purple velvet pleated kilt!

whew. one of my toughest projects has been completed. i used "simplicity 7130," a pattern for wool pleated kilts, a pattern from 1967!

and this super plush eggplant purple cotton velvet, leftover from a velvet bible cover i once made for an ex's mom years ago. i JUST had enough velvet to lay out the pattern pieces!! (usually i have way too much extra, which ends up in the scrap pile for ages!) bunks was a huge fan of this velvet. here he is roaming on it while i'm trying to sketch out pleat lines. "scoot, bunks, scoot!"
here's a close up of the pleats. i used gold thread... meaning i had to sew neatly! unfortunately, the velvet was so thick that in making the pleats, more material was used up than anticipated and thus the skirt didn't really have enough material to fold completely across the front... so, i decided to make this a high-waisted kilt, so that at least i could fold it 3/4 of the way across the front (if i had kept it normal, it would hardly have overlapped in the front. EEK!)
the pattern called for leather belt tabs for the sides. 1) i doubted i could find gold leather belt tabs and 2) i wanted something less conspicuous. so, i bought tiny gold d-rings and designed 2 simple belts for the sides. here's the first. not bad, right?here's a pic of both.
ages ago, i bought something from anthropologie that had the tags attached with this big gold safety pin (isn't that rather fancy for just securing the tags?). i'd actually been saving it to use either as a simple brooch or, once i picked up sewing as a hobby, to use on a kilt! perfect isn't it? i sewed down the pin way at the bottom of the skirt, as you can see in the next pic. the skirt didn't need the pin to keep it shut, so i just made it a permanent decoration piece. i initially wanted to make the skirt for a broadway outing with mom in nyc. however, we all know i'm slow, so i didn't finish it until after. i wore it to work this tuesday and colleagues joined in on the photoshoot. this is david. he is REALLY tall. and also in purple. em is the photographer. and around back hehehehhehehe! kristin is dying of laughter.em zoomed in so you could see the pleats. david got tired of modeling and went back to work hehe.

ironing that many skinny pleats was SOOOOO frustrating, yet the result looks pretty neat. not my favorite style of skirts, but i like the unexpectedness of the velvet!

bad bunny

while i'm at work, he's napping in the sun.

at night, he protests my departure when i go out, climbing onto my worktable (ie my dining table hehe) to rip my patterns and chew my tracing pencils! i was an idiot last weekend and forgot to tuck in my dining chair.as punishment, we have reduced the size of his cage to a birdy cage... hehe. not really. dad and i decided to get him a "carrying cage" for car rides, and it turned out that a birdy cage was JUST the right size to fit his litterbox, leaving another corner for sitting/doing his business, since he tends to nest in his box while in the car. tweet tweet!

see the pretty purple velvet? it's really a more reddish purple, and it has been sewn up as a pleated kilt! almost done, pics soon!

sweet potatoes

since the pumpkin goodies were such a success, mom pawned off a can of sweet potatoes on me. first up, sweet potato muffins with raisins.

then, with a massive tub of crisco from costco, i made sweet potato pie with homemade crust! i slashed it to match the burn i got on my forearm from the oven!!! (jk, i was just testing if it was done... although i do have an oven burn on my arm!)(no worries, i didn't put ALL of the crisco in just this one pie. hehehe)

off to nyc when i wake up!!!!! i'm taking mom to "wicked" for xmas and then meeting up with friends! wheeeee!

happy new year!!

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!

merry christmas!

it should come as no surprise that everyone gets a pair of flannel pj pants from me every christmas. honestly, how could i turn down $1.29/yd for flannel from joann's black friday sale each year? for myself, i used owl flannel! (unfortunately i've already split the booty, as i forgot that the pattern is sized for mom and not me hehehehe. no worries. the stitching has been fixed and reinforced!)

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!

christmas birdies round 2!

for the math dept. 1st for kristin, 2nd is for david m, 3rd is for em, 4th is for david p.

em's bird flew down for a ride on bunks' back, but he was not amused! where's your holiday spirit, bunks???

punkin soup

mom calls and spells pumpkin as "punkin." hehe. so punkin soup is what i made her over thanksgiving break!

happy birthday, em!

today is emily's bday! last year i baked her pumpkin chiffon cupcakes, and this year, since i currently possess about 10 lbs of fresh pumpkin, i decided to continue the pumpkin theme. however, em is a serious chocolate lover. so, i made her chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

1 cup of pumpkin, down. 15 cups left. AHH!!! i wrapped it nicely, didn't i? em loves purple!

the cousins meet over turkey!

bunks and mia (jimmy's doggie) reunited this thanksgiving. mia wasn't really sure what to do with bunks. she had to be coerced into the same pic as bunks.

"now what am i supposed to do?" she asked. awwww, aren't they adorbs?

a plus a-line skirt

twinkle sews is definitely my favorite pattern book, hands down. the "a plus a-line skirt" is one of the simpler patterns in the book, but of course, i wanted to augment it as i like to go for the challenge, so, i decided to add scalloping to the yoke (apparently scalloped hems on skirts are the new rage... but of course, i did mine to the opposite end)! the book's sample used a bright blue wool. (see how boring it is with the straight-edged yoke?)

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!