Okay, lesson officially learned. DOWNLOADABLE PATTERNS: NOT EVEN ONCE. Especially not from the big three. Oy vey. Even before the horrendous, soul-sucking jigsaw puzzle that is assembling your pattern pieces from about a jillion pieces of 8.5×11″ paper, the PrintSew user experience is NOT one to write home about. Unless you really like to convey a sense of desperation and rage to the people at home, I guess. Anywho, I.. Read More
Finished: Vogue 1236, Misses’ DKNY dress with belt
Back in March, I made a dress-type thing: I’m still in a bit of shock, really. It’s made from a textured striped Nanette Lepore cotton/lycra blend. It’s a stiff fabric with a lot of body, so I hope it settles a bit with wear. Right now when I sit down, my dress likes to hike up a bit. I didn’t, despite my excellent intentions, make a muslin for this.. Read More
Finished: Golightly
Well. Here we are. I made a dress. A pretty, vintage-inspired, Mad Men-wannabe Breakfast at Tiffany’s dress. The pattern is Butterick 5603 (link), worked up in a gorgeous polyester taffeta I got at P & S Fabrics. The accent color you see (the pink) is actually the right side of the fabric, but I thought the darker color (and the more satin-like texture of the wrong side) was just gorgeous, and elected to.. Read More
Playing catch-up, Part 5: Sorbetto
I’m trying to be a good girl, and actually give a little word-space to all the stuff I’ve been too lax to blog up proper in the past few months. To that end, I present Part the Fifth: A BLOUSE. After the “I actually have enough fabric” debacle that sent me into such a tailspin, it took a bit before I could get up the gumption to bring ol’ Nancy.. Read More
Time hiccup
It has been roughly eight million years since last I posted, and I have therefore myriad things about which I could write. However, I’ve sort of entered that place where the onus of relating all those things is heavier than I can bear, so I sigh and put it off. So more things accumulate. Then I just sigh and put it off more. And on and on, ad infinitum. It’s.. Read More
In praise of my Nanny Jo
So something really scary and awful happened this past Sunday: my grandparents were in a car accident. My grandfather is thankfully fine, but my grandmother has two lumbar fractures, and a mighty sore hip. But even so, they were very lucky. One might be tempted to worry about an injured grandmother. The very word tends to conjure images of delicate older ladies. Classy and elegant she may be, but delicate? No.. Read More