Manic Pop

And here I bring you a fun little blog post I worked on for a few days... a late 1960s color palette story! You can thank Timehop for making me remember that a book I have on my shelf has a really cool page of color suggestions in the 1960s for dress design. The book is "The Co-Ed Sewing Book" by Marian Ross which was apparently published in 1968. (See below image.) It's taken a bit of a beating, and upon further inspection, it appears that my mom may have stolen it from a library when she was a kid (haha). There is evidence that there was a library log card envelope on the back page. So, thank you mom for stealing this book all those years ago so it can reside in my collection! If you haven't had the chance to run into this book yourself, it is chock-full with beginner sewing information: from the absolute basics, like choosing colors for you and making fashion work for you, to measurements, talking about thread basics, cutting procedures, as well as seam ...

This post is going to be really straight forward, but I am finally getting around to making myself some much-needed tops! This pattern was SO easy to put together it was almost insulting. Haha. You only need to cut 2 pattern pieces (front and back). I also measured and cut my own neckline bias binding because I didn't have twill tape on hand and I wanted the neckline to match. Needless to say, I cut and sewed this pattern up in about an hour -- no joke! I took lots of breaks/lazing around in between making it so I didn't make it straight through, but it was no more than an hour and a half of sewing and that's including installing a back zipper. I'm always at odd with myself when I make things: Should I make something that actually challenges my vast knowledge of sewing and design skills or should I make things that I will actually wear even though they're super easy? Super-easy and wearable won this time.  Zipper open, obviously. I could have v...

I'm at a total loss with how to present my second version of Simplicity 6299 so here goes nothing.... Yep! I'm back to bad Photoshopping. Haha. With the holiday season being around, being a retail manager, and winter in Chicago (though it hasn't been bad at all) it makes it nearly impossible to take photos of things I have made recently. So I resorted to taking photos against a blank wall and creating... this. It's actually apparently a sketch of Chicago somewhere but I just liked the linework of it. I need to develop my perspective drawing skills. Some of you may remember me posting this sketch deciding between 1 and 2 on my Instagram and clearly, I decided on version 1. It was a hard decision though! (And don't ask me why the sketch is more yellow versus orange, I can't figure it out either.) One thing I've been failing to do is show photos of things on my dressform. I don't know why I don't do that, aside from the fact that I'm ...

I'm back with a new dress that I made! Funny story: This is a dress that almost wasn't. I was cruising around the fabric store one day just picking up some invisible zippers (my go-to rarely has a large selection of invisible zippers) and both my boyfriend and I happened to find this pattern on sale at the store. I really love that pattern companies are reissuing old designs of theirs and Simplicity has always been one of my favorite pattern companies. Here's the 60s version of the pattern packet from 1969. I almost didn't buy the pattern as I didn't really have any plans for it: I'm the weirdo that doesn't buy fabric or patterns without a specific plan. This is probably because my mom spent hundreds of dollars on projects she never even started and fabric she never used when I was a kid. I personally don't want to have a collection of "someday" things cluttering my sewing space. I bought the pattern anyway and I remember thi...

Quick blog post here -- Wanted to "drop off" another one of my creative projects I've been working on. A few years ago in 2010, I got really into these designs I called "prismatic designs" inspired by weirdly enough, a coloring book by Peter Von Thenen . I think it's funny that adult coloring books have become "all the rage" now because I've kept that Von Thenen book mostly untouched (except the ones I did when I was from around age 11-15) in my arsenal of inspirational books. Fearing no one would ever make anything remotely like it ever again, I started drawing up some of my own to color -- my absolute favorite one to date of mine which I call "The Elk" . I've recently taken to doing "mini" ones at the moment since they're arguably less time-consuming and they are, well... cuter. My latest one I drew up is only 6" by 11" (where my old ones were 11" by 14".) So, without further ado, here...

I know it's been a long time, but I have FINALLY gotten around to taking photos of a dress I made literally like, 6 weeks ago. I initially had another project up before this one, but for some reason, I couldn't NOT cut this dress first. The dress is New Look 6299 by Simplicity and I had found this amazing and crazy Pepsi scallop print from fabric.com that I seriously could NOT stop thinking about. Yes, I could have made this sewing pattern on my own very quickly (and basically have with my Tanith Arrow Dress ) but I'm still working on completely refining my pattern blocks. Plus, these days I'm lazy, I don't have a ton of time, and when I get a cool combo in my head I just need to go for it and not waste the time I have to work on things. From far away, there is no indication that this dress has "Pepsi" printed all over it. And that's what I love about it. Upon closer inspection, you notice it has a retro-ish "Pepsi" in the ...

Sometimes, too much knowledge can be a BAD thing.... I know lots of people might say, "But you went to fashion design school! How can you make a mistake like that!?" Well folks, it happens. And because one of my main goals in life is to help people out and provide tips and tricks I want you all out there in TV Land to learn from my failures. Here's another tale about the importance of ease . This time, the tale is told from a commercial pattern standpoint. (Also, deal with my phone camera photos on this one, peeps! My new phone is just about as good as my 5-year-old SLR at this point anyhow.) Here is a photo of me excited about my work before I figured out my huge mistake.  My idea was to use a commercial pattern I had bought for $3 for this tunic top which turned into a dress (because Lord knows I don't need any more dresses!). But I had the fabric and I went ahead and cut fabric for a dress anyhow.  Being less well-versed in commercial pattern usa...