New princess custom set

During this whole month, I was busy creating one complete new princess set for an etsy customer. I truly enjoyed every piece of this set and had a wonderful experience from the start till the end. Here are some steps of the way....from proposing and choosing the fabrics, making mock ups till the finished set.

MOCK-UPs

DETAILS

FINISHED set

xo, Katarina

"Romantic"

Yesterday, I was so wowed when I saw the Etsy's front page with my dress/set featured.



It was one of those treasuries created by the etsy admin, as my item was found using the search term "romantic".

It is this dress/set that made it;)



I thought that I might post an e-mail I got recently from Mary, mom of beautiful Bella, to whom this set was created. She bid(sorry not sure if this verb is regular or iregular as bidded sounds odd) on my latest costume as well, and wrote me this:

Dear Nina,

This a gorgeous set. I wouldn’t even look at it the first few days it was up- for fear of falling for it. Your work is so detailed and spunky. I know you enjoy making children’s clothing, but I’m afraid you’re never going to get as much ($) for it as the time and ($) you put into it. I mean, that last set you sold to me was so detailed, versatile, and creative, that an adult outfit of the same nature would have netted you much more, financially. Grownups are willing to pay big bucks for something they can wear over and over (children grow so quickly).

I even think, that you could be an elite costume designer for any Broadway stage set or movie. The tone of a story is so sparked by the vivid quality of apparel! I think, that when one conveys to you their ideas, you’ve an uncanny ability to capture the essence of their mood and make it concrete; you could set any tone you wanted with your enticingly flowing thematic works.

However, it does seem that you lead a wonderfully balanced life – creating art you enjoy and raising a beautiful family. Perhaps you already have it all figured out! And, I do so enjoy owning a couple of your dresses for Bella to keep and cherish, and perhaps share with her children one day. Take care. And, even if I get outbid, I hope you will always know how much your creations inspire me.

Fondly,

Mary


Thank you again ETSY and thank you Mary!!!!
Great weekend everyone:)
Katarina

ROYAL costume

A few weeks ago, I set up this listing on eBay. So for the winner, I had to create totally custom 4pc Royalty outfit.



I was so lucky and happy to work with my sweet repeat customer(she won the Elphaba costume as well, last year) Mary, who gave me the hands free to do something stylish, royalish, but also something smart, eloquent, and totally outrageous like Marie Antoinette would have worn. She said:"It could be like going to a fancy, yet somewhat demure, executive meeting, and then taking off the serious layers to reveal a party animal after hours"...

Originally uploaded by aerynsun4ever

She found a great sites with many fantastic gowns from different films, this one , and this one and she told me that her FAV is the Breathe gown from the Ever After film.



So, I was in awe...that dress was the pure perfection, simple but yet so rich....and the colour was just perfect!!!So, I took that as a starting point in my search for the fabric and idea to create the total look and entire outfit, or better say collection of outfits and I made a few sketches

After buying some sumptuous fabrics, I completed the buy with some gorgeous trims, which actually inspired the entire collection:)

I wanted to give to the outfit that touch of old, vintage, brass coloured fabrics and on the other hand, as it was the childish outfit, a touch of pink, in this case in my preferable shade of the dusky pink.





So, I started creating the
1. gown, party one
2. the jacket-inspired by the Breathe dress
3. the tiered tulle skirt/dress
4. over skirt
5. organza cape
and
6. accessories: socks spats, clippies and neck choker


I was also very lucky b/c her daughter, Bella is just 4-5" smaller and a bit larger in chest, so the outfit will fit her much better than to Marta, but yet I was able to take pictures of this One Of A Kind set for the memory.







I just love the Marie Antoinette inspired party mini-gown with its over skirt or without it.





Oh, and the fun lacy socks spats?



Hope that Bella will enjoy her outfit:)
xoxo, katarina



PS I have just made the listing on etsy, offering OOAK 4pc couture set, you can check it out HERE and it is featured here and here

Antique GOLD gown

My latest design, on eBay.


I had so much fun creating this dress and truly enjoyed it, and maybe I will be creating some of these elegant dresses more often in the future;).
Must say that beside a lot of time engaged in creating it, I spent a lot of money for all the fabrics and other material. Just that beautiful embroidered dupioni silk with pearls costs 50$ per meter and it was a bit difficult to work with it, as it has all those 3D embroidered beads, that when it comes to serge or sew near, it was just like taking them off and later on putting them back:(
But I really like the result, and so does Marta, who was refusing to take it off after shooting,LOL.





Taking about taking pics, I also had a bit of trouble, that looking at it now, can also be called luck??? Ok, I've chosen the perfect place for the session, the vintage rusty gate, that is just the building next to my mom's;)



I took my mom's vintage gold mirror and a chair...all that was giving me the sense and look of a bit vintage in style and all darkish, with patina.....I wanted that gold shade of the dress to pop-up!!! Oh, I was so excited and even spoke before with a friend about some tips how not to get that overexposed look of the outfit, due to the fact that it was a lot of sunlight coming to the gate and also the fact that I don't have a profy camera to shoot with, so it was all based more to the instinct and good luck, I suppose.



So, while I was setting the parameters on my camera, I accidentally choose as sensibility ISO 1600, and all my shoots ended with big grainy look:(. I was so angry with me, even because I really like them, I mean the composition and the light and the atmosphere (reminding me of the Vermeer paintings....)





Anyway, I had to redo the pics next day (which wasn't so fun like the mirror ones, but at least they are more beautiful sharp), in the neighborhood, as well, just where I took the pics of my Royal gown last year;)



Enjoy!

Katarina