Formal Muppetry

 For the past several years I've been coming up to see a particular set of friends for new years.  The first, I thought it was going to be a casual party, and it was formal....  the second, I made a dress, brought it, and it was a jeans type evening.  (I wore the dress anyway.)  So this year, I called to check and asked if it was formal? casual? muppet costumes?   And we eventually decided attire should be formal muppet and promptly forgot about it until wandering around in Ann Taylor Loft and Em came forth brandishing this jacket.  Formal. Muppet.   FORMAL MUPPET!!   FORMAL MUPPET!!!!!!!!

Anyway, it was a day of window shopping, and the weird didn't end there.   Decapitated Bear Mannequins.  There was a fair bit of debate as to whether they bought bear heads or if the clerks had a interesting evening and the bodies were stashed in a closet somewhere....

However, there was actually useful window shopping, I got pictures in the shops, but they were no where near as nicely lit as the ones off the anthropologie website - they are essentially the same dress - except the curry colored one was made of corduroy - an interesting fact they don't mention on the site, but fascinating in person.   I have three yards of green microwale with matching lining that has been intended for a jacket for years now, but I keep not getting around to it... I'm thinking it may end up being a lovely warm dress.  The purple one is cotton with embroidery.  (stunning in person) I think I'm going to have to duplicate this one as well.   Considering the number of UFOs I've currently got going, this is getting completely ridiculous, but most entertaining.

Anyhow, here's hoping everyone has a safe, happy and all together entertaining new year!

Green Fringe

From the V&A 

Suddenly Scarlett's curtain dress seems less absurd.

According to an except from '19th Centurey Fashion in Detail'   Fringe was never so greatly in demand as at the present time..Fringe may be said to be the most becoming of all trimmings for a lady's dress...  etc...

Incredible as this dress is, I can't say its particularly to my taste - but I must say I impressed.

(If you haven't seen the Fashion in Detail series from the V&A, they are phenomenal.   I have two and lust after the others.  Someday... someday.  The link goes to the images, but there is a series of books with line drawings and explanations.)

altering a pencil skirt

The Festive Miniature Alpaca of Winter Joy

Merry Kwanzmucka, other winter holiday or your choice, or Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us.

I don't think this really counts as a refashion -- just a regular old alteration.    The story of how I ended up with this particular skirt is a bit ridiculous, but revolves around no one telling me we were going out to a fancy dinner until *after* I got off the plane....

Anyhow, RTW skirt!  with purple!  (I do like purple)  Which I didn't move around enough in while trying it on, because, holy crap, it didn't fit.   When I would do crazy things like walk across the room or sit down, it would ride up, and then stay that way.    I loathe tugging on my clothes, so this had to be fixed.      I detached the waistband from the front of the skirt, put it on, and then walked around and let the skirt ride up the inch or two to where it really wanted to spend its time.  I then pinned the waistband back down and ta da!   Fits properly!   (I had to make some minor modifications to the side seams to keep them from puckering, but it was just a case of following the fabric.)

^--In both cases this is post wandering around  -  soooo much better  ---^

yaaaaay I can move!!!!! (!!!!!!!)

Pretty Things

 I don't know about you, but  am bored to death of fitting pictures.   Instead, look at these.   Lovely dresses that have been haunting the back of my mind.   (all are from modcloth)

...and because I'm thinking about it, and if you are American, look over  SOPA and write your representatives if you are so inclined, as a post like this could have me blocked and possibly sent to jail for years/fined should it be enacted.  (Heck, if they wanted to throw the full power of the law into it, this post could take down blogger.... all because I wanted to share pictures that inspire me of goods that are no longer for sale.)

New Look 6000 - Muslin 4

Although Muslin 2 - second set of edits might be more accurate -- I'm just tweaking the one from the other day.   Flattering shots, hunh?  Lets think happy thoughts of summer when pictures can be taken outside.  Although, perhaps not fitting shots.

To fix the pulls under the arms I let out the under bust darts just slightly on the side side (rather than towards my middle)  and also too a dart out at the shoulder.  You can't see it in these pictures, but its a wedge shape with the fat end an inch below the shoulder seam and the pointy bit right under my neck.   (Apparently, I am a hunch back.)  There are still a few pulls near the lower back  but I think I may fix them in the final -- There is also something odd going on with the skirt in the back view -- not really sure what.  I may have pinned it unevenly -- I got rid of the kick pleat by eye....

Anyhow, I think I shall declare this acceptable and move on to actual fabric (I'll show the changes I make to the patterns as well.)   However, there is no possible way this is going to be done by Christmas, as other obligations keep intruding and are going to deprive me of my sewing machine for the next several days.   So perhaps by New Years,  but even that is a long shot.   But soon... soon.

I just realized I should probably test out the collar... so that may make it on here as well.  As I'm using a summer weight fabric, odds are it will be sleeveless... but if I end up adding them, the adventure will continue.  Not for the first time I wish I could just zap things into being -- what a glorious wardrobe I would have.   However, I know perfectly well that if I don't love it, I won't wear it, and then why bother making it?  All of which means, it has to fit.  ::grumbles to herself::


oh, and for Chris -- the shoes from yesterday are Jan, by Tic Tac Toe -- via Zappos.

completely off topic

Who has brand new dancing shoes?   This girl.   (What makes them special?  They have suede on the soles.  Plus, unlike the majority of dance shoes, they don't have mile high heels.)

totally unrelated?  yes.   but awesometastic.   I was going to try to somehow tie this in to something, but lets face it, I just want to show off my pretty new shoes :)

New Look 6000 - Muslin 3

There was a question the other day about transferring edits on a muslin back to the paper pattern, so I'm going to go through the whole gory process.    

For the front, as I was switching from the gathered to the ungathered version, I angled the pattern piece to match the appropriate section, and traced the alterations on.  For the back, It was more or less as it was, so I traced them on, added the slash and spread and the length, and then took in little tucks here and there along the skirt to make it lay flat.   As you can see on the front piece (the one on the left with the black tissue paper) the line which was supposed to be on the fold became distorted, so I added in more tissue to even it out, and ended up taking that extra space out in the under bust dart.

As for the muslin itself - I ended up leaving the side bust as it was, significantly deepening the under bust dart -- to the point that it now reaches the hem.   Perhaps not an ideal full bust adjustment, but I think it looks nice and still fits the 60s-ish theme of the dress, so I'm going to go with it.  The odd pull in the skirt on the back view is the pinned down kick pleat.  There is still a bit of weirdness around the shoulders, and I haven't yet decided what to do about it.  On the side view, you can see I ended up deepening the back dart a bit more (I have crazy sway back and an ample bottom, which always makes fitting interesting)  There are still some diagonal pulls that seem to show up on everything I do......  will have to look into those.

 Now, normally, I would call this good and make minor adjustments on the final, but a certain scruffy person has been going on and on about how I fit things, so I'm going to try to actually fix those evil side pulls and maybe even do something with the shoulders.  ( troublemaker.  yes, you.  )