Call me Betty

"Vintage style for a modern woman"



What does that mean? well it means I've taken the best bits of vintage styling, shape and design and combined them with up to date sizing and a new silhouette to accomodate a modern womans body. The best of both worlds I'd say!

Sunday 7 August 2011

Mood boards

It's some times tricky to decide on the perfect accessories to go with you pretty new dress, well it's my intention to at least help with these tough decisions, so when the new dresses arrive in 6 weeks or so, i plan to have mood boards at the ready, for you to see the kind of accessories, shoes and bags I'd like to put with each of them, a fun project for me, and hopefully useful for you!!

Baby betty

Well i am a childresnwear designer by trade, so it's inevitable at some point i'll venture into childrenswear, and for now i'm polaying around with all of my surplus fabrics and hand making items, but eventually i'll work on a proper collection to come in along side the ladieswear, here are a few pics of my creations!



Ava

Well, Ava finally arrived, and she's everything I hoped she'd be, demure, show stopping, flattering, comfortable, a little flirty, she's stunning and will be another Grace in terms of her popularity i predict, once you've tried her you'll want to own more!!

Here are a few pics of the current collection of Ava's, but more are planned in a cream and navy stripe with anchor print, and a cream with pretty fuschia peony's!




They're available in my ebay shop right now, and come in sizes 8-20, priced at £70, £85 with a petticoat!

too long!

Oh it's been far too long since I posted anything on here! but hopefully I'll be keeping up with it a bit better over the coming months, so where to start well, there's the recent drop of Grace dresses, the brand new Ava dresses, there's betty on a budget, and baby betty, so much going on, i think each deserves its own post!!

Friday 8 April 2011

'grace' in spring!

Spring has sprung over here at Bettyworld HQ, and I'm finding it hard to resist keeping one of each of the new dresses!!! they're oh so pretty, just take a peek!

cherry delicious!!


dotty spotty!


english rose


blooming lovely!

i hope you like them as much as i do!

xxx

Wednesday 6 April 2011

New dresses due shortly

The ever popular 'Grace' back by popular demand will be here in the next couple of weeks, i should have samples to show you in the next day or two! but here's a sneak peak at the fabrics!

pretty cornflower blue with white coin spots


pale blue with super cute tiny red cherries!


pink tea rose on a pale pink ground

and black with a classic english rose!

plus new styles coming shortly!

Thursday 10 February 2011

direct sales

You'll notice a link to my designs on ebay/facebook/the website etc and asos marketplace to the left there, this is a relatively new extension to the already remarkably successful asos portfolio, the idea with marketplace from what i can gather is that it gives you the individual, (designer or not) the opportunity to market your designs/your garments direct to the public, and as a wise old industry insider once told me, this is the way forward!!

Never before has it been so 'easy' to sell to the public, once constrained by having to sell into a retailer and thus meet their price requirements, cutting your profit considerably, now you can keep your prices as such that the customer is happy and make a reasonable profit at the same time.

With outlets such as Asos Marketplace, Ebay, Etsy and folksy if your product is hand made, there has really never been a better time to give it a go!

Being an independant designer is hard work, the work you need to put in to achieve small goals is tremendous but ultimately rewarding, what designer doesn't want to see their clothing on real people! Each time i recieve a piece of positive feedback it makes me smile, I did that, i made that woman feel good about herself, there's nothing quite like it.

So for young designers coming through university, or having worked in the industry for a time and wondering what's the next step, you can do it, you just have to keep a sensible head on you, keep costs low, remember that customer service is paramount, if you don't keep your customer happy they won't come back! and someone once told me 20% of your customers will make up 80% of your business!.....and use every avenue available to you to get your product and your brand out there!

good luck xx

Tuesday 8 February 2011

bag of goodies

arrived today filled with things for making fascinators/hair accessories, now if only i can find the time to sit and play with them i may be able to create something pretty to go along side the dresses, but i think it may still be a while!!

i want to make floral fascinators and accessories mostly i think, i keep forgetting that ideally they should go with the dresses i'm making so that's the other half of my plan to try and coordinate my creative efforts, but for the least organised woman on the planet this may be a task in itself!!

wish me luck!?

Saturday 5 February 2011

Baby betty and I have been off on our jollys

and celebrating the best that centre parcs has to offer, 5 days in beautiful whinfell forest, i can't say i've been on many uk holidays, i'm a massive fan of travelling but tend to go by plane somewhere! but with a little one in tow this can prove more stressful than it's worth! well for me anyway! so when a good friend and her little boy invited the two of us away to centre parcs we jumped at the chance, we had a whale of a time!! I can't wait to go back!!

But for now i'm looking forward to a couple of more inspirational breaks away from good ol blighty! with trips planned to bruge this month and paris in may, the creative juices are sure to be flowing!

xx

Friday 28 January 2011

Places to find & buy your Call me Betty dress

you'll see to the left there are a few clickable links, you can buy your new 'call me betty' dress from Ebay or from Asos Marketplace!! and as soon as i get it all up and running again, the facebook shop!

happy shopping
xx

February giveaway

you might have seen on facebook, or you might not, after reaching and exceeding the magic 1000 fans!!! (thank you so much for all the suggesting my facebook faithful!) i'm having a february giveaway!! well it'd be rude not to after all your hard work!! so i shall be giving away an 'audrey' dress of your choice from my ebay shop!!

i hope you'll join in the fun, all you have to do is go to the facebook page, see the picture on my wall of sailor cherry in the audrey with water melons and put a comment, it can be anything, let you imagination run wild, and on friday 4th feb i'll announce the winner!

good luck
xx

Wednesday 26 January 2011

sundae's child

I've had this fabric in the unit for a while and been trying to decide what to do with it, and i know now, 'grace' how pretty in ice cream sundae's she will look....
oh and since i only ordered one roll of each, that's only around 6 dresses!!! so 6 red, 6 pink! best get in quick then!

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Has to be a best seller!

This beautiful creation has to be the best or at least quickest selling dress to date, in less than a month the entire quantity have almost gone!! i have a 12 and a 14 left if anyone needs one get in touch asap! i say "needs" because i hear time and again, "I NEED THAT DRESS" haha!
Model: Peggy Soo
Photographer: YUKIdoll

Business know-how

Its all well and good as I'm finding out, to be a good designer, to love your job, be passionate, put heart and soul into it, but if you want to run a business you have to do it properly, so my accountant, my husband, my friends and my folks keeps reminding me, so here I am at 9pm on some idle Tuesday looking for a Basic book keeping course in lil ol Hartlepool, it's got to be done!

*SALE* time

well it is january!!

so i have a sale section on the ebay page there are links below and to the left, pick up a bargain, i must make way for new stock! so you can pick up a 'Marilyn' for £35!!!, or last seasons 'Grace' for £49.99, that's more than 15% off!

happy shopping!

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/callmebettyvintage

Amazing Grace

For those of you who might be new to Call me Betty, Grace is my most versitile and by far the most popular style i've produced so far, I've had three sets of grace made so far all in different printed fabrics, and generally I'll have around ten dresses per fabric made, that means a little bit of exclusivity for you at a very very reasonable price!!

So it's that time again, time to pick new fabrics!!, I love this part of designing and i'd like your input, if there's a fabric out there you'd love to see made into this wonderful dress, or you have an idea you'd like to share, please get in touch, i'd love to hear your ideas!

Hey did you know 'Call me Betty' has a blog!?

ok ok so it's brand new, but hey hopefully i'll remember to keep updating this blog with what's new, sales, things i like and other fun things! so please check back occasionally and i'l pop links on facebook and twitter!