So, here’s my newest Simplicity 3503 (complete with a FBA), a good four years after the maxi dress trend peaked, lol. I’ve wanted to add more yellow to my wardrobe the last two years too. The fabric was in my stash from Fabric Mart and I scooped up an additional two yards at the DelMarVa blogger meet up last fall. I needed it too because of the way I wanted to cut out and place the various prints.

This is one of the prettiest things I’ve made lately. But, guys. It’s a kind of a hot, happy-hands-at-home mess.

1. I really really detest facings and sewing knits by turning under and stitching from the outside (wrong sides facing each other). I think it never looks nice and always looks homemade. My halter looks all kinds of janky on the outside edges because of it. And, I’ve already pressed the life out of it.

The inside of the dress is also self-lined.

2. To get the waist to fit nicely (I really shoulda/ coulda cut a whole size or two smaller), I took in the waist a few inches. I forgot that my facing knit at the waist band is SUPER stable. Which meant I couldn’t get the dress on after taking it in  as it wouldn’t stretch in the waist. To ‘fix’ that, I just sliced into the facing at the sides.

Now, I could rip out the waist, recut and resew. But, I’m already not happy with the way the halter looks. I am going to put this dress in the magic closet and see if I have the energy at some point to redo the waist. But, for now. I just don’t have it in me.

You can see a little peek of my bra on the left under my arm. Well, that’s after I took the straps up by two inches on each side. I also made a one inch FBA and shortened the dress by four inches.

Half of this was sewn on my new-to-me serger, the Babylock Imagine. So far, I am in love. I’ll do a separate post on it after I’ve sewn a few more items. But, this garment also made me get a serger. My Euro-Pro was chewing up and eating holes (while shredding and breaking threads) in this dress and many of the other knits I’ve tried to sew the last year.  I was so frustrated I wanted to *throw* it against a wall. It has served me well low these past 8 years. But, at $400 for the price from HSN. It has served its purpose and I bid it adieu to the sewing machine farm in the sky.

I wore the dress today to a wedding/ logistics- rehearsal. I’m officiating the wedding next weekend at my friends’ home. Doesn’t a maxi dress just make you think of Miami and a pool?  In my mind I’m making something new to wear. But, I haven’t even started….

I did get one photo in my dress. But….

The lighting wasn’t good. My flash didn’t go off. I look sort of goofy. My waist (and fabric) were grabbed so tight that I look about three months pregnant in all the pictures!  The darts! They hurt my eyes. Blergh.

I’ve not attended anyone’s graduation since my own. So, I was feeling super old school at this ceremony. I love this version (my third) of this Burda pattern.  I am obsessed with this seersucker. Karen gave me the remnants of her pieces of it. At this point this seersucker is… five years old? I’ve used it for several projects in the past. If I could get more, I’d buy a bolt and make a whole summer wardrobe just from this seersucker.

Because it was so fricking cold, I did get to wear this awesome vintage leather coat that was gifted to me by a co-worker. Listen, people. There is something to be said for being known for loving vintage fashion.

This colleague kept telling me she was moving and cleaning out her closets and had some coats to give me and I kept rolling my eyes. I have been the sorry recipent of terrible 80s patterns and ratchet clothing from other people. She dropped them off in a garment bag and it sat in my office for weeks before I took them home or even bothered looking. I finally opened the bag and this and another GORGEOUS  black wool  with a fur collar coat were inside. I rocked the hell outta this jacket over the weekend. This makes me want to save ALL THE VINTAGE in the world. Like, all of it. I want to own it ALL, wear it ALL and be fabulous in ALL OF IT. ME ME ME.

It only took my third trip to Michigan to have time to sightsee. I’m always here for a few days and running in and out of town on other people’s schedules. But, this time, I finally got to go to Detroit! I’ve always wanted to see Detroit since it’s compared so much to Baltimore as a urban city with a blue collar background (and massive population declines). We were super short on time but I made sure we went to the Motown Museum.

Oh. Em. Gee. We couldn’t take photos inside.  Let me tell you. I grew up listening to the sounds of Motown and was completely stoked to walk the same halls and be in the recording studio where the likes of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, and the Temptations walked and sang.  Especially exciting was their exhibit on girl groups. People, I need you all to be prepared for my style the next few months to be heavily influenced by the 1960 girl groups of Detroit and the Motown sound. I am not playing. Talk about serious black glamour. I’m going to be doing plenty of sheath dresses and empire waists.

Finally, before I headed out of town, I did get to go to the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo with Robin, which was in Baltimore. I’ve never been to an expo before and my MAIN motivation for going was to check out the Babylock serger with Jet Air Threading and a Juki semi-professional straight stitch only machine. My modern Kenmore’s tension is so wonky that I sewed the above dress on my green vintage Kenmore. I’m in the market for a new machine in a few months.

Well, Brother, Pfaff and Babylock (all sponsors) were there. But, Juki (also a sponsor) wasn’t! I did test out the Babylock Imagine serger and purchased a pre-owned version. I’m picking it up tomorrow (Thursday)!

The fashion piece of the Expo wasn’t nearly where I’d like it to be. I heard Vogue Fabrics attended expos in the past. I like quilting quite a bit and enjoyed that aspect of the show. But, all the bitching and moaning from the vendors about the lack of attendees annoyed me. I mean seriously. I heard at least three stalls complaining about it to either me or to other vendors. I thought it was kind of tacky and a downer on something I’d been looking forward to for months. They thought parking was the reason people didn’t come. They thought crime was the reason people weren’t there. They thought no one likes coming in to a city. Whatever. I’ve never set foot in Chantilly, Va. But, I came downtown to see this. Make of it what you will.

Whew. So, yeah. Lots of little things going on. Just thought I’d get a lot of it said

This dress is from the September 2007 Burda Magazine. I’ve sewn it twice before.  I’ll post photos on my persons in a few weeks after I get to wear it. My main motivation for using the bamboo denim was to have something to wear this Vogue jacket with. If you recall, I never knew what to wear this jacket.  I also figured with spring  just reaching Ann Arbor in May, I’d want some extra coverage!

I also managed to serge a whole in the back of the skirt. I’m tentatively planning on adding a bow or something to the hole. I’ve also started a knit maxi dress that I’m pretty excited about. I’m taking that to Michigan with me too if I can get it sewn up on time.

I know dressform photos are rather dull. But, it’s been raining and going to keep raining the next few days. Plus, I really like to wear and take photos of new clothes the day of. So, please, continue to be bored

Toodles!

This is my Single Girl Quilt by Denyse Schmidt. I’ve had it in a plastic bin in the dark reaches of my basement since 2008. Why? I couldn’t remember. I started cleaning my sewing space this weekend and decided I wanted to finish this project. I rarely use my dining room, so I figured I’d  set up my Singer Featherweight and make that a quilting area. That way, I could work on it when I felt like it and didn’t feel like it would be in the way of other sewing.

But, guess what? My quilt is a mess. Allow me to explain.

I don’t have one single square complete. Even the ones that look complete, like these four, are missing the white outside border/backing in the lower right quadrant.

Most, don’t have a section made to be able to complete the block (they are sewn in quadrants).

Or, don’t have entire halves to sew

And, more importantly, I have three (?) color palettes going (dark brown, light pink, dark pink)

I laid these all out today so I could figure out what’s going on. It seems I need to take a quadrant each and go to the quilt shop. I don’t have a lot of these fabrics left and I need to buy some material in the ‘right’ color zone to finish this out.

But, this does remind me about the one thing I don’t like about quilting. Picking out fabric. I get so incredibly overwhelmed. I tend to just want to buy a kit or let someone pick it all out for me.

So, again I tell you, don’t take a five year  break from a project.

Apparently, this last week was the anniversary of Grace Kelley’s 1965 wedding to Prince Ranier of Monaco. I thought it was high time I let you know that I *finally* read her wedding dress designer’s book, ‘Just Make Them Beautiful’. The book was published in 1976 and was limited edition at that time. There are few copies floating around and those for sale are in the $100s of dollar range. My wonderful, Japanese reading and writing Cornell University-attending intern not only orders Japanese sewing supplies for me. She also borrowed the book through Cornell’s library over winter break.

Helen Rose’s book is a true delight. I’ve wanted to read it for at least a decade.  Through her own words you get a glimpse into life as a costume designer. She started off as an art student in Chicago in the late 20s and stumbled into costume design. She began sewing for stage productions and eventually came to California and went to MGM. She herself didn’t sew. She would draw wonderful pictures and a team of seamstresses would bring it to life.

Her book is filled with such luscious descriptions of designs and fabric that you are transported back to the heydey of Hollywood and the studio machine. She has personal annectodtes of stories of the stars she worked with including 19 year old Grace Kelly, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Elizabeth Taylor, Esther Williams, Joan Crawford and more.

The book includes photos of the designer working and water colors of her design ideas. My photos are blurry as the binding was too fragile to scan and the flash bounced off the pages. Plus, when I got the book it was December, so too cold for outside. But, at the bottoms is a youtube video with clear pictures.

Even better, you can see some of the watercolors and how they came to life with fabric and needle. I also recognized some of the costumes from movies I’ve adored over the years including High Society and A Designing Woman. There are a few dresses from a Designing Woman that I’ve obsessed over. Especially, this red one.

Some of the dresses are very familiar including costumes from High Society, Butterfield 8 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Immediately after reading the book, I started trying to figure out how to make the Maggie the Cat dress for myself!

Roses’ designs were so well loved and oft-imitated, that she started her own retail line where she sold the Maggie the Cat dress (in a far simplified version) among other lines. I’ve never seen any of her designs in vintage stores, but would snatch one up in a heartbeat if I did.

If you can find a copy of this book and are into old Hollywood glamour, I recommend you check this one out. It’s a visual eyecandy.

Here’s a wonderful slide show on YouTube of the photos from the book.

The second episode of the Great British Sewing Bee has posted. And, the UK’s Thrifty Stitcher was the technical adviser for the show. Each week she posts background information on the challenges and addresses some of the things I was wondering like why they didn’t have sergers on the first episode.

I thought I would now start my whisper campaign to be the host of the yet-to-even-be-considered US version of the Great American Sewing Bee. See how I’m taking myself out of the cooker of *sewing*? LOL!   I know how to sew and have a TV background (in that I was a news anchor and reporter for a few years out of college). And, *just* like the current host, I’m also naturally tan….  And, wouldn’t Susan Khalje or Ann of Gorgeous Things be terrific as the on screen sewing judge?

I devoured this epi while visiting Michigan again. It’s not snowing on this visit! Plus, apparently, it’s Hash Bash Weekend on campus.

Apparently, the police ignore the marijuana laws for Hash Bash weekend. Let’s just say there are a lot of characters out. Between that and Final Four weekend, it’s a perfect storm of nonsense, lolz.

How did I happen upon said Nigel-inspired MINI Cooper awesomeness? It was hand delivered from the  UK by Melissa FehrTrade (as I’ve been calling her for years).

She’s visiting the US and has family in the city. Trena came up from DC (wearing this BurdaStyle dress)  and we all got together for a really really amazing dinner at Jack’s Bistro here in B’more. Chocolate Mac and Cheese, yo. It sounds weird. But, it’s DELICIOUS.

The cool gifts don’t stop with the BEST MUG EVER. I have finally seen the elusive Vilene bias tape for those Burdaphiles. American friends, it is real. It does exist. And now, I have yards of it. I’m going to hoard it like unicorn tears. I’ll write more about it when I get my first chance to use it.

I’ll say it again, these are the wonders of the internet. You can meet people and be fast friends because of the shared sewing experience. Plus, you already ‘know* them so there’s NO awkwardness at all.

Now, I just need to make my trip to GB. I have family there and haven’t been since middle school.

I did try this brown combo once before in a too small size.

The brown lace is from Etsy and the white lace with yellow accents from dear Hilde when I went to Amsterdam two years ago.

What’s different about these two bras? I’ve finally conquered the scalloped band that I’ve dreamt of using guidance from Sigrd’s blog.

On the yellow version, I just did the bridge with a scallop. Not a mirror image. The lace only came in one direction.

On the brown, the entire front underband has the scallop. Hmm, I should have used brown thread on the lace bits, eh?

Something else I’m doing different with my bras is using this super narrow elastic from etsy when I reinforce the upper cup instead of clear elastic.  I think it’s 1/8 inch and is also sold as elastic for ‘baby headbands’.

The other thing with my bras (and why I like to sew my own) is that I have an extremely narrow bridge. You can see in these photos below that my underwire casing actually overlap (double click to enlarge).

I’m very very pleased with these two bras. What’s next for me and bras? I have one more cut out in pink from Etsy lace.

And two more kits waiting in the wings. My new goal is to get two week’s work of bras (worn twice each).

Thanks for all the tips and advice regarding the sheer interfacing (known to me as ‘tulle’ via Sigird). Orange Lingerie has a stash of it and kindly offered to send me a bit. So, this year I’ll tackle some more sheer style bras. I’m not a huge fan of the exposed satin in the lower cup. Snags too easily.

There may be some clothes coming again from my sewing machine, lol. I’ve been really absorbed at work and can only handle smallish projects now. But, I need a dress for a graduation in May. And, over Memorial Day I’m officiating my second wedding for dear friends of mine. So, I need to get on the stick.

I saw the cover dress back in 2006 and thought it so beautiful I purchased the magazine.  This Carolina Herrera gown with lily of the valley print was too good to not save. Back in 2006, runway collections weren’t readily available on the internet. I was just getting back in to sewing and thought it would be fun to make a dress with a print placement like this.  I kind of forgot about this magazine and stuck it in a stack of other publications I have. I do remember consciously hiding it when I first bought it, lest anyone think I had some funny ideas.

So, imagine my delight and surprise when I saw the EXACT SAME FABRIC from Carolina Herrera on the Mood Fabrics website last week! It looks like the colors are the reverse on the Mood sample. But, I have a small amount the cream version and this photo above is showing the “wrong” side.

Here’s a different photo of the dress. The fabric ‘border’ is horizontal, allowing the longer non-lily potion to be used for elaborate  skirt.

And, according to the inside cover, was retailing for $7,000 at the time. But, when I google searched for the dress, I found people paid $10,000 four years ago.

This is why I love that we sew. It’s kind of cool when you spot the designer fabric, eh? Especially from a magazine that you purchased six years earlier *just* for that dress.

I’m not making this dress for anything nevermind a formal! But, I think the fabric would be a gorgeous skirt or spring cocktail dress.

Edited to add: Guys! Check it. Reader Claudia in Germany used the fabric to make a dress three years ago. Isn’t it beautiful! See how the silk almost  glows?

I still prefer Feedly, but I figured I should at least try Bloglovin, Follow my blog with Bloglovin . They’ve added a one step import process (so no exporting your files, etc.) But, it doesn’t seem to be keeping categories in place.

Also, I follow over 200 blogs!!! Good grief.