Meredith has launched an online children's clothing store!

[Hisey]

Here is the news from Joy:

http://www.alexanderadventuresfamilyblog.blogspot.com/

[Guest Anonymous]

I am glad, and not surprised she has found a creative outlet, after practically running her parents' home and businesses single handed all those years.

Her website is pretty but the photography is poor with far too few close-ups of the details on the clothes, and the descriptions are also lacking. She says more about her oh-so-dreamy childhood and courtship than she does about any of the things she is trying to sell.

Basically, she has three products, all in the same colourway and fabric. Are there that many fundie children who will want identical seersucker frocks and rompers? Also, the monogramming is a bit pretentious and daft-looking on everyday clothes. She needs a bigger product range and some editing software for her embroidery machine, so that she can embroider better designs onto her personalised clothes.

[Rosie]

I am glad, and not surprised she has found a creative outlet, after practically running her parents' home and businesses single handed all those years.

Her website is pretty but the photography is poor with far too few close-ups of the details on the clothes, and the descriptions are also lacking. She says more about her oh-so-dreamy childhood and courtship than she does about any of the things she is trying to sell.

Basically, she has three products, all in the same colourway and fabric. Are there that many fundie children who will want identical seersucker frocks and rompers? Also, the monogramming is a bit pretentious and daft-looking on everyday clothes. She needs a bigger product range and some editing software for her embroidery machine, so that she can embroider better designs onto her personalised clothes.

I agree with this.

[Creaky Mom]

I hate that over-exposed-faded photography.

Makes me want to scratch at my eyeballs or book cataract surgery.

She must have found a whack of blue searsucker on sale because her prices are too low for handmade and lined plus all her costs IMO.

[mirele]

Better photography, please! I guess she's using her baby and little sister for props?

[failsafe]

Good for Meredith! I think we all suspected her home-based businesses weren't going to end with cheesecake and bushhogging (though I disagree that traditional seersucker dresses for girls are hard to come by -- http://www.landsend.com/pp/girls-woven- ... seersucker ).

Designing children's clothing along with being a SAHM is a perfectly respectable profession for a future Senator's/President's wife, after all...

[MissSeptember]

The kids look cold; they're sitting out there in summer clothes when the trees don't even have leaves yet.

I do love seersucker, though.

[Guest Anonymous]

I disagree that traditional seersucker dresses for girls are hard to come by -- http://www.landsend.com/pp/girls-woven- ... seersucker ).

Good spot - Landsend do the monogramming too, so maybe that's where she got the idea. Meredith's are lined, which make them better quality and value for money but Landsend will probably do a better job of the embroidery than Meredith's little Janome machine can manage. She will also need to do the embroidery before lining them, to keep them looking pretty and soft to the skin on the inside, which would make them really labour intensive for the $30-40 she is charging.

I'm being picky now, but if I were her, I would try to find a pattern without a seam up the front of the romper bib. It would make the embroidery much prettier, if it didn't run along that seam.

I agree with whoever said she must have bought a bolt of blue seersucker cheaply. She seems to be a savvy shopper, so maybe she will expand her range slowly, as she finds cheap fabric, and up her prices, if she finds a market willing to buy them. Maybe she will find more success marketing her products to the more wealthy young families in Stephen's University set. The homeschooling crew are more likely to buy used and save the difference, and pass generic clothes on to a half dozen or more children, rather than buying personalised rompers for each one.

[jesssnerch]

Is it wrong when I read this caption "You can imagine our delight when we saw 5 inches on the ground Monday morning!" on one of the winter pictures I said to myself, "That's what she said?"

[Sprocket]

Now see, this would be perfect for someone like me. Maybe it's a southern thing, but I love a jon jon that has been embroidered. And in my case, I have an almost 22 month old who is in 4T clothes. There is absolutely NOTHING that looks like a toddler (or a baby... because was in 2T clothes when he was a year old) that comes in 4T.... obviously. I like that it's all hand-made, so Meredith may get some business.

[clibbyjo]

Now see, this would be perfect for someone like me. Maybe it's a southern thing, but I love a jon jon that has been embroidered. And in my case, I have an almost 22 month old who is in 4T clothes. There is absolutely NOTHING that looks like a toddler (or a baby... because was in 2T clothes when he was a year old) that comes in 4T.... obviously. I like that it's all hand-made, so Meredith may get some business.

I dressed my boys in those all the time,I love those kinds of classic clothes. Why don't you buy one Sprocket? They don't have a boy model, they will use your baby. :)

[Mudgie]

Good for her!

Their daughter is seriously chunkaliciously cute. She has those chunky baby legs down!

[Artemis]

The stuff she's making doesn't necessarily look like it's aimed at the homeschooling crew - I think she's trying for a bit more upmarket with the monogrammed stuff.

Takes more than a bolt of blue seersucker though. I'm surprised she didn't add a couple of other colours before opening the website.

[Flipsnippy]

Interesting...from her site -

"5% of all store profits go to benefit families who are in the adoption process"

[Whydoyouask]

Pink, Yellow, Green, rainbow, Come on now... thats a pretty crappy business plan. Basically the same pattern (just add legs to the dress) and ONE color. BORING....

[Elle]

She must have found a whack of blue searsucker on sale because her prices are too low for handmade and lined plus all her costs IMO.

This was my first thought. $32 for a custom child item in seersucker? She either had to have gotten it for nearly free or is doing this for next to no pay right now. I supposed it's possible that $32 is an introductory cost, but sadly, a lot of fundy items I see are sold for far too little in comparison to the costs. I'd expect to pay $30 or even closer to $40 for something mass-produced at Babies R Us.

I think her little shop has a pretty start. She's trying to give the shop a feeling of cohesiveness, which I think she's managed nicely. She's got three different items right now and in one color, but that can be expanded. It's easy to say she should have made more examples, but this is a fledgling shop.

Also, someone said something about a romper pattern without a seam up the front. Unless gussets are used between the legs, then a seam must be there. A pattern for pants or shorts isn't a rectangle with a slit. There has to be fabric to wrap around the legs or else you get pulling. This is why every pair of pants you will see in a store, even sweat pants, have seams up the front and back.

[Witsec7]

Her mother wasn't exactly a retailing success.

[emmiedahl]

Also, someone said something about a romper pattern without a seam up the front. Unless gussets are used between the legs, then a seam must be there. A pattern for pants or shorts isn't a rectangle with a slit. There has to be fabric to wrap around the legs or else you get pulling. This is why every pair of pants you will see in a store, even sweat pants, have seams up the front and back.

My baby had rompers that have no seam in the front. I am not sure of the specifics because these were worn last summer so I cannot pull them out and look.They were pretty simple, as I recall it looked like there were two pieces sewn together, a front and a back.

My sewing skills are such that I can follow a pattern and make simple things without one, like peasant skirts and curtains, but I am not an expert on seamstress stuff.

[Guest Anonymous]

Also, someone said something about a romper pattern without a seam up the front. Unless gussets are used between the legs, then a seam must be there. A pattern for pants or shorts isn't a rectangle with a slit. There has to be fabric to wrap around the legs or else you get pulling. This is why every pair of pants you will see in a store, even sweat pants, have seams up the front and back.

Yeah, I know how trouser legs are made, Elle. :lol: I meant a separate pattern piece for the top/bib part, something like this maybe:

The middle seam would be fine, except that it detracts from the embroidery. She is using a little Janome 300, not an industrial machine, and what with the stripes not matching up, which is common with seersucker, and the way that the embroidery design has squashed out the seam where it cuts across it, the finish is just a little.... home-made rather than hand-made.

On a separate note, Sheridan is truly beautiful and a born poser, and makes the whole advertising seem otherwise very slick and professional. :D

[Wolfie]

I wonder if she went through the proper channels to get the certifications she needs to legally sell the clothes. There are a bunch of regulations out there and labeling requirements that apply even to small home businesses now for children and baby items.

[Guest Anonymous]

She's married to a lawyer, so I guess he would make her aware?

[Wolfie]

She's married to a lawyer, so I guess he would make her aware?

What kind of a laywer is he? I wouldn't expect an international law lawyer to know much about small business law. Lots of specialties in lawyers.

ETA- http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/smbus/m ... urers.html (government site, no issues with linking)

[Guest Anonymous]

What kind of a laywer is he? I wouldn't expect an international law lawyer to know much about small business law. Lots of specialties in lawyers.

I don't know his specialism, and right now he is serving in the military, not the legal profession; I just think that someone with even an undergraduate understanding of the law tends to develop an awareness of the need to look into legal matters - especially in those areas where one doesn't have special expertise. I don't know how to explain it, but among my legal profession friends there is quite a heightened awareness of what they don't know, legally speaking, and they seem to be forever taking advice on stuff from colleagues in other specialisms.

Mind you, Meredith has been blogging and running little businesses long enough probably to have been around the last time the issues of regulation on children's items blew up among the Mommy Bloggers and the like. I know in the UK, the regulation has increased more in things labelled as toys, rather than clothes, but I think the US has tighter regulation maybe?

[Wolfie]

Yes, you would hope that she would be aware- but both herself and her family weren't/aren't following the USDA laws about producing and selling food. Lots of people get away with it, but it doesn't make it legal to cook food at home and then sell it. It also doesn't make it legal to process chickens at home and sell them.

[itsnikki05]

Eh. I love the style of a gingham or seersucker dress. I like that the styling is simple, but I agree that it could be made better without the seam down the front where the embroidery is.

It may be a southern thing... I love me some embroidery. Love me some monogramming.

I would like to see gingham and such as well! I think it would also look sweet, southern, and traditional...

I also think there could be more styles... what about a little pinafore and bloomers?

But, she is also starting out and I would rather see a few well made pieces than a lot of different pieces, every one of them crap. KWIM?