Tuesday, July 5, 2011

What's been keeping me out of trouble!


This is a baby doll apron that I designed, it's reversible. The other side is pink and brown. It ended up being a gift for a young woman I know that got married on July 2nd.

This photo is of Johnnie Mae at the Viva Las Vegas Fashion Show. I have to say I really admire the girl, even back in my bathing beauty days I could never have appeared on a stage in my underwear although this was was more covered up than most people you see in everyday life. And believe me some of those people should really cover up!

This is Slinky Sparkles, she is a model and British burlesque performer. Those are very large fans in her hands. She was also modeling for the Viva Las Vegas Fashion Show. I wasn't able to get very good pictures due to the fact that I was using my phone to take the pictures and photography wasn't really allowed. I never have been one for rules. I fell in love with this corset and it was a great deal at the vendor show. By the time I had decided to buy one they had sold out. I do have some good photos of it so I can probably reproduce it but like sandwiches, corsets are just better when someone else makes it for you. The name of the designer during this particular section of the fashion show is, "What Katie Did" love this name for a company and as you can probably tell, they create vintage lingerie.


Here is a recent photo of the family at one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants. They do fajitas to die for and the diet coke is served in large glasses that they keep refilling. They also do the best salsa in town! If it's one thing I do well aside from sewing, it's salsa, I have worked for years perfecting and refining 2 recipes until I finally got the result I wanted and my salsa is good but I like theirs better. I spoke to the owner a couple of years ago and got him to give up his salsa recipe and can make it at home when I can't afford to go out. Now if only he would tell me what the sauce is he puts on the fajitas!

This is a fabric I found at Joanns, I loved the color in it and knew I had to make something out of it. Below is the result.

I created this dress fully intending to put it on Etsy and sell it. I posted it on facebook first and ended up selling it in about an hour. It started kind of as a joke directed at the store Anthropolgie. Some of their stuff is cute but some of their stuff I have to wonder if the designer or buyer is color blind. Some of the combinations they put together have no business being put together! And the prices! As far as I can tell they never have sales and most of the dresses there sell for $168.00! I don't know about you but that seems a bit steep for a dress where the colors don't match. So my solution was to come up with vintage looking dresses with sleeves and skirts that go to the knee and sell them to woman that were tired of trying to find cute/fun dresses and finding only band aids instead. I jokingly call my line Anthro-Apology. I have decided to name the dresses after the customer that buys a particular design first so this one is called the "Edie."

Fabric for dress number 2, the color on this is more purple but it photographed blue. This dress sold before I could finish it.

Here is the finished product, this is the "Anna" named for the mother of the bride in Mondays post. Although the dress is technically Brianna's, her mother paid for it therefore it gets named after her. Them's the breaks


Not good pictures, I had 2 pieces of fabric, 1 yard each and I came up with these little dresses. They are a size 3 toddler but I think will fit a smaller size child, maybe 18 months. I found a vintage pattern at a thrift store for 29 cents and tried it out. These dresses are adorable I wish I had someone that could model them for me.

This is my hubby's birthday present. None of the fabric stores have Green Lantern fabric but Target does carry the sheets. It was tricky trying to place the pattern since you want the design to be continuous, since I couldn't do that I settled for a large Green Lantern logo on the back and a smaller one on the pocket in the front. The entire shirt is top-stitched with glow in the dark thread that my friend Natalie gave me.

My adorable son Cameron just after having his braces removed. The first thing he wanted to eat? An apple. I think they did an excellent job on his smile and we couldn't be happier. This of course just makes him more appealing to all the girls out there so maybe I shouldn't be too happy the braces are gone.

This turned out to be a dress for me so I guess i will call it the "Terri" maybe not. I forgot to take a picture of the final product. Will try to do that soon. I loved this fabric, I found it in the garment district and paid a whopping $3.00 for the entire piece, it was slightly over 3 yards, more than enough for a dress. I lined the sleeves in a lime green satin just for fun.

This dress is the "Annette" she bought it for her daughter Tori. This one was also sold before I could finish it. I just love the neckline on this dress. It is very vintage with a round yoke and the tabs at the waist. I thought about also doing the yoke in a contrast but this appealed to me more just having the touch of orange, cute but not overpowering. I'm thinking of making another one with a sailor theme, solid red with white trim and solid white with navy trim.

This is the beginning of another reversible apron. I found the fabric when I was searching my stash to see if I had anything else I could make a dress out of. I can't believe how popular aprons are. I may end up giving this to my mother in law or not, it's a bit on the bright side and wouldn't match her kitchen. We'll see when I finish it.

This is Helle, we used to get together and sew a lot more than we do now. She fell in love with the Annette dress and wanted to make her own so I loaned her the pattern and talked her through making it while I cut out a ton of projects. I hate cutting stuff out, I wish I had someone who would just do that for me, I would pay them in salsa. Any takers?

As you probably know, sheet sets come with a top and a bottom and a pillow case. This is the top sheet from the set and my hubby has the shirt made of the bottom. He also got the pillow case out of the deal. This one is for sale, I gave John first dibs but he liked his darker one and said he was fine if I wanted to sell it. This is a mens extra large and also has glow in the dark top stitching and it has green buttons.

I was told by friends at church that they were going to buy me a larger dress form since all I was making was size 8! So meet Belva, she is the dress form not the dress. She expands from a large 12 to an 18 so I can make more sizes on her. She's not mine she actually belongs to Helle, she is kind enough to let me keep her at my house. On the right, is the one I purchased at PGM in LA for school, she is a size 8 and doesn't expand. I named her Ava after Ava Gardner, I hope to soon wear that size again, if only I didn't like food so much, I mean I love food! I have a smaller one that expands from a 4 to a 10 named Betty Lou but she is old and will need to retire soon. The dress on Belva is a 16-18 and looks cuter in person and yes is for sale.

My 3 younger kids up at Mile High Cherries last week, we went with some friends to pick cherries. Great fun, and I learned a valuable lesson, it's not enough to put on sunscreen one must also wear insect repellent. My boys and my hubby who didn't bother with either were fine, I on the other hand was swarmed every time I stood still because the bugs liked the smell of my sunscreen. I have bug bites up and down my legs. We ended up at Los Rios Ranchos in Oak Glen and after a picnic lunch we picked up an apple pie, some cider and a bag of apples. A good day.

Ignore my husband's blurry hand in this photo. I was trying to get a picture of the center piece, it was made of heavy paper! It was very unique. They had larger ones on the ground that must have been 3 feet across. This was at the reception of the young woman that I gave the apron to at the top of this post. There was a photo booth and good food, it was great fun, my husband who originally didn't want to go thoroughly enjoyed himself. Part of it was he decided to wear shorts. So he was comfy and well fed. I also liked the "rice" that was thrown at the bride and groom, instead of rice it was heart shaped cake/donut sprinkles, ingenious.

Well that catches you up on most of the stuff that I've been up to. I haven't sewed in a few days now. It's been too hot to do anything. Summer has well and truly arrived, no complaints I love the hot weather. Yesterday was a lot of fun, we had dinner at a friend's house with a few friends from church and then watched a firework show from their front yard. I enjoyed that so much more than the thought of going to Disneyland or the beach like I used to do when I was a kid. The thought of the traffic afterwards just doesn't appeal. Coming up, I'm hoping to get my kitchen cabinet doors down and sanded so they can be painted. My entire downstairs needs to be painted but that's another story. I would like to gut my backyard too and make it more welcoming, with fruit trees and flowers. So many plans and never enough energy to do them all! I hope you all had a safe and happy Fourth of July!
Terri

Monday, July 4, 2011

I've been sewing, how about you?


Here is a fun project I had the opportunity to work on last month. Meet Brianna, I've known her since she was 9. It blows my mind that she is old enough to get married but what can I say? Time flies. Brianna purchased this gown for her wedding and there was a little problem with it, it was strapless. Now to people who are not members of my church this isn't really a problem but to a Mormon bride this is a challenge. The 80's and early 90's were good to Mormon brides, finding a dress with sleeves that was modest was not a problem. Then sometime in the mid-90's everything changed. If you watch TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress" you know that Kleinfelds of New York sells mostly strapless dresses. Some of them are sheer corseted little numbers that run upwards of $20,000.00! From a design standpoint I find them wonderful, as a Latter Day Saint woman I find them good for business. But I digress, Brianna as a Latter Day Saint bride needs a gown that is modest. That's where I come in. I had to add sleeves to this dress and shorten it. Not an easy fix, I hung this dress in my work space and would work on other projects then turn and look at it, waiting for it to talk to me on how to add sleeves. Finally it spoke, hemming the dress turned out to be easier than I thought but the sleeves still posed a problem.




I've added a photo of the inside of the dress just in case you wanted to see what the inside of a designer gown looks like.

After a trip to downtown LA with a few friends, Brianna's mom and I found fabric to match the dress and I went to work. The gown had some asymmetrical pleating that was a bit organic so matching it was a little tricky plus the entire dress was cut on the bias. Most of the work I did was done by hand. I believe I stuck myself a total of 6 times. And yes I did get blood on the inside of the dress that I had to get out. Fun stuff. In the end, I was happy with the way it turned out and I believe the bride and her mom was too.




You decide, here is a picture of the lovely bride her reception. The next picture is her wedding cake, I don't know who made it but I love it! The detail on it is amazing!!! Well that's all for today, it's the Fourth of July and I have a party to get to.
Terri
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