Craftster Best of 2011 winner - Navarathri Collection!

I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me as i checked Craftster site and as is my routine i check if there had been any replies to my posts, and viola there were 2 one for the Navarathri Collection and another for the Robot Costume and guess what , my Navarathri Collection had been chosen as one of the best 5 projects of the year in Craftster - Kids Clothing category! Can you believe it? I am still in shock!

I'm a Craftster Best of 2011 Winner!

I put in lot of hours every year to make the Navarathri collection and try to keep each dress unique and hope that darling daughter likes each one of them and has no complaints ;) This award just made me feel that, ok you are a good enough of designer! ok its time for me to pat myself on my back! wait should i be modest, nah, i am in no mood today, once in a while, you can goad about your achievements, can't you ... oh yes!

now enough of my bragging and lets view all those beautiful 9 outfits again , shall we ....

To view more about each of the outfits, please click here - Navarathri 2011 outfits - 

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Navarathri Last Day Outfit - Emerald Green Bubble Dress + Halter Top

I realized that i did not put up an individual post for this outfit and had directly added it in the Navarathri Vote for your Favorite post! This outfits deserves its share of limelight isn't it, so here it is

I made this dress in about 2.5 hours and did not try experimenting too much!

Skirt : Bubble Hem (Slightly twisted, twisted hems are my latest fetish and i am trying variations before i come up with a tutorial)

Yes the skirt is bit long and even looks like Harem pants in the below shot, but i loved the material so much and did'nt feel like cutting out the length and since she wears a green T-shirt (the only school uniform!) on about 2 Fridays in a month, i do scout for lot of green skirts / pants to go with it and this is the latest to join such collection!

Top: Halter Neck with ties! Pleated tucks with twist at center + Sequin embellishment + elasticated back

Check out all the other 8 outfits and vote for your favorite out of them! Click Here

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Navarathri 9 New Outfits - Vote for your favorite!

Navarathri is over, still amazed at how those 9 days and nights flew by! Adithi had a nice time playing the perfect host (well near perfect!, with childish pranks coming up every now and then!)

Thought, why not have a poll and find out what is your favourite outfit, i have a favourite too, the pink petal skirt & white as angel gown, they are the ones that pleased me the most as a designer, once i saw then on my muse!

What about you?

To view all of Navarathri 2011 posts, click HERE

Note: There is typo in the Day no. printed on snaps but i have decided to leave them as such, as people have already voted! But for your info, here are the corrections fro Day 5,6, and 7

Day 5 Pink Petal Skirt - was worn on Day 7


Day 7  Traditional Skirt and Top - was worn on Kanya Puja Day on Day 6


Day 6 RTW Saree - was worn on Day 5

 I am co-hosting this Creative Hop on Wednesday October 12th.

The idea is to get as many people as possible - in as many different countries and locations worldwide, set a post that day with the button and the linky code for the hop.  Everyone will then join the link too - and we can find each other and be able to visit and celebrate all the amazing Creativity to be found in every corner of our fabulous planet!








<center><a href=http://jembellish.blogspot.com/search/label/creating%20to%20success><img border="0" src=" http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac152/creatingtosuccess/blog%20buttons%20-%20Creating%20my%20way%20to%20Success/creatingsuccess_orange.jpg"/></a></center>
And the linky code for the hop :

Navarathri Day 8 - Saraswathy Puja Outfit

Inspiration for the dress - Goddess Saraswathi ofcourse! Those splendid whites signify peace and calm. 


Decided to make an outfit in white to mark the occassion. I had purchased brocade and chiffon fabric to make an anarkali for self and  a shimmer net tissue dupatta to go with it, ended up using half of it for making this outfit! so i need to get them again if i have to make one for self, no probs, have another excuse to shop now! Talk about shopping, i went Deepavali shopping yesterday and got Pattu Paavadai Material for Adithi, Silk Sarees for my MIL & mom. Some salwar fabrics for sister & self.


I had attended Indi Blogger meet yesterday and i had a great afternoon meeting lots of like minded people. Made few friends. Hope they stay friends for life atleast online! need to go and catch up on every one of their blogs! Will do a separate post on the meet soon (the pics are in my sis's camera, hence the delay!)


Action Shots, here they come ....


As we started late (thanks to my sewing expedition of this dress!) we took the snaps at the parking lot , not much of lighting!

We went to my hubby's aunt's place (this was our only day when we went out to visit others's golu as we had guests every other day for our golu!) Here she is hesitantly posing for the snap almost saying, come on i need to play!

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Navarathri Day 7 - Petal Skirt + Cowl Top with Rossettes

My Favourite outfit out of this Navarathri Collection!

Cowl Neck top (would like to have more depth in drape next time!) was pepped up with organza flowers as Adithi felt that the top was too plain ; the way she had put it "This top will look good when i wear it, isn't it!? "

The below snap was taken on the day i pepped up the top, she was quite pleased with the flowers!

Today, i will be going to the Indi Blogger Meet for All Bloggers from Chennai. Quite excited!

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Navarathri Day 6 - Kanya Puja Outfit! Action Shots

Day 6 - Adithi was invited to a Kanya Puja by one of our neighbours and was offered food and special puja as pre-puberty girls are considered to be godess's avatar during Navarathri ! She was basking in all the adulation and attention she was getting ! They also gifted her with Paavadai Material with Matching blouse material to go with, along with Necklace, ear rings, bangles to accessorize the look ! wish i was younger too ;)

I liked the color of the material so much, that i decided to stitch it up the very same day and she wore the outfit in the evening!

Day 6 Action shots, here they come ...

She wanted to have mehendi with the outfit and did so while she was taking her noon nap! (design as suggested by her!)

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RTW Saree - Navarathri Day 5 Action Shots

Dear Readers

I know i have'nt been around for 4 days now, believe me i couldn't manage time to even touch my laptop! I have been clicking away lots of pictures during all these days and here is a glimpse of Day 5 action shots (which my hubby clicked and since we had guests at home for dinner, not much pics to share as i was busy preparing Aloo Parantha, Butter Panneer masala, fried rice, raitha, etc!)

Will take better pictures of the saree when she gets to wear it again!

Meet Adithi Maaami ....

Have you voted in the Retro Pillow Challenge, if not please do vote, even if you have, you can Vote AGAIN! the pillow with most votes wins, Vote for me at the Retro Pillow Challenge, the voting is open from 1st Oct - 31st Oct, you can case one vote per day! Mine is tagged as Lakshmi's , for those of you missed the Retro Pillow Entry post, here is a recap pic of the same!

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Navarathri Day 3 - Action Shots + Vote for please!

Day 3 - Time for green double skirt + traditional top (which was salvaged from a terrible cut from the overlocker! read this post for the entire story!)

Vote for me at the Retro Pillow Challenge, the voting is open from 1st Oct - 31st Oct, you can case one vote per day! Mine is tagged as Lakshmi's , for those of you missed the Retro Pillow Entry post, here is a recap pic of the same!

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Navarathri Day 2 - Dress No.6 with Action Shots

Dress No.6 was worn on Day 2 ; Actually i tried out the Purple Twisted Bubble Hem dress and realized that it was a bit short for her comfort and hence decided to go with this dress and later on alter the height of the latter!

So this outfit directly comes with action shots. here are the details

Do you remember the bodice fabric?! Yes it is the one used for my Purple Princess Lehenga Choli! The skirt fabric is Dooptcha Silk which i had initially bought to line my B'day dress but later on got an exact match to line it with, so this fabric got to stay idle, till this dress happened! Tried semi-circular sleeves on this one! Skirt portion actually has 2 layers! one full circle skirt and another cascading circle  skirt on top of it!

She had a nice time and the initial disappointment of having to change the dress, was gone before the day ended, more for me than her ;)

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Navarathri Day 1 Action Shots!

Day 1 - 

I can't believe how fast this day dawned and then ended! no idea how the hours flew, the morning session was into giving finishing touches to the Golu, by covering the sides of the Golu Steps, rechecking if all dolls had been decked up (they were decked up on Tuesday night , untill 11 pm, with our entire family hands on with the task and sweating it out!)

Early morning, Adithi was excited as it was Day 1 of Navarathri and time to wear new dress and do puja!

Adithi did puja before going to school (remember she has school this year for the first 4 days of navarathri!)
Came back excited at noon, as she knew we were going to set up the Golu Park, only after she is back!

Lost in her own world of thoughts as she strikes a reluctant pose!

We set up the park! When we arranged the serial lights on the golu steps with much effort and then tried to switch it on!! guess what they did not light up! so i tried doing some electrician job of fixing it and meddle with it for sometime and then tried switching them on again, guess what happened this time, there were sparks in the junction box of the serial lights, phew , i blew off its fuse! Then had to rush to electrical shop to get new pair of light strings this time LED ones! They had to be arranged on the steps yet again! Now the golu was glowing!

This year's golu had its first casualty , as Adithi did the honours by dropping off the father of the bride from the new "Kalyanan"(Marriage) Set purchased this year! wow! great start!

My best friend and her son were the first guests to arrive and little Nitheesh sang a beautiful song to start off the golu in style!

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Navarathri Dress No. 5 - Double Circle Skirt + Top

I started off with this outfit, thinking i will do the top (which will work with an old Pattu Paavadai Navarathri 2009 collection!) whose blouse is worn out now!), on those lines, decided to make a simple Pattu Paavdai top with trim on neckline, everything went according to plan, until this happened!

I was trying to serge the armhole after attaching the sleeve, little did i realize that the bodice part was slipping onto the serged area! Now that the damage had been done, i needed to do some Disaster Recovery Sewing!

Here is the DRS steps (thank god i did not press the  panic button !)

Using twice the circle skirt effect has been on the to-do list for sometime, and this outfit made me realize it. I had enough fabric (2.5 metres) to work with and hence decided to make 2 circle skirt cut with 1/2 waist measurements, so that i would get full circle with twice the effect!

Added a belt with golden ribbon flower to go with it (check out Magda's easy n pretty tute for the flower)

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Biggest sewing lesson learnt with this outfit is not to rush through in a serger! and most importantly not to panic when something goes wrong while sewing, everything is rectifiable! provided you get over the agony, angst, disappointment and decide to - "Make it Work" as Tim Gunn says in Project Runway!

Please do check the new look Tutorials Page, how the tutorials are much more organized and easier to find now. your feedback please!

Navarathri Dress No.4 - Twisted Bubble Dress

Bubble skirt has been in the to-do list of Sew Skirts September and decided to add a twist to it this time, and made the Twisted bubble hem skirt dress!

While i was making it, did a test fit, this snap gives an idea as to how it drapes when worn!

Action shot can only do justice to this outfit, so watch out for it during Navarathri!

Will try and do a mini tute on how to make Bubble as well as Twisted Bubble Hem skirt !

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