HannahSola

One of my goals of 2023 (among many) was to read 100 books. I surpassed my goal and read 123.

Though this doesn't have much to do with my dresses... I will say reading certain books brought some creativity to life in me. One of which was the Broken kingdoms series by LJ Andrews.

For my fantasy lovers this is a 9 book, completed series with 4 couples. Each couple is a loose retelling (beauty and the beast, Cinderella, swan princess and phantom of the opera) mixed with magical fae vikings. 🫠🤌🔥

From that series The Ever King was born. This is a second gen (so the kids of the first 4 couples) story and was without question my #1 book of the year! The cliffhanger ending brought me to my knees and I have been very impatiently waiting for the grand finale of this story in The Ever Queen.

If you've read the books..... then you know the magical dresses that could come from their inspiration 💖✂️✨️. The ideas are flowing and I am beyond excited to be one of the few who get to read this book before it hits the printer.

I'm about to get lost in some magic. Review (and hopefully some dresses) coming soon!

(P.s. there are some trigger warnings with all these books)

Want to see a DRASTIC change?
Yep... I did it. 🙈

I have been thinking about this gosh darn skirt for MONTHS. There always felt like a disconnect and then last night I had a dream to just be done with the tulle that haunted me and snip... snip... snip it away.

Yay or nay?
Frankly I think I needed a shorter dress! 🤌✂️💃

*don't mind the stitching/appliques being weird on that left side. Nothing is permanent there yet.*

Happy New year everyone!

2023 was one heck of a year!

Although my goal of completing a dress a month (what was I thinking 😅) clearly did not happen I am beyond thrilled with what I was able to accomplish while being a busy mom of 3 little ones.

My dresses.
This vision.
My story.

I realized it will take time to do it right, and boy do I want to do this right. For myself and every other motherless daughter out there. For anyone who has lost someone they loved. For anyone who felt unworthy even though in truth, you're worth your weight in gold.

My goal for this new year is to continue to create (and post more 🫣). I appreciate you all sticking around through my absence. Things are calming down and naps are being taken we just have a few colds running their course through the house. I'm working on the oil slick dress this afternoon and I am very excited about it!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and you're ready to take on the new year!!

Hey friends! It's been a while and I wanted to give an update.
Joe and Amelia have started napping consistently again!! Woohoo!! So I hope to start using some time during naps to work on dresses again. Unfortunately it won't be every day like it was. My little man Joe is struggling with his speech so we have some therapy sessions during the week to give him the help he needs. So naps will be staggered between the kids to accommodate therapy sessions.

Little Amelia started walking now 😅🤗 and she is just the easiest, sweetest baby I've ever come across.

Hannah is loving school and she is coming close to reading her 200 book goal this year.

Since I haven't been able to work on my dresses I have been reading to get my "me" time in. My goal was to read 100 books this year and I just started my 94th yesterday. Never in a million years did I think I would read that many books but I have enjoyed it SO much and it is an accomplishment I am very proud of. It has also opened a door for Hannah and I to connect through a mutual passion. Every morning we take time to talk about the stories we are reading. I treasure that time 🥰

I hope everyone is well and finding their own outlet of enjoyment 🥰 thank you to all who have checked in on us! I hope to be posting some dresses soon!

The stars aligned! Joe is in school for a few hours and Amelia went right to sleep!!

I needed some happy colors in my life today so I'm working on the finale dress 🥰

Life in the Reitzel home has been very productive the past few weeks in happy kids and chaos. Dresses and flowers not so much.

Joe stopped napping completely and though he started school a few days a week, Amelia chooses that time (her normal nap time) to enjoy some one on one mama time... which I am loving!

Normally I would be able to work on dresses before they wake up, but they have moved their rise and shine to 4:30 😅.

Joe has also found a new hobby every time i leave the living room... climbing. He is very ambitious in his new found skill and has set a goal of a stressed induced ER visit for mom. 🫠

I love these kids so much and though I do miss working on the dresses, i only get them little once and I'm enjoying every bit of this. I promise to try, when i can, to move forward on dresses. I'm guessing in the next few weeks (once we set a new schedule) things will calm down through this shift of returning to school, dropped naps and way too early wake up calls!

Thank you all for your patience!

Yesterday was the first day of school and somehow all the stars aligned and the babies synced up naps! I was able to get the entire side of the oil slick dress sewn down!!

After the CATastrophe that ruined my evil dress I went back to My Daughter's Dress Boutique and got a few more options.

Guys I can't help myself at this store! So I ended up with 4 new dresses 👀😅

I have chosen which one I am using for the evil dress but I'm curious which one you think I will use?

So we had an accident and unfortunately the "evil" dress has seen its final day and will be sent to the trash. 😭

My plan is to head over to My Daughter's Dress Boutique tomorrow afternoon and look for a replacement dress.

RIP evil dress

I'm not sure how this happened but yesterday my beautiful daughter turned 7 (her golden birthday).
She is the Hannah in HannahSola and I am so proud and in love with the young lady she is.

Needless to say I spent her birthday having some family fun at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Anyone else loving her birthday outfit!?

*that last photo was when she turned 1 🥺, which we will be doing in 2 weeks for little Amelia... how time flies.*

Here is the trust me moment on this dress! I added some of the sequin fabric on top of the original rhinestones layer... I wish pictures did it justice but I will do a video soon, when it isn't rainy.
Second photo is the original dress and 3rd is my somewhat close to what is in my head AI dress

I am absolutely loving the oil slick dress or as hannah likes to call it... Maleficent's wedding dress. 🤣
I had to take a day off for the sake of my fingers with all the hand sewing but will be jumping back in today to start sewing down the appliques and a few more sections under the rhinestone layer.

I found the BEST oil slick color shift fabric! So since I'm not painting on this dress I had to use it.
I removed the layer of original rhinestones and have sewn some of this fabric onto the dress (I have a few more panels to do) then I put the original rhinestones back. I have also moved some of the black lace since this photo because I didn't think it showed enough of the sparkle fabric. I hope you all like it so far 💗

Stage 1 of the oil slick dress! Bring in some black and get rid of some of the pattern.

I did do a paint test on the dress and unfortunately it does not work because of all the tulle. 😭
So this one will be an all sewing, no painting dress. I will be painting with sequin instead and honestly I'm pretty excited about that.

I am getting all my supplies together to start this oil slick dress. I have a package coming tomorrow that will kick it into gear and I can't wait!
Let's see if we can make sequin look really high end!

I'm so nervous about starting this dress because I love it as it is already... but it doesn't totally fit the idea I have in my head for the photoshoot. I'd like this dress to turn into an oil slick.
The last photo is an AI rendering. It is the closest I can get to what is in my head for this dress. I still have loads to do on my other dress but I figured we all needed something different to look at for a bit.

I have had a few people asking if any of my dresses are larger in size and the answer is YES!

All of the dresses i am working on range from size 2 to 24. I just haven't had a dress form to fit anything higher than an 8. It came in yesterday and I'm very excited to not have to use any pins to hold this beauty up anymore! It fits beautifully!

I do plan on removing some of my beading but before I do I want to finish the bodice and see how I feel. Something is off to me but I can't quite place it, yet.
The rest of the week I will be doing minimal work on the dress because we are purging our house for a big garage sale this weekend.
Plus my two teething babies are needing extra mommy play times... and who could say no to baby snuggles!?

I found these cute little flowers I have been adding to the bottom of the dress. They are the perfect colors for this piece and I think they add a bit more depth to the colors!

Joe wanted to help me yesterday by inspecting all my sewing work. He tested each bead and sequin by pulling them to see if they would come off the dress. Thankfully none did so now the dress in Joe's mind is indestructible and therefore... not fun 🤣🥳

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes!!
I am beyond excited (and crazy proud) that today I start reading my 50th book this year. I am half way to my goal of 100, after not reading since about 2006.
For my birthday my wonderful husband got me a special addition set of A Court of Thorns and Roses... the first series I read that put this challenge into motion. This is the Velaris set and I am so in love with it 😍. Of the 50 books I've read these 5 are still my absolute favorite.

Today is going to be fun! It's my birthday!! 🎊🎉🥳🎂
Joe wanted to help stage some pictures of the new sequins added to the dress yesterday... I think the monster trucks make the photo don't you?

Yesterday I started bringing more color into the bottom with gold, pink, blue and champagne sequins! I'm still hesitant on if I am keeping the middle beading on the dress or not so i decided to work on a different part and see where it takes me.

I was able to get in 2 hours of sewing in during Joe and Amelia's nap yesterday, so I started beading the left side of the bodice ❤️

Those large sequin are doing exactly what I had hoped. I kept the dress where I could see it all day yesterday and took pictures of the "glow".
When the light hits them the whole bottom of the dress glows, then they are invisible a second later. This will make for a really fun photoshoot!!!

One of my visions for this dress is for it to look and feel magical when it is done. When I think magic I think glowing.
Yesterday I added these awesome large sequin to the bottom of the dress. They range from the size of a quarter to just under the size of a baseball and the colors these irridecent beauties take on literally make the dress glow. I put them beneath the first layer of lace so unless they're hit by the light you'd never know they were even there!

The whole train has been painted with the gold!

Mid-way glowup! I purchased this beautiful wedding dress from My Daughter's Dress Boutique.
If you havent been able to make it out to this store yet and you or your kids are in need of a dress ... DO IT! . I've gotten prom dresses with tags still on them for $25! Wedding dresses for $200! I'm talking even the fully beaded beauties that usually cost well into the thousands. I purchased all 12 of my dresses I'm working on this year here as well as a few others I have used for photoshoots.
Stop in and say hi to Mary from Erin at HannahSola!
💕

I feel back on track with this dress now that I did some painting on the bottom (added in the gold). Of all the dresses this one looks most like a wedding dress (even though they have all started out as wedding dresses). Even with the painted bottom it could still waltz down the aisle and turn all the heads.
I felt like I was adding too much color until yesterday, I realized... I'm not making this for a wedding!
This dress is supposed to look like all the joy and happiness I feel when I play with my kids! It's the fabric captured smile that comes across my face when I see my husband and know he's still the best choice I've ever made. It's the pride I carry now. My head held high and confident, after many years of zero self esteem. ❤️
When I look at this dress I want to see the happily ever after I am so thankful I've been given, so more color is coming as well as more beading.

Soooo... the more beading I add the more I dislike the dress. 😫
I'm getting my paint and heading in a new direction today with this one. I have yet to decide if the 10+ hours of beading will stay on or be torn off 🤔