Hey, I'm Art Again Dress

~ moi, as a cutout ~

Actually, the photo was blurry so I had to do something, you know, creative to "make it work."

~ with all its bat wing splendor ~

The dress is made from Vogue 1482 by Rachel Comey.  I tell you, it was such a unique construction and so beautifully explained, illustrated and conceived.  All done with French seams, even the diagonal inserted pocket, using 100% cotton voile.

 

So I'm in the Copy Room at school, courtesy of Liz.  She was a spontaneous provider of the perfect photo props and opportunities.  Thanks Liz.

~ I see London, I see ah, what rhymes with slip? ~

Do note that I had to make a slip for this dress since all my others were too long - or this dress was so much shorter!  You can see many inches of it when I sit down.   But it's so pretty I think I could even wear it on its own.  Black fake charmeuse with lace, made up as I went along.

~ my Mom's cameo ~

I love this pin...

~ but check out my new-to-me ebay shoes!!!!! ~

Talk about luv, Trippens, Happy Collection.  And I am.  The ever cool sox are from Soxdreams.com.

And thanks to Sara for photo-ing on the last day of summer school.



I'll be heading on over to the Absolutely Fabulous gals when they go live:  Patti and the Visibles at Not Dead Yet Style, Catherine at I Will Wear What I Like, and Cherie at Shoe and Tell.  See you all then.

A Matisse Dress for Summer

~ with my lady bag ~

This is the kind of dress little girl me would love.

~ even though you know I have pockets ~

 And old girl me loves it too.

 

~ give us a twirl, girls ~

The dress is from Tina Givens Morgan dress pattern, with many liberties taken in the making of it.  

Let's see...I raised the waistline, lengthened the skirt, added pockets for goodness sake, lengthened the sleeves and added tucks, eliminated the back patch and continued the back neck pleats down to the waist, left out 1 of the 3 skirt panels due to lack of fabric, did my own collar installation, interfaced the center front plackets that hold the buttons and buttonholes.   I didn't put in the recommended hem gathers or the overlapped skirt section.  That's about it for alterations.

~ here's the Matisse part ~

oh, and the fabric is challis.  nice.

~ I've got my back covered ~

with the addition of a skull & cross bone button at the back of the neck.   You know, to counteract the any twee.

~ c'est fini avec les shoes from ebay ~

Without further ado, I'll skip to my lou, to Patti and the Visibles at Not Dead Yet Style.  Then to Catherine's I'll Wear What I Like, but of course.  And finally, Cherie's Shoe and Tell.  See you all there.

Frankie in the City Goes PAO

~ just like the statue of liberty ~

You can put me in the bushes, but I'm a city girl through and through.

~ yeah, bay-bee ~

So what's with the Frankie part, you ask.  It's the name of the Tina Givens pattern I used (with some liberties) for the crop top and pants.

The lovely sketch of the NYC skyline with selected blotches of ballet pink fabric is from my fav online shop, here.  

~ les shoes from ebay ~

For an extra sweet treat...

'Wearing Green' Dress and What's my Caption?

Seems I'm gravitating to green lately...nothin' wrong with that.  As long as it's not kelly green (no offense).

~ day lilies in the 'hood ~

Of course they don't really smell.

It was a photo op.  

~ proof that orange and green do go together ~

Now, what's that thing I'm wearing, you ask?  Ha!  Why they're from Tina Givens patterns, of course.

The Spring Green Woven Stripe Light-Weight Linen fabric is made into a modified Clara Kaftan.

`~ see? ~

The White Semi-Sheer Linen Gauze fabric is made into the Priscilla Slip.   Both items have pockets.  I always make pockets.  One must have pockets.  Did I not mention that pockets are mandatory?  Purses are not.

~ a perfect match ~

 to my ebay rocket dog canvas shoes.  woo-hoo.

And just like the last page in the New Yorker Magazine, now it's your chance to fill in the captions to the last pix in the comment section...

~ What's my Caption? 1 ~

~ What's my Caption? 2 ~

Okay, without further ado, I'm with Patti and the Visibles at Not Dead Yet Style, then Catherine's I Will Wear What I Like and finally Cheri's Shoe and Tell.  See you all there.

It's a Fait Accompli Dress

I finished that dress for the Mother of the Groom with time to spare.  How did I get there, you ask?  Well, it all started with...we're friends and I like to sew...

Sara tried on some of the dresses I already have and decided on a certain style.  The Mizono Vogue 1410.   With modifications, of course.  And an added bolero. 

Actually, I wore mine recently with my pink scooter buddy, here.  It's a pretty easy pattern to make up.

But we decided on silk, silk chiffon, for the fabric.  yeah.  Fool that I am, I've never worked with silk before (too expensive for one thing).  So being a cautious sort of person, I suggested we do a test run first with polyester chiffon. 

And we did.

That's when we discovered a slip was going to be necessary.  For the silk one, I suggested I could make a silk charmeuse slip.   I mean you wouldn't want to go with anything other than silk with a silk dress, right?  It follows that some polyester charmeuse was purchased for a test slip for the polyester chiffon test dress.

I was able to put together the poly chiffon dress and bolero with no problemo.  A couple fittings during the process where we decided on dart placement, bustle placement, etc.  And done.


To see pix of the polyester test dress, go here.

In the meantime, she had bought perfectly lovely slips to go with each dress...

Did I mention the silk chiffon was so light and airy that I decided it needed to be lined with yet more silk chiffon?  eiyiyiyi.  It weighs nothing and I found it (next to) impossible to sew or even cut out the fabric.  Thank goodness it was a simple pattern. 

Note:  Poly chiffon compared to silk chiffon is as tastee-freeze is compared to gelato in Florence.  Different species, I tell ya. 

Nevertheless, here's Sara and the dress.

~ long version with hand sewn kimono top ~

~ bustled version without kimono ~

 ~ bustled and kimono-ed ~

les shoes, sox and fabric print ~

Yesterday I was offered a free Craftsy class.  I chose The Essential Guide to Sewing With Sheers.  Better late than never.  Who knows, make I'll make a silk something for myself...


I'm sending Sara and my her dress over to Patti and the Visibles at Not Dead Yet Style, Catherine's I Will Wear What I Like, Cherie's Shoe and Tell, and Anne's 52 Pick me up: Completion, yeah.