I've Got a Beautiful Red Dress

And you'd look really good standing beside it.   Yeah, I love that song by Laurie Anderson.  Actually,  I love all her work and see her whenever she's in Chicago.  Speaking of being in Chicago, I saw the premiere of the Advanced Style movie on Friday with my girlfriends.  So fabulous.  But this isn't supposed to be about that, it's about the new red dress I made.

~ sewn from slinky, sheer, mesh knit ~

It was the devil incarnate, I tell ya.  The pattern I used was relatively simple, the fabric, however, was decidedly not.  Every inch was roundly cursed, repeatedly.  and then some.  Just sayin'.

more of my signature blurry pix

It was like sewing on semi-liquified jello.  Anyway, the back hem has elastic and the front has folds and tucks.  There are no shoulder seams, just 2 seams down the center front and back.  The fabric just pours down and over you like a liquid jello too.  2 holes are cut in the middle of the fabric for the sleeves to attach to.

nice drape job, huh?

I made a separate cowl because the one attached to the dress was just too skimpy and couldn't hold its own to all the hem action.  I think the beefier one works better...

here you can see how sheer it is

Which reminds me, I made a slip to wear with it  You can see it, and the pattern for the dress on my Clothes for Fall page.  I'm also going to slip on over to Rhonda's Me Made Monday while I'm at it.  Come on and check out what the sewistas have going on.  Oooo and Sheila's Shoe Shine, if I'm not to late...

Another Accidental Animal Encounter

Yes, I wasn't looking for any.  It just came my way as these things are apt to do.  And I made the best of it.  What was I going to do, refuse?  Nooooo.

So here I am, showing...

~ my multi-animal print, stretchy mesh, dress ~

I don't really seek out leopard print, but I can't resist sheer stretchy mesh, because it just might become stockings.  That is if it stretches both ways, turns out many don't, like this one. 

Now if only

I knew how

to do a gif

You'll never believe the pattern I derived this baby from.  See the Clothes from Fall page for close-ups of the clothes and pattern.  I'm also wearing one of my fabric stash necklaces and some Wolky sandals from you know wear where.

David Bowie: Fashion Icon

~ You Know Who ~

~ Where? ~

~ Here!! ~

Yep, the only stop in the U.S. is in my backyard, Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.  It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood too.

But the process was not unlike the airport.  Dated and timed tickets had to be purchased in advanced.  And must be picked up 1 hour prior to the time stamped.  You were not allowed to enter earlier, nor later, than your scheduled time.  When we arrived as instructed, there was no line anywhere and not too much of a crowd inside either.

I wore the accompanying headphones for the first time ever at a museum.  (I hate being told what to see).  But in this case I knew they'd just be piping in Bowie tunes, so yeah, let's do it.  Well...it didn't take long for me to "whisper" over the headphones to my true love that I was just not interested.  It was obvious he wasn't either.  We wandered around the perimeter of each darkened room, hearing blurps of Bowie tunes abruptly start and then fade off.  Then there were the usual curatorial pronouncements summarizing arbitrary concepts/phases/milestones of the artist's career in mile high typeset on each wall of each room.  These I always ignore.  (I don't like being told what/ how to think either).  yuck.

Seeing his costumes was sorta cool.  But without Bowie's moves and voguing, they really lose their glamor and look rather sad or silly.   They had his house keys there, I think that's what they were.  woo-hoo.  4 paintings of his, that was cool, but ony 4.  And a little book under Plexiglas that was opened to a page with his measurements written down for tailoring.  26 1/2 inch waist, oh my!

Perhaps the best part of the exhibition was at the end when you were emptied out into a big room which held the majority of his outfits and was surrounded on 3 walls, floor to ceiling, with speakers behind screens playing segments of him on stage.  It was like big you tube videos all playing at once, fading in and out, in the dark.   And one, no two, benches to sit on.  We stayed there until it repeated and made our way out.  To the cafe, of course.

If you've made it this far, do go on to see my Bowie ensemble in which I garnered 3 distinct compliments from people at the MCA.

May I Present to you...

...another tablecloth dress!

Lest their be some confusion, two items are being shown here.  My reversible kimono vest and my tablecloth dress with drawstring hemline. 

Yes, now you get the picture.

and a side view close-up.

I think the striped socks with the shiny black clogs add a stabilizing factor to all that dizzying floral/ pattern jazz, don't you?