Compliments of Another Season

It's been ages since I've blogged.  I've got a bunch of projects I've been meaning to share but, well, it hasn't happened for quite some time.  For now I thought I'd pop out of obscurity and share some off-season holiday inspiration I just saw on Pinterest.

 



 I can't wait to arrange my Christmas presents under this tree!

I'm Baaaaaack!

A very happy New Year to one and all! I have been AWOL from blogland for far too long. If you've kept me on your blogroll long enough to still be reading this, you have my sincere thanks. I've missed you guys. Though I haven't been blogging much I've been sewing up a storm. Over the next few weeks I hope to get myself organized enough to update this space with all of my (sometimes successful) efforts. In the meantime, this grainy iphone photo is my current, half-finished project. 

:


I had originally planned a knee-length cocktail dress, but since I'm wearing this to a wedding that is "black tie optional," I think I might keep it long.  The wedding is in January so there will definitely be sleeves.

The pattern is Simplicity 2497, which I've made and blogged about before here.  

In unrelated news, I just joined Twitter!  I'm still figuring out how the whole thing works, but hey, if you want to follow me (I've very witty) you can find me at @jillsinatra. Assuming I've installed the gadget correctly, you can see my feed and follow my by clicking over on the right hand side of this page!.

Party at the Polls

I originally wanted to blog about my new dress today.  I was going to call this post "Frock the Vote" (heh -- get it?) and try to get some shots of me wearing the dress on my way to vote.  Yeah, that didn't happen. I stained the dress this weekend and it needs to be cleaned.  So instead, you get an ode to American democracy.

 

 

 Don't worry, though.  I have no interest in turning this into a political post.  I know that people don't come here to learn my thoughts on the debt crisis.  Consider this merely an homage to self-determination and representative government.  Go vote!

Pintervention

Some parodies hit a little too close to home.  For other people.  I can stop anytime I want.



h/t hotair.com

Vogue 7464: Round Two

So Plan B for View B of Vogue 7464 was View C.  The pattern envelope said to use tafetta.  I used the rest of my orchid felt.  There's something be said for following directions because the felt was too bulky and my hat has a definite lumpy, Becky-home-ecky quality to it. 

I may go back someday and use the proper materials to remake it so doesn't look so . . . homemade.  But I'm certainly happier with this version that the purple vampire fraggle that View B turned out to be.

These are quick iphone pics taken in my bathroom mirror.  This hat is part of an outfit that I'm planning to wear to an event in November.  Once I finish the dress (dove gray crepe -- not yet started!) I will properly model the whole outfit. 

But in the meantime I'm kind of too excited about my new headgear to not share it. I'm a sucker for old-fashioned hats. I don't have the panache or the guts to wear them regularly, but I will use the slightest excuse to put one on. You can see the details better when the styrofoam head models it.

Top view -- This is where you can really see the uneven lumps that should be elegantly draped in gathers.

Front View

Rear View -- who doesn't love a good fluffy bow?

This hat really kind of sits on the forehead.  I'm gonna need an elegant updo in the back.



 

I really wish that hats would come back into style.  Seriously.  I wish I could wear one every day.  Am I the only one who feels that way?

Is that a hat or did a muppet die on your head?

Separated at birth . . .

The Count!





Vogue 7464 (View B)

Fortunately I have a lot more purple felt and a back-up plan...

Vogue 7464: Millinery is Hard

I am REALLY excited about Vogue 7464.  In fact, I bounded out of bed this morning, eager to get started on my hat-making adventures.  There are only 4 pattern pieces and no pesky size issues, so I was expecting some instant gratification out of this one.  I mean, really, how hard can it be?



I'm making View B -- the upper left version.

I read the instructions before I started.  They were confusing and vague, but I figured everything would make sense as I tackled each step.

 
Step 1:  I had to fold, gather and sew this weird little flap to a long rectangle.  Huh?  I couldn't see that flap anywhere on the picture on the envelope.  In fact, although it is asymetrical and jaunty, the pattern envelop only shows one angle of View B.  So I have no idea what the other three sides of the hat are supposed to look like.

I was getting slightly concerned.  Hmmmmm.  Maybe I should check patternreview.com and see what the good folks over there had to say.

Yeah.  Maybe I should have checked patternreview.com before I started this whole project.  Though the other hats are apparently a joy to sew, the universal consensus was that View B is Satan's spawn.  The directions make no sense, the diagrams are inaccurate and the whole thing is a giant exercise in frustration.

So I guess patternreview won't be much help.  I googled the pattern number and found a number of reviews -- universally negative -- about this pattern.  I also found a step-by-step set of supplemental instructions from a seamstress named Isis who slew this particular dragon and generously passed along her secrets here. 

Armed with Isis' instructions, I figured I CAN DO THIS.

Step 2:  Isis recommended thread tracing all the markings.  Ok.  I've got this.

The next few steps breezed by.  What was I so worried about?  Seriously.  I don't know what everybody else's problem was.  This is a total cakewalk. 

I even broke out the heavy duty wire cutters!

I was getting down to serious millinery business now.  My hat was going to ROCK.  I was brimming with self-confidence.  Some might call it hubris.
   
Things were going swimmingly.  Until Vogue wanted me to bend my hat into some kind of weird oragami yoga pose that bore no resemblance to any diagram contained in the instructions. 

I blinked a couple times.  Then I consulted Isis' blog.  And sat there and stared at it for a while.  Finally, I ended up with this:

Somehow THAT is eventually supposed to look like this:

The problem is that I'm running out of steps.  I'm not really sure how I'm going to get from that downward-dog-reverse-pike blob of felt to the elegant confection on top of that Vogue woman's head.  I've got some steamed buckram, a styrofoam ball and a yard of grosgrain left.  Wish me luck.  I think I'm gonna need it.