We wanted to share with you a guest post we recently did for Craft Test Dummies, a wonderful resource of craft product reviews hosted by a super crafty, creative cousin of mine, Jenny Rohrs.  Check out her site for unbiased information about the newest craft gizmos and products and use our curated list of online fabric resources to find the perfect fabric for your next Clever Charlotte pattern!

Last week we showed you the first of two Valentine’s looks — here are some of the details of our second outfit. 

This Starling Dress is made of a cream-colored fine wale corduroy with a ruffle in a quilter’s cotton coordinating with the prints our first V-Day look.

Finally, I added this hand embroidered and lace embellishment to really drive home the message–

Hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

 Happy Sewing!

~Erin

In tribute to Valentines Day next week, Carla and I created not 1 but 2 warm and cozy looks for wintery V-Day. First up is this one:

In this ensemble, we’ve paired our complete Raven look (hoodie + front pintucked pants) with our Chickadee Blouse.

The hoodie is soft and scrumptious in this faux rabbit fur, aptly lined in a delicate white + red dotted Swiss. You remember when we used the same fur for the lovely little cape featured here?

The tie on the hoodie is a simple wide grosgrain ribbon sewn into the seam (rather than on the outside of the fabric), and a small purple glass button closes the collar on the blouse.

Normally, we do not use quilters cotton for our kids clothes but here we made an exception for the perfect mix of Valentines colors of this pattern.

Finally, the Raven Pants are a fine wale corduroy (yes, they really are that red).  We added some coordinating fabric on the back pockets to tie it in with the blouse.

Happy sewing!

~Erin

Here’s an older project from my crafting archives.  This was only my second–ahem, completed–quilt and took only 9 months to plan, assemble and quilt!  I chose my favorite color combination–pink and coral with small sunny bursts of yellow.

I love interesting quilt backs as much as I love the letter “e”.

Here’s the recipient, the third child of good friends  (and, incidentally the sister of our first Charlotte model as seen on the Finch pattern cover).

Here’s the more of the frontside:

Happy quilting!

~ Erin

Meet Charlotte Fox.  I’m smitten, aren’t you??

Since my sewing machine will be in the shop for a while, I’ve been on the lookout for some projects to do from the winter comfort of my couch.  You can imagine my excitement when I came across this clever Charlotte!

This Charlotte Fox is the creation of talented designer, Cynthia Treen, a delightful Rhode Island artisan who sews, crafts, quilts, you name it.  She has a whole line of felt animal patterns and kits under her brand, threadfollower. Here’s her adorable lineup of animals sold individually in kits:

These kits are a perfect afternoon-cuppa-tea-in-hand-project and would also make a great craft to make with an older child. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, which would you sew up first?

So, back to Charlotte–she’s stands just 6.5″ tall. On this inside, she has pipe cleaners for arms so that you can pose her and, with the help of her tail, she stands all by herself.  The PDF pattern has very detailed instructions and illustrations. I can’t wait to gather all my materials to get started.

Check out Charlotte’s little hand-sewn cape!  It’s currently 14 degrees (Fahrenheit) in Houndstooth Falls, so she’ll need this to keep her warm!

Oh, and Charlotte has a “friend” too (or is it a beau??). Say hello to dashing Felix.

Be sure to check out all the fun at Cynthia’s blog, follow her on Facebook, and oh, did I mention she  has a new book out too of small gift-related sewing projects??

Happy crafting on the couch!

~Erin

I just wanted to share with you our newest Olivine Dress look that is hot off the (home) assembly line.  Made with a gorgeous silk gingham and accented with Liberty of London’s Susanna print below, we hope this look will inspire our followers to start thinking SPRING!  Doesn’t this print evoke images of your  little one romping through the tulips gathering Easter eggs?

With the holidays behind us, Cleveland is looking rather dreary these days, and we just can’t help ourselves from sewing for spring.  It’s never too early for positive thinking!

Reminder: there is one more weekend left of our SALE! 20% off all orders with code “welcome2013″.  Take advantage of a purchase now, especially since shipping costs to those beyond our U.S. borders will drastically increase on Jan 27th (due to the US Post Office, not us here at Clever Charlotte!).

Happy Sewing!

~Carla