VICTORY LAP!

The Classic Pose

I finished the blouse! Well almost. I still have to overcast three seams on the inside. But other than that it is DONE and I'm very happy.  I feel like I leveled up or something. I really should be asleep right now cause I have to work tonight but my stupid internal clock is working against me. So I took photos and edited and put them up here for your viewing pleasure.

Relaxing and reading in five inch heals. 

The buttons on the back of the blouse are vintage glass. I dug them out of my mother-in-law's massive box of buttons some time ago.  And in taking photos I realized I tilt my head a lot.

This photo is to show off my Grandmother's brooch. Its a Phoenix, which is awesome.

What?!

Or not. I dunno.  They aren't my favorite, but whatever. I FINISHED THE BLOUSE. Its so pretty and sumptuous. I'm wearing it with my finished wool circle skirt. Its finally cold enough to wear that thing, too.  I like it together with my corset belt. It makes it feel more modern to me. Anyway. Bed. LATER!

Theoretical Clothing - The Blue and Gold Edition

So I still need some cold- weather clothing. Despite the fact that I live in The South and it didn't actually start acting like winter until the beginning of November the weather has decided to make up for lost time. So what to do? Well I am going to make another knit dress, but this time it will be out of this lovely blue wool knit pictured below. And that gold knit? That happens to be an Italian silk knit that I got at a pretty sweet deal and it feels dreamy. I have enough of it to make a long sleeve cowl neck, like this one, and a camisole. These items are from my TNT patterns and I can knock out both in one afternoon. Even after modifying the dress sleeves to be elbow length (Of course now that I've said that I've jinxed myself... I just know it).


And the final bit to this theme of blue and gold is this fabric I picked up in Nashville, TN while there to see the "Golden Age of Couture" exhibit at the Frist Museum*. I have enough to make about two items out of this fabric. The first will be a high-waist strait skirt, but the second? Not a clue. Any suggestions?



*I highly recommend going to see at least one exhibit at The Frist. The building alone is worth the trip. Its a beautiful example of Depression era Art Deco. Here's a picture of me and my daughter outside after the tour. And in keeping with this being a sewing blog, I made both dresses!

(Looking at pictures from earlier in the year I am definitely seeing the progression of weight loss. Not to toot my own horn or anything.)

Revisting Old Inspiration

I admit it, I'm writing this at work. I know, I know. I'm a bad employee and setting a poor example. But honestly there's a network black out (I'm a Junior Sys Admin/Fourth Level Escalations for a LARGE communications company) company wide. Most everyone is on vacation and anything that is 24/7/365 is on skeleton crew so no changes outside of emergencies are being done. No upgrade, nothing... emergency fixes only. S0 I um... I'm testing to make sure customers can get to blogger.com! Yeah THAT'S IT! You believe me,
right?

*coughcoughshesfullofitcoughcough*

So back in Spring of 2010, which in the Fashion World (please note ironic use of capital letters) that's like eons ago, Ralph Lauren came out with this dress in his RTW collection. I just fell in love with it. He was taking inspiration from The Great Depression (these capitals are not ironic). I loved the blue with the red buttons, and the matching belt. I went in search of a pattern that would be a close match. And almost nine months later I found it. I bought the pattern on the left from Midvalle Cottage on Etsy. She has wonderful taste, especially for the 40's and 60's. And if you are in the market for vintage patterns for children, she has a lot of those too.

But in any case, I am quite pleased with this find and I am going to add it to my list of spring "To Make" dresses. This is going to be a spring and summer full of dresses for me. The pattern itself has three different sleeve variations, the short sleeved version will be the one I use. I think I might have to try the cap sleeves as well. I have the red buttons but now to find a blue print that I actually like. One that is small enough to work. And maybe I'll even be able to use some of vintage cotton thread. Not sure how wooden spools are going to work in my machine, though. I'm sure it will be OK. In any case, looking at these two pictures really brings home that there is such thing as "classic style". Taking a piece of advise from Tim Gunn (paraphrased, of course), if you want to do a vintage look but keep it modern, pair it with modern accessories and hairstyles. There's no substitute for class, that's something you feel inside.

Speaking of those vintage spools of thread, I did some stress tests on it to see if they were any more brittle than my modern poly thread. Nope, it took about the same amount of tension to snap either, so that's good.

That's all for today. Stay Fabulous!

Check Out This Zipper!

As promised I took some pictures of the Skirt-In-Progress. I have decided that I am going to call it the "Dragon Scale Skirt" because the way that it reflects light gives it an ethereal sheen and makes me think of the Blue Dragons from the Pern Series.

I found this fabric at Gail K's. There was only one bolt of it and it was a whopping $30 a yard. The plus side is that at 60 inches wide I figured I could squeeze the fashion fabric out of just one yard. The down side? After washing and laying it out I discovered that it was very badly off grain on the cut so I had more like 7/8ths of a yard. I knew that it would be four inches shorter than usual, since the bottom will be trimmed with fur. It took some serious fabric origami but I got it cut out. And after my last skirt I learned that one should put the zipper in the back pieces FIRST before sewing the rest of the skirt together. I decided to machine stitch in a metal zipper because I'm rather hard on my clothing and hopefully I will be able to wear this skirt a lot. I'm really proud of how the zipper turned out.

The pins you see in the skirt to the left are marking the darts I need to take. I have... well I have what my husband affectionately calls "ethnic booty" and a sway back that curves into a waist that's almost 10 inches smaller than my hips (and my bust and hips are almost the same circumference, especially now that I've been putting effort into working out and weight loss). This is one of the reasons I learned to sew. RTW doesn't make garments for the true hour glass shape. So four darts in the back of the waist to take in four inches. Hopefully without puckering.

So now I have to finish the darts and sew on the fur trim at the bottom and then start on constructing the lining and the waist band. And since I don't have enough fabric to do ONE solid piece of fabric I am going to use a men's tailoring trick in which you have the seam go through the waistband as well. This will make it three separate pieces sewn together but also allow me to take it in if necessary (or out, but who wants to think about that?).