Prom Progress

Happy Monday ladies and gentlemen.

It was a very productive weekend over at the Munzing house.  All sorts of excitement happening!  We got some new windows, Lady's litterbox is officially in the basement, and Caroline's prom dress is halfway done!

As a little reminder, here's the sketch:

Cutting out the lace / basting it to the silk:

This is always a very time-consuming task but always well worth it.

Draping the one-shoulder detail:

Loving the way the trim on the lace works for this part...

Looks almost done?:

Well its only about halfway finished.  I still need to construct all the support boning on the interior, cut & sew the lining and insert the zipper (always a hoot, especially with beaded fabric).

Hopefully we'll have a fitting next weekend :)

Saturday Sketching

Here are some sketches for a project I have coming up over the next year.  I'll keep it mum for now, but  its going to be pretty darn awesome.

A little something for Cat

This is a dress I am going to make for myself, starting tonight.

This is me if I was three feet taller and, oh, just a few ounces thinner.

This is me if I were slightly tanned.

But those are definitely my glasses.

Tunic Tuesday (on Wednesday)

A good easy outfit for me is a pair of leggings, boots, and a tunic-y top.  I'm sure this is as man-repelling as they come, but I love it and it makes me feel stylish.  I noticed this shape of top on someone that works in my office and decided to give it a whirl on this snowy weekend.  I had a yard of soft wool that was bought for a skirt in mind, but clearly its fate lay in the world of tunic tops.  It was a quick pattern-less project that even the most inexperienced sewist can take on.  

(I'm still trying to cope with the dreary light in the mornings while photographing. My photoshop skills clearly lie mainly in the Exposure,  Color Balance and Hue/Saturation features. The color is really a pretty rich burgundy.  (My skin-tone, however, is really this pale.)

Sugar-Free Oatmeal is Disgusting.

I've been trying to eat better and work out more, and this has actually been a good week - I've been patting myself on the back.  But this morning I opened a box of sugar-free maple-cinnamon oatmeal.  I thought it was going to be delicious.  I was so hungry.  Now I'm still hungry, and completely grossed out.  But I will not go down to the lobby and get a bagel.  I will NOT.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I've also discovered I have some of the oatmeal stuck to my sweater.


Back to business.  I don't have a Thursday DIY for you today because I've been working on Jenna's dress!

One day I'll have a table big enough so I don't need to cut out large patterns on the floor.

I have the whole pattern cut out,  so tonight I'll be putting it together - this is my favorite part.  First I'm going to stabilize the front and back center seams.  Since this dress is cut on the bias, these seam points will stretch if they aren't sewn to a straight piece of fabric.  Next I'll sew the bodice together.  Those are my goals for this evening - lets do this!

 In other news, I just bought a pattern.  I actually never use patterns, so I'm nervous/excited about this.  I think its going to be a fun Winter/Spring transition coat.  Thoughts?

 

(The words "very easy" are prominently displayed, so I don't think it'll be so bad.)

Now the fun part is picking a fabric for this.  I'm going to do it in wool, but I'm torn between doing the safe Black, or something a little sassier.  What do you guys think?

What's-On-My-Sewing-Table Monday

Should I shorten that to WOMST Monday? (I just googled that to make sure it wasn't some sort of dirty word that I never heard, and its just the abbreviation for a lot of Women's Studies classes- we're good.)

Anyway, this is a weekly themed post that I'm going to try out for a while, kind of a work-in-progress status report for what is happening during the week in the studio.

This week I'm making myself a long blouse with some puffy sleeves new top that is going to be lovely.

I wanted to have some fun fuller sleeves, so I checked up on my favorite sewing blog, Tilly and the Buttons, to see if she had a quick how-to for converting a sleeve pattern.  A lot of my pattern-making class knowledge is a little rusty...  Then, obviously, I used some old Cars wrapping paper left over from our godson's birthday for pattern paper. 

I used a sleeve pattern from a old patter I just got on sale and drank some coffee.

I think its coming out pretty cool.