Like Mother Used To Make

As May approaches with the celebration of Mothers' Day, my own mother has been very much in my thoughts this week. She was an amazing woman who left us a few months before her 91st birthday. Among her many talents were baking and sewing, and she did a lot of both in her lifetime. When my daughter was little she wore sweet little dresses my mother made for her. My mom was a wonderful seamstress who made many of my clothes when I was growing up and then did the same for my children. She could sew with or without patterns, and she could make anything from tiny hand- embroidered "angel tops" to prom dresses with yards and yards of fabric. Sometimes the simplest styles made of pretty fabrics were the sweetest of all her creations. In tribute to many happy memories of my mother, we have included some simple little dresses in both our ETSY shop and our website. White eyelet embroidery, pink tonal prints, blue tone-on-tone, lavender/pink floral print, navy blue gingham, and light blue striped denim are some of the fabrics we used for spring and summer styles.

Visit www.malcolmfortots.com and www.malcolmfortots.etsy.com to see more, and we will be adding some others soon. Mint green with white polkadots, blossom eylet embroidery in pink, blue or yellow, and little sun dresses that have either matching panty or sun hat.

My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe In Logan, Utah

Perhaps many of you are already familiar with Kris and Kim, identical twins from Utah who are incredibly talented, successful entrepreneurs, and very creative fiber artists. Their videos and websites provide creative ideas, patterns, and how-to-instructions for making apparel, accessories, home decor, and an abundance of other projects. They maintain several websites http://www.theDIYDish.com, http://www.youcanmakethis.com, http://www.swakembroidery.com and http://www.mygirlfriend's quiltshoppe.com. Kris and her husband own the retail store My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe in Logan, Utah. If you take a virtual tour of the shop on line you will see it is filled with charm, color, beautiful fabrics and great ideas. If you watch their videos and/or subscribe to their free newsletters you will be enchanted by these young women who are absolutely delightful to watch. One of the recent how-to videos from My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe showed me how to make a ten-minute table runner. I needed a gift so I went to my fabric stash, followed the video, and quickly made this table runner for a friend.

Kris and Kim seem to offer something for everyone in the variety of arts and crafts they share. Visit their sites and enjoy!

Do You Know What A John John Is?

When John F. Kennedy was President of the USA, his then adorable little son was called John John. Jackie-O was a mother who dressed her children with the same impeccable taste she used in selecting her own wardrobe. John John would frequently be photographed wearing one-piece short-length rompers either with or without a shirt underneath. Whether worn with sandals in summer or long socks and closed shoes in winter the look is timeless. That same style of romper was and continues to be popular because of the comfort and ease of movement provided as well as keeping little fellows looking neat and well-groomed even at play. This style is also still in great use in the South where genteel, gracious entertaining includes traditional, classic clothing for children. John John rompers for boys made of cotton, denim, or velvet are as prevalent there as are hand-smocked dreses and heirloom sewing for girls. These are looks that I find eternally appealing so we are including John Johns in our merchandise selections for Fall/Winter.