Away From Desk

Taking the next few days off.  But before I left I did as much work on my dress as much as possible.  I cut out the sleeves and sewed them together and are in the arm holes of the bodice.  After that I cut a couple strips of 1 1/2 inch fabric to finish the edges of the sleeves and fabric to create the drawstring channel in the top of the dress.

Which wouldn't be possible without one of these suckers! Amazing straight lines, woo!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Love & Lollipops

Stop Procrastinating!

Buenas Noches Intrawebs!!! 

After a few days of procrastination and dragging my feet, I have finally dived into my next dress.  This is an Indian cotton block print fabric I got for super super cheap. WOO!  

 First step is to lay out the pattern pieces of the bodice (back, sides, and front) and pin them to the fabric.  Making sure that if you are working with a printed fabric that all the pieces of the bodice are the directions.  The little arrows will help you to make sure the pieces are all the same.

If you (like me) are smaller in the chest region and like additional room to gather and create the illusion of a larger bust, you can always add more.  

In the picture below you can see that I adjusted the front bodice piece to not directly align with the fold.  By moving the pattern piece back, this allows for additional room for the bodice gathering.  

Once you have the pieces together I like to lay them out flat to make sure the general shape of the bodice is taking place.

Now they are ready to be pinned together and sewen.  Be sure to always have your tomato handy!!

The curves in the back of the dress allow seem super awkward while sewing them together, but these allow for the natural curve of your body.  Be sure to use multiple multiple pins!

Once you have the pieces pinned, sew both side pieces to the back of the dress.  Once those are attached, pin the shoulder pieces to the back of the dress and then the side pieces to the front.  Then you have pretty much completed the whole bodice! 

Sorry for all the blurry pictures!  I was too excited to be starting this new dress! HOLLA!  

I always tend to sew after work so when starting a new dress after work, I always like to stop at this point.  The next day I will work on sewing the sleeves and creating the top drawstring channel in the bodice.  

I hope everyone has a great evening!! 

Love & Lollipops!

Being Lazy

It's been a while intrawebs!

I've been on the silent waves for the last few days.  My friend Jenna came up for Memorial Day weekend and we did nothing but shop until we dropped!  So much fun.

Now I gearing up and getting ready to head out to Victoria, British Columbia where some family have rented a cottage for a week.  I can't wait.  Words really cannot express how excited I am!! Though, I do have some major major concerns about the ferry ride there.  I have problems with boats ever since my cousin Corey scared the living shit out of me and my cousin Amy when we were little.  I just have major irrational fears about dying on the boat.  So for now, I'm keeping my eye on the fun distant stuff and not thinking about boat horror.

While Jenna was up visiting we stopped by the Portland Japanese Gardens up by out house.  The weather was perfect and all of Portland was out and about with us.  Here are some beautiful pictures

On To The Next One

Now that the pink dress has been finished, its time to move on to yet another dress.  About a month ago, I bought a cotton floral block print from India , 5 yards to make another round gown of epic.  Just not sure what sleeves I should should do.  I love the look of the short sleeves, but the only problem is that for a plus size girl (like me) they just tend to make your arm look 15 sizes bigger than it actually is.  Blarg.  So I think I might end up making elbow length sleeves for this dress.  The sleeves on the pink dress turned out very well, I think I'll copy them again!

Here is the fabulous fabric!

It will make another fabulous day dress for the Pittock Mansion Picnic in July.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, my friend Jenna is here from Eugene, OR and so I've been slacking on the dress making.  Though it is a very good idea to take a break every now and then so you don't get burned out.

Love & Lollipops

Pink Dress Completed

So finally this last Sunday, I completed the pink dress.  After all the moving and what nots, it took me close to a month and a half to finish this dress.   Much too long!  Hope you like!

Ribbon Ribbon and More Ribbon

It's Sunday, Funday, right?! 

This Sunday is spent hand sewing ribbon to the bottom of my dress.  Slowly and surely it is coming together.

Here I've got the hem laid out and the pinning a measuring to make sure lines are straight is all completed on the first row.  Then onto hand sewing small stitches to keep it in place.

After multiple stitches, and two Disney movies (Pocahontas and Lilo & Stitch) the first row was completed and ready for the next row.

I've got the second row measured out to 1 inch in between rows.  I first tried out 2 inches, but it looked like too big of a gap.  I'm only 5' 6" and 2 inches looked too big a took over too much of the dress since the ribbon its self is 1 1/2 inches wide.  

Well, back to the sewing table and on to watching Hercules.  Yes, I'm feeling like I'm 5 today while sewing.  Don't judge! lol

Have a great Sunday!

Love & Lollipops

Weekend Working

Good day inrawebs!  Up and at 'em!

Its a wonderful Saturday here in Portland, cloudy weather is back, but it's nice none the less.  This morning I've already managed to have some fun.  I kept Rebecca up from her night audit shift and we strolled over to the Beaverton Farmers Market and endulged in a couple delicious scones for breakfast and bought this beautiful hanging flower basket that we placed on our balcony.  I must admit I love living close to farmers markets and becoming more informed about buying locally and seeing raw and unprocessed veggies is so great!

After the market, I ran around and did a few adult errands like paying bills and getting an oil change for my car BORING stuff.  I finally made it over to Mill End Store in Beaverton to get more ribbon for my pink dress.

It is a fabulous wall of colors, prints, wired, silks, vintage! OH YEAH!  Only though I went in for pink ribbon, I spent another 45 minutes browsing through their whole selections of fabric.  I always tell my self too browse, you never know what you are going to find there in the store, especially in the clearance or discount section, they always set aside any left over pieces of fabric from bolts or if there were any stains on the fabric they cut it off and sell it at a cheaper price!  This is a great way to buy a little extra fabric to spice up a dress or hat up.

I always like looking in that section for small pieces of fabric that will make a reticule or a lovely flower for a hat.  You never know until you look! So after all the browsing in Mill End Store I finally took up the pink ribbon (which was a fresh 50 yard roll) up to the cutting counter and asked for 12 yards.  Not a bad price when its only .70 cents a yard.  The lady at the cutting counter kept finding snags in the fist few yards.  Then she found stains.  Oh my, she must have spent 10 minutes going through the whole spool checking for imperfections.  Finally towards the end of the roll we have an 8 yard piece and 4 yard piece that should work just perfect!

Now I'm back in the epic craft room drafting patterns in various sizes for drawstring dresses.  I really need to think of a great new for our craft room.  Studio just sounds too official and craft room just sounds too boring.  I need something historicaly and nerdy.  hehehe

Well, I'm going to push off and head back to work.  I've got a ton more patterns to trace and all of that pink ribbon needs to be sewn onto the gown.  I can't wait!  The dress is going to look soooooo good.  I have Disney princess movies keeping me motivated.  Current selection is Pocahontas.  Hope everyone has a fun productive weekend. Here are a few more random pictures of my craziness going on.

Pattern Making

Howdy Intrawebs!

Even though this week was really tough at work and filled with not so pleasant people,  I'm not out drinking with friends.   Instead I am taking my frustrations out in pattern making.  I'm making patterns for drawstring dresses sizes 6 through 26!  This is the not so fun part of dress making,  but a diabolical one.  A fabulous dress needs an even better foundation.

Hope everyone has a fantastic afternoon and an even better weekend.  Cheers to the weekend! 

Lunch Yumms

Totally not related to the shop at all, but great none the less!! #sushihana #FTW

Blarg-ity Blarg Blog

Good evening intrawebs!!

I'm lacking motivation today to work on my pink Regency dress.  I have three rows of pink ribbon to add the the bottom of the dress and then I am finished!  I ran out of the ribbon though last night so I'm stuck until I make it to Mill End to purchase 10 yards more.  

Today though, its 89 here in Portland, and I am taking a break.  It is too damn hot in the room without AC to work.  Sure it's going to get quite a bit hotter, once Summer finally knocks on our door, but for now I'm calling a timeout!

Side note...If you're in the Portland area and haven't been to Mill End Store you really should check them out.  They have two locations, one is SE Portland and one in Beaverton.  The SE location is probably close to double the size of the Beaverton location but both are equally fabulous!  If you're looking for any type of fabric and Joann's or your local fabric store are not quite cutting it, you're sure to find it at Mill End.  They have a lovely selection of cottons, Civil War reproductions, vintage prints, toile, voile, silks, ooooh the list goes on.  If you're a big quilter, they have a wide wide selection of printed cottons in a variety of colors, themes, and pizazz!

Well, I'm off for some much needed R&R and a cool beer.

Love & Lollipops!
Kelly

Up And Running...

Good afternoon intrawebs!!  Hope everyone had a good Tuesday at work or school or whatever it is you spend your day.  If it were me, I rather be sewing all day then spending my day at the surgery center, making sure all the surgeries are set and have everything they need.  One day I might make this shop up to a full time job.  Wouldn't that be amazing! For now, I look to keeping my sewing as a hobby that I share with others.  Making pretties and being happy is my goal!

Finally we have settled the epic craft room.  All fabulousness is settled and ready for projects.  I've got my pink dress out and ready to be completed.  I leave on vacation to Canada in a few weeks and look to take my pink dress and photograph it in the Butchart Gardens.  I pray the weather fairs for the trip and the photographs I hope to take.

Here is the main cutting and sewing tables in our craft room.  Rebecca is there on the right and my spot is on the left (all for my left handedness! lol)

Here's an awkward one of me trying to take a panoramic picture of the room and Rebecca being a goof ball! 

Well, I best get on to working hard on my dress and getting to work on future dresses for other ladies in need of fabulous dresses!

Love & Lollipops
Kelly

Where-o-Where Did My Intrawebs Go?

Hey Everyone! 

It has been a long long time....Well not so long, but long enough without internet!

We have finally moved into the new apartment and the new studio is beginning to take shape!  We have it stuffed with boxes and cutting tables, sewing machines, fabric, ribbon, the list goes on! I'm hoping we will have the studio up and running by next week.  My pink dress awaits to be completed!

I hope you all have a great weekend.  Maybe you're starting a new project or finishing a long time running project.  Remember to take a break if you're getting frustrated at you're project.  Take 15 minutes and come back to it.  Nine times out of ten, you'll be able to finish after that break. 

Happy Sewing Friends!

I'm off to sort the studio and clean the old apartment later.  The worst part of moving! Ugh :P

It Is Upon Us...

Well we saw the apartment we are moving into and all is a go!!  We sign the papers this weekend and the Rebecca wants to move in next week.  I don't think she fully took in the fact that I work and Monday through Friday job 8 to 5.  Though, it looks like things might work out just fine.  I'm just a natural worry wort type of person.  I like to have all my ducks in row and make sure I think of all 20 angles to make sure nothing will go awry. 

Aside from moving stuff, I just heard that Butterick Patterns has redone their Regency pattern.  I think most Regency enthusiasts would agree with me in saying this pattern is bollocks.  This pattern is made for a modern day figure without taking in the account that Regency stays (or corset) are needed to give you the proper silhouette.  I feel like this pattern could turn south and give many women the pregnant silhouette that all women try to avoid.  If you have a properly fitted set of stays and dress you love, all women can avoid looking frumpy and pregnant.  If you're looking for a quick, simple make this is for you.  Though I feel you will be stuck with an ill-fitting dress you may never want to wear again.  

Check out the pattern here. 

There are many options available for those who look to start up in Regency re-enactment, do not give up hope.  Keep on searching or if you find there is a dead end, you could always create a group your self.  Sometimes people just need a little encouragement that they're not the only ones out there.

Until next time intrawebs.  Enjoy this picture of the oodles and oodles of buttons I scored....for free!!!

 
This girl is out to enjoy the 90 degree weather outside in Portland today, a quick walk up to the store to get some FroYo!