The Ever Growing Frankenpattern

(fair warning - the following is about as first-world a problem as you can get.)

Normally, I'm the kind of person who way over thinks things.   I try to avoid impulse buys, and am generally pretty good and the whole wait-a-week-and-see-if-I-still-want-it-thing.   However, from time to time, all this goes out the window and I do something unfathomably stupid.   In this case - I bought floral lace when I'd gone to the store for plain chiffon.

FLORAL.  LACE.

So, yes, for most people, perhaps no so odd - but the thing is, I really hate floral lace.   All the more if it is arranged with the motifs in a sort of a grid...

could it be more regular?

 Even when carrying it to the cutting counter, I couldn't quite figure out why I'd gone with this fabric.  I know I liked parts of the motif... but still.    I really have no idea what was going on with this one.  It wasn't even on super-sale.  ::grumbles::

still floral - but less grid-like

Anyhow, the bodice of the pattern I'd chosen was all choppy and in bits, so I figured I could disguise things a bit there - and I was hoping the pleats in the skirt would do the same, but no such luck.   (To add insult to injury, I didn't even center things properly...   It was just bad.  And we're talking Becky-home-ecy levels of bad.)  I've made this sort of thing work once before, by using a backing of the same shade as my lace - turning the flowers into nearly invisible texture.  But once, again, continuing my campaign of insanity - I chose a white background.

the current plan

So, I ended up throwing a third pattern into the mix, Butterick 5350, of the 8 paneled skirt.   Between the skirt panels I'd already cut out and the fabric I had left over, I was able to get everything set.  It's actually coming together fairly nicely, and if nothing else, I've found this particular combination is fairly flattering and I'll probably do it again in a fabric I like more.

Has anyone else ever done anything like this?  Or I am alone in my maddness?

winter sewing and a new year's dress

There is something about winter that means I take a lot less pictures.  (Hah... 'something'.  There is no light by the time I get home, its all cold and I want to be a hermit.  I am a happy hermit holed up high above the horizon, hoping for higher heat.)

blech

..and with that... the coat.   Excuse the terrible picture.  I blame winter.   Also a lack of professional photographic equipment.  I feel this could mitigate winter.  but I digress - I find I don't like any of the swatches, so I am forced (forced I say) to go to the fabric store this weekend and play with things.    It's going to be rough.   

Anyhow. Continuing my recent streak on sensible decisions, I've decided this time of travel and work deadlines is when I need to sew a new dress for new year's eve -- and not just any dress -- a fancy franken patterened dress with lace and beading. (I have three kinds of beads) (I make good decisions)  

Specifically these two dresses: Vogue 1174 for the body and 1304 for the straps.

The main dress

The straps

Not being completely insane, I'm skipping all the boning and foundation in 1174 and just doing the shell, relying on the straps to hold everything in place.   I needed to reshape the back a bit, as it lay oddly on my pointy pointy scapula and ditched the cap sleeve, as they almost invariably look terrible on me.

 The first fitting went pretty well - other than the straps, the biggest change is some reshaping around the cups to get everything to sit closer to my chest and prevent any gaping.  (The majority of the wrinkles are due to the fabric being smushed up in a ball for a couple of months before I used it for the muslin... Its not actually way too tight)

Next up:  make new pattern pieces, check them in  a second muslin, and move on to the actual dress!

Picking up the coat....

Remember how once upon a time, I was all gung-ho about making a winter coat?  I tested material samples, tried a couple of patterns, interlined, added zippered pockets and fancy sleeves?   And then remember how I got completely overwhelmed and decided I needed a quick break that turned into almost a year?

Well -- picked it back up a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out there isn't all that much left to be done.   I've basted in the lining and am now deciding how I'm going to actually finish this beast of a coat.   The original plan was to use self-fabric binding on all the edges and self fabric buttons as my closures -- however, as cute as that can be, I was starting to think it will be a bit dull.   Then, at dinner the other night, my friend showed up with a green wool coat with leather trim and the kind of covered zipper I'd been toying around with, and I was most intrigued.  (also, ignore the derp face.   I apparently couldn't look normal today.)

buckle

self fabric buttons

contrast

So...here are the options.   The original plan - the new one, with a contrast trim and hidden zipper, and a the final one with some kind of buckle thing instead of the zipper (which I'd been leaning towards all day, but am now thinking I like the hidden zipper)

I've ordered a variety of swatches for the contrast- and I'm going to see how well they work with the coat.

(Perfection fused leather in gunmetal grey, Sierra faux leather in grey, Bijoux faux leather in textured black, and Perfection fused leather in bronze, all from fabric.com) (no sponsorship, just a decent selection)

Anyhow, thoughts, suggestions or really whatever that is even tangentially related to how I ought to go about finishing this thing up while its still winter (tentative goal: wear it for New Year's Eve) would be most appreciated.   

Making the Menurky

The glorious menurky

Happy Thanksgivingukkah!

okay, so technically not until sundown, but still.  just go with it.

Anyhow, for the only time in our lifetimes (and this won't happen again for something like 70,000 years) Thanksgiving and Hannukah are intersecting.  So, to commemorate the occasion, I have made a menurky.   

Wait, what?   A menurky!    A menorah (the thing we use to light candles for the holiday) and a turkey (the thing people of eat and always decorate with) hybrid of awesome.    Thus, menurky.  

first, formed from clay

Initially, I'd just planned to make a construction paper outfit for my regular menorah, but the only packs I found at the grocery store had about ten thousand more pieces of paper than I actually wanted.... but next to it, was a big vat of air dry clay.   Clearly the universe wanted me to form my own menurky (and in hindsight, not burn the house down.... paper and fire, maybe not such a good mix)

then painted with astonishing realism

After drying for three days, it was time for a paint job.  I used a combination of acrylics I had lying around, and a red permanent marker for the wattle.    Google provided an image of what turkeys actually look like.

the festive menurky, in the wild

And yes, I know, only one candle tonight, but I decided to take glamour shots this morning with all its candelly glory.  So check out the menurky, modeling and generally working it for the camera.

Lace Applique Seams - a quick how to

After rushing through the hem of my lace dress - I decided to re-do it properly - and not just properly, full on couture awesomeness.

The dress is already slightly shorter than I'd like, and the original hem much shorter, so I decided to do a band, but as I'm working with the scraps, no section of lace was long enough to cover the whole front without innumerable little patches and joins, which I didn't much like the look of.  So, instead, I decided to try an applique seam, as described in Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing Techniques.

lace and underlining + just underlining

I started by sewing together three layers - underlining, lace and underlining.

checking the motifs

Then I laid the new piece of lace on top and matched up the motifs.

cutting out the motifs

 The edge of the overlapping motif was cut out very carefully, about a half an inch from the seam.

 

stealth seam!

The edge of the lace motif was sewn down by hand - resulting it an invisible join.

I won I won I won

victory is mine!   

For mine is the most glorious of costumes!  I am ... Corny!  (I know.  I crack me up too.)

For reasons even I don't understand, I decided that *this year* I was being an ear of corn -- it's been floating around in my head for a while now, and for one reason or another I never quite got around to it.

the original plan was a bit more subdued...

The original plan was a yellow kernel-studded hood, with a green robe, decorated to look like leaves, so my arms would look like a half-shucked ear.

When it came to actual construction, I just sort of started screwing around.   Odd decision number one:  It is construction entirely of tulle (35 yards, to be exact)  the original plan called for cheapo cotton and a sort of cartoony look.  However, I knew I was going to attend multiple events, and that it was going to be nearly impossible to clean.... so for whatever reason, I decided tulle is plastic-y, I could hose it off and be ready-set-go for the next party.

The costume is based on a poof, pinned to my hair, which eventually developed arm holes, a face hole, and layers of upon layers of leaves.   The first set of kernels continued the sort of cartoony aesthetic (see first image below) but those few kernels used up almost all of my 10 yards of yellow (10!!!!!!!)  so, they got pulled apart and turned into the series of loose loops I ended up using for the final version.

Another 25 yards of tulle later (for a sum total of 35 - I know - but you wouldn't believe how much fun it is to frolic about in) I had a corn costume so artsy, no one could guess what I was supposed to be.

C'est la vie d'artist.  

HOWEVER - once I'd explained what was going on, most people dissolved in laughter, which I count as a win (and I won the costume contest, which is a more objective style of win) (double win!)

CORNTASTIC AWESOMNESS WISHES YOU A HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

(the best holiday ever.  period. exclamation point.)

a bit of knitting

For a while now I'd been playing with the idea of getting back into knitting - looking at patterns, getting book with interesting techniques, stalking people on ravelry, etc..     A couple of weeks ago I ended up in a part of the city I don't usually frequent and happened to walk by a yarn store.... so in I went to start petting the merchandise.  I can't wear wool next to my skin (even cashmere or merino - trust me.  I stuck my arm into the boxes of yarn to test it out) so the original plan was cotton with some spandex and the owl sweater.

 However, I didn't like the colors they carried, so I continued petting things until I came to a silk and cotton blend I fell in love with.(Seta Tweed, by Lang Yarns in a sort of turquoise color - its brighter and darker - I guess more intense - than shown above)  I was paranoid about the stretch and recovery, so I ended up going with a franken-pattern of a cardigan from Textured Stitches by Connie Chang Chinchio (plus the inevitable screwing around that happens with all my projects)   the next big challenge is getting the arm holes to come out right... wish me luck!