A Little Frivolity

So, the Princess has finally managed to get the family to schedule a joint vacation to see the mouse down in Florida.

And apparently the mouse hosts a halloween party that starts in August.  So it will be happening whilst we are there.

So, of course, the crazy crew are all discussing costumes because the mouse actually allows adults to come to his halloween party dressed up.

My Sweet Babboo is just going to don his frontiersman gear.  The Flute Player is rounding up items to look like Rapunzel in the hang out in Wreck it Ralph 2.  The Artist is adding touches to his pirate personna. The Princess is going to be Sally from Nightmare before Christmas.

And, after much deliberation, I figured my best bet would be a icon of the industry.

But there's no way I'm going to recreate that dress...which looks like a it was made from a sleeping bag, lol.  The sharkstooth leather sleeves are beyond me in more ways than one.

So, instead of trying to recreate E's dress....I thought I'd see about creating something she might wear.

Here's what I have to start with; it's the 'wearable muslin' for the Burda dress I made for the February wardrobe challenge (wig and glasses were Amazon finds):

It would probably work as is, but I'm thinking it needs a bit of red on it somewhere.   Thought about a red grosgrain ribbon running from the left shoulder down into the pocket, crisscrossed with another going from armsceye to armseye at the upper chest.  Or I could just do a little V at the neckline, which would be more reminiscent of the original.  I also think I need to shorten the dress about 2".

So I am open to suggestions.  Anybody have any ideas that would be a lot of bang for the buck (and time, as I don't have much?) LOL. 

Looking for a blog reader...

Unfortunately, I've run into a difference of opinion with bloglovin and I have closed my account there.  You can still follow my blog(s) there if you do already; but I want to find a new place to read.

I tried just using the follow function on Blogger, but I had to cut and paste each URL and that got old FAST.

So I made a quick account on Feedly and migrated over there as best I could.

It was still rather a pain as I could not find any way to just export the whole lot from bloglovin'.  So I did it one at a time, and was rather surprised to see how many blogs I'd subscribed to that hadn't been updated in a year...or two..or three....  But at least I could type the name into a search box and, generally, it found it without having to type in the whole http line.

But it has some limitations.

Feedly only allows 100 feeds on their free account, so I moved the active ones over there; was still a few over a hundred so I had to drop all of them that I can read via the author sharing their posts on Facebook; that put me under the limit.  I had to combine some of my categories, as they only allow three on the free account.  Nowhere could I find the button that says 'follow my blog on...'

So...anybody have a feed burner that they love?  Cause I'm not sure I'm going to be happy over on feedly, but I wanted to get off of bloglovin' NOW.

I am not one to hop up and down and insist folks agree with me on things, but there are lines I will not cross and BL crossed that line. 

So.  Back to the hunt for a (free) easy to use little feed burner...

To Ruffle or Not to Ruffle?

I had a really big 'Duh!' moment a few weeks ago...

At some sale in times past, I picked up McCall's 5522; I liked the lines on it.

I've pulled it out a time or two and thought about giving it a go, but the thought of altering it gave me the shudders. Then, after I finished up my Labor Day projects I picked it up and suddenly noticed something that I'm sure I knew when I bought it but had completely forgotten: It's got different pieces for B/C/D cup sizes.

Duh.

Suddenly, the whole alteration thing got much simpler and I began tracing the pattern and altering for my non-standard measurements.

About 10 minutes at a go. I've been working on this ONE pattern since Labor Day. And I'm ALMOST done cutting it out of some black-and-white striped shirting.

If I decide to put the ruffles on it, that is.

I cut out the ruffle pattern pieces and marked them to be cut on the bias; I thought that would look cool with the stripes.

But as I was cutting the main body of the shirt out, I suddenly got cold feet about the ruffles. Would they make it look to costumey? I didn't cut 'em.

Now, however, I'm swinging back the other way...ruffles are IN, they're different from other stuff in my wardrobe, My Sweet Baboo likes ruffles...what to do, what to do...

I think I'll cut 'em out for now; I've got some a couple of other things I want to cut out today and tomorrow before I head for the sewing room, so I've got a question for all my loyal bloggy buddies...

What do you think? Would the ruffles be Too Much?




Oh, and here's part of the reason I've been so slow at this:

So...What Would YOU Wear?

I smiled today when I read Gertie's Post in which she meets Tim Gunn...wearing one of her own creations, which he inspected and complimented highly.

A home sewing enthusiasts dream come true! Her post was filled with exclamation points.

But, I wondered...what if I were going to an event at which a fashion industry celebrity was going to be mixing about with the attendees? What would I wear?

Sudden Flashback to October, 1992: Sandra Betzina was doing a Saturday seminar for one of the local (now gone...sniff, sniff) indy fabric stores and I attended. I don't remember my thought processes for what I wore, but I do remember what it was: black pants, white shirt, red knit tie (remember wearing menswear styled ties?), a black-and-white bias-cut pinstripe vest and a black and white plaid long, straight-cut, 90's linebacker-shoulder-pads jacket. I *think* I wore the jacket because I had a problem with the lapels curling and I wanted to ask her about it...but the mix of stripes and plaids was an inspiration that hit literally as I was dressing that morning. I'd made all of the outfit except the button-down blouse and the tie.

At some point during the post-seminar sale at the store, I managed to ask Sandra about the curling points on the lapels (she suggested I interface all the pieces -- something the pattern didn't require and I didn't routinely do back then), then looked at what I was wearing and said, 'This looks good together. You have a good sense of style.'

I was in a pretty exclamation-point using frame of mind myself after that. ;)

In 4 of the 5 years I went to the Sewing Expo in Atlanta, I tried to wear garments made from the patterns of the designers at the Expo; that's fun to do.

But...dressing to meet folks who are in the home sewing industry is different than dressing to meet someone who is in the fashion/style industry...what would I wear? I'd be in trouble now, because my wardrobe is currently lacking and I have so far not managed to get to the sewing table long enough to do anything about it.

So, my just-for-fun question for any of my dear readers still with me...if you were going to hobnob with a fashion industry icon, what would you wear...and how would you decide?

(Or, if you HAVE...what did you wear and how did you decide?)

Just because I'm curious. ;)

An Ethical Question

Let's say...

You are a person who sews a lot (for most folks reading this, that's not much of a stretch).

You've made clothes before with, um, poor print placement, so perhaps you are a little more aware of such things than the average bear.

Now, let's say you happen to be somewhere with a friend. The friend is wearing a very cute top with a swirly print...but one of the printed swirls is, you notice with your hyper-awareness of such things, um, rather poorly placed.

And let's throw into the mix that said friend is not having a particularly good day.

So...do you say anything? Or just be embarrassed for her?

What would YOU do if it were YOU? ;)

Baptism Robes on Order....opinions needed...

Attrition has taken its toll... enough baptism robes have gone missing that we've been asked to make 10 more. But, the last batch we made used all the fabric we had on hand, so I need to order more. Given that each robe takes 4 yards of fabric, we'll need a bunch. Plus, the request has been to get some slightly heavier fabric than we used before; it tends to cling when wet a little more than is desirable.

Anyway, we're looking for navy blue polyester crepe. I've done a little looking around on the web, but I'm not sure where I can find 40 yards. Does anyone have any experience w/JoAnn's 'Casa' crepe? I'm guessing it's pretty lightweight, since it's marketed for 'special occasion' use, but I thought I'd ask.

So...sometime in the next couple of months we'll be doing robes again...