friday dance: wondergirls

* if you haven't seen this wondergirls video yet, i HIGHLY recommend you fast forward to the 2:00 mark... and stop the video when they stop singing around the 5:40 mark...

you can thank me later... :)



happy friday!!!

project restyle: brown vintage dress + mini

sooooooo excited about my latest creation for

:)

i'm not sure what possessed me to buy this mini skirt save for the cute pleats and the tweedy comfort fabric... i mean... look at it:



it's the same size as my smallest cutting mat! *facepalm*

since buying it at the thrift store, it's been sitting in my closet... and keeping it company was this vintage brown Hope Reed dress that i've had FOREVER - probably a find from my days managing a vintage clothing store in the early 90s...



the dress was always too big (my dress form, Gladys, is also bigger than me), but i loved the pin tuck detailing on the collar and yoke.

so... i chopped off about a foot from the bottom of the dress... added it to the mini... used my handy dandy sewing machine to add some decorative stitching.... used some leftover muslin and lace for another underskirt:



et voici!



une jupe! "modified"!

i think i was inspired by some of the imaginative outfits japanese youth cobble together in the magazine FRUiTS. i have a well loved moldy old issue. i especially enjoy when they mashup two design influences like lolita and steampunk. i'm too "old" to wear their versions, so here's mine.

i'm working on the leftovers of the dress now... will post results later. :) thanks for coming by and reading! Happy Tuesday!

project restyle : denim

as i mentioned earlier, i threw my hat into the project restyle challenge that was introduced by the bloggers at a beautiful mess:



the challenge is so appealing to me because although i buy (and LOVE) vintage or thrift store items, i also find it very difficult to restyle them - even if the fit is all kinds of wrong... i sometimes feel as if i'm defacing a piece of history... BUT. i have ended up with a lot of vintage and thrift scores that i never wear.... i'm hopeful that this challenge will encourage me to move beyond my paradigm and into some really cute outfits - while exercising my creative process! :)

my journey starts with two restyled denim skirts that i had made with two old pairs of ill fitting jeans... (see!?) i really enjoyed making the skirts but when i tried them on they looked too (for lack of a better word) matronly. i may be a mom and not quite 40, but i wouldn't call myself "may-tron-lee"...



like most sewing enthusiasts, i have a gazillion scraps and random varied gimp lying around. i bought this really cool peter max / biba / lautrec mashup inspired fabric from the needle shop a few years ago:



then, i just started to cut... and cut.... and cut... and pieced everything back together... with all the cotton lace scraps i had and a piece of that fabric scrap above...



i still had some denim left over and found this really cute house slipper pattern from craftzine. one of my other personal hurdles is NOT finishing seams... you might not think so considering the skirt above, but it's REALLY difficult for me NOT to finish a seam. i was taught to make a garment as smooth on the inside as it is on the outside... so, after making the skirt it was nice to make the house slippers with finished edges... i needed a little balance. :) the pattern still works - it just required a little rethinking of the sewing directions... the denim scraps i had are only big enough for the size S (5/6) so they're going to an old HS friend of mine who has always had teeny tiny feet. :)



as always thanks for stopping by and reading! :)

friday dance: hypnotic edition

i was just perusing our cd collection for music to sew with and found this one:



i bought this from a street band that i loved and used to play all over chicago's downtown including my old hood, the south loop. so i was wondering whatever happened to them and i think i found them. i think they're now the hypnotic brass ensemble. they've toured all over the place and accompanied the gorillaz, snoop dog, mos def and this band, golden silvers:



catchy, no? so proud and excited for them... they're so talented! :) sad that they moved away from chicago though:



ennyhoo... so as i mentioned above, i'm sewing... i decided to jump on the Project Restyle bandwagon. i have to thank my friends @nuprinz and @snora88 for planting the seed. they had originally brought up a similar idea to me. but it seemed pretty daunting. glutton for punishment that i am, i'm going to do it anyway... :) wish me luck!



thanks for coming by! happy friday! stay warm fellow midwesterners!