 | This is where YOU get featured! Want to get featured too? Read more at the bottom of this newsletter. | The dress above was created by Kirsty Mays. The glitter bias tape she used on the inside of the hem is such a great added detail. This was Kirsty's little girl's birthday dress and she sewed the sparkle tape onto the waist instead of using a sash, and added it to the hem as a feature when twirling. What an amazing idea - I bet that lucky little girl spent most of her fourth birthday twirling around!
Using single fold bias tape is one of the hemming options the Peppermint Swirl Dress pattern offers! This gives you an opportunity to use contrast for a pop of color (or glitter!) when twirling. | Customer spotlight! These Jawbreaker Joggers blew my mind! They are so awesome!
Marie-Claude used the hack in the pattern to create the moto knee-pads and she picked out such amazing fabric! | Marie-Claude said: "I bought the Jawbreaker Joggers because the fit looked awesome and the moto patch option attracted me. I received the fabrics for a strike off and I immediately thought of this pattern!" | Customer spotlight! Michelle Rahn is a great seamstress and photographer. Her daughter looks beautiful! in this Strawberry Laces Lace-Up Dress! Michelle said: "The very second I seen the release of this pattern. I just knew I had to have it. When I showed my daughter the dress she fell in love and even tried wearing it to bed. I had to promise her that I would make her more." | Customer spotlight! Our sewing wonder girl Alyssa joined our sewing group at age 12! She made an amazing Peppermint Swirl Dress as a first Candy Castle project and she has been sewing with us ever since. I've seen her grow as a seamstress and am so proud of how much she's learned! She wrote a beautiful blog about her first project, and it almost teared me up!
She said: "The thing about these patterns is that they aren't just directions and pictures. They are a conversation with Rebecca, you feel her warmth and wit through how she words things and you just feel at ease like you have a sewing buddy that is right there with you. " Please come over and read Alyssa's blog here. It's so sweet. I'm proud of you, Alyssa! | Two years ago I released the Birthday Cake Hat pattern as a gift to everyone in our sewing group to celebrate my birthday. I completely forgot I had made a ton of them for the tutorial back then, and ran into the whole pile this week! I couldn't help but share these pictures. I now have a baby to put the hat on, and that's worth a party on its own!
Oh, you can still download the pattern by the way. The promo code is only available in our Facebook sewing group (the listing on the website will show you exactly where to go). | Customer Spotlight! Sheena Mahon was a tester for the Princess Dress pattern, and she really made such a beautiful dress.
Sheena tells:
"I had been wanting to try out an online pattern, so when I saw the post about testing the Princess Dress, I thought that would be perfect for a Minnie Mouse dress I’d been wanting to make. I had the fabric ready and everything. Then when I actually got chosen, I thought about it some more. My 3 year old daughter, Brooklyn, begs daily for me to give her “Anna or Elsa” braids. We had recently bought some Anna boots. She had been begging for an Anna dress, and I just happened to realize this pattern would be perfect for a more “summery” version of the dress!" | I googled a bunch of pictures of the dress details and went down and found all the right fabric colors for the dress. I happened to find the perfect gold trim in the bargain bin, so I knew it was meant to be! I decided to use my cricut machine and heat transfer vinyl to add the floral details to the bodice and skirt. My daughter insisted she HAD to have the cape too, so I found trim and fabric for that too. I was so excited as the dress came along! It was so perfect. I blended the sizes for her and was so surprised at how easy it was to do! The instructions are just so wonderful. It fits her just perfectly. If it wasn’t still 90 degrees here, I think she’d beg to wear it daily. We go to Disneyland in a couple weeks and she’s so thrilled to be able to wear the dress and she talks constantly about showing it to Anna and Elsa and Olaf when we get there. And now she’s begging for an Elsa dress too, as is every little girl we know. I’ve had requests for the Anna dress too, but I just sew for fun. I will be sure to send pictures of her wearing the dress to Disneyland." | And last year, I released the free Birthday Brownie Sleep Sack pattern to celebrate my birthday for all our Facebook group members! Baby Jack always wears them at night; this one was made of one of his blankets (I was gifted way too many and this was a great way to repurpose!). | The Jawbreaker Joggers pattern is definitely my most used pattern. Jack is only just growing into size 12m, but I had to make him this basic black pair out of french terry! They match so well with any shirt. He's ready for fall! |  Elfi's 44 dresses! | | Customer Spotlight! 44 Peppermint Swirl Dresses! Elfi Schales from Germany received an order to sew up a whole collection of dance outfits and she sure delivered!
Elfi said: "Here in our town, we have a children's dance group called the Lollipops. Their dancing teacher came to me ten years ago to order dancing outfits for the children. Since I created the outfits, more and more children joined the group.
Now, ten years later, their dance outfits really needed an update, and the Lollipop’s 11th Birthday was approaching too!
I had already sewn a Peppermint Swirl Dress for my granddaughter and I knew that pattern would be awesome for this project! I figured that a lollipop would perfectly match the group!
I adjusted the bodice with elastic so it would fit multiple children and when I had the right concept, I started cutting. 7 red and 7 black flounces for each skirt. The kids’ moms have sewn the edging on the skirt, because we were on such a tight schedule.
After some practice, I was able to cut 7 layers of fabric at a time! So I could cut one color at a time for each dress, 44 times, for 44 dresses in total.
Everything went perfectly! I was there Saturday October 5 with all their costumes finished, and Sunday October 6, the girls stood on stage, costumes and all! It really does make me a little bit proud." | Customer spotlight! Annedore Seitz from Ludwigsburg Germany sent in this beautiful dolphin Peppermint Swirl Dress.
"Thank you very much for the Peppermint Swirl Dress Pattern. My daughter is very fond of her Peppermint Swirl dresses, or like she calles it the Rainbow Swirl Dress (because I made a rainbow colored test version to check the right size). In September school started for her and she wanted to have a very special dress for her first day at school and the celebration. On her school bag are dolphins printed, and her wish was to have the dolphins on her dress. Now I would like to share the pleasure we have with that special dress with you. Thank you very much for that lovely pattern!" | Customer Spotlight! Tanja Neuvonen-Del Bosco sent over pictures of her Peppermint Swirl Dresses. Such beautiful shades of fabric! Tanja said: "I saw your Peppermint Swirl on Pinterest, and last fall my niece asked for a rainbow dress. I knew exactly what to make her. My niece got a little sister in January, so I figured I should make one for her too, but wanted to make it a bit larger, so that she gets to enjoy it when she starts walking. And my niece got an American Girl doll last fall on her 4th birthday, so wanted to make a matching dress for her doll too. And it actually worked great to make a 6year, 2year and doll size with not too much extra fabric! I did the 2 year pattern upside down, so I could 'insert' the thicker end of the swirl inside the 6year old pattern, and was able to insert the doll size inside one of the swirls too. | It was fairly quick to cut them all together too. I pinned the patterndown, and cut few colours at the same time. Just had to separate my pieces on different tables, so that they would not get mixed up :-) Then I did an assembly line: basically sewed them at the same time, one step at a time. I used the doll pattern as my 'practice' piece, so if something would have gone wrong, it would not have been too big of a job to take it apart :-) Took me few days to get it all done: printing the patterns and cutting them out, getting the fabrics and cutting them out (that probably took me the longest), and then sewing them all together. Oh and I washed my fabrics too, so that the darker colours would not bleed into the lighter when it's washed." Thank you so much Tanja! Peppermint Swirl for 18" dolls can be found here, in case you'd like to sew a matching dress for dolly too! | Free updates Here at the Candy Castle, we value all our patterns - old and new! This is why we are constantly in the process of not only designing new patterns but also updating older patterns to include new options. When you purchase a pattern at Candy Castle Patterns, updates are always free! The patterns below have received updates over the past weeks. You can at any time log in to your account and download the latest version, or, if you need help downloading, feel free to email us at candycastle@outlook.com | The Strawberry Bonbon Infinity Scarf pattern Our FREE Strawberry Bonbon Infinity Scarf pattern got updated. It now has printable layers and the tutorial got a bit of a facelift!
This pattern comes in sizes 18" doll / children 12m - 14y and adults. They make perfect Christmas gifts, by the way! Super fast to make and always well received! | The Candy Castle Princess Dress got renewed! Such a marvelous pattern for Halloween, or to showcase some really special fabric! It comes with various options. | The Cotton Candy Dream Dress received an update as well! This is one of my favorite patterns; not only did I create this Wonder Women dress with which my little girl won a prize at a theater show, I also used this pattern to create her flower girl dress for my own wedding (pics in the listing at our website!). | On my birthday, I released the Birthday Cake Smash Bib! It's a FREE download, but you will need a special promotion code to check it out for free. The instructions in the listingwill tell you exactly where to find that code. | I hope you got tons of sewing inspiration; let's get creative! Would you like to get featured too? If your picture is featured in the newsletter, you receive a 5 dollar coupon to the store, next to eternal fame for your amazing sewing talents of course! All pictures of Candy Castle Patterns creations will be considered, even if you made adjustments (it would be very helpful if you would tell us in short which adjustments you made, if any). Send your pictures to candycastle@outlook.com and if you're picked, we'll send you an email with your coupon code! | | |
