Summer Sewing- V1224

Back in January I said I wanted to make at least 3 of Vogue 1224 for summer, but so far I've only made one.



It's a super easy dress to sew and would be a perfect summer project for a beginner seamstress. If you exclude the skirt lining (which I did) there are only 4 pieces to put together.



I wore it to work yesterday and it was so comfortable.



I really do want to make at least one more. I thought it would make a great beach cover up if I made it in a pretty sheer cotton and replaced the elastic waistband with a drawstring.

BPTNMT, for short

I have a sickness: its called "buyingpatternsandthennevermakingthem" syndrome. (BPTNMT for short). I probably have at least 10 patterns in my stash that I have yet to make garments from. So what did I do? Bought some more!! But these Im TOTALLY going to make. For sure. No, really. I am.

First up: PJ's. I really want to make a few lightweight summer nightgowns and tank/ short combos.



Also, I thought I would try my hand at a cute babin' suit.


Then there's this great "wardrobe builder" skirt. I can just see it in stripped cotton for summer and a corduroy for fall.




(Hello, these are both $50 at Urban!)

Which is your fave?

Ballet and Blouses

Phew, have I been busy! Today is my first day off in 2 weeks. The Opera ended May 14th and load- in for ABT was May 15th. I LOVE working with ABT. The Company and Crew are great people and for the most part I cant believe I get paid to dress Ballerinas and watch from the wings every night.

Also, in my spare minutes I made a shirt for my dear friend Katie G. We went to college together and worked at American Girl Theatre together too. She is going to be a bridesmaid in a friends wedding this weekend, but Katie prefers to wear mens clothing and asked if I would make her a shirt in the same color as the bridesmaids dresses. I love to help a sista' out so I said Yes! and we went to work. First we ordered a swatch of "Matisse Blue" fabric from J. Crew and I did some hunting to find a matching fabric. It turned out to be a bit of a challenge to match the color but we decided on a beautiful silk dupioni for only $10 a yard! Sweet.



We used McCall's Pattern 4079. First I made a muslin and we had a fitting. Good thing, too, because it needed a lot of adjustment. The main problem I think was that the shirt pattern was meant to be worn a bit slouchy and oversized, but we wanted a more tailored fit. Sooooo, I adjusted the armcye, made an FBA dart and shortened the arm length, too.



I think it turned out really nicely. Oh, also I had the button holes done at Johnathan's Embroidery. It took 5 mins and cost $5 to have 10 small holes done. It is sooo worth it to save you time and end up with beautiful, professional button holes.



I handed it off to Katie today and it looked great on her! I'll update with pictures from the wedding next week!

***UPDATE***
There she is on the far right! The color was perfect!

Vogue 1224

I want to make at least 3 of this new Vogue pattern for the summer!

Christmas Crafts...

I want to make these felt ornaments!

Autumnal Inspiration

Inspiration for Autumnal Crafts:


Amenity


Terrain

Sure, you could buy these but I think they would be more fun to make! Instead of costly Alpaca wool for the pillows I'll probably use felt for a similar look and I might hit up the Met costume shop for some srap velvet to make an assortment of stuffed pumkins.

Sneaky peaky...

...of a new little project Im working on!

Monks Robes

Hey guys! I've been pretty busy lately sewing like crazy for the Haunted House and working at Esprit. On Sunday I got to be an employee "model" at an Esprit event in the Time Warner Center/ Columbus Circle. I got to dress up and get my makeup done!



Also, here is a muslin of some scary monks robes Im making for the "Friday the 13th" room in the Haunted House. Eric has been a great living mannequin for me!

Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary...

Beginnings of the "Bloody Mary" dress for the Haunted House!

Kailyn's Flower Girl Dress!

Hey friends! I'm spending time in NC with my mom for a few weeks but just last weekend I was upstate at my sis-in-law's wedding. If you remember I was making the flower girl dress for my niece. I think it turned out great!










Kailyn loved twirling around in it all night!

ABT

Hooray! I started working at American Ballet Theater this week! So far Im just doing some tedious labeling, but I dont care! I'm just happy to be there!



Right now were prepping John Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias. The dresses are so beautiful!





I love costumes!

Old ass wrinkles!

So I've hit a snag in my niece's flower girl dress adventure. Oh, the fun of working with vintage fabric. You really never know what is going to happen until you're in the trenches. Turns out that 30 year old synthetic fabric is pretty stubborn! The over lay fabric just will not let go of its wrinkles. I've tried everything: first just ironing and steaming. Then I took it to my friends at Timberlake and steamed and ironed with the heavy duty industrial. Still wrinkled. I even dredged the fabric in boiling water, then ironed it while wet. Nope. Still marbled with tiny, set in , old ass wrinkles. Darn it. I was dreading telling my MIL that I probably wasnt going to be able to use it. Its exactly what I was afraid of happening when I didnt want dismember it! As a last resort Im taking it to a dry cleaners on Thursday to get one more opinion. I did purchase back up fabric to use just in case and it looks exactly the same but its still so frustrating! I just hate to dissapoint, even though I know whatever happens, it will be beautiful in the end.

In other news... look how adorable tiny Alayna is in the "Sweet P" onsie I painted just for her. She made my day!

V1174

Pretty sure I have to make this new Vogue pattern!

Wedding dress demolition!

So this weekend I started working on my next project- my niece Kailyn's flower girl dress. Chandra sent me her measurements and I set out to make a practice dress. Since they live in Chicago, I wanted to send her a dress to try on to make sure we've got the right sizing, etc. I didn't want to just make an ordinary muslin so I made it out of some scrap silk and beaded trim. It turned out really cute!



Now she'll have a dress to play princess in! This practice dress doesn't include the chiffon tiers that the real one will have since they take up a bit of time and fabric fabric and they dont really affect the sizing. I'm sending it out tomrrow and hopefully it will fit with a little bit of room to grow.

Then Eric's parents came to visit and Barb brought her wedding dress circa 1979 for me to use to make Kailyn's dress.



I must admit I was pretty apprehensive to start deconstructing my mother in law's wedding dress! Eric had to assure me that she really wanted this and that it will make her so happy on the wedding day to see Kailyn in what was once her dress. So with his approval I turned this...



in to this...



No turning back now!

Things I Like

Vintage Earrings

Coffee Date Dress

Old Globes

Love Wreath

Im excited!

Things I'm excited about:

1. Lost tonight.



2. FreeAmy Butler patterns.



3. Surly's birthday on Friday.

Flora and Fauna

I've been keeping myself busy this week working on a few items to restock my Etsy store Clairebelle's ClosetIt will probably be another few weeks until I have a nice collection of goodies for sale, but these are some of the fabrics I'm working with.






They are from Michael Miller's Flora and Fauna collection. Like them? They are so bright and cheery and are definitely getting my creativity flowing again!

Stir it Up...

... little darlin. Stirring up the creativity. Ok, three sketched ideas for summer wedding guest dress.

1. Classic formal.



Im thinking royal blue taffeta with blue chiffon overlay. Embellished empire waist.

2. City Chic a la' Cynthia.



Beautiful silk satin bodice with silk dupioni skirt.

3. Classic Vintage.



Fabulous metallic linen with embellished boat neck detail.

Which is your fave? Any fabric suggestions? I have 6 months to decide.

Wedding on the way!

Exciting news! On Christmas Eve, my sis-in-law Chandra became engaged!


I am so happy for her, Brian and Kailyn. They wasted no time setting the date and picking a venue. Esperanza Mansion looks like a beautiful place and July will be so nice there! I have offered to make our adorable niece's flower girl dress.


I cant wait to create a very special dress for her!



Also, I'll have to make a new dress for myself! Maybe I'll finally make that Cynthia Rowley pattern I've had for a while.