Wrinkles

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Wrinkles

Wrinkles are not blemishes. Wrinkles are badges of honor. They are our story scribed upon our faces. How much we have laughed, worried, smiled, and cried.  They are our personalities, our animations, and our wisdom. They tell people we have lived and seen so much. We should wear these badges with the pride of a life lived in. 

-Ladykatza 

*Thought you might like a peek at my shower thoughts. 

My Mood Board is a Song

I said over on the Colette Forums that I'm not doing an actual pallet this year or putting the badge on my website. I'm trying to work through all the things I've had on "back burner" waiting for my skill level to increase. Instead, I give you a song. Its rated E for Everyone!




Enjoy.

This song is inspired by a book named "The Land of Green Ginger".

Polyester Princesses

Sorry, princess is in other castle.  (No, not my dress. This is Chinese  Cheap )

The awesome news: My first Spring Dress is almost done. I just have to add the scallop lace to the hem and the sleeves.  I was hoping to have it done in time for dinner with my husband's boss Saturday night (eight of us total. four adults, four kids).  I decided I wanted sleep instead and that turned out to be a good idea.  My daughter insisted on wearing her Easter dress and stole the whole show.  Except all the prom goers.  I swear there was an entire bus load of teenage girls in polyester ballgowns.  In fact, I saw a girl in THIS EXACT DRESS.  Now all the "Disney Princess" dresses I was seeing all over Pinterest finally make sense.  There was entire gaggle of them standing outside our table's window smoking cigarettes they are probably too young to buy.  Smoking Disney Princesses. Awesome.

And the thing the thing I just couldn't get over was how cheap  the dresses looked. I mean, yes, they were all shiny and  fluffy but the material and the embellishments screamed Chinese Sweat Shop Cheap. One girl kept pulling her strapless front up repeatedly.  I'm probably going to make my daughter's prom dress if she doesn't herself.   Not only that, she's gonna be a self rescuing princess.  She's gonna be a black belt before she's 10, ya know?

Needs sleeves and scallop lace. 

 Anyway.  Lets talk about MY dress for a moment. First off, this is like MY FAVORITE THING EVER that I've made. Its probably going to be up there with my black skirt and two silk camis on the amount of wear it will get.  I'll probably even wear it to work at least once a month.  Its very fitted, that's for certain.

Invisible zipper!

And this was my first ever invisible zipper on anything WITH LINING.  And check out the pattern placement.  Awesome right?  Also, its a full enough skirt I can wear a petticoat with it.  I just might.  In any case it will be done in time for this Saturday's Festival Going.  I have a cute pair of maryjane flats with a rose print.  I figure lace trimmed black socks and I'll be set for walking around all day!

Then its on to cutting out the gingham for the Maxi Sleeveless Version.

Taxed Out

I finished my taxes a whole five days early. GO ME.  Now I'm waiting till tomorrow to put it in snail mail so they don't cash the check before my next payday.  I like to live on the edge.

So. Sewing. Um... I got most of my first dress cut out after my second run.  Here's a visual of some of the changes I've made.

Front bodice

 Instead of doing the weird fifth piece that was suppose to be the "modesty panel" I raised the neckline and added a front seam.  I plan on reinforcing it with some silk organza bias strips. Twill tape would be too heavy, I think.

back bodice

I also raised the back bodice and did a rounded shoulder adjustment. That seemed to help a lot with the "want to slide off the shoulder" problem.  I also had to lengthen the dart some.  Its not apparent on both photos but I added width to the front and back shoulder seam.

At the same time I bought the large tracing paper, which you can see under my pattern pieces up above, I bought some interfacing from  https://www.fashionsewingsupply.com/ .  I'm never buying cheap interfacing again. EVER.  It seems pricey at first but its also 60+ inches wide, so one yard goes a long way.  

Its suppose to be black, but it came out dark plum.

I'm trying not to buy new fabric for the next couple months but I might have to break down and get some more white batiste.  The eight yards that I bought over a year ago is almost gone.  In my frugality I went so far as to dye enough for the lining of the dress. I'm a bit short though, so the lining will be just enough for modesty, really.

Um, that's all for now I think. Not really exciting.  I feel the need to share the pattern/fabric buying rampage I went on during all the sales last year. That should take up a few posts. Lots of pretties!  How are you surviving tax day?

Hoppy Easter

Chicken cannibalism. 

A Happy Easter to all that celebrate. Passover for those of the Judaic persuasion and anyone else that has a "Spring Celebration" that I am unfamiliar with.

I did not get my own spring dresses done in time for this weekend.  There was much drama that, in short, involves a messy divorce of some long time friends of ours. I have drawn my line of involvement and look forward to a much more peaceful rest of my month.  Maybe I'll get my dresses done in time for festival season. *crosses fingers*

So, have some fun for me today.

Same Print, Different Colorway

Vogue 8470

Its going to be my "Easter" dress.  I say it parenthetically because it won't be done in time for Easter. That and I don't go to church. My kids go with their Grandma,  but well... the rest of it is  personal and I'll keep it to myself. It doesn't stop me from wanting pretty spring dresses, though.

Bodice pieces

I've had this particular dress in my head for some time now. I think it was on my Spring Palette challenge for 2011 and been on my "to do" list since 2010. There were a few reasons I was reticent in making up, the biggest being fitting issues. Why the people at Vogue decided to label this as "easy", I can't even begin to guess.  All but the halter variations have a "lined under bodice" with the most convoluted instructions I've seen to date.  The more I tried to figure them out, the more confused I got.  Once I threw out (or aside) the under bodice piece (That would be #5) the entire thing became much MUCH less complicated.

So first thing's first, I had to figure out how to modify the bodice pattern for my bust size.  The waist should be fitted snugly UNDER the bust (ending result should be WOAH MAMMA!).  I cut my normal size 18  (for commercial patterns) and pattern ease is +3 inches.  This means I need to add 4.5 inches total for the bust, about three for the waist. I decided to go with the more couture method of marking my seam lines and then tracing onto grid interfacing (the cheap stuff from JoAnn's), to make my initial pattern modifications before doing my first muslin.

Marking seam lines

While I do like "Fit for Real People" it does have some limitations. I recently bought Fitting and Pattern Alteration after ordering Susan Khalje's online class as it was on her "recommended reading" list.  So between those two references and Miss Snug Bug's FBA tutorials, I had a plan of attack.

Fitting and Pattern Alteration

And I just realized I failed to take photos of the modifications I made after tracing the pattern. GAH!  I'll take more and post them later. I added width and length to piece #1. I widened the shoulder seams by 3/4 inch on both front and back bodice because I felt the need for more coverage. They were going to be WAY too thin otherwise for my frame.   Then, of course, the aforementioned width to the midriff band pieces.

Then I got to pinning and tracing the modified pieces onto muslin.  Have I mentioned I also purchased the 26x39 inch tracing paper from Richard The Thread? I have no idea how I ever lived my life without that stuff. HOLY COW does it make life easier!

thread tracing queue

Another little tidbit of interest; you know all those bobbins with just enough on them for maybe two or three seams before you run out? They are PERFECT for thread tracing a muslin. I used up about four of them in the process and now I have four empty bobbins ready to be filled for other projects. Hooray for frugality!

Front muslin view

So, first muslin isn't too bad. I made markings of where I want my front bodice seams to fall which should put the midriff front right at my waistline.  I'm also bringing the two pieces together in the front so the neckline won't be so plunging.  A good friend mentioned I could always wear a cami underneath for more work-appropriate modesty, which I thought not a bad idea.

back muslin view 

So, on the back I still need to do a rounded shoulder adjustment and I'm going to add darts to the back midriff to take care of my sway back/narrower waist issue.  What might not be obvious here is the bodice dart has also been deepened due to widening the shoulders.  I think I might re-draw the V-back to be not quite so deep.

All that work is going to have to happen later though. I've got my four, 12 hour days ahead of me.   Oh, and in case you were wondering, the black and pink is what I'm using for this dress. Same print as my daughter's fabric, different colorway.

Print in two colorways

Wow, long post!  I hope you made it this far with me!  I have much more to come on this one.  So, what's got you excited for Spring Sewing?

Unexpected Visits

Every once in a while the drama llama visits. Its OK though, it makes me appreciate the boring quiet times. I'm going to be trying to finish my spring/easter dress this week. So, in the meantime, have a song:




Here's to keeping our sanity with sewing. *raises a glass* CHEERS!

*Wanders off singing 'llama llama duck'*