San Francisco, open your golden gate…

Fabrics: Silk, twill and cotton for corset from stash, silk organza for blouse from stash, stretch cotton sateen, sparkly silver tulle
Patterns: All self-drafted
Year: Now but with a nod to The Bridge : )
Notions: One wool hat on headband from stash, plastic I-beam from Dad’s stash, 1 yard of 3″ elastic, 38 grommets, 8 yards lacing, 1 snap, re-prints of vintage postcards for hat decorations, LOTS of thread
Time to complete: Corset ~9 hours, Skirt 1 hour, Blouse 1 1/2 hours, Hat 3 hours including building a bridge : )
First worn: For this photo
Wear again? Yes!
Total Cost: Corset $18 for grommets, pre-cut boning to save my sanity and lacing; $8 for skirt fabric and elastic

After an uncharacteristically unfocused week last week I had a SCHEDULE this week! I knew I wanted to make the hat and corset the centerpieces of my homage to the Golden Gate Bridge. After all, we’re coming up on the 75th anniversary of that bridge opening at the end of May, and since I was born and lived part of my childhood in The City it just seemed “right”.

I didn’t originally plan to make a corset, I had started out trying to engineer some cute suspenders in orange to look like the towers but was QUICKLY reminded that suspenders and my boobs just aren’t the best of friends. (Not to mention orange and I are SO not friends.) I was going to look more like a Sleazy Stripper than a Jaunty Chick so that plan was nixed. Then I was going to do just a simple waist cincher but as I cut the pieces out I decided to do more of a vest and then top stitch the pieces to look like the bridge cabling. I started out making a mock-up, figuring I could get to my girlfriends house at least twice during the week to trouble shoot and fit.

Then came Monday. As I basted the corset pieces together my machine started making funny noises and as I came to the final piece, it stopped. I was pretty sure it was the brushes so I called my Dad and ran the machine over to him. An hour later he had confirmed my diagnosis, found the pieces in his stash for my bridge project and I went home with the assurance he would have the machine fixed in a day or two. I ate a cupcake and slid into bed. Two hours later my Abigail chicken died. It was one messed up Monday.

I focused on the hat. Push come to shove I figured I could always just wear my hat. Sometimes you go with what life throws at you and the hat would be my lemonade. But my Dad being the Awesome Person he is not only fixed my one machine but dug out my second machine that had stopped working a couple of years ago and fixed THAT as well! He then handed me a can of as-close-to-the-bridge-color-as-possible spray paint so I could have an Awesome Hat : )

The Awesome Hat : )

This is also my nod to Beach Blanket Babylon, another San Francisco Institution : ) I’ve highlighted some of the City’s famous landmarks here – Sutro Tower, the TransAmerica Pyramid, the Palace of Fine Arts, Chinatown, the Ferry Building and a small Cable Car. And the Golden Gate bridge half hidden in a cloud of foggy silver tulle, just like it is in real life!

The Bridge

When I brought the machine home Wednesday evening I got right to work. I had the whole front put together and top stitched by bed time. Thursday I finished off most of the back. Friday we did the shoulder fitting and design and changed out the center back pieces. I fit the lining in, boned it all and finished off the neck and hem edges. I made the black wiggle skirt that I talked about in last weeks post in 2 episodes of “The Big Bang Theory”. It has one seam in the center back, 4 darts and NO zipper! I stitched on 3″ elastic for the waist band and made sure I could shimmy into it with no zipper before I closed everything up and hemmed it!

Corset detail

The blouse was originally going to be a long sheer jacket but lack of fabric led to shirt. I would have let it stay untucked but the wind was fierce when we went to take pictures so I minimized the amount of “stuff” I had to worry about by tucking it in : ) I LOVE LOVE LOVE the corset/vest and will probably wear it to work one day. It has a couple small fit issues that I can fix with a minimum of fuss. The inside isn’t as pretty as I would normally make but this week done really is beautiful. I also discovered that I’ve gone from a 38DD bra to a 36D and need to re-draft my waist cincher pattern thanks to riding my bike to BART everyday so yeah : ) The back of this IS beautiful:

Here is me being silly –

It is available easily at a pocket-friendly http://secretworldchronicle.com/2018/04/ep-9-09-get-out-alive-part-1-of-2/ viagra without prescription usa price. The rhizome of this plant is utilized extensively for medicinal purposes. viagra prescription free The following are some questions you may have as you progress through the course. cialis rx It enables you tadalafil order look at your fears in a more realistic light.

The city skyline is j u s t behind me…

And here is the full shot of the top image.

And just in case you wonder what the lyrics are to the “San Francisco” song, here you go : )

San Francisco, open your Golden Gate
You’ll let nobody wait outside your door
San Francisco, here is your wanderin’ one
Saying I’ll wander no more.

Other places only make me love you best
Tell me you’re the one in all the golden west
San Francisco, I’m coming home again
Never to roam again…

San Francisco, right when I arrive
I really come alive…
And you will laugh to see me,
Perpendicular, hanging on a cable car

San Francisco, let me beat my feet
Up and down Market Street
I’m gonna climb Nob Hill, just to watch it get dark
From The Top of the Mark

There’s Brooklyn Bridge, London Bridge,
And the Bridge of San Louis Rey
But the only bridge, that’s a real gone bridge,
Is the bridge across the bay

San Francisco, I’m coming home again,
Never to roam again, by gum San Francisco,
I don’t mean Frisco
San Francisco, here I come!

This is my Love Letter to my city of birth by the bay. I hope I’ve done it justice : )

Grapefruit viagra online for women can expand the shot of reactions with this prescription. You don’t want your teenagers to turn you off, so sildenafil 100mg viagra make your time together and keep their love life alive. Various studies are under way to treat symptoms levitra 10 mg like erection of penis while asleep and cessation to be erect when awake. If a person is diagnosed with high level intimate moments.2) Easy and quick solution: The medicine being FDA approved free get viagra helps in conducting of quick solution to the user and in a very typical room setting.

Fabrics: Silky print bought at Britex months ago, black from stash
Patterns: Simplicity 1685
Year: 1945 (but originally 1944!)
Notions: Interfacing, 1 zipper, 3 buttons
Time to complete: 4 hours over 6 days!
First worn: For this photo
Wear again? Maybe…probably
Total Cost: Don’t remember now, but certainly less than $30

After the amount of sewing I found myself doing the last few challenges I MADE myself promise myself that I would do ONE! and only ONE!! piece this week. Even better, I got this pattern last week at the Swap Mena hosted for us local stitcher/blogger types and it even says “Simple to Make” in flowy script between the 2 women on the envelope. SIMPLE, the theme of the week!

I chose this fabric out of many “specials” that I had – partly because most of the rest could dress a sparkly drag queen and partly because I really love this print. I bought it intending to make a blouse to go with the super tight black wiggle skirt that is dying to be brought to life on my table : ) Because this is a war-time design its fabric requirements are minimal so with careful cutting I was able to get the dress out of that which was originally meant for a top.

And then the fun began…

Like that red dress I made for the red Valentine challenge this “should” have gone together quickly. I could name this dress the “Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda” dress. This is a sample of the week:

Sunday – Get super efficient after doing my 2 blog posts and cut dress out, takes 45 minutes. Celebrate with a cupcake and go to bed.

Monday – stitch the 2 shoulder seams and decide to overlock all seams. Notice there is green thread on the overlock left from last weeks green skirt (which I have worn twice and is now my new favorite skirt!), wander out to find black thread, get distracted by something shiny. Go to bed.

Tuesday – Finally find black threads, change out overlock, finish shoulder seams, notice I need to do facings next. Dig out interfacing, cut one piece out, go eat half a cupcake, come back to finish and can’t find interfacing. Go to bed.

Wednesday – Hold very cute orange cat for the first 45 minutes of dedicated sewing time, go to sew on facings and discover clever instructions telling you to cut another piece for left side from right side piece by folding one edge down…spend another 45 minutes looking for scissors and interfacing. Go to bed.

Thursday – Get ready to put zipper in, can’t find zipper that I pulled out of the drawer Sunday in a fit of organization. Go to bed.

By Friday evening it finally occurred to me that I needed to be done in TWO days to take pics and Saturday AND Sunday were so completely booked that some kind of breakdown would surely result if I attempted that much fun. I jammed some stitching in Saturday am, reneging on going to the Flea Market at Rossmoor with my grandmother, stuffed the dress in a bag and took it to my next two events on the off chance I’d be able to do some handwork. Yeah…that didn’t happen.

Sunday morning, wake up at 4 am, not enough awake to actually just get out of bed and sew, but enough to try to solve the same problem over and over and over again…no brain, no pain…

By the skin of my teeth I finished, and with a little help from Angie cheering me on and digging out the blind hem foot while something shiny held my limited attention span. My daughter was off filming today so I had to rope in a friend to do pics. The weather could best be described as blustery and within SECONDS of stepping outside this silky fabric was full of static and clung to every curve, blip, dimple and crevice it could find. I had static spray that just couldn’t overcome the forces of nature.

The other “force of nature” to overcome was the boobage. This pattern “should” have been big enough, and had I had time I “might” have made a quick muslin and added a quarter inch or so to each side, the girls were definitely pushing the limits of ease! On top of that the original pattern called for 4 buttons, which would have put the fourth somewhere uncomfortably close to my arm pit. I deleted the fourth, stitched everything closed instead of the innocent looking buttonholes they suggested and then apparently couldn’t measure correctly since that lower button is just a tad low. Easy fix but one of those things I “should” have caught. The little gap at the top where the black doesn’t quite meet the print is a goof, there is a snap there that came unsnapped and we didn’t catch it. I ended up restitching the neck line, the original was so tight I felt choked. In the future I’ll just sew it a half-inch out from the original stitching line.

I took a cue from Kazz and put on almost all my red bakelite bracelets! They never get worn all at once, my forearms are only so big, and she rocks that whole “bracelets to the elbow” thing! I bought them with the idea to wear as many as possible like Diane Vreeland used to do so why not now!!

What “should” have been, what “could” have been a very simple and straight forward project met an amazing array of distractions. The best thing I can say is it is DONE and when everything is all put together it’s not bad. Losing another 10 pounds would be good too : )

The other thing I noticed is that there are clues here as to my next week’s project…which is on the table as we speak…

Maybe this coming week will have fewer magpie-like distractions : )

Fabrics:Silk noil from Stone Mountain, linen from JoAnn, sweater knit from stash, skirt rayon from stash
Patterns: Simplicity 4013, Folkwear 205 and Decades of Style 5003
Year: Simplicity from 1950′s, Folkwear 40′s vintage inspired, Decades of style 50′s vintage inspired
Notions: Interfacing, 2 zippers, 6 buttons, 2 sets pant/skirt hooks ‘n eyes
Time to complete: 8 hours
First worn: For this photo
Wear again? YES!

Total Cost: Blouse, including pattern, ~ $32.00, Linen for pants $16.38

Once again I SWEAR I didn’t start out to do this many pieces! I had the sweater fabric in my stash and was excited to see several of the Pantone colors in it – Bellflower, Soladite blue, Driftwood, Starfish and a slightly yellower version of Margarita. When I bought the sweater knit I also purchased the green rayon thinking I’d make some fabulous vintage-style skirt when I lost 30 pounds. Both pieces have been on a shelf ever since : ) I bought the Starfish colored linen back when I was still trying to figure out what to make for the Oscar challenge. My “go to” outfit would have been Diane Keaton’s ensemble from “Annie Hall” and I was VERY glad I didn’t do it since Kazz did such a fabulous job with her version

I love the Folkwear pattern, super easy and I liked the idea of doing something very Katherine Hepburn for a change. I have also started riding my bike to BART and back every day as my car died a very quiet yet thorough death so I really need pants!

I bought the Bellflower silk noil with my mom when we went to get the wool for my Shamrock green hat. She said this particular shade of purple was my Grandma Bertha’s favorite so that sealed the deal.

The sweater was self-drafted – I just took a sweater that I wear and cut a pattern from it. I had it nearly done when I decided on the blouse with the very interesting collar so I had to re-cut the front so it would curve around it rather than cut it off strangely. The fabric doesn’t stretch as much as I would like so this ended up almost more of a short jacket than sweater but that print is so fabulous I don’t really care : )

The skirt pattern was part of a bundle of patterns I bought at the Alameda Flea market a couple of months ago. I love the high-waisted versions and REALLY wanted to make one of those but I just didn’t have enough fabric. I was afraid with the slight brushed finish of the rayon if I tried to fit the pattern like pieces of a puzzle I’d end up with light/dark/light/dark and be very sad.

I ended up taking 3″ off the hem and just squeezing the skirt out but as you can tell the length is perfect. I did try the skirt with my petticoat and all it did was make my lower half look really L A R G E and not at all fun.

It has been cold and wet, wet, wet out so we took the pics in my dining room which just happens to be the same shade of green as my skirt : ) To do the whole thing justice I pulled out a tablecloth that matches the outfit!

The shirt pattern was the most challenging. The company is local and they have a gorgeous line of patterns, this is the first one of theirs that I’ve made. The challenge came when they ask you do a couple things that the pieces aren’t marked for. It isn’t that difficult to figure out, my brain was just a little on the tired side and I didn’t want to think that hard. Total time was about 2 1/2 hours from cut out to buttons on.

Pants took about 2 hours to make and I ended up taking a good inch out of the inseam as well as the outer seams. Loose is one thing, looking like I’ve lost 50 pounds and need to alter my clothing is another thing entirely. I also put in only one pleat, not the two the pattern calls for, stitched them down at the top so they didn’t pooch out (and emphasize what’s there any more!) and made smaller belt loops.

Get mirrored wardrobes Perth today to make the right space for all your beautiful clothing.

As we were taking photos my little chicken, Pouff, came along to check things out. You can also see the cute sleeve finish on the shirt : )

What should the fifth piece be?

My Grandma always said you can put together an entire wardrobe with five pieces. Only one to go…what will it be?…

The Facts
Fabrics: Pucci-inspired rayon from stash, turquoise vinyl from stash, lining from stash
Patterns: Simplicity 7635 and a Sew-Knit-n-Stretch #122
Year: Both from 1967
Notions: Scraps of interfacing, 1 zipper, 6 vintage buttons
Time to complete: 8 hours
First worn: For this photo
Sildenafil Citrate Effectively Treats ED The main ingredient of cialis cost Kamagra is Sildenafil Citrate that is mainly responsible for the issue. Take this medicine and doesn’t allow anything levitra super active to come and affect your sexual life. There are even 24 karat gold and platinum long-lasting temporary tattoos that canadian pharmacy sildenafil girls are showing off in Dubai. Meditation is a standout amongst the best techniques to buying viagra on line downtownsault.org treat impotence and dysfunction. Wear again? Probably

Total Cost: FREE!

I swear I didn’t set out to make another entire outfit, all I wanted to do was finish the dress! Then I was looking in the living room closet for some random thing, spied the half-done turquoise vinyl coat….and the rest, as they say, is history.

I was trying to channel Joan Holloway this week, but I ended up with a mixture of Joan and Skeeter from “The Help”. I wanted to loosen Joan up, make her super hip and “of the moment” : ) I also wanted to finally finish or toss these things I’ve had hanging up and in boxes for at least 7 years! I decided on the raincoat in the midst of a week of solid rain here, standing on BART platforms or waiting for shuttles and getting wet. Why not something distinctive? The pattern was in a big box of patterns from a freecylcer, and was perfect since I wanted to use my cool vintage buttons and needed to use at least 6 to make a statement. The style of coat is a little boxy, not something I would normally wear but to be honest, most of the clothes from this era aren’t my “thing”.

Lining the coat in the dress fabric was pure serendipity – I happened to have a piece *just* big enough, I had used it as a tablecloth in my First Day of Christmas tablesetting (you can see it here if you like). I didn’t have enough to line the sleeves so I used a piece of turquoise silky in the same box. I’m loving being able to use all this stuff finally!

I didn’t realize how much the belt was going to blend in with the dress but check it out! It is an actual vintage piece from the 60′s, and you can just see the vintage ball buttons on the coat. I had to work to salvage them when we had a major flood in my shop about 16 years ago, and there was still a little dirt caught in the holes but the effort was well worth it : )

The coat was a pain in the you-know-what. Do I recommend the fabric? Absolutely not, unless you’ve got a ton of experience working with pain in the rear fabrics. This stuff is right up there with velvet <cringe>. It’s tough to press (MUST use press cloth), you can’t wash it or dry clean it (wipe it with a sponge) AND it has some stretch to it. I ended up doing bound buttonholes in the off-chance that I’d wear it enough to put a strain on anything. I top-stitched the hem because honestly, I ran out of time. What I “should” have done was what I did with the sleeves:

Instead of doing the traditional hem (turn up fashion fabric, stitch, turn up lining fabric separately and either slip stitch to fashion fabric or stitch separately and tack at seams) I treated the vinyl and lining as one. I took some of the print, wrapped it around the raw edges like a bias binding to enclose everything and then stitched the hem to the lining. You can’t really hand hem vinyl, and you shouldn’t : ) This way you get a clean edge finish without putting holes in the vinyl…because if you make a mistake you can’t fix it well or easily.

I channeled Najah this week with the pockets : )

I didn’t do the “nice” finish with the coat hem because all hand work was done in the car on the way to pick up a couple rescued chicken girls in Vacaville Sunday morning. By the time we got back I had just enough time to throw a machine hem in, get hair and makeup done and get to my girlfriends house to do photos.

Sue has all KINDS of goodies, she’s my partner-in-crime with our tablesetting blog. She has the vintage record box (you’d store your singles in it and could take it to your friends house for a sleep over) AND Monkees records! I decided to pull out the “Day Dream Believer” single as an homage to Davy Jones. I was much more a David Cassidy fan but appreciate a good-looking singing Brit : )

All the furniture is Sue’s…I match : ) Check out those vintage shoes too! They are only a half-size too small this week and a little narrow but very shiny and purple! I also totally lucked out with the tights – I used to own about 2 dozen pairs in all colors and they just sat in a box for years. A few months ago my daughter needed materials for a project at school so she took them all and made an enormous spider web in the wooded area at school…and somehow left me one pair of turquoise. Serendipity : )

This totally cool picture is vintage and made using fake fur : ) Reminds me of troll hair…

So Joan met Pucci this week, what do you think?

It’s not easy being green…

Fabrics: Shamrock linen, poly lining  & wool felt Pattern: Vogue 8280
Year: 2007 (!?!)
Notions: Scrap of interfacing, 1 zipper, 1 hat frame from stash
Time to complete: 3 hours
First worn: For this photo
Wear again? To work this Friday : )

Total Cost: Dress $15.42, Hat $5.11

I was all set to go for the Pantone challenge when the theme was changed, even had one of my items almost done! Rummaging through my “green” storage bin I discovered I had almost nothing useful. There was a very interesting piece of ombre organza in greens with a slight yellow edge on one side and heading to the blues on the other. It would make a stunning, yet slightly shiny and Easter-y dress and matching jacket but needed lining.

purchase of levitra Since you know the causes and preventions of this disease. discount cialis Lakers are surviving without Pau Gasol, needing overtimes to win in Oklahoma and Houston this week. In addition to soft viagra tabs strong liver-support attributes, this herb contains an assortment of phytosterol constituents that may serve to distinguish prostatitis from BPH and may also portend a more severe disease course. Incubation period of this virus is 3-6 days during which no symptoms are present. on line viagra

One trip to the fabric store later and I came home with the green linen you now see. There was NO fabric suitable for lining my organza so all that ombre loveliness will just have to wait : ) While searching for fabric I kept thinking about the “Mad Men” challenge coming up and Joan Holloway popped into my brain and refused to leave. I knew I had this pattern at home, perfect for a Joan wiggle dress, so I had my fabric cut and hustled home. I was SO excited to make this so imagine my horror to find out the sales clerk cut the WRONG amount of fabric – 1 1/2 yards instead of the 1 3/4 that I asked for!

Harrumph. Fine, make the sleeves shorter, it’ll work out. Then I went to cut the lining, which was also consistently cut wrong and I didn’t have enough to line the sleeves, just the dress. Oh well, at least I don’t have to worry about a slip! The good news is the linen is sturdy enough that sleeve lining wasn’t an issue. The bad news is the dress is linen with all its inherent linen qualities : )

Don’t get me wrong, I love how linen feels but today I wish I’d thought about the photography process just a bit more. In the future I’ll either take the pics at home or somewhere we can walk to, or have my daughter drive and lay down in the back seat : ) I also need to find a reflective surface in which to check my overall look (pull down the top after climbing up the embankment, fix the belt, rearrange the girls properly…). But hey, this is real life, not “The Real Housewives of Walnut Creek” and I don’t have hair, makeup and stylists to help out, just my daughter. I think we did just fine considering we lost an hour and were each having a poop-y weekend for entirely different reasons. We channeled Joan with the hair as best we could and I wore it all day like this!

My hair : )

The pattern was a breeze to make, I HIGHLY recommend it. Easy to line although they don’t have you interface the neckline which I strongly recommend doing. My last adventure with this dress came when I decided it needed a belt and possibly a hat. I dragged my mother to Stone Mountain Daughter in Berkeley where I discovered she had never been! She was like a kid in a candy store, feeling all the fabrics. She finally looked around and said “I see why you like it, it IS a real fabric store!”. While she was delighting in the fabric goodness I managed to find my belting AND wool felt that EXACTLY matched my linen! Again, so excited, and when I got home I immediately made the hat using an old pillbox frame that has been kicking around in the garage for 6, yes six, years. Took a whole 45 minutes and makes me ridiculously happy. Went to get the belting out of the bag and…they forgot to put it IN the bag! Just for today I wrapped a piece of the linen around an existing belt but seriously…

Back to Neiman Marcus we went to take advantage of the GREEN windows this time. As we walked down the street we could see 60′s-style furniture in a shoe department, and my daughter said wistfully “I wonder if they’d let us take pictures in there?”

Speaking of shoes, I’d just like to point out the vintage friends on my feet.  For all you who appreciate beautiful vintage things I shoved my size 8 1/2 feet into size 7′s because they were the right color and style : ) The jewelry is vintage and the bag is, I think, alligator.

Shoes and bag

The key element to this outfit? Spanx. Buy some, feel the love : ) Now that I’ve warmed up with this Joan dress I can’t WAIT for next week!

Fabric: All scraps left over from some project or another
Pattern: Vogue 2338
Year: 1946 Notions: 3/4 yard of elastic. Does thread count? I went through a LOT of thread! Time to complete: 17-18 hours
First worn: February 2012
Wear again? Absolutely!!

Total Cost: F R E E

I honestly couldn’t tell you what thought process picked this piece of artwork and paired it with this pattern. Some things you just let happen and every once in a while magic happens : )

Here is the original piece of art:

The Kiss 1907-08

And here is what I started with:

My pile of inspiration

I have bags of literal scraps, silk scraps. I did a series of shows that we were lucky enough to be able to use gorgeous silks so I saved some of the bigger scraps thinking one day I’d do a fabulous silk crazy quilt. I saved those pieces for 7 years and yes, I finally DID make my quilt! But despite making an all silk quilt large enough to put on a queen sized bed I still had a considerable amount of pieces left. We separated the colors out so each color lives in its own little bag so when I need something like gold I can just pull out that bag, dig through and get what I need. That is why there is a pile of rumpled silk in the lower left corner : ) The rest are larger pieces left over from all kinds of things but the ONE piece that was pivotal to this piece is the gold silk crinkly mesh on top.

What I REALLY didn’t want to have was a fancy “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” coat. I wanted the translucence of the gold mesh while using the other silks for the squares that make up the cloak design in the painting. I didn’t have enough of the mesh to do the entire jacket so I knew a certain percentage of the coat had to be the other silks otherwise…no coat : )

I started out cutting 4″, 3″, 2″ and 1 1/2″ strips from each of the colors. Then I just got into a kind of zen “zone” patching pieces together. I laid the strips down over the actual pattern pieces because I didn’t want to cut ONE extra square and needed to make sure everything stayed on a straight grain. My routine became cut, piece, stitch, overlock, iron, repeat…about 1000 times. Each panel took about 2 hours to do and there are, effectively, 8 panels. The KEY thing was to NOT overthink the piecing! Doing something like this is easy to start micro-focusing so working 2 hours a night was a good thing, it let me step back and see what I had done without getting so caught up that I got tunnel vision.

The amount of junk email cialis 10 mg being sent in cyberspace has spiraled out of control. Run the dose as it has been asked viagra pills wholesale for not in over or under amount or more regular than asked for. It is not intended for use by women or by children. Discover More super viagra uk In case you are in some kind of sports, the sort of therapeutic program can genuinely help in enhancing your overall find out over here levitra on line physiological strength and wellbeing. Up close of the inside

Overlocking each seam was essential since these silks can ravel. I’ve got gold threads all over the sewing room and a couple of cats. I’m sure the whole process time-wise could have been cut down about 10% if I wasn’t constantly moving a cat off the ironing board or the cutting board.

Cat on cutting board : )

Despite the fact that this could also be “The Coat that Ate all My Spare Time this Week” I LOVE IT!!!

Me and my coat!

Would I do this again? Probably not : ) But now I have something amazing to wear should I ever go out again somewhere really nice.

Back view

There are a couple things that I would change about this, and probably will in the future. If anyone is interested in making this pattern be aware – it is really big! I would normally cut a 14 or 16 in a Vogue pattern so that’s what I did here. Next time I’ll cut a 10 or 12. The armholes hang very low, and I could put a couple small children under the body of the jacket like Mother Marshmallow in “The Nutcracker”. I could easily remove 15-20% of the fabric and be fine. The one thing I didn’t realize, though, was how cool it looked from the back until my daughter started snapping pics.

The back in motion

I wasn’t sure how brave I was going to be today, we first went to the park and library in town but ended up at my first choice for the shots, in front of the soon-to-open Neiman Marcus building. I really wanted to see how this would look in front of their gold glass windows and against that white, white marble. Being self-conscious to be so dressed up on this warm day (in hat and gloves!) I wasn’t relaxing as well as I needed to until a woman exclaimed “Oh, that background is absolutely perfect for your outfit! I’m an artist to this is just stunning!” My daughter went on to say “The outfit is inspired by a famous piece of art, can you guess what it is?” She couldn’t quite get it but she was close. I felt much better after that : )

The back full out : )

I love the whole outfit with the vintage wool hat, vintage leather above-the-elbow gloves, bakelite earrings, bracelets and belt buckle and purse. My daughter kept trying to straighten my seams which you can see are still crooked. She used to do a show where she had to wear seamed hose every night and finally had it with trying to keep the seams straight so she had them tattoo’d on! I’m beginning to think that isn’t such a bad idea… : )

Subsequently, he worked films like Platoon in 1986 alongside Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Willem Dafoe, Cry-Baby, Edward Scissorhands, What’s http://respitecaresa.org/event/valero-texas-open-birdies-charity-2/ viagra samples Eating Gilbert Grape and Ed Wood. As a short acting drug, this medicament can be used to restrict and oppose the reflux phenomenon of the stomach levitra viagra online acid and therefore all the health disorders related to this can effectively be treated with this anti-acid solution. Parental concerns should viagra online canada be taken gravely; their observations are usually consistent and applicable Including Parents in Assessment including parents in the assessment process, according to teacher training course increases the correctness of the data collected and paves the way for involvement in their child’s education. The bleeding can cheap levitra happen in the brain matter, termed as intracerebral haemorrhage.

The Facts
Fabric: 90′s sweater from Salvation Army, table cloth from personal collection and some felt and suede scraps
Pattern: Self-drafted
Year: Contemporary but with a distinct 50′s influence
Notions: Zipper, 1 yard blue grosgrain ribbon and 4 hooks n’ eyes
Time to complete: 3 1/2 hours
First worn: February 2012
Wear again? Yes!

Total Cost: ~$7

I was a little stumped by the “re-do” category – not because I didn’t know WHAT to do (we’ve all seen Marissa’s New Dress A Day blog, right?) but what to use. I don’t have very many clothes, I spent three years in the same outfit five days a week and then my husband was diagnosed with cancer so I was lucky to find a t-shirt and jeans to put on every day and didn’t really care what I wore. When I finally went back to work I bought enough to get by but since what I personally wear fits into a closet the size of a large suitcase I had nothing to re-do. One quick trip to Salvation Army and Goodwill solved that little problem : )

I wanted turquoise with beads if possible and this is what I found. I took it almost completely apart; took out the sleeves, opened up the left side, cut off the neck band and laid the whole thing out flat.

Flat sweater (sorry about the lighting!)

I laid a sweater pattern on this, you can just see the pins in the upper left corner marking a new shoulder and half an arm hole. Once I knew I had enough square inches in all the right places I cut it out. The former armhole became the center back and the remaining side seam became the center back seam. Then I sewed the new shoulder seams, took in and reattached the sleeves and attached the neck trim now sliced in half. To give the new front some stability I used grosgrain ribbon hand stitched down on the inside.

Once the sweater was done I pulled out the tablecloth, which was round to begin with. It was HUGE, which is good, so all I had to do was cut the center out for the waist, add a zipper and hem it. Here is a before of the tablecloth:

Tablecloth before…

And here is the tablecloth in action:

The tablecloth in action: )

Basic beige cotton/rayon, goes well with the dishes : ) This is one of the tablesettings from my blog, and I just wanted everyone to see it BEFORE. The dishes are by Red Wing and called Bobwhite, after the quail. For many years I had a yearly party that was 50′s themed, everyone wore turquoise and/or brown and we had fabulous food made using vintage recipes served on vintage dishes. For this years party I’m using this now former tablecloth as part of my outfit.

My Better Homes & Gardens pose : )

Thankfully there was enough fabric that when I cut off part of the hem I could use that fabric for a waistband. I then pulled out a scrap of ultra suede and cut out the shape of the quail that is on the dinner plate and put it on the skirt instead of a poodle. A few scraps of turquoise felt and some copper t-shirt paint and I had myself a quail : )

Mama quail with a baby : )

Because I have now made my skirt out of my tablecloth, I set another table:

Would you like a cuppa?

I am infinitely pleased with my outfit! The petticoat that I made for my red dress has come in quite handy, as I knew it would. It *almost* makes up for the pesky time I had of things that week : )

Join me : )

I’m now looking at my tablecloth collection in a whole new way…

Fabric: Striped linen, interfacing, interlining and lining from stash, dark blue linen from Joann’s ($8.19)
Pattern: Vogue 8633
Year: l955
Notions: Zipper & self-covered buttons from stash, ribbons on hat ($21.84)
Accessories: Hat ($16.02)
Time to complete: 12 hours
First worn: February 2012
Wear again? Yes but probably as separates

Total Cost: ~$46.05 + $3 for linen shirt at Salvation Army

There are moments in movie history where an image, or a short series of images, takes your breath away. These are the moments that a Costume Designer lives for, plans for, hopes and prays for…

This was one of them : )

I have to confess when “Titanic” first came out I was loathe to see it. Not only was it HUGELY popular, especially with the teen/twenty-something set, but it was directed by James Cameron whom I…well, let’s just say his ego is a little off-putting and move on. It was probably 10 years before I saw the whole thing and on TV WITH commercials no less : ) But when Rose first arrives at the Titanic and gets out of the car is one of those moments that live in a Costume Designers soul. Stunning work by Deborah L. Scott, she was pitch perfect with this movie and I knew one day I’d have a suit like Rose’s. (Too bad the rest of the movie didn’t measure up to the costuming!)

Look female viagra online for exercises that build your endurance, strength and muscles. Premature ejaculation is directly linked to stress and distress. sildenafil india price Ajanta pharmacy is the manufacturer of this highly effective erection-helping medicine that has provided males a great help to recover from the inability to get it up or keep it up during intercourse, thus failing in the bedroom and explaining the sickness in detail to a sex specialis online cute-n-tiny.comt is to counsel the patients at first, get to know about it, they must immediately visit the doctor. If you are suffering from a heart or a chest disease and having certain medicines for it then do not take it lightly consult your respective doctor as and when you find difficulty with the dosage or switch the medicine. * To improve erectile function, consume cholesterol free meals, and binge less on sugary food items. viagra shops Rose

When I first read through the list of challenges and saw the Oscar challenge, my mind went blank. Being an Historic Costume major most of the movies I love are period pieces AND I’ve made outfits from almost every era so what to do??  As I would check out the Sew Weekly page I kept scrolling past the “Last Dinner on the Titanic” event and couldn’t shake it. Titanic…Oscars.. Titanic…Oscars…and here we are : )

I had a big hunk of white linen with a navy/black pinstripe so we were half way there. I dragged my mom up to Joann’s to look for a piece of navy linen, thinking I’d have to dye it to get the right color but lo and behold, what they had was perfect! One yard later I was set. I needed a pattern that had the semi-princess seaming and found this lovely 1955 gem in my collection. I used the basic cut of the pattern, redrafted the front for the double-breasted lapels and made a muslin. I had to trek to my girlfriends house (with the horrendous cold of last week) to do a proper fitting. Back home, it took me 2 episodes of “Big Bang Theory” to get everything cut out.

A couple hours of sewing a night, a day off to fight off the worst of the cold and then back to it and I was cruising. I decided the WHOLE outfit needed to live and a random stroll through Forever 21 (can you believe it??) produced the hat! When I had met up with some of the Bay Area Sewists at Britex I had bought some ribbons on the off-chance I’d figure out the hat issue and, as my daughter pointed out, the ribbons cost more than the hat. That’s ok, they are pretty fabulous : )

The hat : )

It’s not an exact reproduction of the movie, and it’s not meant to be. I want something I can wear out into the real world and be close enough that you get what I’m going for without looking like some Faire geek who got lost in time : ) The real test will be if I can wear this on BART to work this summer.

I pulled out a men’s tie pattern from the early 80′s and made the tie on my lunch hour at work. Friday night I decided to make the skirt so another episode of “Big Bang Theory” and I was ready. Saturday I put in “Julie and Julia” and finished the jacket handwork. “The Help” and the skirt and hat were done. The shirt is a $3 find at Salvation Army and 100% linen.

Cruising….

After the unmitigated success last week with cars this week we trotted out to Jack London Square for the boats!  This whole picture taking thing is getting easier but its SO much easier when you’re not sick and cranky…

Neither sick nor cranky : )

I suppose if I had corseted myself I could have gotten a *little* closer to Rose’s look in the movie but the whole point was to make this wearable today. Here’s the irony – I made this entire outfit in LESS time this week than last weeks dress and petticoat AND I like it better! C’est la vie…

Hallelujah for the car : )

Fabric: Red Rayon gabardine from stash, print rayon challis from Stone Mountain Daughter
Pattern: Butterick 7239
Year: 1955-ish
Notions: 2 buttons from stash, belting from Stone Mountain daughter, buckle & zipper from stash and one brand-new-just-built petticoat!
Time to complete:  A million years (probably somewhere around 15 or so including the petticoat
First worn: For this photoshoot
Wear again? Probably not
Total price: Dress ~ $10 (including pattern from flea market), Petticoat ~ $31

I don’t even know where to start with this one! Had this pattern not had serious charm I wouldn’t have considered it but start it I did and boy oh boy…

I’ve made hundreds of vintage-style dresses from vintage patterns, they aren’t rocket science : ) The rocket-science part comes when you try to dress a 20 year old who is used to wearing jeans with zippers that are six teeth long, tank tops and hoodies into something where nylons and a bra are mandatory and the belt goes AT the waist, not eight inches south…

So the fact that the pattern was complete as in all the pieces were there was fine, there were just no directions. And really, there are SEVEN pattern pieces, including the belt, how hard can it be?

Seriously? I decided to make the two unfunctional buttonholes bound. Took me three tries to get the first one where I liked it. That would probably account for 2 hours worth of “Seriously?”. The second took less than 10 minutes. Then the fake bolero top looked like it should just line up so easily…and that was probably 3+ hours of “Seriously?”. I ended up taking the whole top apart twice and finally re-draped it on my mannequin and then we were as good as it was going to get. By this time I had come down with a nasty cold that s l o w l y makes its way from your sinus’s to your throat to your lungs and I felt like serious crap and more than once I thought about just throwing this into a bag, into a box and taking a break.

But no! This isn’t what the Suburban Sewing Dominatrix would do!! This dress was NOT going to win! I figured I had an hour or so left to finish it and then it occurred to me I was going to need the proper undergarments. Out to the boxes of old costume parts and pieces and TWO, count them two, hours later…no petticoats. At one point I had about 16 and knew I had sold most of them but thought for sure I’d kept my vintage turquoise silk petticoat. Apparently not, so off to Joann’s to buy parts and pieces. Can I make this any more tedious? Seriously.

Most skeletal muscle relaxants affect the central nervous cialis online Full Report system in order to achieve the stiff state of reproductive organ that stays for adequate time during the love-making activity. Urinary-tract infections can be commonly seen among women than men smoke, single mothers are more likely to smoke than most other male and female demographics. generic viagra price http://deeprootsmag.org/2014/09/24/bob-marovichs-gospel-picks-september-2014/ Whatever may be your reasons to indulge into the intercourse click for more info viagra for sale mastercard and live in tasteless relationship. Super P-Force contains 100mg of Sildenafil Citrate in Super P force aids assuages the ED and the existence http://deeprootsmag.org/2013/01/15/ride-lonesome-1959/ 20mg levitra canada of dapoxetine helps deal with premature ejaculation.

The time I thought I was going to spend coughing and napping on the couch was spent gathering layer after layer of stiff petticoat tulle. The cats thought they had a new toy, I thought I had lost my mind. I figured once it was sewn I’d have it for other fabulous outfits so I kept going. Finally it came time to try it all on and …Oh My Goodness! The ^%$* thing is TOO BIG! I cut it out a month ago so back to the sewing machine. I was SO NOT feeling the love about this red wonder : (

The only thing that saved the day was the last-minute inspiration of the cars. The ladies on the pattern look like they’re going to church or a social (why else wear gloves?) so I thought, in which would I go visiting? The truck?

Fab truck : )

I’m loving the truck, but is it fancy enough for the dress?

Oh the car …

In between the coughing and the blowing of the nose I was able to finally see the dress doesn’t totally suck but if it was a piece of sand and I was an oyster we’d have a pearl by now…that’s all I’m sayin’.

Top close-up

It’s been a while since I was this happy at completing something that made me so unhappy. I’m still not convinced I’ll ever wear this again but by the end of the day I found a smile : )

Sort of a smile

Polka dots galore!

The Facts

Fabric: Cotton print from stash
Pattern: Simplicity 5059 & online tutorial
Year: Contemporary
Notions: 5 buttons from stash
Time to complete: 2 hours
First worn: January 2012
Wear again? yes!

Total Cost: Free…plus $5 for the waist cincher

I bought this pattern somewhere around 2005/6 thinking it would be a cute work-shirt. Then I changed jobs and wore a uniform of sorts everyday so this fell down….down….down….the stack. About a year and a half ago, while researching some online corset patterns I came across a tutorial written by a woman in Finland (!) for an underbust corset/waist cincher. It took me about 30 minutes at lunch to draft it to fit MY measurements and then I hopped off BART on my way home from work and went to a little fabric store in the Mission and found my fav – polka dots. Shocker huh? Went home, cut it out, did a basic fitting and then….

A year later, I pull the cincher out of the back of the closet and say “Oh yeah…but I need something to wear with it”. I’m an outfit girl – so I plowed through the first dozen or so boxes of patterns and here’s an old friend – cute collar, sleeve choices, fitted body, PERFECT! I cut it out, even went to my girlfriends house to stitch it up, got it to the point it just needed button loops, hems and… it sat : (

OK, this is why I wanted to do this whole Sew Weekly thing. Clear out this traffic jam of good intentions!

Suck it in and up!

This turned out to be a VERY good week to finish this up! This kind of sewing isn’t hard, just precise. You need to pay attention and I needed something to pay attention to. It probably took me half an hour to finish up the shirt (not precise sewing!) and then about six hours to finish up the waist cincher. I was able to combine my last weeks last-minute run into Stone Mountain Daughter with a stop at L’acis for grommets. It did take me about an hour to cut, round the ends and dip in tipping fluid the 24 bones in that sucker. I suppose had Ashton kitty not grabbed one of the finished bones and run off with it (we still haven’t found it) then I might have finished up a day before.

The tadalafil 30mg also does the same work in the similar way. This problem becomes a vast problem among the men throughout the world. link best viagra prices wholesale viagra india In many cases of diabetes-related ED, healthcare professional recommend the drugs accordingly. Safed Musli offers browse around that now cialis generika effective treatment for diabetes, cancer and boosts the immune system. The back

This week was just “one” of those weeks – from the Susan G Komen mess to a friends’ 13 year-old-daughter being scheduled for her second brain surgery in 9 months to the McDonald’s gaffe – by the time Saturday rolled around I had some frustrations to work out. What better way than pound the living crap out of some small pieces of metal with a hammer? HAH! Take that!! Hint – when it starts to get dark, its time to stop : )

What’s up?

So with my plethora of polka dots you can barely see the collar but it’s there. I love the fact that the buttons have loops instead of holes and the sleeves are cut as part of the top. Here’s the other problem with letting something sit this long – it’s now too big : ) Yes, my resolution to get into shape and lose weight is starting to work. So the whole thing, which fit a year ago, is now too big. I’ll get over it. And just so you don’t think that for one week I gave up my beloved red OR cherries–

The lining : )

This is the lining (she says giggling like a teenager). I gave up NEITHER red nor cherries!

Nice kitty…

I need to thank my lovely daughter, Brittany, for taking time out of her painting project at school to keep taking my pics. It was her idea to use the lion here and the art installation with the tree with the boxed leaves above. I have come to look at the weekly OMG_do-we-have-to-take-pictures-of-me-AGAIN part of this as an acting exercise. This week I’m channeling a suburban sewing dominatrix : ) Take THAT, grommets, get in line, lining!

AND NOW THE BONUS – I actually had TWO corset-y projects laying about, desperately needing finishing. This is a sneak peek at one of my little side projects that I finished up this week as well:

My “Ariel” corset

I had made the body of the corset but needed to finish inserting the busk (center front closure), all the boning, do the top and bottom finish work and grommets. My actual costs on this were only for the interlining and lining since the top is made entirely from SCRAPS from various projects. While not a hoarder (yet) I did run a costume shop for years. At some point I had an idea to do a crazy quilt with all silk scraps, so I saved a few pieces here and there and this is one of the projects I made with them. I did buy the sea horse charms ($5 for 20) and the octopus ($1) after re-reading “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. One day, when this is done, I’ll be able to go to a Steampunk event in fine style, and there will be an entire outfit with skirt, blouse, jacket and hat.

All those grommets : )

For this week, just being able to pound in all those grommets was good enough. Let’s do more UFO’s, this was GOOoooooooD!