i was featured!

i came home from work today to two lovely etsy emails. one sold belt, one wished design, both stemming from a feature on etsy's blog! roxietoxl got herself into etsy's "off the beaten path" spotlight post. HA! i have wanted to be in this section since i opened up last thanksgiving! the curator, emily, features everything from dioramas of dinosaurs wreaking havoc to lovebirds nesting on your head. she finds the wildest stuff and i'm so thrilled to be a part of it.

another thing that thrills me is looking at my sold items. please to have a bratty moment? 'k thnx.

these are a few of my sold items (there's a whole 'nother page. i only went half-brat on you). sometimes i sneak a click on these just to make myself giddy. the top left hand corner was the featured design, soon to be whisked away to its new owner. and now that i look at it... the bottom right hand corner was a top ten pick of the charming, wise and ever-so-gentlemanly fellow blogger , gedwoods of burdastyle.

TOOT TOOOOOOT! i am such a brat.

a teeny tiny update

from a teeny tiny dress form:

a size 6, to be exact... and the gal it's destined for is even teenier.

i am crazy lucky to have in my arsenal of friends a lady who is A. amazing B. mad skilled and C. AMAZING. oh yeah, and she lets me work on her dress form and gives me all sorts of knowledge and helps me see the next step and boosts my ego and makes me feel like a million sewing bucks. 

this dress was going to have a wrap around tie belt, like this crazy top, but in one fitting session with Amazing Lady (her superhero title), wrap belt was banished, zipper was seized, boning was introduced, and it was revealed that by some stroke of magic i had managed to get the bust points right. 

(that is, i think they're called bust points. i will have to ask Amazing Lady.)

over the weekend

i fell asleep watching SNL and when i woke up, i thought this was a spoof. then i realized it was the musical guest. then i realized she was AWESOME.

edit: feh, NBC took it off youtube. here's the official site. go look, it makes you happy and jumpy!

Saturday Night Live - Ke$Ha: "Your Love Is My Drug" - Video - NBC.com

making progress

and going blind.

find your happy place

yesterday, three manhole covers exploded straight up like mini skyscrapers on my walk to work. today, it was 85 degrees and sunny. all manhole covers where they should be. wine currently in front of me. still stressed about every piddling little thing i can think of. anybody got a mantra they'd like to loan me?

evening gown, not so much.

you know that point in sewing where you think you're coming up with something really cool or really awful, and the next few seams will tell?

yeah.

this made me happy though, recommended at the lovely sunshine by sara:

and you can have the full album for your very own, for a mere five bucks at amazon. i downloaded it and had it on repeat immediately. kept me from hurling 8 yards of silk out the window.

still scared!

house: clean.
taxes: waiting.
time: to procrastinate.

remember that gala evening gown request? that's what i'm tackling today, instead of doing my taxes. it's based off of this shirt...dress...tank...wrap....

YES, all the edges are raw, and NO, i don't care!

i don't really know what to call it. like the poorly shot blue wrap dress, this is patternless and pieced together from many large silk squares and rectangles cut on the bias. i love to sew like this, but it REALLY makes me miss my dressform. i didn't know what to do with it when it was in my hands. now it's 3,000 miles away, and i pine for it like a country singer in a dive bar.

i think the credit for this one goes to roxie. i got the bright idea to use a leather closure for myself instead of the etsy shop. it felt very sneaky for some reason, like i was stealing from the cookie jar.

i think my problem with patterns (well, one of my problems with patterns) is that i want to topstitch. everything. and the garment slowly becomes a mutant creature made of thread that walks away on its own. with this piece, i topstitched in lavender till my face turned blue, grinning all the way.

well, i'm grinning on the inside here. 

egads! ye olde laptop is now running on reserve battery power, which means my procrastinating time is over... one last shot and i'm out...

wishing you a happy monday and completed taxes!

my hump: the apparently bootylicious maxi skirt.

i have to clean the house today.

instead, i will procrastinate with a post on a much neglected blog (said neglection, pinky-swear, to end now, with no boring excuses for past behavior.)

lately i've been sewing sans pattern. mostly because i'm completely and utterly disappointed when the pattern made garment doesn't magically fit me like a glove. this could have something to do with not making a muslin, trying it on periodically, or you know, checking the measurements, but whatever. maybe further reading over at the cupcake goddess will provide some insight, but for now i'm winging it.

this maxi skirt is made from a many colored seersucker, dollar a yard (my favorite). i cut two hee-uge squares, basted the side seams and used the stripes to form pleats until my waist was snugly wrapped, stitched the pleats down, threw a couple darts in the back, then inserted ye olde invisible zipper.

the oona parental units breeze into town every so often for a sophisticated lunch with daughter & son in law (read: we are on a mission to find the fanciest & cheapest prix fixes in town, and have done quite well so far). it's becoming a tradition, and i like to wear something handmade. something comfortable so that i can also stuff myself.

that said, would you consider this to be a sexy number? form fitting? showcasing, specifically, the derriere? eh, not so much. a pervert biker, however, whole-heartedly disagreed. he found it sexy enough to quickly and quietly pedal up behind me on the sidewalk in order to grab my ass.

yes, that's right. that's the view this loser had. 4 yards of fabric. here's how it went:

(it is a warm spring day. birds sing. for the first time in months, new yorkers bask in the sun. oona strolls happily, smiling at patrons sitting at a sidewalk cafe, off to her own outdoor luncheon. suddenly, she hears the sound of a bicycle, quite close, and a hand grabs her left butt cheek. a red shirted bicyclist pedals casually away.)

oona: JACKASS! I HOPE YOU GET HIT AND DIE!

(the patrons at the sidewalk cafe, unaware of oona's predicament, stare in horror at the now insane new yorker ruining their spring lunch.)

i still love the skirt. and i'm plotting exactly what i will do if i ever hear a bicycle behind me again. it involves an elbow and the full hundred and ten pounds of my weight.