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!

Please Welcome... The February Dress

yes I am aware that it is not even february, but as soon as I had this fabric I was too excited to make a dress from it to wait!

I did the high neckline like planned (and again had to create tucks in the neckline because I had forgotten how to minimize the neckline for a sleeveless top, and had lent out my flat pattern book). Successfully fit the dress around my boobs, arms, waist, and hips! Hemming went smoothly after taking twenty friggin minutes to pin the skirt hem because it was so long.

There isn't much to say about it, except that I may have taken it in right above the bust dart (to help reel in the armhole) a bit too much, as it changes the shape of my chest in the dress. Otherwise I am TOTALLY happy!


also, check out my adoooorable new phone case!! I had a custom one done by Uncommon. It was kind of expensive but totally worth it!

Also also, please forgive me for terrible pictures. I have no idea why, but all of my pictures came out incredible noisy.

Both behind and ahead of schedule

here's that tank top I made a week ago.
It turned out really well, and the fabric is so nicely soft and lovely.

So this week i made my personal slopers Official by cutting it out in Oaktag!
It was really easy and totally worth doing because now an exact copy of my personal sloper to modify is something I can do with little effort and in less than ten seconds! I also did my skirt front and back, but I didn't do the bodice back because the one I already had fit me, all i had to do was shorten it.


I also did the sketch for the February dress! Again, this is going to be ultra conservative for my standard wardrobe. Just below the knee, and completely covering all cleavage. Even I wont be able to see any of my cleavage. No hussies here! I have to dress really appropriately because I am going to be attending a wedding (re-commitment ceremony) and I don't want to be too crazy looking. And again because Grandma Benitez will be there.

Aaaaand I also cut out both of the pattern pieces for the front bodice and skirt (uniform skirt all the way around means I only do one! :) ). I did only now just realize though, that I completely forgot to map out the bodice back piece, and I didn't bring my standard one so I cannot draw it out right here (at nicole's place). Poop.

But I can cut out and sew together the massive skirt, and do the same for the bodice front... Oh man. I am all kinds of forgetful! I don't even have a zipper for this dress! UGH. Joann's here I come! Looks like it wont be finished in time for this weekend, but I guess that means I can work tomorrow afternoon on Susan's celery colored shift dress. She will be happy about that.

Tomorrow I have textiles class! Woo! Gotta love learning about fabric. I need to know the names of stuff. Not knowing what to call the fabric I make a dress of makes me feel like I'm such a novice.

Too tired to post tonight

But tomorrow I'll be posting the pictures I have of my fabric, the design, and the pattern pieces for my February dress. Aka the Grandma Benitez dress. It's gonna be really pretty and also very appropriate. :)

You'll all love it!