Dreams Do Come True--Part 1

Confession:

The thing that makes my skirt fly up like nothing else can, is a beautiful winter coat.

I mean I LOVE winter coats.

I love designing them, I love making them, I love wearing them, and I especially love the compliments I get from them.

My affinity for the winter coat can make me somewhat obsessive.

For example, when I was about 17 I decided I absolutely could NOT live without a red wool winter coat, and I started searching everywhere for red wool. But, because I live in NM where winters aren’t know to get too especially cold, and good fabric stores are harder to come by then a pile of buried treasure, I had no success.

And then, one day I was in a fabric store in Philadelphia and a bolt of red wool was steering me in the face.

I brought my red wool home (it took up at least half my suitcase) and I made this:

My first winter coat.

I put a lot of love and attention into this coat. For example, I added an extra interlining for warmth.

And I piped the lining and facing seam.

But this was my first coat ever and so it had a few problems.

Like for example, for some reason I decided it would be a good idea to line the sleeves with fleece.

I think I convinced myself it would be warmer that way.

Well just incase you are thinking of doing this yourself, DON’T.

I repeat: DON"T!

It was a terrible idea. My sweater sleeves get caught on the sticky fabric and then they get all bunched up in the sleeve and it’s a major pain. Linings are meant to be slippery for a reason.

Well, I wore this coat for a few winters and the Coat Bug bit me again. This time I decided I would perish if I didn’t have a light blue coat.

So, while on a trip to San Francisco I picked up some fabric and made this little baby.

This little friend got me through most of my college carrier and is still my main winter coat.

Which means it’s been around the block a few times and it starting to show it’s age a bit.

But that’s OK because I still love it.

I used some vintage mother of pearl buttons that came from an antique store in Maine.

And at this point in my life I was really into my double needle so I used it to do all kinds of decorative top stitching around the collar,

And the sleeve hem,

And the waist ties.

I got all fancy with my alphabet stitches and embroidered my name in the neck facing.

And I included the quote, “It’s a warm coat I have.” ~Jack Kerouac, because I hoped that by saying my coat was warm would magically make the coat warm. It must have worked.

Oh, and I piped the lining with this beautiful textured poly blend cut on the bias.

Well, even though I had this fabulous coat to wear around in the back of my mind I still felt I NEEDED a white coat. It has been a life long dream of mine to make a white coat.

And this spring while in Britex, I stumbled across the most beautiful white wool ever. So I purchased it.

And I have at long last finished my white wool coat.

My longest, deepest, most demanding life dream has been completed.

I am fulfilled.

But I am evil and you will have to wait until tomorrow to see the coat.

Bwhahahaha!

I will, however, leave you with this teaser.

Happy dream fulfillment

~Melisa & Cordelia

ETA Challenge Garment Numero Dose

So I’ve been sewing for this design challenge I will be participating in come February.

 I was given a bunch of fabric and a hypothetical situation and left to create.

Today I made a skirt to complete one of my outfits.

I used this pattern (we have to use patterns supplied by supporting independent pattern designers).

Only I didn’t have enough fabric to make the skirt according to the pattern, so I had to alter it a bit. This skirt is suppose to have 18 gores, but I only had enough for 13 gores so I did a little math, worked a little magic and made it happen.

TaDa!

I bound the seams with the tie-died lace.

I thought it was a clever idea because it allowed me to meet the requirement to use some of all the fabrics, but I got to use it in such small quantities that you don’t realize how glamorous the fabric really is.

I decided I like the flip side of the skirt a lot too, so I went ahead and made it reversible.

 Cause I’m an overachiever like that!

And there you have it, my first outfit is complete-ish (or it will be when I get around to hemming the skirt, but first I have to let it hang so the fabric which is on the bias stretches as much as it wants.)

Until Next Time

~Melisa & Cordelia

ETA Challenge—Garment Numero Uno.

You may recall that I have agreed to participate in a sewing challenge where I am headed to a beach wedding and need 3 outfits made of supplied fabric.

Well I have practically completed my first garment and it looks a little something like this.

I cut the crepe fabric on the bias so it would drape nicely and form this cute little cowl neckline. Cause I love me a cowl neckline, especially when paired with a high waisted pencil skirt with a wide belt. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

This shirt has magical abilities because it can also look like this:

Which is convenient because one of my garments has to be reversible, so this little top helps me satisfy one of the rules.

 Sweet!

I’d like to point out that Cordelia has a larger chest than I do and thus the floral fabric does not grin through when I wear the shirt.

At least I don’t think it does.

Does it?

Yes?

No?

I didn’t think so.

Now I'm not so sure.

Would someone please come over and look at me wearing the shirt to confirm there is no grin trough?

Thank you.

I appreciate the help.

I also need one garment that will be worn with every outfit and so far this top is in the running for that position too.

The lucky little duck.

Good thing this is all hypothetical cause otherwise this blouse would be really foul by the end of the trip.

It’s a mathematical certainty.

Beach= heat= sweating (not a single natural fiber in the garment)ⁿ =

stinky shirt

 Multiplied by 3 days = toxic.

I’m talking call WHIPP cause we have some nuclear waist to dispose of toxic.

Um,yeah.

Moving on.

The floral fabric refused to drape quite as well as I wanted so I made a little pocket and filled it with nickels to weigh the neckline down.

I’ve got about 20 cents in there.

Lets hope they don’t clink against each other as I’m on stage modeling.

That could be awkward. Just picture this situation,

Well first, you need to remember I’m always extremely uncouth while on stage as made evident here:

Really?!?!

 What was I doing with my wrists?

Back to the imaginary scenario:

Judge: “Um, do you know your boobs are making noise?”

Melisa: “Oh no, no. It’s just my shirt, I designed it that way. I thought the noise would make it a little more….festive.”

Judge: “Right.” Silently deducts about 60 points from my score cause she’s convinced I’ve got a few loose bolts.

Well that’s garment numero uno. Check back tomorrow and hopefully I’ll have my second garment at a semi-finished stage!

Until Next Time

~Melisa & Cordelia

ETA Challenge--Meet the Fabric

You may recall that I mentioned I had agreed to participate in a sewing challenge to be held at the ETA, Education of the Textile Arts (don’t worry I had to Google what ETA stood for too), conference in Dallas this February.

Challenge

In the unlikely event that you have forgotten them, here are the challenge parameters.

I am headed to a (hypothetical) beach wedding and I need an outfit to wear to

 A. An afternoon rehearsal brunch (since when is brunch afternoon?!?!)

B. A late afternoon wedding on the beach and,

C. A morning breakfast with out-of-town guest and the same hotel where the wedding is.

I have to make 3 outfits and I have to remember the fallowing rules:

1. one item must be reversible.

2. one garment must be visibly worn at all three events.

3. I have to use patterns by the sponsoring independent pattern companies.

4. All outfits must fit in a carry on bag.

And finally

I have been supplied with 5 fabrics and I must use some of all of them (and I’m not allowed to use other fabrics except for linings and such.)

So let’s start this design journey by taking a look at the fabrics.

I received a black slinky knit.

A Floral Poly crepe

This cream poly/rayon blend which as good stretch

This teal raw silk

And this:

It’s lace so I should love it,

And it’s tie-died-ish so I should like that.

But for some reason this fabric just does nothing for me.

What to do with it?!?!?!

This has been the stuff of my night mares lately.

True story.

Just last night I woke up in a cold sweat because I had dreamt I was wearing a poufy dress made of this stuff. And, to make the dress even more attractive, I had added puff sleeves (think Ann of Green Gables the move puffed sleeves) and a huge bow on my butt.

It was terrible. Please kick me if I ever even think of making anything so hideous.

Check back tomorrow and I’ll show you my first garment. It’s an important one cause it fulfills two of the rules!

Happy Challenging

~Melisa & Cordelia

The Pattern Fairy

Cordelia and I have a little friend we like to call The Pattern Fairy.

She looks a little something like this:

“Hello Pattern Fairy,” says Cordelia.

“Hello Cordelia”, says The Pattern Fairy.

Even though she is known to be a little mischievous—I’m convinced she’s the one who gets into my pattern boxes and rearranges things so I can never find the right pattern—Cordelia and I are as content as two kitties in a sunny spot to have her around because she is the one who makes sure we find nifty vintage patterns every time we visit a thrift store or garage sale.

Recently The Pattern Fairy surprised us with a magnificent gift and sent us, with a little help from my Aunt Ann, a box of never before used vintage patterns that once belonged to The Grandma Hart.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Thank you Aunt Ann for sending such awesome patterns our way.

And thank you Pattern Fairy for working your magic. A bowl of sweetened condensed milk is waiting for you.

So the moral of this story is that if you happen to have any Pattern Fairies around, leave them sweet gifts and they will reward you with awesome vintage patterns in your exact size, but make them angry and you’ll never be able to find a pattern when you need it again!

Consider yourself warned.

Happy Fairy Pleasing

~Melisa & Cordelia



Alex Gets a Civil War Greatcoat the Third

Haaave you met Alex?

Sure you have. You may have read about him here or here.

Well I’ve been making him a Civil War inspired Greatcoat and cause I know you are all as eager as a colony of E. Coli on room-temperature Canadian beef to see the end result, I thought I would share an update.

 When we last visited the coat it looked a little something like this:

Well take this mess, add a snip snip here and a stitch stitch there, throw in a little magic and a late night and the coat now looks like

Wait

For

It

 

This!

It’s all ready for a second fitting, but before I sent it off to Boston I had Cordelia try it on to make sure there were no major problems like me forgetting to put on a sleeve.

Just Kidding!

I left the sleeve off on purpose; Alex only has one arm.

He lost one in a tragic galactic bowling incident.

Just kidding!

 He still has both arms.

Gosh you are gullible.

Well as you may recall, Alex picked out a stripped fabric for the coat and we decided to play around with the grain of the fabric. Which means I’ve been chevroning just about every seam in the jacket.

Like for example here at the center back.

Or here at the side back seam.

And don’t forget about the sleeve seams.

But I didn’t chevron at the front armhole. Cause I matched-ish the stripes up instead.

Report back soon-ish to see the finished shindig!

Until Next Time

~Melisa & Cordelia