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One of the most rewarding things about this job is the lovely letters and emails I get from customers with pictures of their little boys and girls wearing my clothes. You'll also find my latest press coverage and my blog postings here. You can also follow me on facebook or twitter @peakprincess.
To receive my enews letter with sample sales & preview offers just send me an email with 'newsletter' in the message box. I won't overwhelm you - I try and send one every month or so.
Huge thanks to Rachel for sharing these pics of her gorgeous wedding. I made her a Grace Kelly pleat pinafore, a Bella Luella puff sleeve dress and a Finley Oskar Shirt (see below for sewing room pics).
Rachel kindly writes: "Dear Lissa thank you so much for the beautiful flower girl dresses and little best man shirt you made for our wedding. We wanted to create a vintage themed country fete at our rustic wedding and your designs and fabrics couldn't have been more perfect. Our 4 year old son Barney looked adorable in his shirt, with matching pale blue Converse pumps, while the image of our 2 year daughter Molly in her dress still brings me to tears! The clothes fitted beautifully and were so appropriate for our vintage/country theme. Thanks too for the Liberty off-cuts for our home made jam jar favours - we made pounds of plum jam from our trees and topped each one with your pretty fabric, so every guest had their own souvenir of the day. Your service was very professional and friendly, and so many people commented on the lovely outfits, thanks again."
Feeling a bit tearfully overwhelmed as I've had a series of sweet emails from customers delighted with the clothes I've sent them with gorgeous pics and comments. This is why I love this job.
I'm terribly grateful to Ginnie for sending this adorable photo of her daughter Ava wearing a Bella Luella style bridesmaid dress with velvet trim I made for her to wear at their wedding in October.
Ginnie very kindly says: "Ava's dress is absolutely perfect! It fits her beautifully, is just the right length and she looks really lovely in it. Thank you so, so much. I am delighted. The service you've provided has been first rate all the way through and I can't believe the speed at which you turned this around. I couldn't recommend you highly enough"
Lucy's just sent me a lovely email and gorgeous pics of her wedding day: "I wanted to send you some photo's of my niece Celia in the beautiful dress you made for her to wear at our wedding! She looked amazing and so many people commented on her dress."
The dress is a full length Bella Luella handmade in Liberty's limited edition Paulie's Parrots print. I have just a couple of metres left. It's divine but I have to admit I'd never have thought of it as bridesmaid dress material but Lucy's judgment was obviously spot on.
It brings an understated, playful touch to the formal occasion and what's more it suits Celia's colouring perfectly and I adore her choice of a Liberty purple bow to match the groom's tie. (I also love Lucy's dress with its sophisticated little bolero).
The best days are the days that pictures of little girls and boys wearing my dresses pop into my inbox...and today was a real treat. Elaine kindly sent me these pics of her bridesmaid Maddie wearing my Lily May twirl pinafore bridesmaid dress made in a limited edition Liberty print called Plum Dog (now sadly out of stock). (There's more about how I designed this dress on an earlier blog post).
I adore Elaine's dress - turns out it's from Abigail's Vintage Bridal, described by Elaine as "a fabulous, very clever girl in Rutland who does vintage dresses from home".
You simply have to check out her website - it's vintage heaven. Abigail sources the finest original and unique vintage gowns from around the world from the turn of the century to the early 70s and meticulously cleans and restores them to their full glory. Dresses are available from the turn of the 20th Century to as late as the early 1970's. And what's even better is that she offers an in-house alteration service. What more could a girl want?
...which is rather unusual as here at Peak Princess Palace it's usually girls clothes which make up the bulk of my business. I started off only making girlswear, then responding to demand I designed a limited capsule collection of little boys' clothes. This is my friend Jane's little boy looking super cool in New York in an Eliza's Owls print short sleeve shirt -->
But over the past couple of months I've branched out into handmade Liberty print men's ties and most recently have started experimenting with patterns for handmade Liberty print men's shirts. (More on the shirts in a future post).
A month or so ago I got a last minute request from a bridegroom who needed ties and waistcoats to go with tweed suits for a glamping wedding being held in a Welsh field. Sounded fun and the gentleman in question was very charming*.
Now, last minute in my books is anything under a month. I normally like to make for weddings with at least 6 to 8 weeks to go in case exchanges are needed. This was really cutting it fine...but as a former Radio 4 news producer I'm a sucker for a the adrenaline hit of a deadline.
By the time the fabric (Liberty Glenjade with plain biscuit lining) arrived we had two weeks and the order by this time had increased to 6 junior ushers waistcoats and 5 adult ushers, plus a handmade tie (narrower cut than my usual pattern) and 6 hankies. All told about 2 weeks' work that I'd scheduled in 2 days for. There were quite a few frantic calls between the said gentleman standing in Liberty's Regent Street store and me in my sewing room and a few sleepless nights but I think you'll agree, this preview snap sent from honeymoon has made it all worth it.
*I got a delightful thank you note from his then fiancee, now wife, explaining that this is why her betrothed is known as 'Captain Chaos'!
My favourite days are when my customers are kind enough to send me pictures of my dresses. In my little sewing room here in the Peak District I try my best to imagine who'll be wearing them but it's always wonderful to see them being worn and loved.
Caroline sweetly shared these adorable photos from her recent wedding in France. I made two Grace Kelly pleated shirt-waisters for her little bridesmaids in a limited edition Liberty print called Lou Lou Isabella.
Caroline generously writes: "An email just to say thanks!! The dresses were perfect on the girls and they loved them!!! I have attached a few pictures for you to see. I only have one of the two of them and its a bit blurry cos the little one was a bit excited but hope you find it pretty anyways!! Thanks again, the dresses were exactly what I had hoped for, they made the day just that little bit more special!!"
I've just been lucky enough to spend a lovely week with my Mum in my old stomping ground of Paris where Mirabelles are in season. The sweet little plums (a variety of greengage I'm told) are delicious. Derived from a 1960s' archive design Liberty's Mirabelle print doesn't feature plums but it is terribly sweet and one of my favourites.
I have two colourways - red/pink and red/blue. Bride Rebecca chose the latter for her bridesmaids who wore full-length, sleeveless Bella Luellas that Millie helped me sew. One wore a matching plaited hairband, the other button hair clips handmade for me by Kate Yorke at Emily Pickle. And little Wilfred wore denim Harvey Moonbeam dungarees with matching Mirabelle trim. So it was a real team Peak Princess effort.
What a delight to receive these pictures this week with kind words from Rebecca: "I just wanted to send you a quick email to say thank you SO much for the dresses they are beautiful and the girls (plus Wilfred in his dungarees) looked amazing. I have attached a few photos for you to see the finished produces in action. It was a battle to try and get the girls out of the dresses at the end of the day as they loved them so much! Everyone commented on how pretty they looked, they were simply perfect. Thank you again for all of your patience with me and my multiple orders!!!"
Making a bridesmaid dress is always exciting and a little nerve-wracking as I always want to do my bit to make the big day special.
For her wedding Hattie wanted six dresses for her bridesmaids in three different prints (Wiltshire, Nancy Ann and Tatum). She had the great idea of using contrasting ribbons on each dress to link the prints together.
The beauty of handmade dresses is that you can adjust bodices and lengths to fit each girl. As you can see, I was getting so confused that I ended up pinning little pencilled notes to each dress with their heights whilst I was adjusting each dress so make sure they'd each be the right length off the floor!
I think you'll agree, they (and she) looked divine on the big day.
Hattie wrote: I've been meaning to email you for a while to thank you for our amazing bridesmaids dresses - all the girls really loved them. As you can see they looked great!
NB Wedding pictures courtesy of customer - please do not reuse without prior permission.
Sarah ordered a Bella Luella puff sleeve dress and two Grace Kelly pleated shirt-waisters for her bridesmaids. These are the pics I sent her from my sewing room...
I was over the moon when she sent me these beautiful pictures from her big day.
Sarah wrote: "My sister's wedding was on Friday in North Yorkshire and the children's outfits worked perfectly. They looked gorgeous and were much complimented. Thank you again for making these up so quickly for us. We were thrilled to have such original and pretty clothes for the children to wear at the wedding and you were an absolute pleasure to deal with. I hope that it won't be too long before I have an excuse to place another order!"
Lucy ordered 3 dresses for Matilda‚ Mina and Daisy: "You have a beautiful range of fabrics to choose from and your designs were exactly what we were looking for. The classic cut of a traditional little girls' summer dress combined with timeless and beautiful Liberty print fabric is perfect - simple‚ pretty and a world away from the modern‚ sequinned bridesmaid dresses on the high street. What's more‚ since the wedding‚ the girls have been able to wear their dresses over and over again and they've been admired everywhere they go. People always ask where we got them! You have been a pleasure to deal with - so helpful‚ friendly‚ professional and responsive‚ I would recommend you to all my friends."
