Custom made graduation dresses

Hi, I'm back 😊

I wanted to share what I've been doing the whole month, I rarely have time to blog .. 

I got orders to make custom made graduation dresses (robes de la promotions) for 4 adolescence who's going to receive their middle school's diplomas end of June.

These are my creations based on their requests. These 14-15 yo girls demands were not so easy to do to be honest .. but I'm glad that all dresses matched their expectations. When clients happy, I'm happier ...

client's graduation dresses

Holiday is over!

Hello again!

We were just returning from summer vacation last Thursday and I guess I have a lot to share here. While still on a vacation I received an email from the boutique manager asking for more summer stocks for her boutique in Vevey. In fact she told me that 6 pieces of my creations had been sold and she was asking if we could meet up. I replied her email saying that we're still on holiday and I won't be able to meet her before 11 August. She said okay, she'll wait.

This new chapter of our collaboration wasn't that easy, The manager gave 3 months probation period for my creations (just like an employee in any other company), if they could sell them to their customers then I'm saved, otherwise my contract ended. That's why I felt so relieved knowing half of my creations that the manager hand picked for the boutique were sold.

☺otherwise my contract ended. And this is in Switzerland .. where the standard of quality is high and I can't predict if their client would appreciate my creations .. That's why I'm so relieved .. half of 12 pieces that the manager hand picked for the boutique were sold.

I received the good news while I'm in the mall with my 2 girls after my sewing class. Oh, I forgot to tell that I took one week made to measure kebaya class while vacationing in Jakarta as I wanted to make the most of my holiday there.

I'm so happy with the news, it means I could continue to put my creations in the boutique.

Maybe I'm just lucky. Many people can sew. Many people have more sewing, designing, pattern-making skills than I do. But what I believe is that each one of us has different journey, different stories.

When I started to learn how to sew a while ago, to me it's some kind of a "healing" process. We all have wounds from past life experiences and turbulences, and me no exception. Sewing soothes my wounds.

Starting Petits Pas - handmade creation only 3 yrs ago from zero (and with minimum experience) has brought my life a lot better and happier personally. It taught me to be patience that success is a slow-ripening fruit of your hard work and struggle. That learning is a lifetime process to be a better you.

And to know that you have life partner and friends who support you and knowing exactly how it is trying to live out of your passion, is a cherry on the cake, it makes this life sweeter.

new summer creation in progress

La robe de demoiselles d'honneur

Our close neighbor is getting married in August this year. They are preparing for the big day. This included looking for the perfect dress for the bridesmaid. There will be 2 dresses for her daughters (age 10 and 14). The 10 yo girl had already found her dress, a white with marine blue bows and trimmings. The 14 yo teenage girl had tried many dresses, had gone from boutique to boutique and online websites too, but she didn't find anything to her liking. So her mom asked me if I could come up with something that she probably likes.

I quickly thought about my last white cotton-silk fabric with black embroidery that I had purchased quite many (but only had the rest about 2 m long). The fabric was my favorite delights, I already made them into so many creations before. So I proposed a sketch of the dress and showed them the fabric and they were happy with it. 

Carry on, I made an appointment for the girl to come and tried on some of my dresses, just to know roughly her size, and moved on to make the dress.

Today the dress is ready and I already handed it to my client. Hopefully the dress will make her happy and make her mom at ease, so she could continue with other important wedding preparations :)

This is my first time sewing for a formal event like a wedding. I made many party dresses, but I never made for any special occasion like this.

bridesmaid dress

Seize every opportunity

I got a chance to do a fashion show again. This time in other part of Switzerland. We live in Nyon region (a french speaking part in Swiss) 15 minutes from Geneva, and the event will be in Rheinfelden, canton of Argau in German speaking part of Swiss.

It's about 2-3 hours drive from home. I will be doing the show with another designer (if I may call our self, a designer, or well .. a "creators", "makers" whatever suits us better), he's a Basel based designer and he already did many shows than I.

Now I'm 2 weeks before the D day which is on Saturday March 05, 2016 and still doing finishing, organize things etc as this will be my first fashion show that I (we -- me and friends) organize, from looking for models, music, stage runway etc. It's kinda exciting actually ... I'm loving it.

Here's what I think: "Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occassions and make them great. Weak people wait for opportunities ; while strong people make them". So I just think I better make my own opportunities, each time it come knocking on my door.

Okay, until then ..

wish me luck!

I'm going to take some good night sleep first ... bonne nuit! :)

One of the creation I made for the event.

Preparation for Marché des Créateurs

It will be my first time joining Marché des Créateurs at l'Usine de Genève on December 13th. It looks fun. Crowded but fun.

 

Every craft fairs or Christmas market have their own unique ambience. I tried bigger scale of exhibitions before like in Palexpo and UniCréa both twice, and many smaller scale of exhibition and one day bazar. Bigger fairs were less fun, because in our head we were worried if we didn't make enough to pay back the fees - which often quite expensive for a small scale of homemade businesses.

 

I took notes too that I gained more in smaller scale fairs, because firstly the rent was cheaper for a stand (or a table) even sometimes it's free. People who came to these fairs were fairly easy to open their wallet as my stuffs were also affordable. The worst fair was the one I participated across the border last time (as I need to pay "service" in custom, I lost 160 CHF last time for an expedition bureau who's work was only fill-in a tax form and handed it to the custom office upstairs - which actually I can do it myself, plus 40 Euros for tax I had to pay for France custom). So, one experience was enough.

 

Okay, so right now I'm in the middle of preparation. This time I will make more fun clothing for kids. I'll remake animal capes and thinking to make animal themed shift dresses for girls in fleece fabrics. I had sketched some of the items before going fabric purchase this week end.

fun fleece dresses sketches.

 

What do you think? :D

 

Journèe Culturelle

Last weekend (Saturday 05 September 2015) I participated in a cultural day organized by Indonesian Association in Geneva (AIJ). There were music performances, dance, martial art demonstration, traditional food stalls and handicrafts.

 

It was a success. People appreciated my creations. I sold 3 of my creations and took some custom orders too. I didn't imagine that the visitors could be so enthusiastic and even 2 of my creations bought by locals (which means foreign women, who love Indonesian unique, ethnic fabrics). I sold both of my songket dresses and tenun rangrang skirt! awesome.

 

It was tiring, but I'm happy. I heard people said that my works is neat and like a boutique made. I feel grateful, my hard work paid off.

 

And today, as I'm still doing people orders, I received an email from Ateapic boutique commercial assistant that 2 of my creations (dresses) are sold and I will receive the 80% commission in my bank account. Great! so it's true what people said, my work it actually is a neat boutique "standard" :D

 

Here, I'd like to share a picture of my stand at the cultural day ...

More dresses!

No?! ... more dresses? ...
Oh yes! oh yes.

 

See, there were two people wanted the denim embroidery dress I put in the boutique, the manager emailed me asking if I have enough fabric to make it in smaller size (34), the dress is in EU size 38 actually, and I don't have anymore fabric to make more similar but smaller size dresses, so I asked if they would just alter the dress and make it smaller.

 

As I currently working in another project (I wrote story books for children in my country), and I need to finish 5 new series, I took my time and organized them carefully .. we also went to visit Turin during Easter long week end, we loved the city and it's my source of inspirations (for the new story books series) .. so it's true that it's not how long you stay in one place, but what really matters is how the place inspire you, at least for me it works.

And, oh yes, we are so occupied with our moving next summer. There are things we need to tackle, like new school registration, site visits, dealing with annoying régie (landlord), etc .. so I think my sewing activities will getting slower during these next couple of months.

 

sarong dress

songket dress

Okay, back to dresses .. I'm using traditional woven fabrics (like sarong and songket), I took my time, I really enjoyed my slow pace creations, as I could rethink, remake, re-drape in no hurry. I could finish the dresses meticulously to get the neat results, and I'll keep them for the next events, for special customers or for next season's pieces to bring to the boutique, whatever the occasion, I'll have a beautiful stocks in hand :) 

A dress A day, keep the doctor away :)

cotton silk embroidery dress

who says? ... me!, évidement!

 

Lately I made some lovely dresses in black and white (or sometimes a bit of red). Maybe I got influenced by those beautiful dresses the top designers showing us in Paris Fashion Week and London Fashion Week? .. well actually, I just want to make something "neat" classy with more skills and sewing exercise needed ..

 

And, once it's finished ... it's sold! (I have to find excuses not to sell some of them because I plan to bring them to the exhibition -- and well, I love the dress so much, I don't know if I will let it go!) haha .. my deepest secret confession ;)

The 3rd dress I made with batik fabric was reserved for a friend in Germany, she bought 2 batik dresses before, and she wanted this dress too. So, I had to let it go :)

this dress was sold and sent to Germany.

 

Special request from a client in the boutique

I started sewing not so long time ago, it was in 2010 if I remember well. You may also see the beginning of this blog, that was also the beginning of my sewing adventures. A good friend posted a comment in one of my FB picture about sewing (I remember I made a blouse for my daughter without pattern, I used a round plate to draw a neckline) and it turned out quite nice and wearable for my daughter, that's when my friend said "why don't you blog about your sewing experiments?" .. and I'm glad I did.

Fast forward to 2014, I've done many things with sewing. I can say I sew almost everyday. Specially during preps for an exhibitions, craft fairs or a bazaar (which I've done quite many in the last couple of years), and an opportunity to do a fashion show last year, and a contract with a boutique here in Geneva, Switzerland. I have the right to feel happy and proud of my own achievements, yes? .. but couple of weeks ago someone shook my happiness and I almost let my self down and doubted my capabilities. 

It was one fine Saturday morning and we're planned to go to Lyon to visit weekend textiles market, then hubby decided he need a haircut first. He went to a local hair salon which just 5 minutes away from our place and owned by Indonesian woman that we happened to know briefly. 

To make this story short (I really don't feel like telling the whole story because my heart still aches and I'm still angry when I remember what she did to ruin my reputation by talking about how awful my work is), this woman asked to lend money from my husband without having a word with me first. If her life is so bitter, why should she have to bother anyone too. I felt that I personally didn't agree husband lend her any money, I didn't trust her, but he already came home with a land certificate as a guarantee of the money he lend to her. That day, I didn't know if I could forgive what she did to me. I felt like she trapped us and took advantage of my husband's generosity.

Slowly, I get up and doing what I always did, sewing and writing a new book project as requested from my editor in Jakarta, but I couldn't 100% concentrate in what I was doing. I fell sick eventually. Flu bugs. I guess when I'm psychologically unhealthy, I get sick easily. 

client's request

Until one day I received an email from the boutique assistant that they have a client who's interested in one dress I've made using denim and lace collar but asked if I could make 2 sizes bigger. Then I thought, this must be God's way to lift me up from my recent fall and frustration. So I won't let God disappointed. He gave me this abilities as a gift and it somehow made me realize that I should continue to appreciate His given skills, I should meet His call, I should NOT give up and feeling low too long.

So I replied the email and said that I could make bigger size but with a different fabric, I also proposed to bring fabrics sample for the client approval. And today I finished the dress and brought it to the boutique. The client will try and hopefully happy with the dress. She'll go there next Friday as the boutique manager said to me. I also told the manager that if there's anything that the client unhappy with the dress, she could return it to me to have it fixed or if she decided that she won't take it, she could as well return it with no charge, no problem. 

I'm trying my best but I also know I have limits. I seriously plan to find a workshop, a dressmaker, a sewing professionals if I want to go further. I can't force my self to do everything by my self anymore. I have many other things I need to take care of, my sanity and my family are my first priority. 

Each piece has its story ..

One of the good thing about doing your own creations from scratch is, even though we are no longer have it, we keep the memory of it, forever. This whole thing has given me fond memories of people and places, of panic and relieve, of fears and courage, of laughs and tears .. of friends and customers .. all people I’ve met during my journey as a dressmaker, designer, créatrice, whatever people may call it.

And maybe because I’m a bit of a story teller my-self, I tend to my put the journey into words. For one day if I’m not around anymore, I still got something to tell, hopefully to encourage my daughters or maybe other people so they could go further and higher than their dreams …

Now about the story of this piece (the sleeveless dress):

it's SOLD to a woman name Sophie. It was a competition piece for last edition of UniCréa exhibition in Château de Morges that I participated last April 2013. I wasn’t meant to sell it at first, because the fabric I got was the only piece that I had, it was one of a gift from my good friend. I wanted to keep it for my-self.

But Sophie insisted, I told her it was a competition dress and I should keep it until the last day of the exhibition that lasted 4 days. She still insisted, I said, “well try it on first, see how it looks on you and then we'll see ..” … She did. She tried it on, and she loved it. She was taller than me, and I'm a bit worried that the length wasn't long enough for her, she said the length was okay. So as promised, I sold the dress to her BUT in one condition: she got to wait, she could have it on the last day of the exhibition. She agreed, and she paid the dress on spot, booked. I was as happy as her, actually .. or you could say, I was happy to see her happy ...

Now when I remember this, it always bring smile to my face … it was a simple design, but I’m sure that the lovely fabrics that attract the public.

In memory of “123 soleil” dress J

 

Resemblance ..

I came across a picture of a dress by Ted Baker SS/2013 and I thought it resemble a dress that I made for one customer friend in Glasgow last time .. The collar was a bit different though, mine was doubled.

When my friend asked me to make a halter neck version of this dress, I told her I'll try and will let her know first if it's what she had in mind .. I only used a pattern of a similar dress that I have and just imagine and create the collar without pattern, I use the dummy as my mannequin to know where I should pinned the collar and measure how it laid on the neck .... I didn't know that there's a similar dress from TB :)

 

 

Pending order now is done!

A friend's teenage daughter wanted a lace brocade dress since ... May!! .. oops, yeah I know, I let her waited for 3 months (I understand that it's such a long wait for her, sorry missy) .. but it's not all my fault though, I'm not trying to defense my self, I asked her mom in June if she wanted the dress sooner than later, but as they were preparing their summer holiday and I was preparing my stay for the summer course in Paris last July ... she said, it wasn't urgent, and I could relaxed, took my time .. and we're both on holiday ... until ... end of holiday and we met in the bazaar when her daughter asked if the dress is ready :)

 

Oooookaaayy ... so it took me sometimes to finish this dress she had ordered, but now it's done and she said "parfait" (when I showed them the picture I uploaded in fb) ..and  she'll pick up her order next weekend.

 

Actually it's a simple design. Size 152 cm (for 10-11 yrs girl). But because I used full lined for full lace dress ... then it needed a bit of tender, love and care (tlc) ... heheh ... The pattern is just a basic block of bodice and flare skirt (I modified a bit to make it into a ruffle skirt by adding about 10 cm each sides (front and back). Then I attached RED ribbon as an accent as it looks pretty in my opinion ...  glad the owner of the dress agreed too ;)

 

So, I'm done for today ... what's for dinner??? I'm starving!! :D

Little Girl's Dream ...

I've made a little girl's dream came true! .. 

It's her dream dress, and also deep down inside my heart it's my dream to make a dress that's pretty, fluid, breezy, soft, lovely .. like this.

 

I'm using silky fabric found in Cergy Saint-Christophe weekend market for only EUR 2/m! .. I only bought 2 meters long, I thought I'd only like to make this fabric into a personal project. So I did, it's for my 7 yo girl's party dress that she wore this weekend. She's happy, I'm happier ...

I firmly believe that choosing a fabric it's the most important part in creating some projects, as I would always say, the fabric often "speaks" to me, like, calling me .. "buy me, you'll never regret" .. hahaha .. really! I'm not hallucinating .. it spoke to me most of the time when I went out purchasing textiles in a textile shop or market .... and just like this one, a "Monet" kind of prints in a silky, fluid fabric .. I just fell in love with it instantly :)

 

Tube dress for teens

I got a request to make this kind of 'strapless' dress from my teen daughter for this weekend's party. I came  up with this idea in my head: she wanted a strapless dress, but she doesn't have a grown-up bust yet, so she needs something to support the dress, so that it won't slip down because it's 'loose' and it should be something pretty but easy to wear for an active teenagers .. I made the "tube" dress with elastic! .. and she's happy with it :)

I made 2 parts of the dress: the top in form of rectangular tube, and bottom in pleats skirt (also came from a rectangular) .. NO PATTERN needed! easy peasy ...

First delivery after a month holiday

I know it's a bit late, but promise must be delivered.

I hope the little girl who will receive this flowery dress would be happy.

I'm going to the post office now ... 

see you again soon (but first, I have to finish another 2 orders) .. :D

more Batik projects

Hi I'm back.

Returning from summer holiday in our home country always bring lots of inspirations and energy!. I bought some batik fabrics of course .. straight from Yogyakarta!. I also got some batik fabrics from friends as a gift, so why do we waiting for? trace the pattern, cut the fabric, go to your machines, start sewing, get busy!! ...

Here's some of the clothes I made since we came back from holiday ...

MAKING A BATIK DRESS

MAKING A BATIK BLOUSE

Tosca-Brown Batik Dress

I made this dress for my birthday :)

A friend gave me this lovely batik fabric and it was perfectly match with the brown fabric I got at home.

The pattern was from a new sewing book I got recently from our trip to Annecy by a Japanese author Yoshiko Tsukiori translated in French by Hachette Loisir publisher. I picked this model T in size 38, and happy with the result :)

in the making ....

Tosca Brown Batik Dress

Three in One: same model, different colors

I just got tons of multicolor Indonesian Batik fabrics from friends. Most of them I ordered, some of them are gifts. Hubby got back from his business trip to Asia (China and S'pore) last month and he brought the fabrics with him (that caused his baggage weighed 30 kilos, thank God it's not overloaded).

And very soon after, I've made these Three-in-One dresses for the girls and myself ;-D

woman size M

kid size S

kid size L

Sewing Me!

This time it's all for ME! ..

I got these Batik fabrics from friends (as always) .. and really wanted some new outfits from it. The RED flowery skirt was made from cotton Batik Blitar, I made it into a semi circular skirt with elastic waist. The loose dress in GREEN Batik was made from more "silky" soft cotton, and the purple-red (MAROON) dress was made from cotton Batik Madura fabric.

Got some special events? uummm .. not really, but just in case ... ;-)

semi circular skirt in batik blitar

maroon dress in batik madura

loose dress in sheer batik fabric

Simple Batik Dress

Another dress made from Batik (and yes, another gift from a friend). Why lately I made batik dresses? well, I wanted to use the fabric I've got from my friends .. and as for me it holds special moments, and special friends who thought of what we really like, what we love and what we need (clearly, it's not easy to find Batik fabric here in Geneva) ... with all those in mind, I wanted to create something special too from those gifts.

So here's the result .. a simple A-line dress in light yellow batik print.

I found it a bit "tricky" and need to be really careful when choosing a pattern for batik

it's done! :)

simple A-line cut

one more batik dress is done.