I knew it.

I just knew I would end up making this dress. For months now I've tried to kid myself into thinking I'd found the perfect off the rack dress. A friend at work assured me that in the Ukraine it is bad luck to make your own dress. I was just waiting for it to go on sale. It would be so nice to put my energy into everything else that planning a party for 200 people would require.

But there was always that nag of doubt. I knew what I wanted, and the only way I'd get it was to go handmade. Everything else in the wedding is going to be homemade chic, so why not just make the dress I want?

The Big Picture

The inspirations for this wedding are going to lend to some pretty awesome fashion moments, and I think it will help my sanity to record all this on blog. For instance:

I ask Darling what he envisions his attire for the wedding to be. He brings me this picture:

The one to the left, he says.


I smile.


I Google.


I counter with this picture:

(btw: sorry these photos are not credited, I googled them again and couldn't find the sites)

He smiles.

Ok.

This should be fun.


The opinions on my dress? We've found a few inspirations:

celebritybrideguide.com

Offbeatbride.com

fashionology.com

I am trying to imagine what kind of frankenpattern I can come up with. Any opinions and pattern suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


The girls' dresses will be silk painted at the bottom, all in white silk, each dress different for each girl.

Let the games begin.

Somebody stop me

I'm seriously considering Etsy.

'tis the season

Another silk scarf.

paint love

These are silk scarves from Dharma Trading (over there -->) fancied up a bit with their silk painting kit. It's the gutta resist version.

I'm loving this. It's quick - each scarf takes only a day, and 90% of that is drying time. I think they are pretty, and will make good gifts. And creating them feels good :)

These scarves are only about 10 inches accross. I plan to do this on a larger scale someday, worked into formal gowns. Ahh, someday...

Move over Bacon

... the kid is moving into the sewing room :)

With Special Thanks to Karen, who hooked said kid up with a machine of her own. And logic dictates that said machine will be followed by fabric stash of her own and pattern stash of her own and... well, let's just say it's time to clean house.

So this is my stash, bared for all to see. I honestly feel a little naked.

It's still in a messy state, I'll make it all neat in its new home. I had a "before" picture showing fabric oozing out of every crack and crevice in my sewing room, but then I remembered my parents occasionally read this.

It was that bad.

For now, it's just piled according to colors.

I evidently have a thing for stripes - not a polka dot in the bunch!

and no yellows. I wonder what that says about my psyche... Do you think that's a profession out there somewhere? Stash Therapist! Can you imagine the implications of the snake skin?























The scraps and recycle projects have been contained - I even got all my scraps sorted into baggies.

I also discovered I have a good variety of lining on hand.

I have an extremely rough (kindergarten art) sketch of a storage system I'd like to craft. The way I see it, there are 4 essential elements to the fabric storage *working right to left:

1. bins for scraps, 2. shelves (preferably with glass doors) for fabric that is best stored folded, 3. vertical roll storage for large yardage, and 4. horizontal bars to accommodate hanging smaller yardages of fabrics that shouldn't be stored folded. I think of the old fashioned tiered newspaper hanging bars at the library.

My muslin station is already pretty cool. That's tracing paper on top, and there are muslin scraps in the gift bag. You can just see my rulers hanging next to it. Note the glasses ;) !!!

I hear IKEA calling, so there will be more pictures as the stash storage develops.

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I finally came up with an idea to practice my smaller silk painting in a portable way.

I used one of the styrofoam packing inserts from a toaster oven box as a mini fabric stretching frame. It can be placed flat over the design for "tracing" and keeps the fabric raised. The silk scarf, courtesy of Dharma Trading, is stretched across and pinned, it's the perfect size.

Speaking of other nifties, during my quilt making I discovered that the plastic template sheets that JoAnn's sells for $5 are the same as the 3-pack of flexible cutting mats you can get at the dollar store. (Cidell, hope you're reading this!)

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And send me all your lovin' and positive energy, because I think I may have found my dream job*. Fingers and toes crossed.

*Karen, no it's not what we talked about ;)

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And speaking of daydreams- have you ever dreamed about what your Project Runway audition video would be like! Come on, I bet you even chose music!

BASTE! How low can you go?

When will I learn?!? BASTE! BASTE! BASTE! ...ripping out collar seam on jacket (again).

I returned from vacation to find that my velour fuzz bunnies multiply like tribbles:

And though I got zero sewing done while in the woods, I did eat, sleep, and breathe dress ideas- so I've got a preview of the next two chapters :)

Chapter Three: First Christmas

My grandmother passed away early this year, and I've found myself clinging to every hint of her, no matter how silly. For instance, I found this cotton tablecloth in amongst the tons of spare linens she'd tossed at me over the years. (I am known to be a bit of a packrat, ha). It was probably purchased in a quick dash to the supermarket, judging by its questionable quality. I've had it for some time, despite not using a dining table or having any need at all for a tablecloth. I think I liked the shades of red and green in it. It has a slight yellow stain in one corner, but I can work around it.

So I was staring at this tablecloth wondering what to do with it, thinking about Grammy, and I suddenly found myself in a secret life of a dress. (I'm a HUGE fan, btw). "She was a Kansas farm girl who ran away for the big city- the prettiest in 3 counties by most opinions, particularly her own. She kept her mouth shut, except for a Kool, a sly smile and an occasional sharp wit. And she knew how to make a tablecloth into a dress for dinner at the officer's club..."

The seed was planted to make this tablecloth into a dress, and a little voice in my head said, "What would nicegirl do?" (I'm a HUGE fan, btw). I poured over vintage patterns online and came up with Butterick 4790.

I absolutely love that this is a wrap dress- you pull it on like a poncho. I think the practicality of it is totally in the spirit of what I was looking for. I will most likely be supplementing it with cotton solids when the time comes, but I like the thought of using the border decorations for the over skirt.:

Chapter Four: Ladybird

My name is E and I have a tattoo. It's kinda big. I never really remember it's there, because I never see it. Never really, that is, until I have to dress up. Then it's kind of a pain. I either go with a back exposure that looks like chickens with their heads cut off, or cover up completely- which is boring after the billionth time. I think the pursuit of the perfect ladybird dress is secretly what got me back to sewing, and may be the root of this formalwear obsession I'm enjoying.

I envisioned a dress that wouldn't obscure the tattoo, but wouldn't showcase it garishly. Luckily, my cousin is habitually tardy and I had the opportunity to rummage around the bridal shop in which I was waiting for her. I spotted this lovely. (sorry for the scan, David's website won't let me get the pic). I liked the beading on the back. Further perusing of their site turned up some other goodies, so I nabbed a catalog.

I like the idea of beading over a sheer layer to hint at the tattoo's design, rather than just have it skin. I already have Vogue 7267 in my stash, as well as a yummy silk charmeuse that I got on my trip to Metro.

I'm going to combine the views and use black silk paints to do the branching design on the fabric. The back lacing will be replaced by a smoky gray sheer stretch material, which will be beaded with black seed beads along the bird design. *ETA: (photo) The red folding screen is going to be the basis for the design on the back of the skirt- my sketch is incomplete, it needs more blooms.

And last but not least, I've finished the fabric stretching frame that I need for painting the yardage of silk. I used 1"x5' pvc sections and didn't glue the joints so it can be dissassembled. The one end slides and the long sides unscrew in the middle to lessen the frame size.

That's all for now folks, tune in next time for some PR jacket news, a stovepipe steamer and *fingers crossed* some lovely painted silk scarves.

Molasses

As in, "slow as".

I altered the pattern pieces for Milly's muslin and decided to put them aside to focus on the PR jacket. The wedding I'll be attending isn't until September 13, and considering it's taken me 6 full days to get through the cutting phase of the jacket fabric and lining, I think this a smart move. I'm leaving for vacation on Saturday, so I'll have precious little time when I get back to finish the jacket before the contest ends. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I rarely have to do much more than tweak a few seams on Butterick sz 12 anyway, so hopefully the process will go smoothly. Of course, not only is this my first lined jacket, but it is my first jacket!

I finally got the silk paints in the mail, along with all the silk scarves I ordered to practice on :) I am making design progress with my watercolors and chinese brush painting set. I've found the chinese brush painting more closely mimics the effect of the paint on the silk. I think it will translate well to the dress. I'm giddy with anticipation of finally getting to the dress, but I fear it won't be until the end of September at this rate.

And who knew sewing would have me in home improvement stores so often? Aside from the rolls upon rolls of duct tape we've consumed, I've now got a stovepipe steamer in the works, as well as a fabric stretching frame. The frame is going to consist of 4 lengths of pvc joined with one end that will slide to accommodate different sizes of fabric. With all this stuff I'm accumulating (did I mention almost 100 yards of fabric?), I have now officially taken over the dining room, much to the dog's disappointment- his bed got relocated to my daughter's room, and he hates being downgraded in status like that. I was geeked to find the extension leaf to my dining table, so my cutting mat has ample room. The room is almost completely converted to my mad sewing lab now (buildup of evil laughter here).

And since I don't have any pretty pictures this time, I'll leave you with a riddle:
I'm right-side-up even when I'm upside-down. What am I?

Chapter Two: Milly's Cup

What do you get when you cross this:

with this:

???

Eventually we will know, but for now I hope it looks a little like this:

I was visited by my angelically beautiful cousin, Milly, last week and found inspiration inside my local coffee shop. I had been drooling over my unopened Vogue 1030 for over a month now, stalking my street like Mr. Burns devising sinister plots to takeover the world- just trying to come up with something tasty for it. Milly was taken in by a chocolate-banana drink and I, being faithful to my tea at home, browsed around. And then this mug just jumped off the shelf and started banging itself on my head... The blue lining on the inside, the airy eggshell chiffon caressing it, its lengths on fire with watery color- I swear I stood in the middle of the coffee shop frozen with my eyes like saucers as I thought of this pattern, people thought there was a medical emergency.

I ran home and did the best sketch I could with my kid's watercolors and paper and then researched silk painting in earnest. I'm now in the works with ordering silk painting beginner kits to brush up on techniques and looking to get the cheapest/nicest/cheapest muslin fabric I can get.

And my darling son (22 mos.) will be starting daycare 3 mornings a week so I will have 11.5 hours every week of beautiful, glorious, fantabulously uninterrupted sewing time. I should have titled this "sleeping beauty" because I know I must be dreaming! You guys might actually get a blog to read!