anchor Printed Jersey Cowl Tunic - Medium

New Handmade Clothing at Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp

I have been playing with a lot of new designs recently for Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp. I am working on good layering pieces for fall and adding more and more sleeves into the line. Click on images for purchasing information.

Aqua & Black Striped Draped Collar A-line Dress - Size Small

Aqua & Cream Geometric Patterned Draped Collar A-line Dress - Size Large

Eggplant Petticoat Dress

Pale Purple Embroidered Yo-Yo Shirt - Size Medium

New Clothing by Mellifluous Couture

I realized that it has been awhile since I shared any recent sewing projects. In honor of the beginning of my sewing class tonight I thought I’d share some new Mellifluous Couture handmade clothing.

Eggplant Colored Jennifer Dress - Medium

Red & White Jennifer Dress - Large

Cantaloupe Linen Ruffle Collar Dess - Large

Red Linen Isadora Smock Dress - Large

Sage Green Pleat Dress w/ Lace Details - Small

Organic vs. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

First, I’d like to say that I am happy to see more organic cotton on the market. Cotton grown conventionally uses a lot of nasty chemicals so of course the more organic cotton the better.

That being said, there is a lot of fabric already on the planet so why should we just rely on new textiles? I know for large companies it is necessary to use new fabrics because they need lots of yardage of the same exact fabric. For smaller designers, such as myself, using identical yardage isn’t as much of a necessity. With that in mind, what are some of the options for smaller designers who want to leave the smallest environmental footprint with their clothing line? I say the answer is in the idea of reduce, reuse, recycle.

I have spent a lot of time reducing the amount of fabric I have to use to make a garment. Cutting patterns leaves a lot of hard to use waste fabric. I have been using a technique where I end up with very little waste fabric and the fabric that is left I use in my Collage Dresses & Skirts.

Another way I reduce is by using deadstock and scrap from bigger fabric stores. I happen to be lucky to live near a great resource for end-of-the-line fabric. Pieces that have damage, printing errors or are small pieces leftover from other designers past seasons. This fabric rarely comes in pieces larger than 5 yards. This means that my line consists mostly of one-of-a-kind pieces but I see this as a benefit. I mean, who likes showing up at a party to see someone wearing the same dress as them? Never going to happen with one of my dresses! I also look for fabric at thrift stores, tag sales and flea markets. All these sources are reducing the amount of new fabric I am purchasing new.

Reuse is another great one. I already shop for vintage for Deserted Treasures. Often I see great fabrics in already made clothing that might not be vintage or perhaps it’s damaged. These pieces are great to take apart and integrate into clothing and accessories.

As far as recycle, much of what I mentioned can fall under this heading. In addition, I feel like I have become the default textile recycling center in my community. Have a piece of clothing or fabric you think is pretty but no longer want in your house? Drop it by Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp, I’m sure Erika can make it into something. The best kind of fabric I get this way? Organic fabric of course!

So while I adore organic textiles and have used many of them during the existence of Mellifluous Couture, I always prefer to use fabrics that are already here, possibly preventing them from entering the waste stream.

I see the flexibility of independent designers, such as myself, to be just another reason to Dress Local. Indie designers have the flexibility to reduce, reuse & recycle textiles in a way which a large corporation never could.

Eat Local, Dress Local

Striped Jennifer Dress on Etsy

I’ve been contemplating this post for a long time. I’ve been contemplating this entire concept for even longer. Eating local has become a very familiar concept to many of us, some of us even try to integrate this concept into our lives.

Discussing this idea with a friend recently is what made me decide to finally write about it. Many of my friends have a heightened awareness of eating environmentally and ethically thought out diets. The idea that clothing can have these same considerations and options often catches them off guard. I mean, many people have an idea that organic clothing & textiles are available (I’ll discuss organic fabric further tomorrow) but often organic clothing is prohibitively expensive so the idea of dressing in a more ethical way seems out of reach.

With the growing resurgence of handmade clothing in the United States dressing in a more ethical way, and often a more environmental way, is a more viable option. If you are lucky enough to live in a community with a boutique such as my Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp, you may even be able to find clothing made in your own community. Boutiques that carry a wide range of indie designers is becoming more common.

So what is the ethical benefit of buying a dress directly from the dressmaker? Just like when you go to a Farmer’s Market and can ask the farmer how a tomato was grown, with a locally crafted piece of clothing you know who made your dress. There is no question whether it was created in a sweat shop or by a child or by a person being paid pennies a day. When you support a maker of hand made clothing you are supporting an individual artist instead of a multi-national corporation. You also are reducing waste. Anyone who has worked at a chain store selling clothing has seen how each piece of clothing comes wrapped in plastic, often with a piece of cardboard inserted, just to be displayed where it will be stuffed into another plastic bag once sold (and possibly wrapping if it’s a gift). The actual production process of moving clothing through the global market is obviously full of further waste which I will spare you the details of here.

If you can find a local shop or craft fair where you can start purchasing some of your clothing great! If not you can search on Etsy for local artists or at least clothing makers who are still making it on their own, if slightly further afield.

Clothing purchased this way can be more expensive than purchased through chain stores. So many of us have a closet full of clothing that we never wear though. I think part of clothing ourselves ethically and environmentally is to reduce the amount of clothing we purchase and to focus on the quality so what we do purchase lasts longer.

An additional option for local dressing can be found in reuse. Supporting local thrift stores has the double benefit of supporting many local charitable organizations. If you don’t have the patience for thrifting there are many well curated Vintage shops located in communities and on-line through places like Etsy.

Just like local eating, not every choice for most of us is going to be be local. Every purchase we do make does give an opportunity to support an artist instead of a corporation who is more concerned with their bottom line than our ethical and environmental concerns.

In additiona to my own online & brick and mortar boutique, Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp here are some of my favorite lines of handmade and vintage clothing.

Jess James Jake Vintage

Go Go Vintage

Ruby Pearl

Pretty Penny

Sand Maiden Sleepwear

Designer Spotlight: Valerie Soles

Over the years of being an indie designer and artist I have met some pretty amazing designers and artists. It seemed like a fun idea to interview some of these talented makers on my blog. When I got this idea there was one maker who was the obvious person to start with, Valerie Soles.

I first “met” Valerie on-line. When I started my first Mellifluous Couture website Valerie was one of my customers. When her order came in her dearbirthday.com e-mail address sounded interesting to me so I went to check it out. I was blown away by her amazing work and was honestly a little intimidated that such an amazing designer was ordering one of my dresses.

Many years later Valerie is still one of my sewing and design idols. Her meticulous detail and amazing combinations of pattern and color never cease to amaze me. I think of it as an honor to count Valerie amongst my closest friends and one of the artists I carry at Tumbleweed & Poppleswamp.

I share a birthday with this cutie!

Who taught you to sew? How did you develop your skills?

My family lived with my mom’s parents for a little while when I was little. Grandma was a seamstress (among other things) and I spent many mischievous hours lurking around the forbidden sewing room, picking up pins and tweaking her Husqvarna Viking machine lustily. I desperately wanted to learn to sew, but she said I was too young. Many years later, I told her on the phone that my best friend Karie and I had started a little sewing business out of her parents’ basement and Grandma packed the Viking up, table and all and had it shipped to me.

Karie and I taught ourselves to sew on machines when we were 15 and 16, but I credit my Grandma for planting the desire in me to learn to make things for myself. Before she sent me the machine, I made dolls’ clothes and even a most horrid, empire-waisted bed sheet princess dress, complete with fake fur trim (for myself, of course) all by hand.

I am still in the developing stage as far as skills go. Being self-taught has obvious limitations and I think I’m probably way behind where I should be, especially with regard to pattern-making, but I also really like the idea of always having something new to learn.

How did your businesses Dear Birthday & Lovelier Seas come into existence?

Dear Birthday started as a way to keep me too occupied to focus on school. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back, it’s clear that I was way stressed out by my own overly ambitious schedule (I was double majoring in Biology and Visual Arts) and I used sewing as a sort of meditation. I had absolutely no plans for the project whatsoever–it was all fun in the beginning, which is probably why it was successful. Of course, my measure of success is based less on money than on community and feedback and my own fulfillment. Feeling validated as a maker eventually helped me ditch my double major ambitions and focus on the arts.

In the beginning, Dear Birthday was sold only through my own website, but I eventually consigned with a few handmade shops online (Cut+Paste) and onstreets (Sodafine, Treehouse, and a few others I’ve forgotten!) When my boyfriend Ian and I moved to Brooklyn, I opened an Etsy shop and started to change what I was doing to reflect my new spaces (physical and mental), toning the colors down, and printing our own designs on hand-dyed, organic cottons.

It wasn’t long before we found out we were going to have a baby. The spaces changed again and I mumbled and fumbled away from Dear Birthday and into Lovelier Seas.

What are your biggest challenges as a designer?

Finding the time to create! Before Alden was born, I thought that since I wouldn’t be “working” for a while when he was tiny, I would have nothing but time to sit and draw and sew. Thinking back, I probably could have fit in more in those super early days than I can now, but I could not pry my eyes from that tiny little guy for a second! Babies are really compelling creatures.

Lately I’ve also felt that the creative slumps I’ve been experiencing are probably due to having such a fixed schedule. We’ve taken a couple of very brief trips this summer and the change I felt in my veins, just from getting out of our routine was amazing. I wish I could bottle that feeling. Coffee provides a somewhat close, if short-lived approximation, but there is nothing like being out of your element (and I don’t even mean in a high adventure sort of way) to clear your head of the crowding mess.

What is your favorite thing(s) out of everything you have made?

The first thing that I thought of was a vest from the Tidal Detritus collection. It was sort of strange and not something I would necessarily wear, but I just really liked it as an object. I worked on it for a while and felt it was more substantial than just a piece of clothing, if that makes any sense. Like, it had soul in a way that I don’t think most of the things I make do. I never thought it would sell, but one of my favorite customers bought it and gave it to her grandma (or grandma-in-law, maybe) and that just made me so happy.

What is your dream as a designer?

In my daydreams, I work in a light-filled studio, with open windows. There is a salty breeze blowing in, rustling some light garments on a nearby rack. The wooden hangers clack together gently as I move slowly about over worn-thin kilim rugs on wide-planked floorboards, in bare feet, cutting and pinning and sewing and singing for hours. Maybe I have a little stove to make coffee on, too. There is no computer and the walls are almost bare, white–no distractions, no noise, no chatter. Just me and all of the tools that I need. Oh, and nothing ever breaks.

What I want from the designing/making process is really just the process of it. The order and the movement and the satisfaction of completing a project. If other people like what I’ve made, that is so rad and gives me a wonderfully warm feeling. I have learned though, that if I try to create for that end alone, I don’t enjoy the work as much because it’s too anxious. It’s still a struggle to break free from that need for validation for my work, but part of my dream, a big part, is being able to separate good self-critiquing from vague chatter and assumptions about what’s good.

New Sewing Projects

I like to update you all on my recent sewing projects and now with the new Mellifluous Couture Etsy clothing shop you can actually get a shot of owning my one-of-a-kind creations. Click on any photo to be brought to the Dress Shop.

Turquoise Stripe Drape Collar Swing Dress. Size Small

Cotton Candy Collage Dress, Size Smal

Red Linen Pleated Sundress - Size Medium

Dusty Rose Applique Dress - Size Medium

Pleated Salmon & Brown Patterned Calico Sundress - Size large