DIY: Blue Christmas Dress

 As you read this, you might be sitting in your decked-out-for-the-holidays living room. Complete with a bedazzled and trimmed tree, wreath on the door, candles flickering in every window and lights strung outside the house.

If you came over to my house, you'd find a couple of pumpkins on my front step, flowers still blooming in planters (darn petunias just won't die!) and a bedazzled and trimmed pink Christmas tree. It kinda looks like Holiday Goulash. I'd apologize to my neighbors if they were still speaking to me.

Despite all that, what I do have is one completed Christmas dress! And not just any ole completed Christmas dress but one that Lights Up!! That's right, something that rad calls for Unnecessary Capitalization and Multiple Exclamation Points!! Eat That, Grammar Po-Po.

No, that's not my beeper. I upgraded to a cell phone last week. It's my battery pack for my LED lights.

I couldn't resist this vintage reproduction fabric when I found it at my local fabric shop. I scooped up three yards and decided to go with another version of the Simplicity pattern I used for my Cuckoo Clock Dress. This time, I went sleeveless for a coupla reasons: one, if you know me at all, you know I hate putting in sleeves. Like, hate isn't even a strong enough word. Despise. Detest. De-reallydon'tlike. And, two, I felt sans sleeves would give this dress a vintage vibe.

 But the idea to create a light-up dress didn't happen until hubs and I took a trip to his fave store in the whole universe: Big Lots.

Now, my hubs is an Idea Man. He is constantly coming up with new ideas for food trucks (my fave: the Organic Create-Your-Own-Flavor Cotton Candy Cart), clothing, and, of course, musical instruments. I usually know when a Big Idea is coming because his sentences begin with, "Tell me what you think of this..."

And that's what happened when I was wandering the isles of B.L. on Saturday, checking out where all ya'll snagged your Christmas decor. Hubs pointed out the little box of lights and said, "Tell me what yo think of this: You make your Christmas dress light up."

 Now, sometimes, hub's big ideas are just too big. But once he explained this one, I began to think it was doable. With his help, it was actually a piece of cake. 

You can make any ole dress light up. Here's how you do it:

•  Sew a 2" hem at the bottom of your dress with a piece of twine that has a long enough tail to hang out of the opening of the hem. Leave about a 6" opening at the center front of your dress, right underneath the pockets.
• Seam rip a hole in your pocket.
• Feed the end of the LED lights through the hole.

Originally, I was going to sew in two strings of lights but the weight of two battery packs in my pockets didn't seem ideal. Hence the two strands of twine.

•   Tie the end of the lights to the end of a piece of twine and pull through. I'm making that sound very easy...it was actually a two person job.
• Untie string from the lights and close most of the hem opening.

 Dress front and back. This dress version of the Simplicity dress actually went by quickly. Skipping those four hour sleeves really helped. Normally I'd need sleeves in December but so far, no. It's been almost 70 degrees for the last coupla days.

This bodice is different than the other dress too in that it doesn't have that inverted V thingie. Thankfully.

 So you know, sewing a blue Christmas dress means I had Elvis' Blue Christmas running through my head the entire time. I managed to score this unopened album over Thanksgiving for a mere $3! It's been spinning on my record player since.

 And so there you have it! A Blue Christmas Dress. I'm pretty stoked and I can't wait to wear it to school. The kids are always full of questions and curiosity when I wear I dress I've created. 

Okay. I'm off to remove my pumpkins, planters and finish the Christmas decoratin' I've started. Because the song goes "I'll have a Blue Christmas..." not "I'll have a Pumpkin on my Porch for Two Months Christmas." Although that does have a certain ring to it...

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DIY: Bewitch Yourself

Remember the TBA dress I mentioned in the last post? Well, here it is: The Bewitched Dress. Which doesn't really have any connection to the old television show except that when I donned the little pointy hat, the batwing'ed shades and the witchy shoes, I suddenly felt very Samantha Stevens. And who doesn't wanna feel as though they could cast a coupla spells with the twitch of a nose?

I actually have a little Samantha Stevens story (btw, if you know me for like 5 minutes, you'll find I have a "story" for just about any occasion). This story begins way back when I was in 8th grade and an absolute Trifecta of Fugly: glasses the size of dinner plates, braces complete with headgear and a gangly 98 pounds. Smokin' Hot. 

Needless to say, the boys were not exactly fallin' at my feet, let alone talkin' to me. And when they did, I was just plain clueless. Case in point: my response to a transaction with a Junior With a Mustache: 

Junior with a Mustache: Hey, what's your name? 

8th Grade Me: Cassie Stephens.

JWM: Oh, like Samantha Stevens! 

8GM: [dopey confused look]

JWM: You know, from that old show Bewitched! Are you related?

8GM: [lacking any sense of humor] What? No. That's a TV show.

JWM: I bet you are related. I bet you can twitch your nose and make stuff happen.

8GM: What would I make happen? 

JWM: [shrugs and turns to talk to his other mustache'd friends]

Present Me: [face palm]

So I might not wear the headgear (still have it though, thanks Hoarder Mom!), the big ole glasses or have that stick-thin frame but I'm still a complete and total geek. Which is what drew me to this total geek-tastic owl fabric. The design was originally created by one of my favorite fabric designers Tammis Keefe. I've actually used her fabric designs in two other versions of this dress. Her designs have most recently been reproduced by fabric designer Michael Miller. I paired the owls with black linen for the midriff and vintage fabric from my stash.

Oh, Elizabeth Montgomery. How beautiful are you? I need that big tousled hair and those cat eyelashes pronto. Do some nose twitchin' and make that happen for me, won't ya?

Now this dress doesn't have the sleeve issue that my el Dia de los Muertos dress had...but I still managed to procrastinate long enough to add some bewitching decorations to the house. Like this giant web I thrifted with some phoney-baloney leaves and a die cut spider.

Okay, that whole nose twitching thing? Check out the difference between Elizabeth Montgomery's (aka Samatha Stevens) nose twitch and mine. Let's see if you can tell the difference...

Do you see the diff? She's actually not wiggling her nose but moving her mouth from side to side. Which is much cuter than my face. I look like I'm trying to silently squeak out a noisy fart. Again, Smokin' Hot.

You try it. Just wiggle your mouth from side to side. It gives the illusion you are wiggling your nose. Without that Squeaky Fart Face look.

Well, once I had my nose wiggly down pat, I was magically able to decorate my mantle. I sewed the garland using some images I had die cut at school. And I added hubs' deer antlers and turtle shells that he'd found on his walks in the woods.

Have you ever sewn paper on your sewing machine before? So super easy. For these, I just ran one of the die cuts through my sewing machine, let the machine continue to run while I gently pulled on the die cut piece and then inserted another piece. I did this for my mantle way back in February too.

So, to bring this whole post full circle, I'm gonna give Junior with a Mustache an answer to his thought about "making stuff happen." 

What would I make happen? 

Well, this October, I think I would just Bewitch Myself. And my house. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got headgear to go put in. 

P.S. Outfit details:   witchy shoe covers and mini doll hat: JoAnn's; Best Sunglasses Ever!: one of my super thoughtful students. You know who you are, thanks Little Buddy!

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Vintage 911: Shrink My Dress

Vintage 911 before...and after.

Just recently a totally awesome coworker gave me this amazing vintage dress. I immediately fell in love with the print. I mean, it's got it all: umbrellas, toucans, starfish, a startled lady in a swim cap  -- it's just the most adorable thing ever. The prob? There was just a little too much fabric. Everywhere. A nip/tuck was in order.

Upon close examination, I found that this dress was entirely hand sewn. Can you imagine? In high school, when I was sewing-machine-less, I hand stitched the hem of a skirt. The process and the end result were equally painful.

 When thinking of how I would alter this dress, my first thought was to simply take in the sides and be done with it. However, that proved to be impossible for a couple of reasons. One, the dress only had a top button at the back of the neck. If the dress was altered to be form fitting, there would be no getting in and out of it. Two, the dress was pretty poorly crafted. I mean, it was hand sewn, the seamstress did what she could. But I wanted to do this dress up right. So, no short cuts. No slight modifications. This was gonna need to be a complete redo.

 I began by dissecting the dress. This was so hard to do as I wasn't sure exactly how this was going to end. I couldn't bear the thought of facing my work buddy knowing that I'd needlessly slaughtered her dress. Despite my sweaty palms and worry, I hacked away.

After cutting the back of the dress from top to bottom, I then took out the seam connecting the bodice to the skirt.

The original dress had a bodice that was gathered at the waist. I prefer a darted bodice, so I got out the dress pattern that I've used here, here, here and here. This cleaned up the bodice and created a more fitted look.

The sides were still wide, so I pinned and altered on my mannequin, as seen in the photo on the right.

 To be certain I took in an equal amount on both sides, I created a tissue pattern. I sewed along the line of the tissue paper, trimmed and ironed open.

 Once the bodice was complete, I was ready to add the skirt. Before I did, I took up 3 1/2" from the bottom. I then baste stitched two rows at the top of the skirt so that I could gather it.

I gathered the skirt to fit the bodice, pinned it like mad and stitched it to the bodice as seen on the right.

Gotta love a wind-created crinoline.

And, viola! Couple hours later and the dress was complete.

After adding even bigger darts on the second fitting, the dress fit much better.

Putting in the zipper was the last step. I used the zipper/tape trick again and it worked great. This dress has a beautiful pearl button at the top that I was able to keep in the dress.

Now, with the dress complete, I need your help: do I keep the parts of the dress that come off the shoulders (on left) or get rid of them (on right)? Hubs is leaning toward the look on the right...while I'm not sure if I want to take away from that wide collar.

So, what's your vote? You can cast your vote at the top of this page on the right. The last time we played this game, I was seriously out-voted (gee, thanks guys). After you vote, feel free to leave me a comment and lemme know what you think. Thanks for playing!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #33

Purple Tuesday: Can you find what's wrong in this picture? How about my dress...notice anything unusual? When I was getting dressed Tuesday morning, I foolishly tugged on a little loose string at the bottom of my dress. Once at school, someone pointed out that my hem was coming undone (after I'd snapped this photo). Geez, I wonder why.  A work buddy helped me tape that hem back into place. You get to know someone really well when you lift up the tail end of your skirt in front of 'em. dress: Anthropologie, new with tags, my favorite Goodwill score to date; shoes: John Fluevog

Well, Happy End of the Week to you, kids! I totally enjoyed having last Monday off in celebration of Labor Day. Did you notice there wasn't an outfit photo for Monday? Yeah, I bounced between four different looks that day: pajamas, exercise clothes, yard working clothes and back to pajamas. Thought I'd spare you.

So included in this short What I Wore this Week is one of my favorite fabric designers: Florence Broadhurst. Because I'm toying with the idea of creating my own fabric, I've been pouring over the designs of some of my faves. My bedside table currently has a stack of fabric design books and Florence is at the top of the pile. If you've not heard of her, I highly recommend Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret and Extraordinary Lives.

Florence Broadhurst in her Paddington (an eastern suburb of Sydney, Australia) wallpaper design studio, early 1970's. Her vibrant and outlandish designs were a complete reflection of her character. All images pulled from pinterest.

Florence lived more lives than a cat. Born in 1899, she grew into adulthood during the roaring '20's. In full flapper garb, she toured Southeast Asian and China in various singing and comedy troupes. In her later designs, the influence of Asian art is strong.

Brown Wednesday: That's right, we are still wearing colors this week with kindergarten. This totally helped me get dressed in the mornings...although I've missed wearing my Frenchy-themed garb. dress: vintage, picked up at an antique store in high school; shoes: Frye

Always the entrepreneur, Florence established The Broadhurst Academy where she taught voice and instrument lessons in Shanghai. From there she moved on to England where she married, divorced, remarried and had a son. When World War II hit, she volunteered to help.

One of my favorite Broadhurst designs. At her wallpaper design facility in the late 1960's and 70's, this print could have been purchased on metallic paper. This was completely revolutionary at the time.

Black and White (with a pop of color) Thursday: top: vintage, thrifted. I love it's Matisse-esque design; skirt: Target; shoes: Softee

When reading about Florence, I found that many of the 800 wallpaper designs were not actually created by her. Her eyesight was failing and the task of creating all of those designs would have been impossible.  So she hired graduates from local art schools to come work for her. Some of  their designs she would claim to be her own. For photo ops like the one above, the palette and the brushes where simply props.

That's not to say she didn't have a heavy hand in the direction of the designs. This is another one of my faves.

Wear Your Favorite Color Day: Turquoise! dress: vintage, thrifted; belt: gift from a friend (thank you, Anna!); shoes: Anthropologie

Florence with all of the designs created in her studio. I love her vibrant fashion sense (dyed bright red hair, oh yeah!), even well into her 70's. She was known among her friends for her flamboyant style. Sadly she was murdered outside of her studio in 1977. Her murderer was never found and the reason is still a mystery.

Regardless, her designs are such an inspiration. I find them to be so beautiful and modern looking. Have you heard of Florence Broadhurst? Do you have a fave fabric designer?

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy your upcoming week. Mine is going to be spook-tacular! More details soon.

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