it's been a long while. happy new year again! things have been busy, in a good way. i finished my most recent client's shower and wedding invites. i'll post pictures up soon. here is the only pic i have so far:


i have two potential paper jobs coming up and i get the pleasure of designing a birthday invite for my mom's 55th! exciting....

on the sewing end of things, i finished jobs (dresses) for 2 clients. i need pictures! i'll try and see if i can get those and put them up soon. i also had the chance to work on a nursery for one of my former bride client (invitation). how cool? here are some pics.




i've been so out of touch i don't even know what's going on with my favorite bloggers anymore. hopefully, i can get to make the rounds soon!

later!

the wedding was great! she had been planning for about 2 years now. i'd know because we sorta started together and i got married last november. we were each other's bridesmaids and i was so happy for them.

it was for this event i sewed frantically away. if i am to work with clients, my time management skills should kick into overdrive. anyhoo, i got the fabric and gele and pondered for a while what to sew with it. i thought of sewing a skirt and blouse (ibo-style) and bought some nice pinkish-peach crepe back satin to sew as the top. the satin looks pinker in this picture.

but i was runing out of time. so i decided a dress will be it. so i scoured the catalogs for a nice dress that won't be so casual and not so stuffy. so i decided on vogue pattern 2720. crazy, huh? not quite. i envisioned it as a short dress with short sleeves. it was fully lined (i had to basically sew it twice) and i think it came out great! working with these kinds of lace fabric has it's challenges. first off, there are HUGE holes and what happens when your tailor's tack falls in line with a hole? the stones were ridiculously abundant too. all in all, for the fabric and the design, i think it came out good. it'll look even better is a slinkier fabric.


a tip i learned from the tailors back home is to try to make the edges of your lining from the selvages (if cotton). it's neater and you have one less step to do (hemming)

i said in one of my earlier posts that one of the things i liked to do was to alter clothing i already had to extend their use. so, my husband really wanted to wear "anko" to our friends wedding early in august. that's a term for couples wearing the same outfit/fabric. it is derived from "and Co." in business. we have lots of funny borrowed and modified english words in my language. anyhoo, i searched through my stash of traditional wear and came across some old iro and buba my mom-in-law passed on to us. it is basically a boxed shaped shirt with raglan sleeves worn with a single piece of cloth used as a wrapper (skirt). i figured if i messed it up it won't be that bad! it started out as a long version of v8229 without sleeves and with the flounce at the bottom. i was hung up on making the grey lace detail into the neckline. i didn't think to sew v-seams into it to make it curve but i have a feeling i may not have liked the fact that the lace was not continuous all around. anyhoo, the only thing that remained was the basic silhouette of the gown. i changed the neckline and made the lace into straps. (all freehand cutting by the way). i made the lining exactly the same way and included darts in both to give me a better fit. then i joined the fabric and lining right sides together along the top then turned it inside out and pressed it down. i inserted an invisible zipper at the back. interesting to do since the dress had stones and appliques! i found some moleskin fabric at joanns and displayed the reverse side as the belt. i really liked the end product. it took me longer to do than if i stuck to the pattern. i guess it's time to buy a dressform. i've been looking and i'll have a post on that in a bit.

my dear sister's birthday was in august and i decided to sew something for her. she's tall and has a slim physique and each time i saw the vogue 8241 pattern, i always think of how great she'll look in it. so, i secretly sewed and surprised her on our trip home. i'm so bad at keeping secrets. i think her birthday wasn't until the next week and i spilled the beans the next day we got home. in my defense, the dress had been in the works for a while before we travelled so i did good. a bit. i made the "slit" longer in the upper back of the dress. it actually goes all the way down to the belt but we had to improvise since i couldn't get the right bra "attachment" in time.

update: i did not include the elastic casing at the waist and drafted the pattern as one long piece (1 front + 2 back) instead of with a seam at the waist (2 front pieces + 4 back pieces). i bought black satin ribbon to use as the belt. it was hard getting the chain stitch for the button loop to the correct length. so i just cut up one of my thin elastic hairbands and used that as a loop. works perfectly because you can stretch it to accomodate the button. now, i'm hooked!!!

funny side story: some older lady ran up to my sister to tell her that her dress was open! lol. yeah. patches of skin showing in unexpected places is not the norm back home. you have to cover up when you wear a thin strapped dress. basically, over-revealing clothes are frowned upon. not to say that the kids don't wear them. it's a cultural, generational thing, i guess.