Rehearsal Dinner Dress

This might be my new favorite dress. Although until I looked at these pictures I didn't realize how short it is! And I wore it to work today, the day the nuns volunteer at my office... yikes.

Confession: I didn't actually make this dress, my mom made it for my grandmother in the 70's. The fabric is an incredible silk that my grandfather brought back from one of his many business trips to Japan. The dress was given to me a few years ago, in beautiful shape for a 40+ year old dress! (way to make me feel horrible about my sewing skills mom!) It was originally ankle length and I had been meaning to cut it off to give it a more modern feel but I kept putting it off until I decided I wanted a dress for the rehearsal dinner Friday night.


I've worn it twice since then and am officially in love. Luckily my grandmother in the 70's was the same size as me in the 2000's. The colors of this fabric are so gorgeous and vibrant! And, the seams inside aren't finished and they haven't raveled after all this time. I need more fabric like this. Also it perfectly matches my blue heels that matched nothing else in my closet...


Close up of the fabric...

Bridesmaids Dress

In reverse order, here is the first of the three dresses I made for last weeks Thanksgiving/wedding festivities...

Prettiest, calmest bride ever! (in the veil we made her!)

I cut a size 8 and the only alteration I made was to add pockets, necessary in bridesmaids dresses in my opinion...

Blurry close-up of the bodice

 Because of the addition of pockets, I was able to add a special touch in honor of the wedding. The bride and one of the other bridesmaids were my college roommates. There's a fourth too, but unfortunately she's getting her masters in Italy and wasn't able to take off since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving! I wanted to add a memento of our awesome friendship, so I embroidered a heart with our initials in it.... Love you girls!


Final pic of the bridesmaids, ring bearer and flower girl! Sorry for the horribly blurry pics! I'm 100% positive the official pictures will be gorgeous, so I'll put them up when they're ready.


Such a beautiful and fun wedding and I'm so happy for my beautiful friend and her sweet hubby. Salud Estrella and Gabriel!

Next up, rehearsal dinner dress...

The Loot...

Remember how I told y'all I was going to spend my Friday hitting up some crazy estate sales? Well here's the loot...

Estate Sale #1

The fabric at this estate sale was a little on the high priced side, plus it was mostly quilting fabric, but I did manage to snag a few pieces of gorgeous cotton lawn (although I think the light blue might be a silk blend because it has a really incredible sheen) and a giant piece of wool knit stuff...

I think I'll use the light blue for a spring version of the bombshell dress and the wool knitty stuff for a faux Chanel jacket?



I managed to score some patterns too...


 Is it just me or are the drawings on Marie Osmond's Marlo Thomas's (sorry mom! I'm a little too young...)patterns creepy? So smiley...


More patterns...


 Altogether (with the 2nd day 25% discount) I ended up spending about $25 on the three pieces of fabric, 12 patterns and a bag of bias tape.

Estate Sale #2

At the next estate sale, I hit the jackpot. An entire room of gorgeous vintage apparel fabric for $2 a piece or 3 for $5, regardless of yardage! I've never seen it that cheap! There was also a HUGE box of vintage buttons on cards but unfortunately, I was due to meet the boyfriend for lunch so I only had time to swipe a card of self cover buttons and 2 vintage zippers. Altogether this pile of 11 pieces of fabric and notions cost me $12! I could have probably bought 4 times that much fabric but I decided to restrain myself and only pick pieces I really loved.


Here are a few of my favorites:

The piece on the left is hilarious, a bunch of birds with the words "hip chick" floating around. There's not much of it, so it will probably end up being used for a craft project. The cherry blossom print on the right is probably my favorite piece of material I've ever purchased from an estate sale. I've had an obsession with Japanese floral cottons for a while and have several saved on my Etsy favorites, but this is one of the prettiest I've ever seen. And it's 4 whole yards!


These three are cotton printed with a lace design. I think they're so interesting and cute! There's not much yardage of the one on the left but I think I can squeeze a pencil skirt out of it. For the middle I'm imagining a strapless full skirted dress with the lace stripes.


This piece has to be my second favorite piece I've ever purchased second hand. Unfortunately in the picture doesn't quite portray it's shiny, tackiness.


When I first saw it, it immeadiately reminded me of the tuxedo some 60's Vegas lounge singer would wear. A slightly prettier version of the fabric below. I think it will be absolutely perfect for a flashy New Year's dress! Aside from Halloween, when else can you use your slightly tacky, super shiny fabric stash?


In total, I added 43 yards to my stash! AHHHHHHH! I'm trying not to think about it...

Now back to the bridesmaid's dress! (more on that later) Happy weekend!

All I Want for Christmas...

is this bag from Modcloth...

and maybe the matching makeup bag...

What I'm Doing Tomorrow...

Taking the day off tomorrow for a haircut in the morning and this in the afternoon...

Hoarding Weekend

First of all, thanks for all your sweet comments about the Minoru jacket. It was so fun to make and I'm really enjoying wearing it!

Now on to my debilitating desire to purchase fabric supplies... The boyfriend and I took a trip to the Fort Worth area this weekend to visit some of his family, so I of course took every opportunity to continue my hoarding tendencies.

First up, at a cute little quilting store in downtown Grandbury, I bought 3 yards of too expensive cotton lawn in crazy bright colors. Clearly I'm forgetting that it's actually November. The hot pink will be for a pencil skirt (because I'm bound and determined to have one in every color of the rainbow) and I'm thinking I'll use the crazy tropical print for my bombshell dress. It just screams 1950's Hawaii. Which clearly means I will have absolutely no where to wear it in my decidedly unglamourous, un-50's, un-tropical life. But a girl's got to have a few aspirational garments right?
Secondly, we stopped at Ikea on the way back to continue the quest to turn the boyfriend's house from "sad bachelor pad with no furniture" to "rockin bachelor pad with some furniture". I showed great restraint and did not even enter the kitchen/dining section, but I couldn't resist heading over to fabric. I spied 4 packs of thread for $1.99 as well as some hefty looking fabric shears. Having had good results with other sharp things Ikea sells (aka my kitchen knives) I decided to grab a pair for only $5.99. I liked the weight of them and upon getting them home I discovered they cut like a dream. They move through fabric like a hot knife through butter. I'm in serious love. I snapped up a pair of pinking shears as well, because, although I didn't believe it was possible, I think I dulled my old ones...

Moral of the story, Ikea fabric scissors are the bees knees and I can't control my addiction to buying fabric and notions, even though I haven't worked on a garment in over a week. This is why Americans are in debt...


Muah! Hope you're week will be as fabulous as you!

Minoru

Guess what? I made a Minoru! And I got to try my hand at pattern testing for the first time! A few months ago, Tasia emailed everyone who had signed up on her website to be pattern testers. Of the over 600 people who signed up, I was one of the ones chosen! I'm not really sure why, but I suspect that it had to do with the fact that I responded to her email probably 15 seconds after she sent it. And I may have begged a little...

The good news is that the jacket is fabulous! I had never made a jacket before, so I was a little nervous but the instructions were great and it came together with no problems! I initially wasn't sure if it was "me" because it looked a little sporty in the line drawing, but it turns out I love love love it! I used a black cotton twill from my stash and a crazy satin for the lining. Do you love the cute little pocket on the inside?

A shot of the back so you can see how well it fits with the elastic band... I swear I wear this coat almost every day (except for the last few days where we've had a freakish heat wave) It's so easy and it looks great! So great in fact that a friend of mine who pretty much only wears designer clothes asked me if it was from Burberry's fall line. Ummm, no, it's from Forrest's couture fall line, not yet available in stores...
Moral of the story? You should get this pattern! Really, you should... Pre-sale ends tomorrow (Thursday) and shipping is free, so go buy it now! Tasia's about to get married so she could probably use the extra cash ;)

Happy Wednesday!

Thrifting Finds

In yet another example of my habit of spending money that I shouldn't, I hit up my neighborhood Goodwill on Friday to scope out the racks for vintage gems. As luck would have it, I scored this great vintage wool blazer for a mere $5! This is what I love about thrifting. A nice wool blazer purchased in a department store would easily cost upwards of $100 or more but this super cute vintage one was a tiny fraction of that!
I especially like the brand, "Lady Thomson". Wonder who Lady Thomson was?