Collaboration: Tanith Hat and Dress

Today's blog post is in collaboration with the lovely Tanith of Tanith Rowan Designs!

Tanith has been doing a great series on hats through the decades and picked me to be her 60s girl! Make sure to check out all of her posts!

I was so excited when Tanith asked me to be a collaborator for this series - based in Australia, she makes some really beautiful vintage-inspired hats! Via our original correspondence some time in February, we talked about my love for bright, out-there colors as well as how I was getting into the whole arrow-motif thing. She was able to put a fun arrow on this hat!

She kept the hat a surprise so when I opened the box I only knew she was sending a helmet-style hat, which I love.

For my contribution to this collaboration, we decided I should make a garment to match with it. I've been wanting an arrow dress for some time, and this is what I came up with!

Quick Photoshop of my sketch for the colorways. Initially, the arrow oddly wasn't a part of the dress until it was suggested by a friend. I think the arrow totally makes this dress, aptly titled the Tanith Dress!

It's finally nice enough to take photos outside again and we waited for a much warmer day to take these photos. It topped out at almost 80 this day!

The same person whose idea it was to add the arrow also suggested it look like it was raining in some of the photos. I love the way these shots in the gangway turned out!

And here I am with my Mary Tyler Moore-esque moment!

A very special thanks to Tanith with this, especially sending it from halfway around the world! It was tons of fun and I'm totally looking forward to more collaborations!

And now that the weather is finally nice enough out.... expect more outside photos for my next creations.

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

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