I pinned my pieces starting from the fold, risking my final unpinned piece (foreground) no longer being on grain or properly overlapped. My instructor taught me to pin from the selvedge towards the fold from now on.
pattern
simply incredible
If an alien landed on this planet and asked me to show them one reason they shouldn’t exterminate the human race, I would tell them to watch this video.
the shunpike golden: choose your own adventure
You might remember for the past two years my husband and I have attended the Shunpike Golden gala, a fundraiser supporting local artists in Seattle. One of my favorite features of the Golden is that each year, we get to dress up to a different theme.
Two years ago it was the Wild West era.
Last year it was the Roaring 20’s, for which I made my “dress” (actually a top and skirt). Yugh, not my best photo ever, but I was happy with the costume.
This year, the theme is “Choose Your Own Adventure.” Right away, hubby and I decided to go as Joe Banks and Patricia Graynamore from Joe Versus the Volcano. It is my very favorite movie.
Yes, go ahead: “Joe Versus the Volcano”? Wasn’t that a complete box office flop?”
Yes, yes, it was. Except everybody’s wrong about the movie. It’s beautiful. Every time I watch it, I get something new from it. So much philosophy.
My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.
My husband’s costume will be easy: he’ll wear his black suit with a white shirt, a black bowtie, and a white flower lei. I’ll probably have him do his hair Joe-Banks style.
For my costume, I’ll need/get to make something. Here are my inspiration images:
One-shoulder dress, tight-fitted, made of silk (possibly stretchy).
There’s a pretty deep slash on the right thigh…
I’ll wear a blonde wig (already own one), and a flower corsage, and I’ll probably put some fake white flowers on some flip flops.
This is the pattern I’ve purchased to make the dress. I’ll need to improvise on the length of the skirt, and I’ll improvise on the slit up the leg.
View B is the one I’ll be attempting.
I’m on the prowl now for some cheap, white (not cream) silk dupioni or even some silk with some stretch in it.
My plan is to try and finish this project AHEAD OF TIME. Last year I was still finishing my costume after the party had already begun, and by the time we arrived we’d missed most of the important festivities, including a burlesque dancer who reportedly did some memorable things with a vibrator.
my first EVER short sleeves
I’m working on my Nettie sleeves!
Sleeves still feel new and special and a little scary and advanced for me. I feel pretty good about myself when I do sleeves!
I decided to do short sleeves, because it’s summer. I constantly go back and forth debating whether I should make clothes ahead of time for the next season? Or make clothes that I want to wear right now.
You know which one wins: the choice that is most instantly gratifying, to make things I get to wear right now.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got one eye (and a whole lotta Pinterest pins) on autumn, a season I absolutely love.
Follow Rebecca’s board Autumn Fashion on Pinterest.
But!
It’s 93 degrees in Seattle right now and you just. Gotta. CELEBRATE that!
So.
I top-stitched the sleeve hems.
Actually, first I top-stitched the wrong side (is that called bottom-stitching?), then picked my stitches out all the while muttering under my breath.
THEN I top-stitched the sleeves!
I do love that twin needle, it looks profesh!
So they turned out a tad wonky. I don’t feel like I’m a broad-shouldered person, but the yoke feels teeny-tiny. Next time I make the pattern I’ll modify the shoulders so they’re a little wider. Not too much, they feel about a half-inch too small.
On my dressform it kinda looks like a baby onesie, doesn’t it?
Geez, that’s kind of embarrassing…
my old friend dell p. rinter
Printed the Nettie pattern and instructions!
This free Dell printer hardly ever sees the light of day
except when I’ve downloaded a new sewing pattern.
ME: This cheap-a$$ printer is a POS!
HUSBAND: Should we get a new one?
ME: No, I only use it every couple weeks.
HUSBAND: Cheapskate.
cut pieces for slip
I cut out the pieces for the slip I’m going to wear under my pink skirt. I’ve been doing lots of process photos and no actual product photos lately, because I think I’ll be more motivated to complete all the parts of the project if I save the photo shoot until the end.
So, I’ll be doing the slip and then the final project: a t-shirt with iron-on transfers. Never done that before!
I like giving myself “assignments” like this. It’ll be the first time I’ve posted an entire ensemble or “look” instead of just one garment! Hopefully you guys aren’t getting tired of the process. 🙂
pattern purchased
For today’s “Just One Thing,” I downloaded and printed this FREE skirt pattern.
It’s FREE!
After looking at the pattern for a little while, I decided what I’d rather do is use Gertie’s skirt tutorial, which is what I used for my Nankeen skirt.
This tutorial was a favorite of mine–easy to do, great results. I also realized the BurdaStyle pattern pieces weren’t going to work for the print I was using.
I cut my pieces and realized there wouldn’t be enough fabric for pockets–not too big a deal.
I’ll show a couple process photos tomorrow and then hopefully do a photo shoot the day after that! I miiiiight be getting faster at some of these projects. Just a little bit.
self portraits in sepia
i dream of zippers
I often think about using fun contrasting zippers in my apparel–I even had a dream the other night that I was using hot pink on this project–but once more I went with the safe and subtle choice that’s non-distracting. I was feeling sure about that decision until just now when I wrote that sentence and now feel a little disappointed in myself actually. What would Oonabaloona do? Definitely not play it safe! I need to be more crazy like Oona.
But for now a zipper is a small matter in the grand scheme of things!
Put on my invisible zipper foot, good ol’ number 35. Every single time I do an invisible zipper I have to look up online which one of my feet is the invisible zipper foot because all the feet look sort of the same–complicated.
You start by opening the zipper…and then I’ll show you the silly mistake I made tomorrow. By the way, this BurdaStyle pattern came with a very nice sheet of instructions on how to install the zipper. Thank you, Burda, for giving me enough information–for once!
CUP AND PENNY 