Manic Pop

After almost a month later, my 1st professional dress form has finally arrived! Overall, I am very happy with how sturdy she is as well as the quality. It's almost identical to dress forms I learned on while at school and best of all, she's not on a tilt like my old dress form!  The service part about getting her to me is what I am unhappy with. I really, really, really wanted to like my experience with The Shop Company which is where she's from. Compared to home-sewing dress forms you can get at big retailers, she's a steal for the price. However, what I paid in price I seemed to have to "pay" in time and frustration. Story time! (this is a long one) : I ordered her on New Year's Day - a late Christmas gift from my mom as she didn't know what I wanted/needed. Ordering a dress form like this, I cried because I have come so, so far in the past year or two with my designs, shows I've been in, and things I have worked on, sold, etc....

Quick post about recent features and the latest bit of craziness I'm working on! Today I learned that I was featured on BurdaStyle in their "Best of October 2013" gallery ! I have no idea how long this particular gallery has been up, but I was surprised to see my face in there with the Trafalgar Dress! I've always wanted to be in their feature gallery for something and was really excited to find this out! I also may have had a featured member project at the bottom for the Sunrise Panel Top back in April, but I really have no proof of this. I just know that I got a slew of comments at once and 28 favorites on it! Also really exciting for me: A feature on We Sew Retro 's Facebook page for the Colorwheel Skirt in December! It's always really exciting for me to be recognized for my craziness. I do really hope that garments I make bring joy to people and I am really looking forward to be eventually releasing a PDF pattern to readers/fans/what have you...

It's funny how life pushes you out of places where you clearly don't belong. Many of you may remember that a short time ago (about a month and a half) I secured a new job at an office that had their production facilities below the office spaces. I was beyond excited about the opportunity as it meant forward momentum for me, normal 9 to 5 hours, and something new to try out.  The past two weeks, all of that unraveled on me. I was catching on, but there was SO much information to take in. I tried ridiculously hard to be up to speed but in the end, I didn't quite live up to expectations.  I don't know how it is in other office jobs, but this one literally required me to have about 10 tabs open on the screen and toggle through all those while I was on the phone, listening to the customer, writing down what the customer said, making a million memos on the customer's account, all the while trying to find information for the customer and responding back to ...

So while we were all under house arrest on Monday due to deathly windchills of -42 degrees here in Chiberia , I decided to make the best use of my time and use an old pattern  and make up a top! Max found this fantastic pseudo-Art Deco print at Textile Discount Outlet one day and persuaded me to get it. There was a little more than 2 or 3 yards left on the bolt so we just bought it all! This top is the same pattern I made for the top in which I call the Octobre Blouse .  I did send off the original Octobre blouse to my sister but I wanted to have a woven version of this design in my own closet! Bonus: As I was cutting out the front pieces, I didn't have to fuss with matching AT ALL. In fact, I didn't even think about matching for some odd reason. I just plopped my pattern down on the fabric and cut away. Good thing it turned out fine!   Percy was being super-needy and wanted to get into EVERY photo today. So he got his own shot.  Back view....

Well that was a fun little poll!  I asked and you guys all responded with a resounding 62% - the Petra dress will be my 1st PDF pattern. Don't worry though - if you liked either Sunrise or Scalloped Pocket Dress, those may eventually turn into PDF patterns as well!  At this point, barring any software issues I am scheduled to call for pattern testers in about 2-3 months. I'm giving myself a big lead time on it so I take my time and don't rush on it. The physical patterns have been made since July but now it's just a matter of sitting down and grading the pattern as well as digitizing it.  In the near future, I'll be making another Petra Dress in my size from the PDF I am creating before sending it out to testers! There will be a full instruction list along with sewing suggestions, cutting layout, fabric requirements, etc.  Let's take a closer look about the design!  The Petra dress has a gentle A-line shape flare, features a j...

And heeeeeeere's my latest!   I had been wanting to make a top of some sort for myself out of this leftover fabric for a long time now. You might recognize the fabric as the vintage fabric I used for the Sweetheart Dress (below) which was sold in June. This fabric is soooo soft!     The patterns I used for this top were the Judy dress patterns I made back in April. I just shortened the length on the pattern to allow for a top this time. The result is this fun, swingy top!  I don't pop my collars, but if I did... this would be the one to do it with!  My only slight qualm about this top is the sleeves. I made cap sleeves to go with it, but yet again forgot to account for my larger arm width. The result is liveable, but will be edited next time around. This is why in general I tend to buy sleeveless everything because even for a 5 foot girl, I have much larger arms than one would think!  My mom has the exact same problem.  ...

Alright, kids! I said that I wanted to release a PDF sewing pattern in 2014 and I'd like to make good on that. Here goes nothing! Right now, I'm in the planning stages of it all. The patterns are currently made for all of theses styles from 2013 but I need your help in choosing which one I should release! You can either leave your answer in the comments or click on the poll on the right sidebar - voting ends on January 9th.     ------------------------------------------------------>>>  Please note that all these patterns include POCKETS. Petra and Sunrise have inside side-seam pockets and the Scallop has designed slash pockets. The pattern will likely see a full release by late 2014, perhaps Autumn 2014.  More details closer as I move along on this. I'll need about 10 pattern testers about 2 for each size. I'm planning on US sizes varying between 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8. More information and photos on each design here: Petra Dress Sunr...

I have plenty to work on in the sewing room, but it's been a high of about 15 degrees lately (about -11 for my Celsius friends) and the sewing room gets super-cold as there is only one heating vent out in the hallway. The space heater can hardly compete with the drafty window up there from the 20s either. Needless to say it's been to my advantage to staying downstairs sketching in little notebooks my friend Jena made through her brand, Time Being Creative.  I feel like I stole this from a vintage crafts book, but this is really me! I'm wearing my Trafalgar dress design from a few months ago.  Here, I'm just making notes of the length of a top and did a quick sketch of the item I'm planning on cutting soon with patterns I made from the Judy Dress .  (Follow Jena @timebeingcreative on Instagram to see more of her notebooks she's making from vintage books/recycled papers.) Although I love designing and making clothing, I've bee...