Let’s talk—

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Two sweet young ladies hosted interviews with us recently!  Go visit Miss Antoinette's blog, browse around, and read the interview.  Then, don't forget to hop on over to read the interview we did with Joanna!

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The route 66 skirt pattern was recently reviewed by Ashley over at Bramblewood Fashion…. thank you, Ashley!  

Thank you also, everyone, for all the welcome back wishes.  We enjoyed hearing what all of you were up to!  If we haven't mentioned this before, we are excited that the weather is getting warmer here!  Isn't it nice to go outside, take pictures, and not freeze?

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On to another good subject– fabric.  We wanted to give you a heads up that we plan on having a fabric sale about a week from today so stay tuned and have a lovely weekend!

love, the Long ladies    

Back in the saddle again…

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Hello everyone!  We're back, safe and sound.  We had a wonderful break — full of family, our dearest friends, late nights, laughter, and minor calamities.  Now we're ready to get back to work!

What have you all been up to?

xx the Long ladies 

sweetness~

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Hello everyone!

We have some new yummy fabrics up in the shop!  And boy, are they sweet.  We are seeing Simply Sweet in lots of cute girl's clothes.  What would you make with it? 

Oh, and we do have a few pieces of the beautiful voile, Little Folks, by Anna Maria Horner.  Buttery soft voile or dobby and 54" wide… how great is that?  Lord willing we'll have some pictures to show off what we've made with it soon.  

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By the way, we wanted to let all of you know that we won't be shipping orders for a little while.  All orders placed after Friday, March 12th won't be shipped until Wednesday, March 24th.  Thank you all for the wonderful blessing you are to each of us.

The Lord bless your night~

the Long ladies 
 

the tutorial: decorate your board!

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 Hi all!  Here we are again for the fun tutorial we were telling y'all about.  We've been covering our bulletin boards for a few years now.  We think this makes a regular-old-board great enough to put in bedrooms too!  We decided to punch up our sewing bulletin boards when we were moving the studio, so we did almost all of these at about midnight (remember, Nanny?).  Oh, the fun!

So, now it's your turn to cover a plain bulletin board and make it pop!  Enjoy!  xo~the Long ladies

The Bulletin Board-Covering Tutorial

1. Get a desired piece of fabric that's 3" or 4" larger than your board.  Now cut a piece of batting slightly smaller than your piece of fabric.
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3. Layer board, fabric, and batting together as follows: fabric right side down-batting-board cork side down.

4. Wrap one end of fabric + batting over end of board and at an angle push a straight pin in it. (It's very important to push the pins in at an angle to prevent the pins from sticking in to the right side!)  Stretch fabric on opposite side and repeat same procedure.  Make sure you keep the fabric nice and taut!So st croix + new studio 018 So st croix + new studio 019

5. "Pleat" corner up, making a clean, smooth corner and stick straight pins in.  Repeat with the other corner on the same side and continue "pleating" until you've done all four corners.So st croix + new studio 024

6. Pulling tightly, finish sides same as ends (see step 4).  Remember to push the straight pins in at an angle!  You can also use scissors or another firm instrument to help push pins in– that's what we do!So st croix + new studio 025So st croix + new studio 023

Turn over and admire!  If you want, feel free to leave it plain (even though it's not really plain), or continue with the next steps to add ric rac or ribbons to make "triangles" to slip pictures, etc. in!

7. Measure the short edge of your board and mark that length on the long edge.  Using these measurements, it will be easy for you to decide how far apart you want your ric rac (or ribbon).So st croix + new studio 027

8. Put the ric rac– leaving excess so you can pull it onto the back and put a straight pin in– at an angle from one short corner edge, to the place that you've marked in step 7.  Pull tightly and push a straight pin in the back.  Do the same from the opposite edge.So st croix + new studio 028So st croix + new studio 033   

9. Continue, using the same method as step 8, across your board, making little "squares".  Make sure to measure to allow the ric rac to be spaced evenly.

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10. Stick little decorative head pins (we found our's at JoAnn's) on the "crossed" ric rac marks.  Or you can also hot glue buttons on it. So st croix + new studio 045 

All done!  Now, comes another fun part— stick a bunch of lovely things in your revamped bulletin board!So st croix + new studio 050 So st croix + new studio 082

Here's some more of our bulletin board adventures!

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