Jul
1
It’s Canada Day Eh!
Filed Under Random | 5 People Talked Back To Me
And a cool rain threatened day at that! Luckily, all I have planned is work, a golf game and dinner with some friends, and sewing dammit.
I don’t often like to copy my favorite fiveblondes, but since they stole the video from my Twitter tweet, I am going to steal it back.
A cute little Canadian rap from a talented duo in London. This way you American friends get to see what my area of the world looks like!
Come on- I know you want to be Canadian!
Jun
26
MOB Dress - take three
Filed Under MOB dress, Wedding sewing, design, fabric | 8 People Talked Back To Me
My Lord, I sound like a broken record! Some day I will be blogging about more than wedding sewing! I really love making fancy dresses though! In my secret of secret minds, my career involves making Mothers of the Bride/Groom look beautiful!
You may remember Likely you forget the fabric that I chose for the next (and I have been promised that it will be the last for a while!) Mother of the Bride gown. It is a lovely silk burnout fabric, very sheer, with flowers in shades of red/green/pink and black . You will see it in the following pictures, so I won’t show it here.
I got it off of Ebay last year for a scandoulously cheap price. I was afraid that it was not silk, but a burn test proved that it was indeed silk and not polyester “silky” fabric. The old buyer beware adage always comes into play with online purchases doesn’t it? This time I was lucky.
I have decided not to use Vogue 8556. 
I mocked up this pattern in some black and white poly and decided it added undesired bulk on my torso (read- I felt fat in it!) The bodice was drafted too large for my boob size, and the transition between the ruched waist and the bodice didn’t translate well to my kinda pear shaped figure. Better to leave this one to large chested, tiny waist women!
There were a few aspects that I really liked in this dress too though. I will be dragging them over to the Take Three dress.
1. the curved “halter” neck piece
2. the back strap which I find strangely sexy!
I did some research, and found this pattern which, surprisingly, has only been reviewed once on PatternReview. 
Vogue 2847 (LindsayT and EricaB - That to me is one of the good things about posting a review on PR. You can do a search in one place, instead of trying vainly to remember who made a certain outfit, then trying to find it in their blog archives.) Look up digress in the dictionary. There is a honking big photo of me right beside the definition!
For my rendition, I am taking the skirt portion, and drafting my own bodice for the top. Ruched bodice, contrast halter neck band, and the back straps from the other Vogue dress. I thought that neckband, coming down in a V was an original thought, but then I was at the Burda site and saw this dress, which has the same sort of neckline treatment going on. I drafted my neck band from scratch - scout’s honour! Huhnh - so much for originality!
Here it is pinned on the dressform. So far I like what I am doing with it. It is by no means near completion, but is coming together in a good way. I have done a lot of ruched work in the past two years, but never for myself. My next post will show how I did the ruching on this bodice. 
Todays Postscript….
It was another beautiful day in the neighbourhood today. We worked on the yard, cutting down some large evergreens that were blocking the view of the house, and did some very overdue trim work on the yard. My gardens are dreadfully neglected this year!
Jun
23
In lust.
Filed Under Uncategorized | 7 People Talked Back To Me
I adore this dress. 
I don’t know why, and I am not even going to try to analyze the reasons.
Well, maybe I will, just a little. Cute cut, great fabric, adore the solid black band along the side and over the shoulder. I think I should make it. I have almost the perfect fabric albiet in a knit, and I am almost positive that this is a woven - silk likely. The red shoes are a great added touch too! Of course Drew Barrymore is just too cute for words, but no one around here is going to know that I knocked off got my inspiration from her and Naricso Rodriguez!
And silly me just offered to manage the RTW and Designer Knock-Off Contest at Patternreview . As a manager I can’t enter the contest, but I could do this as my own little sew-along during it!
Jun
21
On the top of the wanna-do pattern pile
Filed Under Vintage pattern, children, family | 15 People Talked Back To Me
Man Oh Man, is that pile of wanna-do’s getting precariously and dangerously high! I can’t see over the top, and I even forget some things that are on the bottom. Would you all pretty please stop making so many incredible articles of clothing?!!
Enough about you now, and back to me! (You know that I’m not quite that narcissistic in real life don’t you?) It’s just that I have a really special project set that is bursting to be sewn! After the wedding. After some “me” sewing. You know what I mean!
A hint…
I have been sorting through my ridiculously large collection of vintage patterns, and came up with a few that will will give you an idea of what I am talking about.
Here is the first one. Cute no?!
and the second…
And a couple more…
Still baffled? Then let me tell you a story.
About a month ago, our daughter Katelyn and her husband of a year and a half, had us over for brunch. During the course of the meal, I asked Kate about the status of her sewing machine, one she had “inherited” from my mom who finally broke down and bought a new one. (Kate knows me VERY well, and knew that I would ask about the machine) She said that she hadn’t much time to use it, but did I want to see the patterns that she bought. Of course I said yes, at the same time reminding her that she didn’t have to ever buy patterns, as I have over 500 of them! She responded with “I know, but I wanted my own“. Well, you can’t fault a girl for that! She learns from the best you know!
When she handed me the patterns, I was confused. Where I was expecting to see a couple of cute dress patterns, I was seeing patterns for babies!
“Um, Kate- are you going to sew for Laura?” I asked, as their good friends Matt and Laura had just announced their pregnancy the week before.
“No, I’m going to sew for ME!” was the reply.
Knock me over with a feather- we’re going to be grandparents! What thought went into how to tell me the wonderful, awesome news! That makes it even so much more special. It is so great as well that they will be sharing this part of their life adventure with such dear friends.
An interesting side note. Kate’s friend Laura’s family and ours are good friends. Camping together when the kids were little, going on ski vacations together, ski patrolling , racing and intructing together kind of friends. What makes this “sharing a pregnancy ” thing so interesting is that Laura’s parents and MyMike and I were also pregnant at the same time - FIVE TIMES!! That’s right, we each have 5 children and every time that I was pregnant, so was Norma! We didn’t know each other aback then, but would see each other as we lived - and still live- in the same community. We would giggle inwardly in amusement and amazement, not realizing at the time how our lives would intertwine. The kids all became very good friends, as are we “parents” and we find it so great that the pregnancy sharing tradition is continuing!! Now if only Lauren and Owen would get together…(kidding, I’m just kidding!)
So tell me- what is your favourite baby related sewing project? What is a must-sew? What can’t I forget to do? What should I not bother making at all? How can I talk them into letting the baby call me “Connie” and NOT Grandma or Oma!
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