after about 3 weeks of sewing, every day, many hours a day, i FINALLLLLLLY finished my december garment (i'm doing a garment a month until i hit 30, a challenge which i made for myself starting on my 29th bday! ack, 8 more to go!). it's a party dress from this vintage teal silk sari that one of my former students gifted me (along with a huge bucket of other vintage fabric- like that ridiculous teal cheong-sam fabric and the light blue lining that i used on this dress). there are beautiful gold flowers embroidered throughout and the edges have a long border of gold. the end has this amazing panel of gold embroidery as well! i saved the border and gold panel, hopefully to be used for another project some day!
originally i was just going to use vogue pattern 1227.
however, when the bustier cups come out like this (i tested things out by doing the lining 1st, not even cutting out the pieces for the top from the silk yet. smartest decision ever!),
i knew i had to find another option for the top (i actually hate bustier tops anyway, so this was all for the better). it was just too hard to sew something on a curve on a structure that ended up so 3d. i knew i'd completely botch it on the slippery silk. So, here comes vogue 1174 to save the day! this bodice is super fancy and has more of a sweetheart neckline. much more demure, much classier.
there's lining, of which i forgot to take a photo, and this "foundation" piece,
which is more like a floating boning structure that is attached to the bodice, yet is loose at the bottom. it requires strapping in! here's the foundation before it was boned. there's even facing at the top so that you can't see the light blue lining!
i'm super narrow up top and my waist doesn't go in like most people's (i'm built like a pole, a muscular pole), so i had to make major adjustments. the exterior of the bodice required me to make my own piping. 1st time i've ever made any and it was sooo cool! instead of buying piping cord, i just filled mine with acrylic yarn, since i have oodles of it lying around.
i just love vogue 1174's bodice. so much detail. it came out beautifully! i made sure there were no gold flowers in the bodice, but couldn't avoid it when making the piping. however, i like how the random peeps of gold from the piping came out!
after the bodice was complete, then i had to mcguiver the bodice's seams to match the skirt's yoke's seams. can we say nuisance? i had to completely redraft a pattern for the skirt yoke so that the top matched the bodice and the bottom matched the skirt portions. i'm crafty like that, and it worked. i added piping to the skirt yoke and at the waistline to continue the piped look from the top. whew. lots of work. the skirts (yes, there are two!) came out soo cool. super flouncy. of course i had to hack off 2 inches from each, because i wanted a really short dress for new years... i mean because i'm really short...
i was super afraid that the dress looked too '80s, as i'm not a fan of this '80s comeback as the rest of the fashion world is, but paired with a sharp fitted black blazer, i think it worked. i forgot to take a pic of the back, so use your imagination. it added a lot of junk in the trunk. hehehehe
and here i am wearing it on nye while out with grace, a friend from swim team starting back in 2nd grade! she also went to brown, so lucky us, we kinda grew up together. aren't we cute? (my eyes ARE open, i'm just really smiley and the pic is small!) after wearing the dress all night, i grew to LOVE it. '80s? psshhh. i spent 3 weeks on this baby! i better love it!
here's a little secret: i styled grace's nye outfit, and made her wear a dress tucked into a pencil skirt. how hilarious is that? she thought it was so weird. all night. she wouldn't stop talking about it. i think she rocked the look!
happy new year!
next up, sarah is getting her 1st pair of my flannel pjs. red-scarfed penguins! 
aren't they so ridiculously cute?
i was a huge dope when cutting out mom's pjs, and forgot to point the pattern ALONG the cherry trees. so, unfortunately, mom looks like she's wrapped in barbed wire. oops. at least the tie is cute, isn't it?
and lastly, jimmy got his 1st full-length pair this year! (he was the recipient of the space jams pj shorts from 2 years ago.) his flannel says woof and ruff, and has dogs and bones on it (in honor of mia of course)! 
here he is, displaying the pants hehe. that's him underneath: 
finally, i brought home a pumpkin pie that i made from scratch, for the fam. i tried to make a scalloped crust, but it looks hideous!! 
alright, i'm off to finish up a dress that i'm making for my new year's outing in nyc!! wish me luck!
em's bird flew down for a ride on bunks' back, but he was not amused! where's your holiday spirit, bunks???
1 cup of pumpkin, down. 15 cups left. AHH!!! i wrapped it nicely, didn't i? em loves purple!
"now what am i supposed to do?" she asked. 
awwww, aren't they adorbs?
by chance, i had this bluish teal wool that my great aunt had given my mom ages ago! my great aunt apparently sewed lots of clothes too!
designing scallops is no small feat, as i had to make sure i only had full scallops, which would hopefully be centered in front, back and sides. no worries, glad i have a trusty math major under my belt! here's the pattern i created for the scallops: 
here are the scallops traced onto the yoke: 
and here i have sewn over the scallops! sewing curvy lines is no fun. 
the skirt pattern was for a gigantically tall person. 
i had to trim 4 inches off the bottom! 
i debuted the skirt at school today (just ignore my calves of steel)! 
eee! i'm quite a fan of this skirt!
here, wenlan pairs it with a sweater underneath and with bellbottom wool pants. soooo cute!
back when i lived in dc, i had bought this soft, thin grey linen from "g street fabrics" for the sake of the take manhattan tunic. bunks snuggled in it while i was cutting out the fabric. he's a little grey riding hood!
the garment was pretty easy to make. it has a cowl neck with a decorative drawstring, a kangaroo pocket, and raglan sleeves. i used my new bedazzler to add silver studs to the top corners of the kangaroo pocket! here's the final result, laid out on my bed, as in the photo in the book! not bad, huh?
and here's my outfit from last friday, when i debuted the tunic at school! 
the kids at school are writing an article about me and my clothes-making, and this was the outfit for the picture in their newspaper!
crust was made from scratch, of course!
the whole project took 2 days (only because i had to intersperse sewing with the writing of 3 recommendation letters for my students. after having written 10, i'd rather never write any ever again!). i easily could have finished in a day, otherwise.
i made a faux drawstring tie to finish off the look (well really to help me tell which side is the front and which is the back). the shorts are more yellow, as in the 2 pics above. they're not as light as in the pics below...
here's my skinny mannequin modeling the shorts:
