sewing saturday! brocade holiday dress

Over the weekend, I managed to finish the brocade holiday dress I had started last month and left woefully undone - but now it is ready for Christmas wear, and I can't wait.

Beginning from where I left off in part one, it was time to piece together the three pieces of the skirt - one front piece and two back pieces - so I sewed them together at the side seams, leaving room for a zipper opening in the back center. Then, I put together some soft pleats along the waistline of the skirt by folding pieces of the skirt towards the lines given in the pattern, pinning them in place and carefully sewing them in within the seam allowance (about 1/2 an inch from the edge).



Once the skirt was ready, I sewed the bodice lining to the bodice with right sides together, leaving the bottom edges open.



After the lining and bodice pieces were connected, I trimmed their seams and darts and turned the bodice right-side out, pressing it flat.

Then, the dress was nearly finished - I pressed open the seam allowance for the zipper in the center back of the skirt and sewed the skirt and bodice together, matching edges. I then sewed the zipper in place in the center all the way to the top of the bodice and finished the hem of the skirt.



And it's done!




As seen in part one, I sewed some non fusible interfacing into the top of the skirt and at the time, I doubted whether it was necessary since its point was to keep the skirt stiff and the brocade already did that, since it is such a sturdy fabric. Honestly, now that the dress is all finished I do think it makes a difference. The skirt is tulip-shaped and really structural which is my favorite part, but the bodice is close since the lining turned out so smooth underneath. I didn't have to topstitch the arm or neck openings because it lays flat so well (oh lining you are worth the effort). I love this dress, and now I have a great holiday jumper to wear over silk blouses.. buy the navy brocade fabric from Mood here.

If you haven't entered the chevron necklace giveaway, you can still do so! I'm announcing the winner tomorrow. Happy Monday!

frances baker s/s 2012

Australian beauty Josie Ryder has come up with another Frances Baker summer collection, featuring simple organic cotton day dresses with intricate details you can expect from a Frances Baker piece - princess seams, ruffled hems, flattering open back dresses with bow fastenings, handprinted fabrics. My favorite? The Hannah dress with a cape-like upper bodice and empire waist. The floral dresses seem to fit perfectly with their backdrop of Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, evoking images of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Shop the collection here.



Josie is also offering a $250 voucher giveaway, open through the month of December! Be sure to enter.

chevron necklace giveaway

Pink Sunshine is a series of fun and unique jewelry designed and created by Jess Lucas in her hometown of London. Her latest line features necklaces with needlework pendants and other sweet details like arrow charms and recycled materials. My favorite pieces are the ones inspired by folk Scandinavian designs, like the tapestry envelope and hexagon necklaces.. they add just a touch of geometric pattern and color to any outfit.

Today, Jess is offering a giveaway to one lucky reader, to keep for yourself or give as a gift this holiday season - the chevron needlework necklace in gray and mint!



To enter the giveaway, simply comment on this post telling me how you'd style this necklace or list your favorite Pink Sunshine piece. Extra entries for sharing - share this post on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, and submit a second comment on this post with a link! The giveaway is open to international readers as well.

Also, readers receive an extra 20% discount in the Pink Sunshine shop by entering the coupon code PinkLeopold. Giveaway ends Monday, December 10th!

porter flea holiday market

It's that time of year again! Tomorrow is December 1st, which marks the annual Porter Flea Holiday Market. I will be present with a bunch of newly sewn and dyed items in tow including dip dye blouses, totes, and more. Some of my vendor friends will make an appearance as well like Tuft Design and Tiny Boot Vintage.

A favorite booth I always have to check out at Porter Flea each season? My Favorite Plum. The shop is filled with an assortment of delicious cookies and cakes all made by Rebekah Turshen, pastry chef at City House. That lady has a gift.

Hope to see you there, locals!

on film: autumn

A Charlie Brown Christmas was on television tonight during dinner so Neil and I got festive and watched it. TV knows it; the world is officially in holiday mode.

So, this is my goodbye to a frantically short fall, a season that seems to fly by within hours now - my favorite time of the year. Here are some shots Neil and I took over the last few months.. bonfires with friends, walks through Percy Warner Park, coffee at Barista Parlor, even a trek down through the bowels of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky this September (where our guide showed us the importance of a single small lantern in one monumentally sized cavern).



I'm busy again - as everyone is this season - this time with school applications and preparation for Porter Flea this weekend. I will be back soon! In the meantime, I will be surviving on coffee and essay writing. Fortunately, Neil is brewing a chemex of special Counter Culture coffee in the kitchen and I have the debut of Josie's latest Frances Baker collection to keep me distracted.

abstract

Thrifted graphic silk shirt, vintage leather backpack
H&M faux leather oxblood trousers
Madewell zipcode boot

Back! In the last week, I made a giant checklist and cleared maybe a quarter of it. But hey, progress is progress. It felt good to take a future-focused break.

This fall has been the season of the oversized silk shirt. More and more, dresses have dwindled in my closet and given way to fitted trousers and big silk button ups. My uniform for home wear is almost always a pair of leggings and a sweater or shirt (just ask Neil), so maybe it's a comfort thing.. although as I type this I'm finishing the most feminine and fitted dress I've ever sewn for myself, probably. The brocade dress from last Sewing Saturday, in time for Thanksgiving festivities.

Something else I've been into fashion-wise is the graphic, abstract print - both in tops and bottoms. I'm currently studying up on my art, mostly expressionism, as I apply to schools for both arts administration and game design grad programs (strange juxtaposition I know but I love both programs and I do feel they're related), so the concepts have probably weaseled their way into how I look at clothes. All of this reading up has certainly given me inspiration for my next round of marble dyed pieces to sell at Porter Flea next month.

Twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, I allow myself one major shoe purchase (major to me is anything over a hundred dollars).. which means they have to be something exceptional to last throughout the season, given the way I treat my shoes. Last spring, I bought a pair of Dolce Vita coral wedges. This fall, I chose the Madewell zipcode ankle boot in black leather and I have no regrets thus far. They're extremely versatile with a low enough heel to be worn comfortably all day. Plus they're 25% off right now in stores and online, so grab them if you can.

Packing our bags tonight in preparation for a drive down to my parent's house in the morning - Happy Thanksgiving, US friends!

wish list: german expressionism

From left to right - 1940s starburst velvet evening gown, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff woodcut featured at the Frist Center, SheInside abstract southwestern sweater, vintage platform leather boots, Yochi rhinestone burst earrings, vintage Fritz Lang university program, Milan Design leather tote

The Frist Center in Nashville is hosting a German Expressionism exhibit until February 10, and in celebration of it they're also sharing free screenings of old Expressionist films including Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and The Blue Angel (which I've never seen). I swear I'm almost as excited about these screenings as I am about the Grace Coddington interview coming to the Frist next month, which should be spectacular.

News of the German Expressionism exhibit inspired me to put together a small wish list of pieces that remind me of screenshots from a Fritz Lang film - or rather what a modern-day Lang film would look like, in my head. This abstract movement in art and film is easily one of my all-time favorites, especially since it gave birth to film noir. See my Metropolis screenshots here.

I'm taking the next week off from blogging for a small recharge break, mainly to get my act together and turn in some grad school applications. See you guys next week!

sisters

Being the youngest of three sisters, I never grew out of looking up to my two older (and cooler) sisters - even when they were a million steps ahead of me and already listening to good music and wearing cute thrifted clothes (while I was still dressed in Abercrombie and listening to boy bands with barbed wire tattoos around their biceps), I knew they were cool - so whenever they wear something I make or approve of something I did, it gives me a sense of pride that I don't get elsewhere. Last month, I marble dyed a silk top in thanks for my sister Rhiannon's help styling my fall/winter collection, and she recently wore it during a Mississippi road trip to William Faulkner's home in Oxford (thanks for liking my stuff Rhi!).



 See the post here, photos by Drew.

sewing saturday! brocade holiday dress, part one

I've been really bad at keeping up with Sewing Saturday posts lately (the last one was back in September), but now that the holidays are coming up I intend on sticking to a weekly project, I promise.. this is the best time of the year to sew, after all - holiday dresses and jackets and velvet and wool!

So I'm skipping ahead to a seasonal project I'm excited about. After starting two different projects and not having the drive to finish either of them, I thought I would take a break from them and sew this dress for Thanksgiving wear. Simplicity 6788 is a fancy cocktail dress pattern from the 1960s and while the Thanksgiving festivities at my family's house aren't that dressy, I hope to dress this particular ensemble down by wearing a white button up underneath and using the dress more like a jumper (in true Alexa Chung style).



The fabric is a navy and gold brocade purchased from Mood Fabrics. It was the other half of my order a week or so back when I bought the metallic silver linen. It has a great medium weight for a structured dress, so the soft pleats at the skirt will suit it really well.

What you need.. about two yards of brocade, a 16 inch neck zipper, lining for the bodice, and interfacing for the top half of the skirt. The pattern suggested lining the skirt with taffeta but I had none, so I'm using good old-fashioned interfacing. Honestly the skirt probably won't need it because the brocade fabric is so stiff on its own (and I believe the point of the interfacing is to give a stiff feel to the skirt), but I went ahead and added it in anyway.



First step, I cut out all the pieces including interfacing for both skirt pieces and bodice lining. Then, I sewed the bodice pieces and bodice lining pieces together at their shoulder seams, and sewed the interfacing (non fusible, by the way) to the wrong side of the skirt pieces at the top, within the seam allowance.



Then, dart time. Total of 12 darts including lining. I marked the darts in place using chalk then sewed them up and pressed them flat and inward with an iron.



That's all the progress for this weekend.. next time, I'll finish it up by piecing everything together, sewing in soft pleats to the skirt, and adding the zipper to the back. It's actually a pretty straightforward pattern, can't wait to see how it turns out.

And just because I'm way too thrilled with this 1920s sewing pattern to keep it to myself anymore - here is a sneak peek of a future project!