Archive for April 2012

Dream Dress + Giveaway Winner!

1:10 PM 3 Comments A+ a-

The preview for next months Burda just came up on the Russian website here and I'm pretty obsessed with this dress...


I want to make it with this fabric I showed you a few days ago. Unfortunately I have to wait for the fabric and the magazine to come in before I get started. Perfect engagement photo dress right?
 


Now to the giveaway! The winner is Kelli who said:

Congratulations on your 100 followers, and your engagement. Since I have had the Iris pdf pattern in my colette shopping cart since it was released, that's the pattern I would love to have(instant gratification, right?)

Shoot me an email Kelli and I'll get Iris right to you!

Thanks for entering and happy Wednesday!

Why PayPal is trying to ruin my life...

12:35 PM 1 Comments A+ a-

Ever since PayPal introduced it's Bill Me Later feature, I've been pretty sure that it's been trying to ruin my life. Now Etsy purchases are just a click away, without the stress of figuring out if I have money in my bank account to cover it! I don't actually carry a huge balance, I pay it off pretty much every paycheck, but I just found out they upped my credit limit. Uh oh... I see some wedding related Etsy purchases in my future.

In the meantime here's what Bill Me Later has convinced me I need lately:


A DIY cross stitch Iphone case from this store. I've been wanting one of these forever!

I've had my eye on this fabric for probably a year! It was my engagement present to myself and I think I'll use it to make a dress for our engagement pictures. I used an Instagram filter so the colors aren't showing as bright but it's gorgeous and I can't wait for it come in the mail! This shop has a ton of great fabrics, almost don't want to share it though because I'm afraid you'll buy up some of my other favorite pieces!


These are from this shop. I also have my eye on this cross stitch pattern...


In other news, my sister got to meet Elsie from A Beautiful Mess last night! We both totally adore her blog and text each other all the time about her posts. She was in Houston last night with her husband's band, so my sister went to see them and got a picture. Couldn't be more jealous...


Remember you have until midnight Central time to enter my giveaway for one of the new Colette Patterns! Good luck loves!

Friday Favorites

10:42 AM 0 Comments A+ a-

It's been sort of a hard day. I woke up with a headache and a minor cat emergency which required an early morning trip to the vet. She's going in for surgery on Monday so I'm anticipating a very grumpy cat and a very large vet bill in my future. Anyway, I decided to show you some pretty things I found this week to take my mind off of it while I wait for the asprin to kick in. So without further ado, here are my favorites from the Internet this week...



The Modcloth blog has a really cool feature on classic celebrity weddings. With my recent engagement I'm pretty gaga for weddings, so this was really fun for me...

I do nothing in the way of eye makeup but this tutorial for a classic 1960's French girl eyeliner is making me want to make an effort.

I want Gertie's floor...

This makes me 5% want to have a baby girl so I can hang this in her room.

Just purchased this reproduction pattern from Etsy and I can't wait to make it!

I feel like I need a crinoline. A little intimidated by all the gathering though...

Finally, interesting to see Burda's top selling patterns this month. There are A LOT I want...


I'm extending my giveaway for a little longer because I realized I wasn't super clear on the ending time and how to follow me. Anyway, the giveaway for one of the new Colette patterns will end Monday, April 23 at midnight (USA Central time). I will ship to anywhere in the world and you just have to follow me somewhere; Google Friend Connect, Google Reader, Bloglovin, just somewhere! So go enter!

Have a fabulous weekend my loves!

Celebration Time! 100 Followers!

4:04 PM 25 Comments A+ a-

First of all, thank you so much for all your kind words regarding our engagment! I've been overwhelmed by all the love coming my way over the last few days! I'm so excited to share all the sewing/diy/craftiness I have planned for this wedding with all of you!

Secondly, I hit 100 followers today! Time to celebrate!



Number 100 is Cara who left this comment this morning...

Hi sweet lady! CONGRATULATIONS!!! I found your blog via I love you to the moon and I'm SO glad I did! I'm your newest follower! xoxo

Cara, you are such a doll and I love your blog! So beautiful and inspirational!

Of course you are ALL beautiful and inspirational to me so I wanted to send you a little thank you giveaway for being such fabulous and lovely followers! 

I know we're all gaga over the new Colette Patterns, I personally am trying to restrain myself from buying all three, but I definitely am having a hard time choosing just one! Anyway, one of my lovely readers will win one of the new patterns, Hazel, Lily, or Iris! In order to win you have to be a follower of my blog and leave me a comment telling me which pattern you want and in which format (print or PDF) by Friday, April 20th at noon!




Best of luck my loves!

An Easter dress and a little news...

6:39 PM 25 Comments A+ a-

First of all, this post is going to be full of pictures because I actually had someone to take them and decent lighting. It was a red hot miracle and I finally had more than one ok picture to choose from so I chose them all.

Now onto the dress. This is some of the fabulous silk I brought back from New York and yes, I did manage to squeeze an entire dress out of one yard of fabric. Also, yes it is ridiculous that I cheaped out and refused to buy more than one yard of anything in New York but I spent an obscene amount of money buying a few yards of vintage 40's rayon on Etsy today. Actually let's not talk about that....

I knew I wanted something pretty light for the crepe de chine, and since it was a border print, I figured it needed simple lines to show it off best. So I basically decided how long I wanted the skirt, measured up from the border print edge and cut straight across the whole yard of fabric, then I folded over the leftover piece and used Simplicity 2497 (one of my favorites) for the bodice.Then I sewed the top together, gathered the skirt, attached the two, made a casing and threaded in elastic. I lined the whole thing in some light grey lining I had sitting around so I didn't have to fiddle with facings.




I do really love this dress but of course I have one issue. I was dumb and cut the lining larger than the skirt, figuring that the extra gathering would make it stand out a little and look pretty. Instead it just sort of makes me look like I have huge hips and it bunches while I'm sitting. Unfortuntaley this is not one of those mistakes that I can just "put up with" so I'm going to have to fix it. Ugh.



One of the benefits of the border print is that the fabric seldvedge can be used for the hem. I just turned it under and didn't have to worry about finishing it or turning it under twice...




The dog wanted in on the better-than-usual photo shoot too...




This was an attempt to show you the back of the dress that was thwarted by said dog...




Wait, were you wondering about that thing in the earlier picture? That sparkly thing?



Yeah, that thing... Why yes, it is an engagement ring! The boy popped the question last Saturday so things are pretty crazy/exciting around here!

PS it's the most perfect ring ever.


We've been together almost a million years and we'd been talking about getting married for a while, so this wasn't totally out of nowhere but I still was definitely suprised. The wedding will be next May and I wish I could invite you all, but since that's not possible I'll just have to get advice from you on my dress which I will be making myself of course!

Happy weekend my loves!

Good news and bad news...

3:37 PM 8 Comments A+ a-

The good news is, I made a bombshell dress! The bad news is, I haven't worn it in public yet...

I was convinced that I might have an opportunity to wear the dress in New York so I spent a whole weekend working like crazy to finish it, only to get to New York and discover it was too cold to wear it. Plus, my friends and I are poor, just starting out 20-somethings, so we didn't really hit up the type of establishment that warrants a dress like this. However, it's done, it fits pretty well, I learned a crazy amount making it and I have plenty of weddings coming up in the next few months so it will get it's day in the sun.

As always, my face looks crazy in the pictures and I forgot to iron the dress. Someday I'll get my act together, promise...

Also, it's worth mentioning that the cleavage is insane in this dress!





So here's the detail/mistake shots. I used a crazy vintage piece of fabric from an estate sale for the dress. I'm not sure what it is exactly, it's kind of like a Chambray with black and metallic blue woven threads. It's also pretty delicate. I have a few holes like the one below in the bodice, which are super annoying but I didn't discover them until it was all put together and I was definitely NOT going to take it all back apart to replace the pieces. I'm assuming no one will be that up close and personal with my chest, so hopefully I'll be alright...


I lined it with a pretty green rayon, also an estate sale find. I adore the color and definitely need to use this fabric to make a dress of it's own. Some of the stitching around the boning channels is crazy because my machine was freaking out and I didn't care enough to fix stitching in a part of the dress that no one would see. I also ended up with a lining that was a few inches longer than the bodice top, so I decided to forgo the waist stay, since the boning went down a little farther and did a pretty good job of holding up the dress.


Love the zipper guard detail, this will be happening on more of my dresses in the future.


I'm hoping I think of somewhere to wear this soon because it's a pretty great dress. It was crazy complicated compared to most sewing I do but I really enjoyed the process and Gertie was a dream teacher. I feel like there will be several more of these in my future...


Speaking of the future, I'm participating in...


I'm really excited that this is coming around again. I participated in two of these challenges last year and it was remarkable to me how much easier it was the second time around! So here's my pledge:

'I, Forrest of Presserfoot Propaganda, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavour to wear as much handmade and refashioned clothing as I can each day for the duration of May 2012'
I thought about going "all the way" and only wearing handmade clothing, but I haven't gotten around to making jeans or bathing suits yet and I'm not ready to forgo wearing those things for a whole month. I'm excited to see what fabulous things y'all will be wearing in May!

Leopard Print

4:20 PM 3 Comments A+ a-

Here's another quick project I worked up for my New York trip a few weeks ago. 

I've been obsessed with making/buying a leopard print top for several months now. It pretty much all started with these pins from Pinterest (mostly the first one)...




But I hadn't really been able to find a fabric I liked to make one. I did however find this sort of tacky, ruffly, polyester top at Goodwill a month or two ago and I thought I could make it work for now, until I found something better.  


Ugly ruffled sleeves...

So this is the result. I took it in a few inches on each side, I wanted to keep the blousey feel but it was an XL originally so it needed to be trimmed down a bit. I also cut off the cuff, removed the ruffly bit of fabric, shortened the sleeve and reattached the cuffs. They're both the same length in real life even though though they don't look like it in the picture. It's maybe not the most perfect shirt ever but it is comfy and definitely "adequate for the purpose" as my aunt would say.



One more thing:

The lovely Ginger of Ginger Makes nominated me for a Sunshine Award. Such a doll with such awesome knitting skills! I'm crazy jealous because I'm so intimidated by knitting! Anyway, here are the answers to the questions associated with this award.


Favorite color: turquoise, and lets face it, probably pink
Favorite animal: my cat
Favorite number: I don't know if I've ever thought about it... Maybe 25? I'm turning 25 on July 25 and I think it's going to be a good year!
Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Dr. Pepper, it's terrible I know but I'm addicted. Maybe I'll get help soon.
Facebook or Twitter: Facebook
My passion: my faith, the boy in my life, my family, my job raising money for good causes, sewing, reading, eating cheese and other things that are bad for me, discovering cool things to do in my city
Getting or giving presents: definitely both
Favorite Pattern: Right now it's either Colette's Clovers or the Bombshell dress from Gertie's Craftsy course, but it changes monthly
Favorite day of the week: Friday
Favorite flower: peonies (same as Ginger!)
Favorite celebrity role model: Amy Poehler, I adore her. Close seconds are Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling and Kristen Wiig. Basically any lady that is hilarious...

Happy Monday darlings!

Border Print Little Black Dress

3:12 PM 7 Comments A+ a-

 So for the first time in bloging "career" I actually have a back log of finished projects that I haven't posted about yet. That's bonkers. Normally I'm desperately trying to finish projects so I have something to blog about, but I currently have 5 projects sitting in queqe, waiting to show you!

So here's the first one...

I made this dress sometime in February and have worn it a million times since but only recently got around to photographing it. It's made from a polyester charmuese from JoAnns that I fell in love with at first sight. I wanted to make a dress that had really clean, uninterrupted lines that would showcase the print, and, lets be honest, minimize the pattern matching required.

I'm standing awkwardly in the picture, but don't worry, the dress does fit in real life and doesn't make me look like a hunchback. I seriously have to get better at posing.

I thought I took a picture of the sides but I can't find it. They're matched up pretty well but the back is a little bit of a mess.

I used this great 60's teenage pattern I got off of Etsy a while back. It's such a fun shape and I thought it would highlight the border print well. I did omit the front seam though because it seemed like a nightmare with this fabric. The measurements listed on the pattern weren't super close to mine, but I flat measured it and it seemed like it would work. Luckily it fits pretty perfectly.

This was my only issue (aside from the fact that my rolled hem foot hates me so the sleeves are hanging kind of funny): The facing piece was drafted about 5/8 inch shorter than the front dress piece! I kept thinking I had made some mistake but no, apparently the pattern is just crazy!


Anyway, this was a nice "end of winter" dress and I've gotten a ton of wear out of it, but now that spring is in full force it's going in the closet for the next 6 months or so.

PS Here I am wearing it at the Modern in the MOMA in NYC!!!!

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)