Ruffles and Stuff

I was stumbling around on the internet and found this adorable blog called Ruffles And Stuff. She has some great posts about design, and does some awesome tutorials on how to add pizzaz to clothing. She does a lot of refashioning, and I in particular LOVE this cardigan she modified.

It's so cute and all she did was add collar detail!

she also did a really great post about extending the life and wearability of her daughters clothes. some of those ideas I might even add to my own wardrobe.

Honestly I keep going through all of her old posts (apparently the blog doesn't get updated anymore?) and most of her style is so darling I just want to do it myself. You should check it out.

Ruffles And Stuff

Completely Unrelated to Sewing

This is my review of the movie Sucker Punch.

I was really excited to see it, because the trailers had made it look so epic! The costumes looked.. standard for this kind of actiony flick. Lots of skin, not much design. Very anime like. I ended up seeing the movie twice.

Here's the summary from Buzzsugar.com:

Sucker Punch is an action-fantasy hybrid that tells the story of a young woman known only as "Baby Doll" (Emily Browning). In an engrossing prologue, we're introduced to Baby Doll's plight; when her mother dies, she and her sister become the targets of their sadistic stepfather. In a tragic twist, Baby Doll is involved in an accident that lands her in a dilapidated mental institution. Unable to accept her new reality, Baby Doll escapes into a fantasy world in which she imagines that she and the other female patients (Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, and Jamie Chung) are beautiful dancers in a burlesque theater.

Even in Baby Doll's parallel world where she and the others are gorgeous seductresses, there's still danger from the evil club owner. Fixated on escaping from the theater, Baby Doll learns from a mysterious mentor that she needs five tools to earn her freedom. The other girls are willing to help, and each time they retrieve one of the tools, they all disappear into a second fantasy world in which they're gun-toting, sword-wielding warriors tasked with defeating a variety of faceless enemies.

The story was so rushed that it felt like the whole thing was only half an hour long. the long fight scenes and strange "reality" of the "club" melt away in your brain to the point where you can only remember five or six plot points.

There was zero character development outside of the character of Baby Doll. It was a really hard story line to follow the first time through. I got really confused when the first transition into the fantasy world happened. It was pretty smooth and I didn't notice it, but that kind of plot manipulation has to be made more easily recognizable or the audience will just end up confused, like I was. Or maybe I was just distracted, but still.

Every chance Zach Snyder had to make the characters look like strong empowered women, they instead became sniveling little crying girls! Baby Doll's face every time she started to dance made her seem like she really was unsure of herself, and was going to "regret this later". Blondie is a mindless drone to Sweet Pea and has no backbone when it comes to the only significant part in the movie she had! She has no courage of conviction and therefore doesn't follow through (I also don't like Vanessa Hudgens. so it's tough luck for her lol) Amber, when confronted with anything other than dancing around and being shiny, stands there in her miniskirt and cries. Sweet Pea is a coward. Every chance she gets to make her situation better, or stand up for herself she withers away to a voiceless wonder with sad puppy-dog eyes. Madam Gorsky does the exact same thing, except with a terrible accent. When the going gets tough, The tough ..put on miniskirts?

the costumes are boring. the dance costumes for "on stage" were the same tops and skirts they were already wearing in shinier fabric, with polished pyramid studs and flat metal pieces? they didn't even get creative.
VS

Each time they go in search of one of the five tools they need for escape, the shtick is that Baby Doll will dance for them and they will be so mesmerized that the other girls can pickpocket them and none will be the wiser. You never even got to see this apparently amazing hypnotizing dance! All you ever see is the very beginning swaying back and forth of Baby Doll, then it transitions into her fantasy warfare. poop.


I give it two out of five stars

The Only March Post

just kidding! I may squeeze some extra posts in tomorrow or something.

So my official march dress was the dress Rapunzel wears in Disney's Tangled.

It looked relatively easy but I ended up being a bit overwhelmed. Grecia (who the dress was for) says it was great and she loved it, but I honestly think it could have been done significantly better. It was too purple :/ and plain and poorly made. I blame myself.




















She loves it. I guess that's all that matters.

I'm still riding high on my finished garment buzz though and am itching to make something else. I've considered finally making my cape, but it's getting too warm. I also want to make a skirt, but I feel the weight of Susan on my shoulders, reminding me that I promised her a dress... oohhh but what's the point of sewing if it's not for me! lol.

my month has been so busy you guys! I have an amazing costuming class on wednesdays! My class is working with The Lamplighters, a theater group based in San Francisco, and we got to go to their official Costume Shop.

Can.
I.
Just.
Say.

wall of hats.



I LOOOOOOVVVEEEE BIG HATS. They have a whole wall of hats. My boyfriend hates them. He really doesn't understand my love of big hats, but BOY do I love big hats. They have amazing hats.

Speaking of hats, I had a three week course the last three saturdays in Millinery! That's hat making! It was so much fun!!

this is my Buckram hat. it's covered in cotton, and I made it! the whole thing!
this is my fascinator! I assembled everything! So much fun.

I also did a straw hat but I don't have a good shot of it yet, so when i finally wear it out i'll make sure someone snaps a pic.

back to costuming class!

that's the panorama i took of the costume shop. it was so much fun. we used industrial machines, and got a tour of all the costumes that were being kept in the shop. So awesome. Also in that class we had a professional Tutu maker come in and show us his Ruffler. it's a specially adapted old sewing machine. It's also 400 dollars. but look how beautiful it is!?!




browsing around on stumbleupon i found a painting and I decided that the dress in the painting, while barely visible, is necessary to my existence.


I haven't been losing weight as quickly as I thought I would have since I started back at school, aaaaand its because I drink so much. I spend too much free time at Single Barrel, THE best bar i've ever been to. They make the most amazing cocktails. They cater everything to your specific tastes and its amazing.


sooo There you have it. My month. I promise i'll resume posting regularly so there's no more blog vomit like this again. :)

Yay sewing!

Progress!

I'm hand stitching it to the fabric by threading the needle through the underside of the rat tail. It's really very time consuming, but is pretty therapeutic. It's a great thing to fidget with while watching TV for someone who always fidgets.

At most the length of the neckline measures 1'6". I bought 5 yards, and I don't even have a full foot left over of the rat tail!! I'm gonna have to buy at least 12 yards if I wanna do the skirt hem! Can't wait to show you guys the finished neckline. Then i'll do the hemline! and I'll probably slip in side seam pockets so the dress qualifies for my one of Three garments I need to turn in for my Designer Techniques class.

trying out a new idea.

After watching some demo's from my designer techniques class I decided to try using rat tail to give my new black plain shift dress some creative edge.


it took over 40 minutes to pin it onto the dress and my foam board.
and then it even took 20 minutes to stitch up to three or four loops deep. WAY longer process than planned.

wish me luck!

Meh

I haven't posted anything in a while because I seem to be still fighting off some illness. What ever this is, it is wreaking havoc on my nose.

In other news I went and got some makeup from Ulta yesterday with a friend and found my so-far-the-best concealer! I've been using Almay's Clear Complexion Concealer and it's taken me a while to realize that either I am too pale for life, or it's just to yellow for me now. Instead of concealing under eye darkness it draws attention to it. And after going shopping with my cousin Molly at the MAC store and seeing a concealer that she passed up work MAGIC I decided mine just was not cutting it. Unfortunately for them I was not about to go back into that crazy MAC store for a concealer that I didn't even try on myself. If the one I just bought doesn't work after a while I think I'll finally cave.

I went to Ulta, like I said, and found a great concealer by Lorac. It's the ".5" color, indicating that I am so pale, that I don't even require one whole unit of color in my makeup. I'm ok with that. I found it pretty amusing actually. But honestly the stick is the right color and as far as I could tell with make up sponges, the right consistency as well. The highlighter is pretty cool. I dunno how much I'll use it under my eyes, but I'll probably use it on my cheekbones more often than not! It looks kinda silly but that's a rollerball at the top and it did actually blend the concealer pretty well after I had applied it pretty evenly with the makeup sponge.

Oh and I got more of the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion cuz that shit is magic!

In dresses news, my next dress is officially THIS ONE.

yaaaaaah! It's gonna be awesome. And it's not for me.

The After-Construction-Success Garment!

don't you love my miss-matched socks?

I made a dress this time instead of just a top!! This blue knit dress is the dry run for the dress I want to make out of my black double knit. This was also the first run making a skirt from my skirt slopers, and I made them wrong.. I needed to make the darts longer than I did. And with knits I've decided I'm just going to start the pattern pieces with an inch off the side hem.
The knit pieces are always too large because the fabric stretches so much. The left picture shows the extra long darts I put in the skirt to accommodate for my low, big, round butt. The right picture is the finished product!

For the black dress I'll be lowering the neck line just a teensy bit more, and making the straps thinner.

I think i'll wear this dress tomorrow to class! :)





I got some aweeeesooooome earrings in the mail today from Forever 21. I love big costume-y jewelry and these earrings fulfill all of my big bold earring dreams!
The pink ones are the smallest, and the black ones are obviously the largest! Cannot wait to wear them all out and about, but I've got to get my ears used to heavier earrings again. Wearing the coral ones for a couple hours made my earlobes feel a bit painful.


Tomorrow starts my Portfolio Development class which lasts all month, and shall hopefully be invaluable!



That's all that's going on in school immediately, but obviously not all that's going on in the world. Can I just say news footage of Chicago looks like friggin RUSSIA! And even my friends in Texas are experiencing negative degrees!! I have rarely been more grateful to live in California, enjoying the wintery 65 degrees. Cheers!