Photo shoot for Sprouts maternity...

This past Sunday we finally got to take photo's for my etsy store!!! We drove up to Omaha early Sunday morning so that we could make it to the first service for church. In between first service and the church picnic we went to my sister-in-law's to snap some shots of the fall line for my maternity shop.

While we waited a little bit for my sister-in-law to get prepared for the photo shoot, I was able to sneak out to adjust the settings on the camera for better lighting. Then we were all set for the photo shoot... we first started with the grey french lyocell dress and looked for places with yellow back drops to photograph. Here's some of my favorite shots from the day:


One of my favorite shots was in a near by corn field. I know, I know, it's pretty stereotypical for Nebraska, but the photos looked great. We just had to pay for it with bug bites.


One of the nice things about Nebraska is that there is a lot of nice scenery pretty much anywhere you go... it's really easy to find a nice place to photograph. I really liked this scenery for this dress especially, it looks very classical with the ivy in the background.


Next we went on to photograph the silk/linen upcycled top. I chose more of a woodsy landscape so that the colors in the top really popped in the photographs. I really liked this series of photos... when my sister-in-law turned her head away from the camera and was in a forest setting, she could almost pass as Evangeline Lily, the character who plays Kate Austin on LOST. What do you think?


This is part of the series of belly band shots, I just liked this one because of the contrast in colors with a few changing leaves in the background. I love the fall!


Here's one of the photos for the purse which I think looks pretty nice as both a dressy, and in this case, a casual look with the green silk and brown linen top. This picture was taken just outside the corn field... I like how the yellow in the field seems to brighten up the picture a bit.



Here's the cover shot pose for an album. Love it!


Here's a fun one... I wanted to show that the jacket was fully lined so this is what we came up with. This was one of the last shots at my sister-in-law's place and it was getting close to the time we needed to leave for the picnic. The following two shots were taken at the picnic with my sister-in-law, her husband, and their son.




Such a cute family shot! In case you can't see, my brother-in-law is wearing the "espresso bean daddy bag" which is a diaper bag that even men can carry. With a racing strip in the front, this bag could almost pass as a men's messenger bag.



Here's another cute shot of the family... my brother-in-law at the bottom of the slide, sister-in-law at the top of the slide, and my nephew is going down the slide...

For further information on any of these items in my fall line for 2009, please feel free to check out my etsy store at www.sproutsmaternity.etsy.com


To Nikki and her family; thanks for all of your help with the photo shoot. I had a lot of fun coming up with the different poses with you!

My new sewing room in Lincoln :)

I've been doing a lot of sewing in preparation for my fall sprouts maternity line on etsy. Our bedroom, on the second floor has become the new sewing room. We set it up with our kitchen table, sewing machine and dress form. It has a lot of natural light, lots of space and hardwood floors, so it's been making sewing a breeze when it comes to clean up! It's proven to be the perfect room for dress making.

Here's a sneak peek into the sprouts maternity sewing room, with out giving away too much before launching of the fall line...

This is a maternity hooded sweater jacket that is near completion...

A good part of the line is finished already, but I might be able to get a few more items done before the big photo shoot... in a few weeks. :) Can't wait!

How to... hem a prom dress

I recently hemmed my cousin's prom dress and thought to my self "this would be a valuable skill for young people to know how to do, especially if they don't have the money to hire a tailor." Since most of us don't have that special interlock machine that will finish the hem of the dress, I came up with a simple technique that looks pretty professional in the end.


Step 1: Fold under 1/8" further down from where your desired length would be. Pin to keep in place. Press (with med to low heat iron) a creaseon the fold of the hem.Step 2: Sew 1/8" closest to the folded edge. Taking out the pins as you go.


Step 3: CAREFULLY cut off the extra unneeded hem length with a sharp pair of sewing shears. Try to cut really close to your finished stitch line you just sewed, but try not to cut more than 1/16".


Step 4: Fold under about 1/8" to 1/4" pressing and pinning as you go, so that no raw edges are exposed.Step 5: Sew as close as you can (1/8") from the inside edge, so that you attach the rolled under edge to the inside of the dress.

Congratulations! You have mastered this important life long skill, and saved a bit of money too.

If you would like to see more handmade or vintage products of mine, please feel free to check out my sproutsmaternity shop (for maternity, children and accessories) or my jnsweeney shop on etsy.com (for vintage items).