Christmas Loot

It's only near the end of January, that's not too late to show Christmas loot right?  Right? Ah who cares, its my blog and its all meant to further my powers of design and awesomeness.

First up: My very first, very own dressmakers Judy!  Now when I finish garments or I'm working on them, I wont always have to haul out my store manikins.  Which can give you quite a scare in the early hours of morning if you forget they are there,or in my case are half asleep and you think there is a 7 foot tall, freakishly skinny, pointy-chested prowler in your family room.  It's also going to make making tailored jackets much easier for me too.

"Pinellope" as she was dubbed by my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, is my size (so a small) but I do plan on eventually acquire medium and large ones as well.

I also got some books, but books are wonderful and I love them.

The Victorian Tailor is one I got over the boxing day sales. It includes 18 patterns for Victorian mens wear as well as tailoring and finishing techniques.

Patterns for theatrical costumes has patterns (like the cover says) from ancient Egypt up to just before the first world war as well as ideas on trims and patterns. It also has a section on making animal costumes, hats, masks and wigs 

 And the last one, is just a fantastic book with close ups on cuffs, collars, pockets and you name it as well as technical drawings of historical clothing.

It's actually the book that inspired my gradpiece.

Shoes for work

My manager at work, loved my Adventure Time shoes.  She liked them enough that when the company held a craft competition for customers (and one for staff) she said I should do shoes.

I wondered if it would work with fabric as well as paper so decided to give it a shot.  I thought since it was to be made from fabric, I'd make it look like a Crazy Quilt. Crazy quilting is something I did when I worked in a local living museum called Kings landing. It's the only kind of quilting I will do ( my mother and sister are both quilters and that is just too many for one family).

This is a quilt block I did over a summer of working at the museum. It going to be turned into a pillow.

Anyway, this competition took place just before Christmas, and  so many people were doing Christmas stuff that I decided I would find bright  spring-y fabrics and things to do my shoes.

Before:

 

After:

And the sides:

Sadly, Christmas was insanely busy around here, and then the flu ravaged my home, by the time I had these finished, it was too late to mail them in with the other employees pieces and then I could not find where to do the online entry.  So I missed the submission date :/

BUT

They will be on display for a few months at our store, so at least they wont go to waste!

Speaking of waste, get a size larger shoe if you do these with fabric.  Unlike the paper versions, the fabric actually shrank the shoes a bit and now they don't fit.  Whomp.

Lesson learned!

Boy, am I glad I have the patience to wait forever!

 After a scare where she was 1/2 hour late (I was starting to think she got lost or hurt on her way from Moncton, or that somehow I'd missed her!) I finally met my model  for the Red Dress campaign yesterday!

She loves Halloween and dressing up and has given me  carte blanche  on the design (Which is fun but scary, so many possibilities!)  This should be fun!

Now to start designing!


I also got some advice on how to fix my issue with the sleeve on my sister-in-law-to-be's wedding dress (it was too tight!)  from my instructors at the school and can get back in gear with that as well!

Pro Tip: NEVER ever ever draft or try to sew when you have the flu.  It just....does not work and leads to ill-fitting disasters!