Recent Features and Update

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 for purchase. (Yes, still working on it. These things take time!)

I am currently also working on a dress that came to me the other day. I decided it will be part of the new 2014 Manic Pop collection I'll be putting onto a design board soon with the intention of making most, if not all the dresses. This collection may be delayed and/or postponed due to the PDF pattern getting precedence this year, but we'll see.

The dress is currently in the sewing stages, but here is the muslin version with the shapes tacked onto the bodice:

The colors I will be using on this dress are fantastic. Max says they are definitely "my colors" but hey - it's good to be known for something, right? There are also more pieces I added after I took this photo, and the design will be symmetrical on the front of the dress.

This dress is inspired by the prismatic designs, as I call them, that I do. I noticed that I'm really into doing them in the winter and thought, "Why don't I bring this element into my fashion design work?"

I know I have posted these pieces before, but these are prismatics I drew out a few years ago and colored in with watercolor pencil.

So that's that for the moment! I finally have Illustrator on my computer again to get started with the PDF, so expect the blog to be a bit quieter for a bit while that gets worked on. Perhaps I'll do some fun posts about other cool things in the mean time.

Comments

Latch Hook Rug Update

A little under a month ago I received all of my supplies to take on one of the biggest long-term projects I have ever taken on - a self-designed latch hook rug. I don't know why, but I am clearly nuts. So beginning today I am posting photos each month, (preferably on the 1st of each month) progress of this gigantic shag rug. See how I started it here (scroll down past posting of my $10 dress). This is a photo of it today: Yes, I used the candelabra for scale. Haha. This rug is really soft and is fun to run your fingers through. It doesn't look like much was accomplished, but though the number of packages we have gone through of pre-cut latch hook rug yarn already I have calculated that we've used over 2500 strands for this ie.) 8 packages. I also just ordered 10 more packages of lime green since that's what I ran out of first and 6 more packages of straw yellow. There is still quite a bit to go, but you see the blue row squares? Each of th

DIY Trapeze Dress

I'm a pretty big fan of tent dresses (or trapeze dresses - call it what you want). They're simple, easy-to-make and you can have many variations of them. These are a fun style to wear for spring and summer! See this DIY from a Good Housekeeping Crafts book from 1971 - photos at the end of my own trapeze top from a while ago! (Bear with me on the photos here - this book is quite cumbersome and hard to scan.) Applique patterns, in case you wanted the dress to look EXACTLY like the photo. (But why?) How to cut the fabric efficiently. (This is actually pretty important cost-wise for you - especially with something this big.) Using pattern instructions from my patternmaking book from college, I created this swingy trapeze top a bit ago. I used sweater fabric from a thrift store find for the collar of this top. I also opened up the back on the pattern to have a diamond shape. It can easily be belted like in this photo fo

Shingo Sato and the Art of Transformational Reconstruction

So I got really excited on my break at work today when I got an email from Burda about a webinar they're doing on a pattern technique called "Transformational Reconstruction" developed by Japanese designer Shingo Sato. I hadn't even heard of Shingo Sato until today let alone his design technique but oddly, it's sort of the path I'm going down with my designs anyway as seen with the Sunrise Panel dress as well as the Petra Dress and the pattern making involved in those designs. What I did there is perhaps a "light" version of Sato's where the darts and shaping are hidden in the seam lines. If you've been reading this blog long enough, you know that my design aesthetic focuses largely on color blocking, unusual seam lines, and a love of anything psychedelic. Note: All photos stolen from the internet. Sorry! I'm super-excited. Let me know if it's yours and I'll take it down. Shingo Sato teaching. More designs using

Manic Pop