I have made my share of dresses for myself, my dolls, my daughter and granddaughter and long ago in the early 1970s I had a children's clothing line called 'Made With Love'. I designed and made the patterns. My partner, Gable Sokal, sewed and took our samples around to get orders from the NYC children's boutiques. Here are a few of the dresses that were our specialty.
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| I like to sketch a dress and place it in Photoshop and recolor it before I cut the cloth. |
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| Here's a blank sketch you can cut and paste into a paint program and design some yourself. |
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| Here I just inverted all the color for some surprising color combinations. |
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| This is a Made With Love Design I did in 1973 and recolored the photo below to see how it would look in another hue. |
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| This pinafore is the original color. We used mixes of calico or graphic prints. I think these could easily be worn by today's girls, although it is a bit retro. |
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| Our beautiful Angela Joy DeStafano was one of my all-time favorite little models. |
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| These applique dresses sold in some funny-named shops such as 'Gee The Kids Need Clothes' on W.10th St NYC, 'The Chocolate Soup' NYC, 'Malawie and the Mighty Mole' in Brooklyn, 'Angels' in Flushing NY., and a pretty snooty one 'Children's Concept and Design'. I can't really criticize because I've had some silly named shops myself including Yin Yang Leathers, Youthful Folly, The Unicorn, and Lightning and Thunda Craft! |
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| My niece, Laurie Osterman in 1973 my wonderful model. This one was denim and cowgirl fabric. |
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| Gillian Ferguson-Sprague when she was just a wee little girl of about 3 or 4. I named this applique dress after her, The Gilly Dress. What a beauty! |
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| Appliqued corduroy jacket dress I designed with a matching suit for little boys. My own sons wore them to me and Gary's wedding. I designed the sleeves/cuffs to grow with the child. |
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| Here is Laurie and her cousin, my son Mykel Ruvola in his reversible cotton wrap jacket for girls and boys. He was about 3 here. |
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| I played around with the color on this dress and love the green and violets. |
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| Umbilical-CORDoruy boys suits looked cute on girls, too. I appliqued the clouds and machine embroidered the stars on the cuffs and lapels. |
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| My ruffled, appliqued, twirly skirt Made With Love dress 1973. |
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| The Gilly Dress w/ velvet floral applique, poity grow-w-me cuffs and flower buttons. |
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| A velvet shamrock adorns this Made With Love Design. | |
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| This is my 6th grade graduation dress made by my Mom, Minerva Yuncker-Case when I was 12. I remember picking out the lilac fancy fabric and just loving it. I felt like a princess and she was so proud. It ain't easy makin' a dress, Ma, I know. |
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| At my Kappa Sigma Rho induction ceremony at Lands End. LI NY in 1965. Valerie Gracken is to my left. I made this bell skirted dress with embossed green satin. |
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| Here we were, my best HS friend, Anita Soria and her date, Jimmy somethin'. I was with Jeff Marino, and just friends. |
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