peanut butter sandwiches

i am about to take this....

and make it into a christmas tree, a la anthropologie. yes, including the cat litter. i'm not even lying. 

tutorial to follow....

i haz sewing skillz again!

well, i mean, that's subject to opinion but really, but i'm pretty happy about my new dress. and freaking thrilled that i actually FINALLY finished a project and entered a burdastyle contest!

yeah, that's my face. but more importantly, please do check out the exposed brick wall behind me. avec long crack and old paint circa 1947. yes, friends, this is the wall from the infamous bedroom debacle. what a great job they did, eh? such attention to detail.

whatever. i've decided to embrace it and go with some sort of restoration-vintage-goes-mod combo. i think i'm going to shove flowers and little matchbox cars into the wall and make it a piece of art.

but i digress.

this party frock took me about a week. i was racing along when i realized (for the 73rd time) that it is almost impossible to drape without a dress form. i realized this where i always do, when i got to the back of the dress. luckily i've got a girlfriend at work with a booty.

as for my front, i've got many tiny pinmarks that made me scratch my head in confusion, until i remembered yards of lace falling off me while i cursed my hand for having the gall to stick my torso.

that's a lot of pin sticks.

i used the roses in the lace to line up all the pin tucks. nothing would really mark this lace, so the seams were all done by eye and with fingers crossed.

i decided to use vintage brooches from my grandmothers for closures, that way i can change it up for the occasion. i think i'm going all christmas-y with this one. BY THE WAY. where the hell did the time go? how are stores decorating for christmas?

to enter the contest, you had to make a mood board of the era you were inspired by. i did a mix of 1720 & 1980, via watteau and the one-and-only prince. google quite rightly will not let me upload my board, since the shots were swiped from the web, but you could always go check it out over on burdastyle, wink wink. and maybe even vote for me later if you like what you see!

i think the prince reference is pretty obvious. i was going for purple rain, but it even goes a little towards that 90s sexy MF performance...

anyone remember that? when ruggy (oh yeah, that's what i'm gonna call r from now on, more fun, yes?) saw the exposed sides, there was some brow lifting. at least i didn't go that far.

i really wanted a watteau back, but in the self-injuring semi-masochistic pinning, it morphed into a panel, which can be kept closed or open...

                                                    

and now it's off to work i go. i leave you with this parting shot. i'm pretty sure i'm looking at the mustard colored splotch by the baseboard in disgust. 

ah, contractors.