DIY: The I-See-London-I-See-France Dress

I am a bit of a haphazard seamstress. So I have this fear, when I wear my own sewn dresses, that  some rogue seam is gonna come loose and the end of the phrase "I see London, I see France..." will actually become my reality.

 Bonjour, compadres! What you are looking at here is an example of Pro-Cass-tination. Oh, you didn't know I was the Queen of Puttin'-Off-Everything-'Cept-Candy-Eatin'? It's true. And this dress is no exception. After months of sitting on this half-finished dress, I finally knocked it out. And just in the nick o' time, as me and the wee artists are about to be neck deep in all things Paris, France. Oui oui, ya'll.

Um, did you know I have a bit of a Mary Blair obsession? Have you seen the movie Single White Female...? Just kidding, my therapist and I have it way under control. As long as I take my meds. This photo of It's a Small World was taken last Christmas at Disneyland.

 So I picked up the Parisian-themed fabric over the summer. I knew I'd be taking the kids on European adventures in art and wanted to create a dress for the occasion. When hubs said, "that fabric looks very It's-a-Small-World," I knew I'd made the right choice.

If you are thinking this dress design looks  familiar, then you might be thinking of my Empire Strikes Back dress and the Presley Poodle Dress. Yep, all three are from the same vintage pattern. I'm a repeat offender.

 After sorting through my mountain of dress patterns I went with the same ole dress pattern I've used before. I really like this pattern for a couple of reasons: that giant band around the waist is super slimming and, because of the three parts of the dress, I can have fun playing around with fabric combinations. For the top half, I decided to go with my two favorite colors, salmon pink (with polka dots?! yes, please!) and turquoise blue. The skirt fabric is from Hoodie's Collection "L'amour de la vie" for Timeless Treasures Fabrics.

You remember my embroidered poodle from my traveling DIY? Well, this was also completed on that same trip. For this I used an embroidery design from Stitcher's Revolution.

Now if only Mary Blair paintings were made into fabric designs, I'd be oh-so-happy.

To top off the look (like literally), my friend Jen of Peachy Tuesday created this awesome Eiffel Tower headband. I love it! And I know the kids are going to as well. You can find Jen's shop here...and you can preview her designs before they go up for sale on her Facebook page. Merci, Jen!

The gorgeous Mary Blair. A little bit of history on her: she and her hubs joined Walt Disney Studios in the 1940's where she worked on concept art for movies like Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella. The designs for both are beautifully published in childrens books, along with a couple others she illustrated (if you have not seen the adorable I Can Fly book, please check it out). She is most famous for creating the designs for It's a Small World. Sigh. If I could live in that sweet world, I totally would.

Now that I think about it, this seems like the perfect dress to wear the next time I ride It's a Small World. Given I don't experience the dreaded butt-blowout before then.

 

 Oh, look, there's me attempting my best Mary Blair pose. Yeah, I'll keep workin' on it. The beautiful portrait of Mary was created by comic book guru Michael Netzer.

 Whew, I-See-London-I-See-France-Please-Lemme-Be-Wearing-Clean-Underpants Dress complete! Next up on my sewing table: my Halloween Horror Movie Dress to be worn at the countless haunted houses we'll be attending this fall (yes, seriously). When I mentioned that upcoming dress to hubs, the following convo ensued:

Hubs: I know you haven't started on that dress yet.

Moi: Oh yeah, how do you know?

Hubs: Because it's not the night before you need to wear it.

Hey, they don't call it pro-Cass-tination fer nutin'.

Au revoir!

What the Art Teacher Wore #29

Meetings Monday: Thankfully I had a cushion-y chair to help with the hours of sittin' and listenin'. Said chair is muy importante to prevent the onset of butt fatigue. dress: vintage, thrifted; belt: sale, Anthro; shoes: um, Softee

 Ya'll are the best. I've gotten so much great advice on how to remove (or cover if removal becomes the impossible) that pesky brown stain from the dress featured in my Vintage 911 spot. Thank you! I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

This week in art teacher land was an exciting one. The kids returned to school on Thursday and we've been having a ball every since. And they've not even made it down to my art room yet! The invasion begins tomorrow and I cannot wait.

Getting ready for the kids this week, I was all about the details. Putting the finishing touches on the outside of my art room and well as the inside. In keeping with that train of thought, I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite details of this week's wacky outfits. I'd love to hear which detail you like the best. Enjoy your upcoming week!

This dress also spent some time in Vintage 911 as it was missing buttons, was spotty and torn. But how could I not restore a dress with such adorable fabric?

Incoming! Tuesday: On this day we keep our school open late and registered the kids. I didn't want any newcomers to be confused about what I teach. necklaces: thrifted; top: Target; crayon shoes: painted by me, tutorial here; rainbow wrap skirt: gogovintage, via etsy.

A detail you cannot see very well in the outfit photo is my crayon hair clip. The kids loved it and it was super easy to make: hot glue crayons to small piece of felt and hot glue felt to hair clip. Boom. Crayons in Yo Hairs.

Oh, More Meetings?! Why, Let Me Do My Happy Dance Wednesday: jumper: Esprit, from high school...because I NEVER get rid of ANYTHING; blouse: thrifted, vintage; belt: Anthro; sandals: old, Target

Oh, look, it's Gary. Lots of Gary's. Meow. (if you've no clue what I'm talking about, don't worry. It's a Sponge Bob thing.)

The Official First Day of School: And, like every year for the last 14 (gah!!), I had the same dream I always do: A room full of 50 plus kids who are all yakking at once and I cannot maintain any sort of control. And I yell and yell and yell. Do any of you teachers out there have back-to-school nightmares? top: Banana Republic, garage sale; skirt: the awesome etsy shop OpalMaeandMissDot via etsy sandals: Target, you gotta check out their big ole shoe sale!; palette hair clip: made by moi

Kid Convo between a newbie and a veteran kid. Newbie: "She has a paint brush and a paint thingie in her hair." Veteran: "She also wears pencil shoes and ones with Santa Claus painted on them. She's the art teacher!" That's right. It's what I do.

Red White and Blue Friday: Our whole school got decked out in their red white and blues on Friday in celebration of the final weekend of the Olympics. dress: from a shop in Germany; belt and head band: dotted fabric from my stash; anchor sandals: Sperry

Anchors aweigh! Whatever that might mean.

DIY: The Armpit Blowout

"Vintage 911, please state your emergency."..."Well, aside from what looks like Little Shop of Horrors growing out the side of my head, I've just experienced an Arm Pit Blowout! Please send help right away!"

One thing I've learned shopping vintage is to always check the pits. I don't know the toxic makeup of sweat (nor do I wanna) but what I can tell you for certain is that it can mess up some clothes. You see, the sweat not only stains the fabric but can also break it down, leading to The Armpit Blowout. And while the added circulation of air in a hot vintage dress is nice, comments like, "Dude, you have a hole in your armpit...wow, do you ever shave?!" are not welcome. Or appreciated. And, yes, I do shave. Sometimes.

I'm always curious about vintage labels so I did a little googling on Jonathan Logan and found out...there actually was no Jonathan Logan. Dun dun duuuunnnnn!

This lovely dress has been in my closet for ages. Like, since high school. It's got more issues than the pit problem (note the stain under the belt) but I just couldn't let it go. So I decided to iron all of those yards of taffeta and give it some TLC.

That's right. Turns out Jonathan Logan was a popular maker of young women’s dresses – geared to the young, but not the super trendy. Think classy and dressy like Anne Taylor or something. The designers were actually women: Dorris Varnum, and Jeanne Carr.

So these J.L. designs are just a little, uh, smug. Around the neck. And at the waist. Throw in the non-stretch taffeta and it felt like I was in a straight jacket. I experienced a moment of near claustrophobic panic when zipping myself up and wondered if I actually would need to dial 911. "Please send help right away, I'm trapped inside a vintage dress!"

The Armpit Blowout.

As you can see, the tear was big but not bad. Meaning, it was definitely a patch fix. Trying to sew this back together would have lead to too many seams.

A Patchy Pit.

Super easy. A little cutting and ironing and my pit was as good as new.

Since the nature of taffeta is to tear easily, I added a straight stitch for reinforcement.

From the outside. Hey, I didn't say it'd be a Pretty Patchy Pit.

So I've never worn taffeta before and lemme tell you, this stuff is noisy when you walk. It spooked the cat so much she hid under the bed.

Mysterious brown stains are never attractive.

Now, here's where I need your help. I have no idea what this stain is nor how to remove it. Any suggestions from you vintage-lovers or clothes-cleaners out there? I would so love to restore this sweet dress to it's original Jonathan Logan loveliness.

"Oh, Betty, you know I don't wear aprons because I cook! They're to hide the stains on my vintage garb, you silly!" Completely adorable poodle apron from the lovely etsy shop: skywayvintage.

 Whew, near vintage catastrophe solved! I hope you enjoyed this little segment of Vintage 911 as I'm thinking this is going to be a new post series. I have a mountain of vintage in need of TLC and I'm hoping this will motivate me to attack it. And I'd love to hear your ideas on solving the Brown Stain Situation.

 Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely end of the week.

In the Art Room: Actually, Outside the Art Room

Outside of le Cafe Artiste!

 With mere hours before the wee artists return to school, I managed to finish the outside of my art room. Giant sigh of relief. And collapse on the couch. I'm a little concerned about the inside of my art room as I have yet to put supplies out and rules up (gasp!). However, I've always been told it's what's on the outside that counts. Or did they just tell me that because of my crummy personality?

My van Gogh-spiration. The Yellow House (Vincent's house in Arles), 1888

 I am not one of those artsy types that can just have an idea pop into my head and then knock it out with a paint brush and paper. Oh no. I've gotta have something to look at and steal from. Which is where van Gogh stepped in. I sketched his street scene onto brown bulletin board paper with a charcoal stick and then painted over it...with my paint brushes! That's right, I found 'em! They were...sadly...right where I now remember putting them. In the kiln room. Don't ask.

Dunno about you, but when I hang things on the concrete blocks at my school, they don't like to stick. I've tried it all: blue sticky tack, gum, a plethora of tapes, you name it. The best sticky stuff for the job? 3M Double Sided Tape. It's pricey but this should stay up all year.

 From there, blue paper was hung across the top, the street scene was added and I set to work on the entrance. I knew I wanted it to look as though the kids were walking into a cafe so up went the awning and the door decor.

That's supposed to be Paul Cezanne in the open window there. Or George Costanza. Your pick.

This door actually leads to my office. I'm thinking I may have to put some sort of "Closed" sign on the door otherwise I'll have lots of friends stumbling into my messy lair.

When the kids enter my room, here's what they first see. So at least this part of the inside of my room is finished. I'm not showing you the rest...yet.

 So I'm pretty excited, I think it's finally coming together. Now, I just need to revise my rules.

If you recall, they were:

Rule #1: Find Mrs. Stephens paint brushes.

Rule #2: What? Have you found my brushes yet? Then you need to revisit Rule #1, kid.

So everything was done. Finished. Complete. And then I did it. I added a poodle.

 Here's what I'm thinking:

Rule #1: Help Mrs. Stephens off the couch.

(note to self: move couch to school.)

Rule #2: Wait, why am I up? Help Mrs. Stephens back to the couch. She was confused.

Can you tell I'm still borrowing heavily from the Gladys Presley Poodle?

...And that I'm totally on a poodle kick? Thank you, art teacher buddy, for picking up this sweet poochie for me.

In other French-related news, guess who made it to Paris!? I just got this photo, along with many others, from the sweetest young lady who agreed to take on Jes. He's traveled all over Paris. I'll share more of his adventures with you soon. In the mean time, he's packing his bags to England. The kids are going to Flip. Out.

 Thanks for dropping by, friends! Wish me and my students luck for a great day tomorrow (you might wanna throw in an extra penny at the wishing well for the kids...with me as their guide, they're gonna need it!). 

And for all of you teachers out there, my thoughts are with you. Enjoy your days with those sweet kids!

What the Art Teacher Wore #28

Brooklyn Bridge Monday: dress: Anthro, sale, couple summers ago; necklace: dunno, Target maybe?; hair accessory: the marvelous Peachy Tuesday

Please pardon me if I sound a little bit Eeyore-esque in this post but I said good bye to one of my favorite friends this week: Summer. On Thursday my days of traveling, estate-saling, fro-yo-for-dinner'ing ended. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled for the upcoming school year and our European theme in the art room. It's just that, well, I'm gonna miss all of my free time. And fro yo. 

Along with WIWTW, I'm sharing some more photos from my NYC in 48 hours. Well, with the exception of one day...I'm sure you'll be able to figure out which when you do some downward scrollin'. 

In other news, the polling has closed on the DIY Eiffel Tower Dress. If you recall, the question was: Should I bedazzle the dress some more or leave it as is? It seems the majority of you are on the side of my hubs (thanks a lot, ya'll. Humph.) and are in the please stop the tackifying camp. I appreciate your taking the time to vote and I've decided...to leave the dress as is. Partly because you are right and the other partly because my ADHD has caused me to move on to other things. Like more poodles. Possibly in tutu's. Definitely wearing berets. Is it fro yo time yet?

Such a beauty, the Brooklyn Bridge.

Traffic in NYC Tuesday: "Well, as you can see, Bob, the traffic in Chelsea is flowing along just fine." This silly photo was taken on the High Line in Chelsea. dress: thrifted, Issac Mizrahi; bow belt: Anthro

Just a glimpse of the awesomeness that is Purl Soho.

Back to School Thursday: That's right, I skipped Wednesday. It was a bit of a long day what with flying home and heading straight to the eye doc afterword (notice the glasses?), grocery shopping and unpacking. By the time I remembered I hadn't taken a photo, I was in my pajamas. And I'm not ready to share that much with you. dress and sweater: sale, Anthro; sandals: Frye

Dino bones at the Natural History Museum.

Eiffel Tower Dress Friday: This is my first Bernie Dexter dress and I love it. It's so well made and I adore the little red piping. Not to mention the Eiffel Tower print -- eep! Must make more room in el closet for her designs. She even has a dress with a Matisse print. dress: Bernie Dexter; shoes: BC, old; hair flower: made by moi

A student project with a Barbie theme on display at FIT. My fave is the Barbie and poodle on the left.

Back in Tennessee Saturday: My family (my mom and my in-laws) were in town this weekend. We decided to go see the stock car races in Clarksville which is always an adventure. This particular race track is a clay track. That means every time the cars came around the bend, they were spraying us with clay pellets. Yeah, we ain't in NYC no more, kids. dress: vintage, dyed and altered by me; sweater: Anthro; sandals: Chacos

Crazy fun. By the end of the night we were picking clay bits out of each others hair. If it looks like I have a spray tan in the above photo, I do. We call it the Stock Car Clay Spray Special.

I do believe the rules of the track apply to my art room.

My sweet students arrive this Thursday! I cannot wait to see them. Until then, it's more meetings for me. Maybe a "pill draw" window would help me make it through those. Kidding, kidding!

Enjoy your week.