OFW : Dress Draft Preview

This is a totally self-explanatory and photo-heavy post but I like to be thourough.

What we have here, is a failure to comm... I mean, is a dress form "pinned" and "framed" for the bodice pattern. It is a simple sweetheart neckline bodice and I fidjeted with it for around an hour. Stopping, then coming back to make it even and make it pretty. I used hot pink yarn to make it pretty, too!

The next step is to measure each of the yarn "lines" and draw them onto a huge roll of Kraft paper and make the pattern on that. I think I need to buy/find a french curve ruler and a yardstick to find the contours of the pieces so they fit to the body.
Definitely a yardstick.
Then this makes your pattern pieces, you cut them out and get bus-ay sewing.
This is essentially THE pattern until I get said roll of Kraft paper. Then the skirt I am making a 4-panel wonder with a petal front opening. Should be simple enough for me to figure out: bodice with gathered 4-panel skirt.
Quote me... I say this now.

I'll update next time I work on it again!

Tie-Dye for Christmas!

Hi all,
I wanted to introduce you to someone.

Everyone, this is Richard. He lives and tie-dyes in Vermont and it is his likelihood. He has no car, he rents his shop/home and he has expenses just like all of us. Read his blog here.
I personally own a rainbow swirl hoodie he made with his hands and Shawn ows one, too. We love tie dye and we received these hoodies as gifts. They make an excellent gift.
Richard makes his GORGEOUS tie dyes with his hands and he has practiced, practiced, practiced his techniques. He can make all kinds of amazing shapes and he even makes things in NFL colors!

This cool pink and black spiral tee is only $10!!! Who doesn't look for $10 Christmas gifts for people?!

There is something for everyone in the family! This onesie is under $14!!! Completely unique with every order! No two are ever the same.

Richard can dye STARS!!! I have never seen this before and have NO clue how to make them, but he has even written a book to help you make this kind of shirt if you're a DIYer!!!



So hop on over to the shop and the blog, say hello and see if you can't find something for yourself or someone else! The bargain basement is my favorite but I like all the baby stuff, too!

PS: I received no compensation for this review. I just love Richard's work and believe in the quality of it that much!

OFW : Drafting the Wedding Dress

Hello everybody!

While I have been away I have been busy, busy, busy!!!

I sketched out 3 ideas for the gown design...

The Original

Mizrahi Spring '12 Inspired

Then a short and/or convertible version of the Original.

This will be the first pattern I have to draft and design myself, too. Every article of clothing (with very few exceptions) needs a pattern. Since this is just a sketch I will have to "block out" my dress with a generic strapless gown shape and then get crafty with a yard stick, Kraft paper, sharpies, yarn, pins and my newly-acquired pride-and-joy: my dress form!!!

Usually dress forms are around $200 and I need to set that kind of cash aside for my fabric and Muslin mock-up yardage. I had literally NO options available to me to get a dress form before Christmas to get working NAOW.

Yes, I checked craigslist. Yes, I checked teh e-bays. No dice at all there.

$75 was the best deal I could find. I'd rather invest in one that is a working dress form and is adjustable from my-size and up, instead of buying a half-solution to my problem and having another problem to deal with. I was really racking my brain until Shawn reminded me what he mentioned last year (when I was going through the would-I-have-to-make-my-dress situation): Grandpa has one in his basement. Grandma bought it before she left Earth to make dresses with and never got to use it.

HOWWWW did I forget that?!

In any case... it was there. And it's not perfectly sized but it was perfectly free. And that covers up a lot of size issues. It can still be used to pin, draft and drape! So it will work.

It is now living in my office tingling with purpose.

AHHHH! I am SO excited now! NOTHING is standing in my way! Plus I just had a huge ego-boost: I can make my dress pattern WITH MATH!

The A-Line Ballgown Skirt is really a simple cone. To find the surface area of the skirt would be as good as knowing how many yards my pattern will take to complete the skirt before it is even made. I just have to divide my computing units into meters and take care to note they are in SQUARE INCHES. Failure to take note of that could increase my cost and leftover fabric approximately enough to piss me off for a whole day. So I took note.

As I block it out I will take pictures and post the progress of each step! I'm sorry if I'm not as fast movign as I'd like to be but it is the holiday season and I DIY a lot of my gifts for people! My hands will either be crocheting, blogging or pinning!

Just keep hanging in there with me!

One Year Ago!

A year ago today I found my wedding dress. If you'd like to read the story again click the link below! It is the most-read story on the blog!

Happy 11.11.11 - Peace Day + Vet's Day

peace/pēs/

Exclamation:	Used as a greeting.
Noun:	Freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility.
Synonyms:	quiet - calm - tranquillity - tranquility - stillness

 

 

Peace is most defined AS a lack of hostility. I do not believe this wholly; Peace IS a capacity to hold conflicting ideas about how people live and to accept each of those ideas as equally good to the others so long as it does not disturb your own life. Without this, Peace cannot be achieved.

I am highly, highly spiritual and have no exclusive religious beliefs belonging to any one religion but I have studied Christian theology at Creighton University in Omaha, NE and I learned something about good and evil. Good is not a lack of evil; evil is a lack of good. Everything is inherently good. And if it Is, it is meant to Be.
I believe we are all connected and all thoughts come to us from whatever or whoever God is. To have the peace of God, you must acknowledge the connections between us and revel in the differences among us.

Most humans haven't discovered that there is NO way to completely agree with everyone, which I find silly. Nothing is for Everyone. Of course you won't agree with what everyone has to say; not everyone agrees with you. However, we are all human and any thoughts conflicting or otherwise, join us together.

Feel the oneness you have within yourself, then to the person closest to you. Think about how you may disagree with them on something, but how you still love them very much. Extend that love for yourself and those close to you to any others in our one race of Human and you will find Peace.

Peace is not a lack of anything; it merely Is.