I can’t believe that our patterns are actually on sale; our dream has become reality! Thanks to everyone who picks up the patterns, we’re proud of our designs and really hope you all love them, too!

I’m getting excited about some things coming up for us. Ally and I are going to be in Portland together in a couple weeks. We’ll be going to Quilt Market and giving a big presentation called “Schoolhouse”. We are also getting the opportunity to speak to high school students in Oregon City. Their fashion and textile classes have been watching our DIYStyle vodcasts while learning how to sew. We will be talking to them about our designs, sewing, and what we do on DIYStyle. Kind of a nice change of pace, we’re looking forward to it! And I can’t wait to run around Portland with Ally. We had a blast last summer when she was here.

 photo: Travel Portland

The debut of our patterns in Vegas was more than anyone could hope for in introducing a new pattern line. We had such a buzz the whole show with peoples’ positive reactions. I’m still reeling! Being in the fashion show was one thing–but that McCall’s booth was equally fantastic. I have never seen a larger picture of myself, and my mom is going around with the picture of Allyce and me sitting in front of our booth, showing it to everyone! Looking back I remember how SOOO very nervous I was to be on stage modeling our designs but now looking at the vodcast, I think we both did pretty well! All I can say is at least I didn’t trip and fall. That must be a model’s nightmare, and when it happens, it seems to show up on YouTube.

Now I’m going to go make up a few more pieces of lingerie from our DIYStyle pattern!!!
XO Melissa

I can’t believe the day is actually HERE! Our long-awaited DIYStyle patterns from McCall’s go on sale TODAY! We call them Design It Yourself, because you can take our basic look and tweak it any number of ways to suit YOUR style. Totally flexible, wearable, and dare we say, chic? Pick them up at any fabric store that carries McCall’s patterns, or click here to order directly from our friends at McCall’s.

Melissa and I designed a line of knit tops: McCall’s 5662, plus sexy but sweet lingerie: McCall’s 5651. Hope you love them as much as we do, and see something that makes you want to grab your sewing machine and get started! I’m so excited to be able to walk into a store, open the big pattern book, and see our designs…. as a matter of fact, I’m heading there now! Let us know what you think, we’ll be anxious to get your reactions, so do tell.

As a special treat, in tonight’s vodcast, we’ll share a project with a few great ways to personalize one of the designs in our knit top pattern — OK, sorry, that’s next week! Tonight we’re showing clips from our fashion show in Vegas where we debuted the DIYStyle patterns, and you’ll get to see the different views of the knit top pattern. Next week we’ll share some creative options for the hardware on the knit top from our pattern, or you can use our tips on another project you may be conjuring up.

Thanks to everyone for your enthusiastic support. It means a lot to Melissa and me!

xoxo
Allyce

Finally I feel like the year is down to the home stretch! This past Saturday was “Jury of Selection” at the design school. As fashion design majors, we are required to present our designs from the entire year to industry professionals from all over the country. Juniors have five final garments, one in each category: Swimwear, Dancewear, Denim/Knit Top, Tailored Suit, and Tailored Dress. The junior class worked so hard this year turning out garment after garment along with all of our other classes. The garments that score the highest in judging get to be shown in the end of the year fashion show. I had one of my five garments (Dancewear) chosen for the show (cool!), and I’m so proud of all I put into each of my entries. This student model is wearing my Dancewear design, which features a rhinestone-encrusted fleur-de-lis zipper pull.

I still have a few major projects to complete before the school year is over. I’m working on a tailored jacket with pad stitching and twill tape, and on the patternmaking and fitting for my tailored coat and dress (this one was chosen by one of the industry critics). I’ll be sure to post the design that the critic chooses!

And tomorrow: Melissa’s and my DIYStyle patterns go on sale across the country! Yay! We’ll be posting a new vodcast tomorrow, too … lots of excitement!

Allyce

Hey from Sarah Cecchettini! I’m guest blogging again today, and let me tell you, Heidi Klum doesn’t have anything on us. Give me a magazine, some tape, scissors, and a plastic bag and I’ll give you a whole new designer outfit! That is what happened here recently on campus with our production of “Project Greenway”. The program was to help make students aware and excited about recycling.

The participating halls made outfits from whatever recyclable things they could find. The supplies ranged from newspapers and cardboard to Capri Sun juice boxes and soda cans. And let me tell you, we looked…so fine!

I modelled a wedding dress designed by my roommate Mi. It was made from trash bags, fishing line, and magazine pages. My shoes were cardboard, my ring was a bottle cap and I made my bouquet with origami flowers. It was a pretty amazing outfit, but extremely hot to wear.

The night of the show everyone brought their creations to the stage for judging. As each model was being announced, we strutted all we had on stage. It was so much fun. As I was turning in the middle of the stage I accidentally stepped on one of the pages of my dress and tore it off, but fortunately, I was not over exposed! During the remainder of the show, my dress was in everyone’s way. Don’t they know they should be watching out for the recycle-savvy diva? All went well though and no one slipped on it.

The evening was highlighted by an eco-friendly organization that came to the stage and told about upcoming events and ways to recycle. I think it also made everyone more aware ways to bring fashion into all aspects of life, even recycling!

To help out the world around you, you may want to whip up an eco-friendly grocery tote project. It not only saves on the amount of bags you would normally use when shopping, but also uses recycled juice envelopes, and it’s darn cute. (That always helps.)

Till next time…
Sarah

Well ladies, hang on just a few more days — the DIYStyle spring patterns will be on sale April 22. Bigtime anticipation over here. Can you feel it? In the meantime, we just posted a new vodcast where you get an up-close and personal look at the big trade show we attended in Vegas, where we got our very own DIYStyle booth!! We were stoked. But take a peek at the show, it’s pretty cool to see how the vendors display their products for the stores, everything from textiles and buttons to the latest sewing and crafting gadgets.

xoxo
Allyce

If you are wondering … just who won the very first DIYStyle contest, the “My Style, My Machine” Giveaway!? We’re so happy to announce the names of the three lucky Creative Chicks that nabbed the loot. And by the way…. stay tuned to diystyle.net, as we have more stuff to give away, and we’ll have lots of cool ways to win it!

The Sulky Thread Assortment of 84 metallic thread spools goes to Jessica Summers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jessica is a part-time model, and about her sewing, says this: “I think the best quote comes from my boyfriend; he walked into my room, saw the dress I was working on on the dress form, and said, ‘Wow, it’s like…a real dress.’ Ha!” Classic. Well, now you can add a little metallic shimmer to that dress, and I wonder what he’ll say!

Amy Butler’s Fabric Assortment goes to Bridget Cook of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Already a big fan, “Amy Butler’s designs are so awesome!” she emailed when she found out she’d won. But the timing couldn’t be better, as “I have been going nuts about handbags. I am one of these people who always carries the same bag everywhere and now I have several in production so I can “wear” a bag with each outfit.” I think people around town may soon spot Bridget with an Amy Butler-style handbag, don’t you? She’s pictured above with daughter Syd–who also likes to sew.

And the GRAND PRIZE of a Baby Lock Creative Pro Sewing Machine goes to Brittany Osmulski of Peoria, Illinois. Congratulations!! We were dying to ask, how does DIYStyle play in Peoria? “I love to watch Allyce and Melissa on the DIYStyle vodcasts!” Brittany says. “They always have creative ideas on new projects and they make it so easy for the viewer. DIY has given me some great ideas.” Awwww! Sew on with your new machine, Brittany, and we hope you’ll send us some pix of things you make with it.

Thanks to EVERYONE who entered, and for taking the time to give us some terrific feedback in the survey you filled out. (At least one of our winners entered the contest almost every day that it was running! That is determination!) We always love to get ideas for things/people/places you’d like to see on the vodcast.

Watch for another contest … coming soon!

Cindy

We got back from the International Textiles Show in Las Vegas last week. I think I’m still exhausted. We had the big release of our DIYStyle pattern line with McCall’s Pattern Company and it went beyond our expectations! There is a mix of feelings of total excitement and joy to major relief to see all this hard work come to fruition. When you work really long and hard on something — and with a pattern, there are SO many elements, it takes 6 to 7 months for a pattern to be published and distributed to the public — it’s hard to imagine how you’ll feel when it’s completed.

But there we were at a huge trade show with tons of people, and our faces were larger than life on blow-up banners of the pattern envelope covers for the new DIYStyle “Design It Yourself” line of patterns. (Look for them around April 15th in stores, and they’ll have it online at McCall’s, too!) We also played the DIYStyle vodcasts for visitors, and talked to a lot of wonderful shop owners, textile manufacturers, designers, costumers, and other folks. It went over great, and all the hard work was totally worth it!

The second day we were in town, Melissa and I spoke on a panel with two other women in the sewing industry, Amy Stalp from Sew News mag, and Jessica Johnson from American Sewing Expos. Cindy Cummins (our head Creative Chick, and my very own mom) lead the discussion and we talked about sewing from a 20-something point of view.

Bright and early next day (our call time was 5:30am — yawn), was the BIG International Textiles Fashion Show, and we got to kick if off! It was an opportunity to showcase our pattern line in high style for everyone! We modeled the pieces from all four of our patterns (two are coming out for summer and two more for fall). Melissa and I spent a lot of time choreographing our segment of the fashion show and helping pick out the music. (I’d had great practice in this from my fashion show production class a few weeks before!) We wanted to make a statement that this pattern line is fashion forward and geared to a younger generation of hip chicks! Wait until you see the adorable lingerie we’ve done. Too cute. Everyone loved it and we had the time of our lives! I can’t wait to see the McCall’s pattern book in stores with our designs in it. Just a few more days….. eeee!

While walking the show I found wayyyy too many cool fabrics to use in projects for design school as well as for our own DIYStyle pattern line, and on the vodcasts. I spied some great cashmeres and wool blends for my critic presentation this week. Right now I am in hand-tailoring class with all the “hair canvas”. Tons of fun, right! (psst — only five more weeks to go and the school year is over.)

In our vodcast this Tuesday (same day as our patterns debut!) we’re doing a recap and special up-close view of the Textile Show. Be sure to check it out to see all the behind-the-scenes drama, and as always, we love to hear what you think, so don’t be shy!

xoxox
Allyce

As I write this Allyce and I are in the airport waiting to get on a plane to Las Vegas. This is the most exiting part of my spring break; we get to model our DIYStyle designs for McCall’s Pattern Company in a fashion show at the International Textiles Expo. Over spring break we filmed more vodcast segments, caught up on some of Ally’s homework, and rehearsed for our BIG fashion show. I am very excited to be getting a nice little break in Vegas. I’m planning to go to the Fashion Show Mall and look around, maybe some shopping for pattern ideas. Vegas is an exiting and outrageous place to be, their fashion “idea” is absolutely one of a kind, sometimes so original that it could not be worn outside the city limits of Las Vegas!

I’m hoping to meet lots of interesting people at the expo and get them interested in participating in DIYStyle. I know Ally and I can work a crowd, so this event is going to be a groundbreaking one for all of us. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us girls and I think it’s a great way to introduce our new DIYStyle pattern line from McCall’s. We’ll be showing the patterns in some up-and-coming vodcasts, including tips on making the sewing go really easy, and how to make it a “Design It Yourself” garment. I hope you all will go out and try one of our new patterns, and tell your friends! Our first two patterns will be out April 15, and (guess what!?) one of them is LINGERIE!!! Its SOOO fun to SEW! The other pattern features CUTE knit tops.

Stay tuned for more posts when we report back to you on our Vegas experience!

Always,
Melissa

We recently produced our first project for my fashion show production class: a preview fashion show for students looking to attend Stephens College. First we got into groups and created mood boards to display ideas for our theme. Our group’s theme was futuristic with a very metallic looking stage. After all the groups presented their ideas, the class voted, and we all decided to go with another group’s idea, a fashion-forward Alice in Wonderland. I have to say, it was really enchanting! Since we were gearing this show to high school students, we wanted it to be very bubbly and use bright colors.

Our class split into three groups to help with the show; model garments, public relations, and set and sound. I was in the model garment group. Five of us were designers and we got the job of creating and sewing the intro garments. The garments could be made from scratch or we could take existing garments and redesign them.

I was assigned the “Rose Dress” so I took a prom dress that I wore in high school and transformed it into the finale dress. I clipped up the front of the dress so it created a poof. Then I sewed ribbons in between the layers, affixed roses to the ribbons, created a belt, and glued roses to a headband. The pic shows the final intro garments on the stage of the fashion show. My garment is the pink puffy tulle dress. The whole fashion show went really well and I was so proud of the intro and how it turned out!

Our BIG production showcasing the Senior Collections and designers is coming up very soon, April 26th. It will be a challenge to get through that show and finish up the semester. If all goes well and I pass critique, some of my Junior collection may be in the show as well. Five more weeks to go…and I’m excited to get to the end of my junior year!

Allyce