Distracted by chickens, well feathers at least.

I warned you this might happen, I get distracted easily by life so it's been a while.  What has been going on?  Lots of stuff!  First General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 2 days of inspirational talks given by the President and Prophet of the church and other leaders. In one of his talks President Monson mentioned Manaus Brazil and New Caledonia.  My friend Cheryl's son is serving in Manaus here is the blog they are keeping of his adventures.  And if you have been reading my blog you know that my son is serving in New Caledonia. What a little valentine to have them both mentioned!   More information about General Conference can be found here.  Next up, Dan and Lacey's wedding, the ceremony itself took place in the San Diego LDS Temple.  The reason for why Mormons build Temples can be found here

 

 Here are some photos of the wedding dress in progress:

The fabric: Duchess Satin, Silk Alencon Lace and  a Silk/Cotton Batiste to underline it.

The first cut is always the one I stress over!  I can sew for myself and not think twice about it but when I sew for others I usually have a nervous break down, then I can sew.  Yes, I made most of the pattern myself.

Here is the skirt, it's not easy to tell from the photo but it's a full + circle skirt with godet inserts.  The beauty of this is that it's full at the bottom but doesn't add any width to the waist! That is always a good thing.

Still not looking like much but it's coming along.  Sorry for the weird posting but my cursor seems to have disappeared.  I'm not sure what is going on with blogger!   

Starting the lace, it's shaped on the form then stitched together. It's very time consuming work.  I kept telling myself, "Don't screw up you only have a yard and a half and this stuff is Expensive."

I said a lot of prayers working on the lace.  A lot of prayers!

 

 

More photos of the lace being shaped. I did the same for the back.  Next came the sleeves.  I ended up sewing all the lace on the sleeves by hand.  I got very fast at it.

The back once I got the zipper done it wouldn't close on the dress form anymore but that's ok, by this time I knew it fit Lacey.  The hem was 8 yards around!

Just Married!

Here are some other items made for the wedding.  I didn't get any pictures of the bridesmaids skirts, I don't know what I was thinking.  The Mother of the Bride dress: 

I love how it turned out, it was made of yellow crepe back satin

 Next is the brooch bouquet.  I got the idea from a sight on Etsy.  They are just gorgeous and also run in the neighborhood of six hundred dollars so Cheryl and I decided to try making one.  Here is the final result, and I have to say it's much prettier in person! 

At the end of last month I was contacted by a lady who was given my name by my friend Helle.  Her daughter needed 2 prom dresses made.  One short with a feathered skirt and the other one was a Elie Saab design from his 2011 Spring Collection.  He is the designer that did the lavender dress that Mila Kunis wore to the Oscars.  In fact that lavender dress was straight off the runway, loved it!

 First up the short model :  

Now my version, by the way check out her shoes, more on that later!

Now the Elie Saab gown, they asked me to remove the sleeves and make it spaghetti straps:

Believe it or not I had to take both dresses in even more.  This girl was TINY!!!!  The picture does not do the fabric justice.  It was a flesh colored silk lining with a dusty pink beaded lace overlay! Stunning.

Other things worked on:  Prom dress make over, this was a fun project.  My friend Sara has a daughter who is attending 2 proms. She already has a dress for her prom but she also went to a cross town high school's prom and decided to wear her mom's old prom dress from the 80's.  Kudos to Sara for keeping it this long and in such good shape!  I removed the 80's style poufy sleeves, finished off the raw edges and made it tea length.  I think it looks very vintage-y  and what is better than breathing new life into an old outfit? 

 

Aren't they both gorgeous? 

Here is another project that I worked on for the same prom, Arielle and her mom Jenine ordered this gown online, very brave of them.  It fit great except it was about 5 inches too long and the sparkly strap was too long.  I removed the strap down the back, cut it and reattached it and the sparkly stuff that came off.  Then I hemmed the dress, all 4 layers.  I love the color, it looks very young Elizabeth Taylor! 

I still have 1 prom dress to work on, that's the one on the right you can barely see in the above photo and I have a dress draped in muslin on a dress form but no rush on that one.  I am so grateful for all the paid gigs I have had over the last month, it's way better to get money instead of grades for my sewing! ;) 

So other random stuff, I noticed a tree in my neighbor's backyard that looks like Batman standing on a roof. My kids agreed with me so I know I'm not crazy.  I have discovered that Choco Tacos are pretty darn awesome! And snails can actually stick to my car from driveway to junior high, across town to high school and back again!  How he got on the side of my car I have no idea.  John took care of him and removed him.  My Hero! 

So what do you think of Bat Tree?

MMMMMMM! ChocoTaco!

And finally my hitchhiking snail.

So about those shoes worn with the above prom dress.  I loved them!  They are a pale dusty pink with a sparkly platform.  Now if you know anything about me, you must know this: I LOVE shoes! And these little beauties made my heart go pitter-pat!  The day after I saw them I had a bad morning, so after running errands I headed over to Baker's Shoes and decided to just try them on.  It doesn't hurt to try them on.  So I searched the store and didn't see them.  I was bummed out and turned to leave when I saw a pair on the clearance rack!  The clearance rack!  I approached slowly so they wouldn't get startled and run away then I picked them up.  The sales girl was there before I turned and asked if she could bring me my size.  Why yes you may, I need a 7, thank you.  It took her a moment but when she returned there they were in their own little box.  She also brought me a pink pair of sparkly shoes that I will have to keep my eye on.  It was almost as if they were made for me.  They slipped on like a long lost friend, hugged my feet and whispered seductively,  "take me home"  I replied, "I can't I just came to try you on."  Then they said, "we're on clearance look at our price."  I turned them over and they were 50% off. The sales girl approached and asked if they fit, and said they were the last pair in the store, how lucky that they fit!  I took them home.  Very bad of me but what could I do?  All their friends had been sold to good homes, these shoes needed me!  The best part? I got another five dollars off because I had a Bakers customer loyalty card!  I love shoes even more when they are discounted.  Incidentally I tried to by some flats a few days later and my son Cameron stopped me telling me flats were for quitters, where does he get these ideas from?  I wonder?  Well that's a look into my mind, scary. 

SHOES!!!!!!!

Now we just have to get Cameron over his contact dermatitis, we suspect poison oak from a hike, get the kids to Youth Conference tomorrow and head out to VLV 14! I can't wait. 

Here is a link from last year's vintage fashion show.  The model at the very end is Johnnie Mae, you can follow her on Facebook.  She modeled for me last year at a school fashion show and one of the other students tried to highjack her from me. 

That's April in couture, Take care!