A day out

A day out 

Did I mention the infestation of mosquitoes was quite bad?

So far neither I, nor the photographer has contracted west nile. 

The (hopeful) change of weather has gotten me pretty excited about fall/winter trends. Ultimately I want to stick to my vintage roots, so the project I'm working on certainly reflects that more than current trends.

Fall/Winter trend: velvet.

I found a ton of great velvet dresses/skirts last time I was out shopping. The great thing was I had previously purchased and had quite a bit of work done on this dress prior to this shopping trip. Looks like I've got pretty good prediction skills after all. So here is a very low quality cell phone photo of my current project. 

Simplicity Pattern: 1777 

The pattern it's self is actually really easy to follow despite the fact it's supposed to be "advanced" . What really attracted me to this dress was the pleating, and front yoke.

The only downside to this pattern is the sizing...I planned the dress according to my own measurements, but it runs pretty big so be prepared to take this one in a little.

I'm using a forest green stretch velvet for the dress and a gorgeous white lace overlay for the yoke. The pattern of the lace is predominately the "fishnet" look with various leaf shapes. It's really quite beautiful. 

If all turns out well hopefully I'll have photos up pretty soon!

Refashions

As previously stated, I owe photos of refashioned pieces. Sure it only took an eon to get around to it, but alas, here they are.

It ended up being a great outing with a great friend of mine, if my memory serves me well there was a sad looking bird, and some serious pei wei involved.
The green dress was the not-so-lovely 1990's, ankle length, shoulder padded, working girl dress. I believe there are some before photos featured in a separate post.
And the pants went from major mom pants, to some pretty nice skinny cropped pants. Considering it was the first time I have ever worked with pants, I was really pleased with how they turned out. It is certainly an area I need more practice in, but for the most part I was proud of the finished project.

Right now, I'm very attracted to the thought of winter. I'm ready for the multiple layers, sweaters, boots, tights and I'm even considering hats being a thing for me this winter. Sure it's Texas so I'll be sweating profusely under all my garments, but a girl can pretend.
And the color blue. Need I say more than that? I think not.

Lastly, after a much needed trip to the fabric store (I was really starting to have withdrawals), I picked up some great solids and whipped up this dress in a couple hours. I really don't like how it looks on the mannequin, it is much more preferable on a actual human body. So with that said, it will probably be another month before I actually get real photos of that posted...until then, this will have to do.

Farewell,
Meredith

Ombre tips and more thrifting

All things ombre have caught my eye! Perhaps I'm a little behind on the ombre band wagon, but at least I'm on now. Tried doing some ombre to a few cheap-o shirts from target with my Sister on the 4th of July. Learned some good lessons, and I think I'm ready to try it again, but with some actual clothing that I would in fact wear. 

Tips for you:

1. Lots and lots of water in your bucket! If the dye bath doesn't have enough water to absorb all the dye powder your finished product will have lots of little tiny dark dots from the powder not completely saturated by the water. 

2. The tutorial I used required using rubber bands to mark the separate points where there was a significant fade. I wasn't a fan of the result with the rubber bands. It was a little more tie-dye looking than I wanted. I prefer just sticking it in there, and using your eye to judge the different levels of fading.

3. This tip is probably a combination of my impatience to complete any task, and the fact that I was being attack by ants; don't be afraid to let it soak for a realllllllly long time. The longer the soak, the deeper the color. I didn't let any part of my sit in the dye for more than 5 minutes, so overall my finished products were not super saturated with color. I recommend about 20-30 minutes to get really rich deep colors. 

Overall it was a fun little experiment to do. The products I used was the Rit dye, a giant tub for soaking, you also need some salt, rubber gloves (unless you want to be stained-in my case I would have been a smurf), and make sure your water is nice a warm! It didn't specify that on the dye packet, but a fair amount of online tutorials recommend using hot water. 

My second current obsession (um yes, thank you pintrest), is crop pants. Every time I get on pintrest I end up repinning a ton of nonsense with lovely pastel colored cropped pants, jean cropped pants, or polka dotted crop pants. I'm not even that big of a fan of wearing pants. I live in Texas, it's too hot for such things. I ended up stopping by a thrift store after the morning church service and found a nice pair of pants from Banana Republic for $7.00. I have to admit I was a little irked to be spending that much on a piece of clothing (needless to say, I've spoiled myself with half price days at Salvation Army). They are a size 4, so they are going to require some downsizing, as well as length adjustments to make them more of the style I'm going for. Can't wait to get cracking away at that project soon! Before and Afters, coming soon!

...Don't even get me started on peter pan collars. 

I've also been getting some requests from friends that check out my blog, to help with alterations. I'm definitely open to that, don't hesitate to ask! :)

Summer Sewing

There have been quite a number of summer projects I've been working on! I love staying busy with sewing. My first and probably favorite was when I helped make costumes for our Vacation Bible School play (Based off the story of Ruth). The whole thing staged, written and directed by a friend from my church. The play went great and the entire VBS was quite the success. 

The other was a 50's style pleated circle skirt. This is a photo of the progress...I love the finished skirt! 

A while ago I picked up some red polka dot fabric that was dirt cheap at Hancock Fabrics (blowout sales are a new favorite!) I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but due to some recent Anthropologie inspiration I think I know what I'm going to do... Inspiration dress: Can be bought at Anthropologie for $188.

 

A little pricey right? I love that store, but my bank account certainly doesn't. My dress: $17 for fabric...lace trim from a hand-me-down dress I'll never wear.

So yes there is still a lot of work to do on it...but I like how it's coming a long so far.

Lastly, I'm practicing tailoring on some goodwill/salvation army finds. So far so good...I picked up this awful 90's dress, completed with giant shoulder pads that completely swallowed me. I have a picture of the original dress, I need to get some of the altered one. I just wore it yesterday and it fits great. Plus I love the color!

Lots left to work on for the remainder of the summer. I already have a few projects planned for a few different people. And I desperately need to get photos of everything as I finish them. I'm terrible at proper documentation. 

New Inspirations

I am officially a terrible blogger...nearly a three month hiatus. I have been pretty busy though, a lot has been happening (all good things) lately. Work has certainly been keeping me busy, it has also been stifling my creativity, but I am now determined not to lose it. Don't get me wrong, I love my job! I find myself spending all my free time doing everything I can to read up on work..believe it or not I'll spend my free time at work...for fun. Clearly I love working at a museum. 

I recently found out I'm going to be moving soon! I could not be more thrilled about that. My future roommate is constantly talking of the excitement of watching me work on all my sewing projects and wants to have an entire area dedicated just to my sewing stuff. Needless to say I'm glad I have a roommate that supports my hobby :) 

A few weeks ago I did manage to whip out a dress from no where...It was late I couldn't sleep so I just decided to sew because I missed it so much. This was the result: I rather love this dress.

Back to moving out...in my cleaning and throwing out stage of the packing process I found some more of my  grandmothers old sewing patterns. I could not have been more thrilled! Admittedly I did steal quite a few of them (it seems as though the second I get rid of things I don't need to pack, I replace it with something else!). I found this pattern...well I guess I should say I found the package. Unfortunately there was no pattern inside, just the packaging...but I absolutely love this dress and decided tomorrow I'm making a trip to the fabric store and I'm going to try my best to recreate something similar (I would go now, but alas...they are closed).

Now, where is my wandering parakeet? 

(Can anyone guess that movie?)

Another Dress

Saturday Sewing

A new dress....

And a shirt in the making

Tip of the day

Quilting tip no. 1: Just because you're feeling productive at 1AM does not mean you should try to be.


....and the rebinding of my quilt begins.

"Squared" continued

Just finished tracing on my pattern. I decided since the quilt had smaller fabric cuts and was overall on a smaller scale, to do a larger quilt pattern. I just traced my 9x9 Omnigrid in a series of overlapping squares all over the quilt top. I started to think of how I could modern-ize it even more...since this quilt has a bunch of color I was thinking of doing each square in a different color. This could help differentiate between the squares themselves and I think it might be a cute twist. I rummaged through some thread notions that used to belong to my Grandmother and found some colors that happen to match perfectly. Not sure if I'm going to have enough of the purple, I might have to go scrounging around my JoAnns for a similar color. Hopefully I'll be able to find a match because it's a beautiful thread!

Doing some research on the next apparel item I'd like to make. I know I said I wanted to do a midi skirt next, but I'm feeling rather drawn to the idea of a dress. I saw one on Ruche that I really liked. I'm thinking I'd like to make it a bit longer, and maybe add a cap or short sleeve. And possibly pockets? I'm thinking those are a definite yes, who doesn't love pockets? I certainly have a lot to think about. I might be hitting a new fabric store later this week...still want to read up on it a little more before I make the trip.
Guess I better get back to my sewing!
Au Revoir!

Saturday Traditions

Saturday traditions have begun. Tonight I got the opportunity to spend time with some of the best friends I made during my time at Houston Ballet. I hadn't seen some of them since before Christmas, needless to say, the reunion was needed. I'll admit, I was a little irked to spend 15 bucks on a movie I own at home and can watch for free (Beauty and the Beast-3D). Granted, I don't have the 3D version, but my VHS works perfectly fine. Shortly after the movie, a carousel ride, and free Cinnabon followed suit. We then adjourned to a Mongolian grill, which was probably the best time we had all evening (minus Alex's ninja roll to hide behind a rather sad looking rose bush). While waiting for our table, Alex decided to discretely ring the gong at the front of the restaurant..with what you ask? Oh a bottle of soy sauce. It didn't break...he didn't hit it that hard, but it did kind of spill everywhere, including me, which I didn't know till I got home and changed....but I quickly learned soy sauce is a rather easy stain to get out of a white sweater. No harm done. Before I completely change the subject from Alex, can I just share the chaos that surrounds the thing he calls his signature? I mean really, can you even decipher this?

Six bowls of Mongolian goodness, Alyssa's awkward reunion with an old acquaintance, a failed attempt at an eating contest with Walker, and a few lemons later the evening began to wind down. We left and went yet again to another food place. Five Guys, best fries on this planet. (Conclusion of the night: Dancers have fat children living inside them. Don't ask how it's possible, it just is.) All in all, it was a great night and the group decided we would start some Saturday traditions. Not movies and Mongolian food...just being together and hanging out, I'm sure food will be involved some how. I hope we are diligent in keeping up this new tradition. We're a pretty awesome group. Not gonna lie. I love these guys...It makes me miss the friends I have that are all gone away at college, or amazing dance programs. It's rough only being able to see them all around a few Holidays, and at this point, the summer isn't included. Oh the woes of growing up.
Well it's late, and this entry has absolutely nothing to do with sewing. That is probably a good indication I should go. Have a lovely week.

Fun fact: My personality bears a striking resemblance to the character Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother. It's a quality show, probably one of my favorites.  

Skirts and Surprises

Stared experimenting with the log cabin quilt...came up with a block I'm pretty happy with. I can't wait to start putting them all together!

What did you do yesterday morning? I woke up and decided that making another skirt was on the agenda. It started off as a 50's circle skirt, but as I started cutting I opted for something different (i.e. I messed up and didn't have enough fabric to cut two half circles...so it's just the one). Regardless I'm really happy with how this one came out! It fits well and it is a great length without me having to add or take away any. I'm thinking a midi-skirt is going to be the next project I tackle.

Side note: Learning how to crochet...found some great tutorials on YouTube! Working on a scarf right now.

I'm also putting together a little surprise for my friend Leah...I'm pretty excited about it! The other day I embroidered the label I'm putting on it. I figured it was easy to post that without giving away what the actual surprise is.

Modern Log Cabin Quilting

Yet another quilting book to add to my library. I got this for Christmas from my lovely and talented friend Leah (prima ballerina in the making). I read it pretty much cover to cover the morning after I got it. I have so many great ideas for my next quilt project now! I've already purchased the fabric, most of which I have received. I'm extra excited for this one!

Still waiting on other fabric to come in so I can finish up the Squared quilt..waiting very impatiently for what it's worth. I managed to finish making that skirt I was working on! Only took a couple hours to pull the rest of it together today. I'm pretty pleased with it! Photos to come :)

Squared Quilt

Finally some progress! Most of the quilt top is finished, just have to work on all those little triangles to finish off the edge.
Also some new stuff up on my walls :)