Prom Dress Update

I carefully pinned the lace to the china silk. I considered basting it together, but pins work, right?

Lace trumps silk!! I could not sew the silk with the lace sandwiched in between with out getting

this lovely hairy looking stitch. Silk needle to sew silk and lace? Wrong! Looks like I will be needing

a ballpoint needle because the lace is a stretch lace. I sincerely hope this solves the problem. Back to the

sewing shop I go...

Promballoona

Oonaballoona's official invitation is here and everyone is invited! This is so much fabulousness I can't 

take it! A fabric flower workshop and a photo-booth at Sew LA! I hope you all can make it out
to this party at this adorable shop!

Roman Holiday

 Upon hearing that my dear boyfriend Will is taking me to Italy near the end of August, my friend Amber

lent to me the movie Roman Holiday. I had seen it before but forgot what a great romantic film it is. It was a fabulous little taste of Rome to see before I actually get there. Please watch this if you have never seen

it, or if you are craving a summer get away without leaving home buy some gelato and 

sit down to re-watch this sweet classic. Next up on my pre- Italy video watching (my all time fav),

 A Room With A View.

Indigo Dye Class

 Last Thursday night I attended an Inigo Dye Workshop at the wonderful shop Shelter Half,

hosted by Lili from Tigers to Lilies.

 The class was taught by Britt Browne, who is quite the expert on indigo dying and grows indigo plants herself.

 This is the indigo dye powder.

Britt demonstrating how to get your indigo mixture just right. There are several recipes out there on the net

such as this one here if you want to learn how to mix your own natural indigo dye.

Examples of Shibori, Japanese dyeing techniques.

The indigo mixture.

My attempt at Shibori.

 Dipping our Shibori into the indigo mixture.

 The finished product after drying.

 The cute dog Hank that showed up with his owner for the class.

The teacher Britt and her dog. Checkout her blog, Growing Indigo.

What a fun way to spend an evening! For more pics of the class go Lili's blog, Tigers to Lilies.
It was so nice to meet Lili and Lauren from The Spinx & the Milky Way.

Also if anyone is interested in more Midsummer Nights Crafts workshops

 here is the info. I want to go to all of them, hopefully I can make it.
If any of you locals would like to join me that would be great!

Mood

I feel so lucky to live in Los Angeles where we have so many great fabric resources.

Mood had so many amazing prints, I will be spending my paycheck at Mood more often!

This was my favorite motif that I spied.

I was happy to find some great men's wear shirting fabrics, now I can make Will a much deserved shirt.

 My final purchase. This is my prom dress fabric, a light weight china silk to go under the grey lace.

This is going to be interesting to sew, I have never worked with lace before. Yikes, wish me luck!

If any of you out there have any tips on working with lace, give me a holler!

Lubin Flowers

 

 More Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture prom dresses.

 Today I wanted to share with you all a great resource, Lubin flowers. If you are looking for 

a beautiful silk flower to add to a dress, for your hair or to trim a hat, Lubin is by far has the best.

They much more lovely than the plasticy ones that can be found at Michaels. I plan on buying a few 

to trim my prom dress and add that extra special bit of girlyness.
P.S. I forgot to mention that this company is wholesale only, I guess that doesn't help a lot of you out
there. If anyone is interested in getting a resale certificate so that you can buy
wholesale, it is pretty easy, you need to go to your local State Board of Equalization.
Another nice option if you are looking for flowers is to try flea markets or ebay for
vintage blossoms.

Draping a Prom Dress

Above dress from Dear Golden Vintage. A great source of design inspiration!

So I finally picked a silhouette for my prom dress. The picture up top is a vintage 30's 

dress that I found on the Dear Golden Vintage website. I decided this was a pattern

that I was going to have to make myself. I am not the hugest fan of pattern making,

although I learned how to do it in school. I think it is more of a mental block.

I started out by draping it on, as seen above. Then I transferred the pattern to 

pattern paper, then I cut out the fabric to sew together my first muslin. 

I have a few tweaks, but I was pretty happy with my muslin.

The other thing that I will have to adjust is the size, I am not as tiny as my dress form.

My main message coming away from this process is, pattern making doesn't have to

be such a huge mysterious intimidating process. It actually pretty fun, I plan on making many more

patterns in future! P.S. You can check out the rest of my prom dress inspiration

over on Pinterest here.

Promballoona

Happy Friday friends! Have I mentioned how exited I am about Promballoona

over at OOnaballoona? It raises so many delicious possibilities! Which silhouette

do I choose? Empire waist, Pretty in Pink 80's dress, 30's/ 40's dress or a drop waist

20's number? I am getting pretty inspired by the vintage prom dresses that I re-worked

for Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture a few years ago. Loving all of the crinoline and lace

and silk flowers that I added. My head is just exploding with ideas, hopefully which will

not lead to procrastination!

New Prints

I found some new prints at my favorite secret shop downtown. The 2 prints

above are cute, but the grey lace is to die for. I am hoping to use it for my

Promballoona dress.. If you have not heard Oona from Oonabaloona 

is having a prom and everyone is envited to make a dress! More to

come on my prom dress designs soon!

New Dress

Happy Monday! This weekend I made another Built by Wendy 3964-

I seriously think I am in love with this dress, it is so perfect for the summer and

flattering. I really wanted to make something with the cute fish print

that I would for sure wear. This one has been on heavy rotation.

 I do think that all of the Built by Wendy patterns are terribly cute, I should 

try some more for you to see!

The Ace

 The lobby of the Ace

 The scooters

 Will in front of the Ace Sign.

 Me.

 Roxy on the bed with a vintage National Geographic.

 Lucky on the vintage rug in front of the record player.

 

The Ace in Palm Springs was just lovely. Unfortunately I did not get a good shot of the pool

(by which we spent most of our time with a bloody mary in hand.. ) We really loved vacationing with our dogs. The rooms had so many special touches, from the record player, vintage rugs, specially made robes, to the polaroid available for picture taking. The only bad thing was that we only stayed one night!