A Fresh Dress for the Holidays

~ photography by geof kern ~

So nice that you can dress it up or down for whatever the occasion.

In other news, it's been gently snowing since last night and looks so picturesque. 

~ out my window ~

~ only 2 inches expected ~

And I'm back at it with THE coat...

~ this time whistling while I work ~

I have one more of these big panels (bigger than my table top) and then I'm off to hand-sewing another set of layers.  An ever smaller lot of them.  woo-hoo.

~ with intermittent breaks to watch the snow fall ~

Ho, ho, ho to each and everyone!

xoxo, pao 

Sewing In, Sewing Out

~ and a rough day at the sewing cave ~

But it's not always like that.

Some times it's just like this.

~ le sigh ~

Then there's the fun and games...

~ like hiding behind sheer silver-gray organza ~

I hear that's good for disguising wrinkles.

~ but first you must iron it! ~

hehe

~ another trick is to keep moving ~

 That way you are a blur, which keeps any old, aging parts at bay.

~  double points if you keep on moving and have your back to the camera ~

But what I was really going to post about was the trials and tribulations of the new coat I'm making:  Pamela Roland's Vogue 1332.  

~ this one ~

Has anyone done this one before?  oh my.  

That's my coat fabric on the right and my lining on the left (hand quilted, by the way).  It has so many layers of fabric!  Plus batting, the organza as interlining and sew-in interfacing.  And each layer is hand-basted around the perimeter of each pattern piece.  All the pattern markings and stitching construction  are marked with tailor tacks (thread) on each layer or each piece.  Something like that.  

It is taking me forevah!  I guess that's okay.  I only hope it fits/looks good after all.

p.s.  I'm wearing my workout clothes in the pix.  yeah.  oh, the top is a translation of Tina Givens Juliana top pattern and the pants are from her Phoebe pattern.  

Clothes that Work Out

Yep, that's me showing off my work-out wear. 

~  you know, like for exercising ~

I haven't mentioned my routine?

~ hmm, let me show you my moves ~

But first, you have to know I've made whatever I'm wearing, right?  yeah. 

Well, the sweatshirt that says SEW was an XL men's that I cut up, added a collar from the hem and a jacket zipper from my stash.  The pants I made awhile ago from a vintage, heavy linen tablecloth.  And here's the stretch mesh top...

~ stretch mesh with Parisian graffiti  ~

~ Trippen shoes from ebay function as my "gym" shoes ~

~ hey man, are you messing with me? ~

~ the photographer caught in the act of disappearing ~

~ after mimicking my "poses" ~

ha!

From Flop to Frippery

By way of a Tina Givens Meri dress pattern, no doubt.  You'll never know the places you'll go when diving into one of these adventures.

~ But I never thought I'd end up here! ~

Oh my.  You wouldn't either if you checked out the pattern picture.  But then again, if you've worked with these patterns, you probably know modifications, alterations and (for me) way out remedies are the name of the game.  Which is kind of why I like them.

~ I'm feel so liberated now ~

I started out with the least favorite fabric I had on hand in case it turns out to be a dud.  This is a double border ITY knit, of all things.   I try to figure out what size to use, but sometimes its rather difficult to do based on the pattern pieces when they're not consistent.  This dress used one piece from center front to center back.  In other words, there's no side seams.

~ just hanging out here ~

Shoulder seams didn't line up, the usual stuff.  I took up the shoulder seams 4 inches on each side because both the underarms and the neckline were soooo low.   The pattern photograph shows a high neckline.  So much for that.

~ another ready for take-off picture ~

It was supposed to be sleeveless, but since the armholes were wonky, I decided to use the leftover angled pieces as sleeves.  They were already perfectly cut for kimono sleeves.  So voila, on they went.  That was a surprise.  Now I had a tribal kaftan, kimono-esque dress.

I'm starting to like this thing.  It just needs something for that weird neckline, plus I don't like the way the center front flares out with excess fabric.  hmmm.

~ cruising ~

After a couple false starts on necklines, I found two long narrow triangular scraps of the fabric that fit together perfectly to form a neckline with ties.  I attached it like you would a bias binding and then finagled a way to sew the tie ends inside out, yada, yada, yada.  So there we are.

This thing is so much fun to wear, especially on a breezy day.  It's like instant drama.

And wouldn't ya know it.  I had the perfect shoes to wear with it.

~ screaming orange and magenta XOXO shoes from ebay ~

I'll be joining Patti and the Visibles at Not Dead Yet Style (finally), Catherine's I Will Wear What I Like and Cherie's Shoe and Tell when they all go live.  Hope to see you there.

Rusty Maroon, I presume

~ the color of my latest version of the Serena dress ~

The same as the Tina Givens Serena pattern that I modified in navy jersey and linen seen in my last post.

~ scarlet-fied by hitting one of those alteration buttons in photoshop ~

~ but this is more true to color ~

What a difference a change of fabrics makes in a dress.  Even though it's the same type of fabric with the same modifications to the pattern - whoa, this baby had different needs.

Again using only what I had on hand, the jersey was a lighter weight, heathered, brick red/black jersey with lycra and the linen was a heavier-weight, rough marsala linen with horizontal dark script in French.  I put them together based on color, but it was the difference in weight that made for some interesting construction dynamics.

~ see the horizontal heathered lines combined with the horizontal script ~

And the uni-suspender.  That heavy-weight linen pulled that light-weight stretchy jersey way, way down south.  I found that floral bit from a kimono tie I had previously sewn up, added button holes and used it to hold up the skirt portion.  I even found two perfect buttons in my stash.   The bit of horizontal stitching you see to left is some boro-esque play on the center back flap I was experimenting with...

~ ready for take off ~

I also had to raise the waistline under the arm area and raise the shoulder area to accommodate for all the downward stretching.  So there's little tucks and folds and boro here and there.



But how about those socks?

~ and good ole Trippens from ebay ~

And now it's time to celebrate with Patti and the Visibles at Not Dead Yet Style, Catherine's I Will Wear What I Like, and Cheri's Shoe and Tell.  Hope to see you there!

Navy Serena Dress

Not much of a post title, I know.

But Serena felt like a good mantra for me while those whirlwinds are pounding away, one after another.  Stay safe as you can, all of you in their wake.

~ I know I feel nervous,  ~

~ and I'm nowhere near it, here in the mid-west ~

Yesterday was the first day of school for me and this is the dress I wore, finished the night before.  After a slow start, it turned out that I liked it - a lot.  Another Tina Givens pattern, Serena.

~ This is how it looks straight out of the box, so to speak ~

I know, not flattering AT ALL.  But I do like it when you just act normal, you know?  Plus I made it out of jersey (which I dislike terribly) and linen (which I love uncontrollably).  That's what the pattern cover shows and suggests and I happened to have some of both in the same color, so...

~ of course, I deviated from the pattern ~

I added side seam pockets, one side jersey, the other linen.  And the front floppy piece is my whatever, interpretation?  The pattern seems over-scaled to me.  I cut an extra small which I am most assuredly not.  And as you can see, it's still large.  I cut off 4 inches from the hemline, sleeve edge and bodice edge.  And I'm 5'5". 

~ shoes and sock ~

Not so hot really.  When I wore it to school yesterday, it looked much better with my soft gray anklets and those really cool dark blue platform sandals with the yellow trim.  But I was cold today and that's what I came up with.  I see from the photos that it really toned everything down.

I guess I'll be linking up with everyone if there's any linking up to be done later on...as the world turns.  Oh, there's Patti now of Not Dead Yet Style, so I'm hopping on over to join the Visibles.  And here's Catherine of I'll Wear What I Like, so let's all go there too.  See ya.

FRILLER!

That's me in my newly made frilled top worn in the straight jacket version, I do believe.

~ alrighty then ~

Let's back up a bit...

~ ahh, that's better, don't ya think? ~

So here's the story.

This top was a major disaster from a Tina Givens pattern, Lucca.  Do not try this at home (or anywhere else for that matter).  The drafting and instructions do not fit together and make no sense in any way imaginable.  Nevertheless, she persisted.  And persisted.  Ripping, cutting, remaking and finally totally making my own pattern from scratch.  Thank the goddess I was using an old king size sheet because, in the end, I did use all the fabric.

~ now wearing in kimono version ~

And nothing is softer than old 100% cotton sheeting.  mmmm.

~ and that leads me to...~ 

Mending on my mind line mind, whatever.

~ I've been boro-ing on old makes that need some TLC ~

The first shirt is made from parchment linen and developed a hole above the side seam pocket.  It's actually an adaptation from Tina Givens Gina shirt pattern.  It was my first boro style, visible mending and I really luved the way it turned out.

~ sweet boro patching ~

The second shirt is really old and originally made from a king size pillow case.  I've already refashioned/ repaired it a few times.  It's had 2 new pair of sleeves, 2 new pairs of patch pockets, multiple refinishes around the neckline, new side seam pockets and underarm repairs.  After I removed the front patch pockets, the middle section needed massive restoration. 

~ big ole borro patching to the rescue ~

And now for a break from all that, we'll go to the grand finale.

~ my ebay Doc Martens ~

By the by, these old jeans are at least 30+ years and counting.  They were once high-waisted, cuffed and pleated.  That's long gone and this is their latest transformation.  And talk about soft.  mmmmm, can't get any more soft (or faded) than ancient jeans, bay-bee.


As soon as I get it together, I'll be linking up to Patti and the Visibles at Not Dead Yet Style, Catherine's I Will Wear What I Like and Cheri's Shoe and Tell.  See you there!

Watching The Total Eclipse Dress

~ Oh yeah ~

I made the dress 'special for some moon event and finished it just in time.  Of course I couldn't really watch it with my sunglasses on.  So this is just a reenactment.

~ yep, I had to look away ~

But let me tell you about this dress.  What a process.  I had made the pattern before - Marcy Tilton, V8876 and really liked how it turned out.  You can see that make here.  So when I got the phases of the moon fabric, I thought no problemo.

~ it's still got the bones ~

But this fabric behaved so differently than the other.  And for some reason it ended up really large, even though I made it the same size!  I had also carefully finished all the umpteen zillion seams, along with putting in a jumbo two-way zipper down the center front.

I tried putting in the lightest weight tissue linen for sleeves and the bottom border, but that didn't seem to help much.

So I carefully ripped out untold teeny stitches to remove that honking zipper.

~ groovy leather belt-let ~

In the end, I decided to wrap the dress over by 4 inches or so and added a leather buckle strap from a gone-to-toast pair of sandals.  I found some moon-sized buttons in my stash and the rest, as they say, is history.



I made the organza pants in the beginning days of Project Minima.  They continued off of yoga shorts.


And I made the Japanese tabi socks from a pattern, more or less, by Folkwear.
I used stretch mesh fabric for the sock with non-slip gripper fabric for soles and snap tape as the fasteners.

~ geta shoes from ebay ~

And now I'm rushing on over to Patti and the Visibles of Not Dead Yet Style fame.  Then Catherine's I Will Wear What I Like, and Cheri's Shoe and Tell.  Come on by.

Variations on a Theme

I walked in, someone said "wow" and snapped a picture.

I said, "send it to me."

And they did.

Blog post done just like that (snap).

~ moi, paintified ~

Okay, here's a few details:

I just made the stretch mesh peasant top with grosgrain ribbon tie, self-drafted.  And the linen tablecloth bloomers based on Tina Givens Lainey pants pattern.

You've previously seen the TG stretch mesh Tessa slip pattern and the old jeans made into the Vogue 8928 hat pattern.

I already had the shoes, sox and sunnies.

With the bare minimum I'm heading over to Patti's Not Dead Yet Style, Catherine's I Will Where What I Like, and Cheri's Shoe and Tell when they all go live.  Hope to see you all there!  Oh, and Judith's Hat Attack.



Oh wait, there's more...
 

~ with blue hair as an accessory ~

~ and without the bloomers ~

~ but there's matching sox and very cool shoes ~

~ plus a lovely vintage clasp ~

Now, that's a wrap.