Archive for October 2011

Boo!

8:02 PM 2 Comments A+ a-

I didn't think I was going to have a chance to dress up for Halloween this year since we spent this past weekend at home for a family birthday and other non-Halloween themed events. The only Halloween plan was to pass out candy at the boyfriend's new house (we were informed by the queen bee of his cul-de-sac that EVERYONE passed out candy). I was taking my post yoga shower this afternoon before heading to the boyfriend's and I was overcome with the Halloween spirit. I decided to pull out my fallback costume that I've had since high school but never ended up using. I found this great early 70's maxi dress in a thrift store years ago and figured it would make the perfect, easy Halloween costume. However, I always came up with some other costume instead. I thought this year it was especially appropriate considering it was clearly handmade (and very well, the seams are super sturdy!). Not sure if the little kids got the hippie reference, but at least I got to dress up!


Happy Halloween darlings!

Skirt of Armor

3:33 PM 4 Comments A+ a-

So, as often happens when I set lofty goals, life got in the way this week and even though I cut out 3 tops on Sunday, I didn't get around to making any. However, I was able to make a quick outfit last night for a concert this weekend. Both the top and the skirt were self drafted. The top was from Miss P's tutorial for a quick drafted top. The skirt is inspired by this tutorial by Mommy Go Round via Sweet Verbena...

I was dumb when drafting the pattern for the top and I made the neckline a little too large, so this has become yet another off the shoulder top (accidentally cut my face out of this one...). Other than that I'm pretty happy with it, I was looking to make a blousy, slightly over sized top to tuck into skirts and this fits the bill.

I have to admit I kind of love this skirt. It makes me laugh and I think it's going to be great for work with a cardigan (they already think I dress weird...)

Hopefully I'll get to the tops tomorrow night, and in the meantime, I'll have another fun project to show you tomorrow!

Happy weekend!

Wednesday Wants

3:18 PM 0 Comments A+ a-

I want...

these gloves,









Source: jcrew.com via Forrest on Pinterest





this dress,








Source: bhldn.com via Forrest on Pinterest





these shoes,










this hair,













this living room,











to match this kitchen,











and these cookies waiting for me when I get home!











Happy Wednesday my loves!

Thrifting + a Good Mail Day

11:55 AM 2 Comments A+ a-

Lots of sewing items acquired this weekend. First off, the new Burda and a Sewaholic pattern came in the mail!

I loved lots of things about the new Burda but I really loved the fairytale theme than ran through the issue and I thought the Christmas crafts were adorable! It almost makes me wish I had kids so I could make a Little Red Riding Hood house!


Also loved the artwork for these plate and fabric transfers!


This page makes me want to learn to knit RIGHT NOW. How cozy does that blanket look? LOVE it!

I ordered the Sewaholic pattern to make this skirt for my sister. She is young and cute and in college so she can get away with wearing cute short skirts. I already had the perfect fabric in my stash so when I saw her pin this on Pinterest I knew all I needed was the Crescent skirt pattern to make it. Hopefully starting on this in the next few days...

Source: flickr.com via Forrest on Pinterest

Next up I visited my neighborhood thrift store and picked up some more sewing stuff. I probably have 20 jacket and top patterns just like this but for 25 cents I couldn't resist taking them home just to make sure...

I also picked up this hilarious jumpsuit pattern that just makes me laugh with it's craziness, but let's face it, I'll probably make it and pretend it's cool. I loved the sexiness of this 70's jersey dress, not sure when I'll make it but I couldn't pass it up.


Finally I found this great 60's Vogue suit in my size, and...


3 yards of black wool suiting, which is exactly how much this pattern calls for! And for only $6! Yay! To be honest, I have no idea when I'll get around to this project but I feel like it was serendipity to find the pattern and the fabric together!


Today I'm starting my "Week of Tops". I'm hoping to get through my Fall sewing by powering through a category of clothing each week. This week I hope to finish 3-4 tops, next week I'll focus on 3-4 skirts, then I'll give myself 2 weeks to get through 3-4 dresses. All the tops are cut out, and they should be fairly easy because they're all pullovers with no closures. However, I'm supposed to be spending this afternoon teaching a girlfriend how to sew, so my projects will have to take a back burner today. We'll see how it goes!

Hope your weekend was fabulous!

A New Trick Up My Sleeve

9:55 AM 5 Comments A+ a-

Last weekend, due to some poor carpool planning I ended up spending the night at the boyfriends without bringing a change of clothes. (No, I don't keep clothes at his place. What if I wanted to wear them while not at his place? A girl has to have options...) Normally this wouldn't be a huge problem, as I would just wear whatever I had on the night before. But this time, the night before involved this outfit, which wasn't suitable for the BBQ we had planned for lunch. Enter the genius of this lady and whomever pinned her on Pinterest. I pinned this video the week before and filed it in the back of my mind in case of emergencies.






Ex-men's shirt as new dress for you from general ink on Vimeo.

Turns out it works like a charm. The only glitch being my skinny-ish boyfriend. If only he wore a large instead of a medium! A girl could always use a little extra fabric! (Please excuse the gross bathroom mirror. He never cleans it. Something we must work on before co-habitation...)





And when one of the female attendees at the BBQ asked me where I got my cute dress I explained that I made it out of the bf's shirt, no sewing or cutting required, but forgot to mention that I stole the idea from another genius lady. A magician never reveals her secrets!

Will you make me gowns?

2:00 PM 3 Comments A+ a-

The Burda 11/11 preview makes me want to have a reason to wear gowns...




Which reminds me, if you haven't watched the documentary Unzipped about Isaac Mizrahi preparing for his Fall 1994 collection you are seriously missing out on life. It's crazy intresting to see how Isaac gets inspired and translates that inspiration into a collection. Not to mention the fact that, as we all know, Isaac Mizrahi is hilarious and the documentary is packed with all the great 90's supermodels, Naomi, Cindy, Linda, etc. It's on Netflix Instant so you have almost no excuse to not watch it...

This clip has three of my favorite lines from the whole film:

"It's almost impossible to have any style at all without the right dogs I think."

"Will you make me gowns?"
"Are you kidding me, I'll make you nothing but gowns!"

"Orson, why did you bite me?" "And then he pushed me aside like a little mouse."

Watch this, then go watch Unzipped and make some gowns!


A Tale of Two Dresses: Day 2

8:24 PM 1 Comments A+ a-

Day 2's dress is based on a few things:

1. A dress I saw at this cute store in my hometown. I took a picture of it with my phone a month ago and then accidentally deleted it this morning. You'll have to take my word for it that it looks just like this dress, only a little different shade of pink.

2. This Halston Heritage dress from Pinterest...

3. And Think Pink week from Sew Weekly. I bought the fabric and started planning the dress that week but I didn't have the time to make it until now.

I used Burda 7519, view B. The pattern is for a tunic so when I cut it out I eyeballed it and added a few extra inches to the length, however I think I probably ended up cutting them back off when I hemmed it, so it's probably about the length of the pattern. I also Frankensteined it and added flutter sleeves from Butterick 4132, so it's basically a longer version of this top. The fabric is a fuchsia cotton broadcloth from JoAnns. The dress went together really easy, especially with the lack of closures. I used french seams on the inside and bias binding for the sleeve seams. The dress is really comfortable and I love the color, and even though the fabric is probably a little stiff for the cowl neck and flutter sleeves I think it works alright and will soften up with wear...

This first picture is from the restaurant last night. It's sort of terrible because of the lighting but it's proof I actually wore it ;). This picture also gives the best sense of how bright the color of the fabric is.
 
This is a picture of what I wore with it.

Here's the dress on leopard-print-me in decent light, although it's much more fuchsia colored in real life (more like the color of the Halston dress). Sorry for the wrinkles!


So two dresses in two days! I love both dresses and both were worn for great occasions! Next up, several tops for work and my bridesmaids dress. 
Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

A Tale of Two Dresses: Day One

5:16 PM 2 Comments A+ a-

In honor of the fact that the boyfriend and I had plans to actually go out for more than a
movie 2 nights in a row this weekend, I decided some sewing was in order! I had Thursday off due to some dental work required in the morning, so I spent the afternoon sipping milkshakes and cutting out dresses.

The first dress was worn last night for dinner at Rosario's (my favorite) and a show at the charming and tiny Overtime Theater. By the way, if any of you live in the San Antonio area, you must go see DOA: A Noir Musical at the Overtime, it was sensational!

I pinned this dress a few months ago and since my Friday morning was consumed with
shopping, I decided it would be the perfect dress to whip up quickly in the afternoon before date night #1!
I used McCalls 6112 and a super soft blue cotton jersey from JoAnns. The top is view C and the skirt is view B. I'm not usually a fan of sewing with jersey but this went together so well and so quickly (about 1/2 hour all together!), plus it's super comfy! Perfect for eating a ton of enchiladas and margaritas...
Here's a picture of me in front of the Blue Star bus...
And another, not great picture from when I got home so you could actually see the top of the dress. I wore it sortof one shoulder because the neck opening is pretty large and wants to fall off your shoulders anyway.
In other news, one of my Friday shopping stops was at ATT to pick up my new IPhone. When I went to get a new case, I of course had to get one inspired by my love of fabric ;)
Now I'm off to finish up dress number 2 before dinner and drinks with some fabulous old friends! Stay tuned...

Back in the Saddle Again

6:36 PM 6 Comments A+ a-

Not really sure if anyone other than my mom has noticed but I've been missing from the blog world for a little while. We had our big work event last Thursday and then I took the weekend to recover and sleep. I'm still pretty exhausted from the late nights but I'm getting back to normal. However, despite all the craziness I have been able to get some sewing done!

First of all, I finished my cocktail dress in plenty of time for the event! (by plenty of time I mean not the night before...) I barely stood still the night of the event so I didn't get any pictures then but I did recreate it for you (and my mom):
 

My cat is enjoying sleeping under the left over table decorations...


My BFF Estrella is getting married in November and we decided to make her bridal veil a few weekends ago. The veil and headband she was interested in at the bridal store totaled over $600 and we knew we could do better than that. We bought some gorgeous appliqued lace at Joanns and cut it into the length she wanted. Then we basted the top edge and sewed it to a rhinestone comb (shown below on right). Then we hand sewed (is that a word?) a rhinestone trim to the bottom edge.


 Here's the final product all for under $50! We're thinking about starting a business since this turned out so well!


Also this past weekend, in between naps, I worked on a secret project for another sewing blogger that I can't tell you about yet but it's super exciting! Hopefully I can let you know if a few weeks!

Finally, in stash busting news, due to my ridiculously cheap fabric finds in the month of September I increased my stash by 37 yards and only decreased it by 11.5! Disturbing, I know. So in an attempt to get rid of some more fabric and subdue my hoarding tendencies I have a busy month of sewing planned including several super easy and quick tops, skirts and dresses. Plus I have to make my bridesmaid's dress to go with that wedding veil. I'm officially back in the saddle again!
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