miss unkon spring/summer 2010.

Currently, I'm sitting at my parent's house fighting sleep after a full day. All of my family is here (!!), and after I worked at American Apparel in the morning, Neil and I drove down to see them and spend the night eating good food and watching a concert at Puckett's in Leiper's Fork. Afterwards, we all stayed up extra late talking on the porch, enjoying a surprisingly cool night.

I might be tired, but I really needed to share some of my favorite photos from Australia's own Miss Unkon's Spring and Summer 2010 Lookbook. The photos are very romantic and dreamy, all with a distinctly 70's feel - cut out backs, long and flowing pleated skirts, plenty of sheer button ups. Ruffles and straw hats and lace up boots. The crop top in a pretty brown liberty print with renaissance sleeves is by far my favorite.

See the rest of the collection here.

Now it's past two in the morning, and going to bed sounds ridiculously nice. I'm going to shut my computer and get some rest, because tomorrow will be a full day of sisterly blog photos and eating out in Nashville and touring old Southern mansions. Goodnight!

shop update.. born on the fourth of july. and a ridiculously awesome etsy sale!

Etsy update! Some red, white, and blue for you.

The 1960's striped floral romper and 1990's high waisted denim striped shorts are in the shop now. The red bandana maxi skirt and 1970's crocheted crop top will be added tomorrow, so check back!

Now for some cool sale news. I'm offering a buy one item, get another item FREE sale on all of my white background items in the shop (hint - that's about 98% of them)! The offer applies to ALL white background items, even sale stuff, so definitely take advantage of it!

The lesser of the two items is free, and the sale lasts through Sunday, July 4th. You'll be refunded through Paypal after the purchase. I've really got to make room for all of my new items, yo.

Happy Monday! What are you looking forward to this week? My sisters are coming to visit in a couple of days, and I can't wait!

sewing saturday. handmade medallion curtains.. and some shop news!

This weekend's project is something Neil and I really needed in our house.. every window of ours is bare, save for some pretty ugly off white blinds. And it's also, by far, the easiest Sewing Saturday ever.

Curtains.

The curtains I decided to sew are fairly simple, although I'm planning some cute, ruffled valances for our kitchen one day (really kitschy style and feminine.. maybe gingham or seersucker?), which will be a little more complicated to make. But for these, all it took was sewing a few straight lines.

Ingredients you'll need.. enough fabric to cover the window space (plus seam allowances), a curtain rod, scissors, a tape measurer, thread, and a sewing machine.

My fabric was originally an Urban Outfitters tapestry that we used to cover our bedspread. Lucky for me, all of the edges were finished and it exactly fit our large windows in the living room. Because the edges were finished, it saved me a LOT of time.

First, I asked Neil to put the curtain rod up. Then, I measured out the fabric to check that it'd fit the window, then to make sure I knew which side to cut. I cut it in half down the middle.

Then, I finished the two raw edges of the halves I had just cut. Afterwards, I pressed the tops of both halves down, insides together, by three inches to form a casing for the curtain rod. I sewed the casing shut.

You guys, it was seriously that simple.

Here is what the window area looked like before.

And here is its new look with the finished curtains!

I tied the curtains with a bit of black lace that I had stashed away in my sewing room. Our television faces the windows, so it'll be nice to pull the curtains shut when we're watching movies during the day. Or when I'm playing Mass Effect 2 and I want it all sci fi creepy style.

I've got some exciting shop news to share with you! Just recently, I bought about thirty beautiful vintage pieces, pieces I'm very much in love with. They hail from the 40's all the way to the early 90's.. prairie maxi dresses, cute 90's crop tops and striped high waisted shorts, lovely 40's silk blouses, and all sorts of pretty floral rompers from the 60's.

A couple favorites are the white dress with eyelet lace detail at the bottom and the blue and white striped shirt dress -a golfing dress from the 40's. The yellow gingham mini is not too far off, either. You might recognize the velvet bodice Gunne Sax maxi from a post a week or so ago.. I can't let go of that one for awhile.

The honey colored maxi with lace trim and heart and floral detail was actually owned by Skeeter Davis during her touring days nearly forty years ago!

Because I need to make room for my new summer stock, I'll be having a serious sale starting Monday.. so definitely check back tomorrow to see my shop update and sale!

Here's a glimpse of some lovely items that will be hitting the shop soon.

In other news, my college friend Jessica asked me to guest post on her blog about my new hometown! Check it out here.

american apparel outfit no. 2.. seersucker bloomers. and a giveaway winner!

Sheer Peter Pan Collar Blouse - American Apparel

Blue and White Seersucker Bloomers - American Apparel

Lace Ruffle Socks - American Apparel

Brown Wooden Wedge Sandals - Madewell

I was planning on posting photos of my visit with a couple of friends to the Golden Age of Couture exhibit at the Frist, but I accidentally deleted my favorite photo and now I'm just mad. So I'll post these American Apparel pictures instead.

So, this is my trial wear of the AA seersucker bloomers! While I ended up liking them, they weren't my absolute favorite (a little too short for me, I think), so I exchanged them for something else after I tried them on for these pictures. I did recently buy the riding trousers in black, which can easily take the place of these bloomers in this outfit. I'm in love with the pants.

The blouse is another great buy. What's not to love about a sheer top with a peter pan collar? It comes in a pretty mint green shade, which would have been my choice if not for the versatility of the white. It's great to wear with tighter slacks to contrast the looseness of the top, but I wear it with my baggy chambray jumper pants, too.

Now for a giveaway announcement! The winner of the blog anniversary giveaway, via random.org, is Peony of Peonies and Mushrooms! Congrats, Peony!

Last bit of news.. the vintage cotton blue floral overalls are in the shop. Navy polka dot dress to be added tomorrow!

Happy weekend!

a belated sewing saturday.. finishing the brown corduroy overalls with ruffled bib and bloomers.

Sewing Saturday on Tuesday! Yeah! Well, today I finished up the corduroy onesie with detachable bib and suspenders.

I began where I left off last week.. by topstitching along the ruffled bib, about 1/4 inch from the edges.

Once that step was finished, the bib was pretty much done. I then had to move onto constructing the shorts. I did the usual steps - sewing the front and back pieces together at the center seam (leaving room for a short zipper in the back), sewing the front to back pieces together at the side seams, then sewing the legs together at the crotch. I cut all of the inside seam excess with my pinking shears and pressed them flat.

I also sewed darts at the waistline in the back.

Once the shorts were put together, I sewed the zipper into the back at the waistline. I then pressed one inch of the leg ends upward to the inside, then folded them up another inch to form a casing for elastic. I sewed the shorts at the top and bottom of the casing, leaving an opening for the elastic to go through. I cut two strips of 5/8 inch elastic, measuring them so they'd fit my thighs comfortably. Then, I slipped the elastic in using my new favorite safety pin method.

Once the elastic had been sewn in and the casing finished, I moved onto the waistband. When making these overalls, I made a big mistake.. I found out that I didn't have quite enough fabric for the entire project. I had to make do by squishing some of the pattern pieces together, which resulted in a mismatched nap waistband. Also, I had to sew two pieces of corduroy together to make the waist band. My friend Lauren warned me about keeping the pattern pieces pinned the way the instructions tell you to, even if placing them another way will save you fabric. Well, I learned my lesson. The waistband doesn't look terrible, but it could have looked better if I had just bought some extra corduroy to make it properly.

That being said, once the waistband had been constructed, I sewed thin elastic cord to the front of the waistband. They were pieces about two and a half inches long, intended to make 5/8 inch loops. I pinned them to their proper places on the band and then sewed them on, being careful to remove the pins before sewing.

I folded the top of the waistband over by 5/8 inch, pressed it, trimmed it, sewed it to the top of the shorts, then folded the band in half and pressed it again. Then, I sewed the band, folded hot dog style, over itself, sewing near the original seam at the waist of the shorts.

I had some overlap in the back, which was intentional. I sewed a hook and eye enclosure to the overlap above the zipper. Then, I sewed buttons onto the suspenders and bottom of the ruffle bib.

That's all! And here is the corduroy onesie.

The waist doesn't actually fit me. It's a bit too boxy, so I'm going to slip elastic into the waistband and hopefully that'll solve the problem.

It feels good to have these overalls finished, maybe because with all of this recent busyness, it felt like I'd never have time to get them done. Now that they are finished, I can move onto my next project.. which is all lined up. I'll be making this dress out of a very special fabric. More soon!

One day left to enter my sewing giveaway!