I am constantly looking for ways to be better organized. My sewing studio has become a bit of a disaster area over the last year (life!) and I have finally started making a dent in getting it to the organized masterpiece I have always wanted it to be!

The two main things I had been meaning to do (aside from a general clean up) were to find a better and more accessible way of storing my sewing tools, and to install better lighting for my sewing table.

This week I finally got around to doing both.

For the lighting issue, I installed a strip of IKEA lights under the shelf that hangs over the table. I have these lights over my drafting table, as well as my bed. They are not the brightest lights ever, but I highly recommend them.

As for organizing my tools, I chose pegboard! I’m still figuring out the configuration and which hooks work with which tools, but it is already SO much better. Everything has its own place! I found everything at Home Depot and the instillation was VERY easy.

Back next week with a new dress!  

   
    

This beautiful woman is Katie. She is my oldest friend and I consider her family my family. She married her long time love Lyal in a fantastic celebration at Huntington Lake in the Sierra Mountains in the summer of 2009.

Katie and Lyal both asked me to dress them for the big day and I was so excited. Lyal wanted something totally crazy and also to wear a Daniel Boon hat which Katie and I quickly vetoed. Given the setting, we decided to go with something simple and romantic. 

I made Lyal an Indian inspired cotton shirt with abalone buttons, and I made Katie a beautiful romantic empire waist wedding dress with fluttery sleeves with antique lace details. The sash of the dress is made from the same material as Lyal’s shirt. I ended up with a lot of extra weight fabric from Katie’s dress and turned it in to a party dress which you can see here. 

   

   

  

    

 

  
Miss you two!

Wishing you all peace, love and joy in 2016. 

Nothing new for me this week, but check out some tiny heads and tiny hats! Previous posts about other tiny hats and heads here and here.

Each hat I make is created custom for the head it will cover. All I need are some general guidelines like fabric color and patch preference (though no guarantees, I am at the mercy of the fabric stores stock) and the circumference of the head.

 

 
 
  

 
  
  

Have a head you’d like me to cover? Find the listing on Etsy here. 

Merry Xmas/Happy Holidays!

This week I decided to finally make something out of one of the half finished dresses I have had in my closet for ages. This dress was supposed to be a wrap dress just like this one here and this top here.

My body has changed enough since I sewed this that the top of the dress was no longer an option. Time to become a skirt! I had originally planned on having the darker green as the main color, but looking at them now, I chose to go with the lighter green on top and the darker green peeking out the bottom. Turns out that that was a good plan as I found a really big faded spot in the dark green fabric!

 

The dress was designed with an empire waist (i.e. it hit right under the bust) so I knew I would be able to make a mid-calf length skirt like I wanted.  I have two petticoats and I wanted the option of wearing this skirt with my longer black one.

The first step was to remove the top from the skirt. Then I figured out what length I wanted the skirt and then cut it into three even panels. Skirt are cut into three pieces, but the front panel is twice as big as the back pieces. Since I always put pockets in my designs, I have found that having the side seam a little closer to center front made using the pockets much easier. No more endless searches for my pockets with my hands! Then all I did was add a thin black waist band, hemmed both layers of skirts and put in a zipper.

I ended up finishing the skirt early and wore it (minus the petticoat) to a holiday party this past weekend. I really love the weight of the two layers of fabric and I can’t wait to wear it (with petticoat this time) tonight!

twirl

I dare you to wear a petticoat and not twirl at least once!

 

 

 

 

The black top is from Target, and it’s hard to see them in the photos, but theses are the earrings I’m wearing. They are Katy Turner originals, and you can buy them from my Etsy shop here.

I got these fantastic new shoes from Modcloth.com and you can find them for sale here.

For years I sewed personalized gifts for friends and family members for Christmas, but I ran out of ideas a few years ago and have since moved on to giving food gifts. This means that I’ll be spending a great deal of time in the kitchen over the next week. I have a few aprons at home that I use if I need one, but they are all store bought and just not my style. This apron has been laying half finished in my sewing room for three years and this week was the time to change that!

The fabric actually comes from the duvet cover and curtains I made when I first moved in to my cottage! I’m not sure where the color scheme came from (maybe I just really liked the leaf fabric?) but it became clear pretty quickly that it just wasn’t going to work with the space. I swapped it all out for blues and greens, but was left with lots of this fabric. I made a little apron for one of my neighbor on her 7th birthday (sadly never got a pic and she has since moved away) and quickly decided that I would like one for myself. Procrastination (or something) took hold though and I only now just finished it!

I may add pockets at a later date, but for now I’m thrilled with just a simple covering to keep me clean while baking and cooking!

I have enough fabric for two more of these, if anyone is interested!

During the summer of 2014 my friends Sarah and Jonah married each other in a beautiful ceremony overlooking Lake Merritt in Oakland. I never ended up posting about the dress I made for myself on here, and only have a few low quality pictures from the event so I had the amazing Drew Beck take some new photos to show you. 

If the look seems familiar, that’s because it kind of is. I made a very similar dress a year before for my friend Martha’s wedding, just in a bright yellow color (which you can see here). The neckline of the dress is different, but the shoes, the petticoat and the necklace are all the same. 

I intentionally left the skirt of the dress a bit on the short side so that the petticoat would show.

Pockets of course. A girl needs somewhere to put her hands!

 
The back. I actually have a bra I didn’t wear very much that’s just about this color purple, so I ended up adjusting the straps to fit just this dress. 

…and a silly one of course!

This may not be the least time you see this look as its pretty much the most fun thing I have ever worn! Maybe I’ll go green next time…

Three weeks ago I posted about a flower girl dress I made for my friend Caroline’s wedding. This week you get to see what I made for myself!

I live in a one-bedroom cottage, where the bedroom has been transformed into my sewing studio. The room is packed with fabric, so as a general rule I try to not buy anything new until I’ve used up some of what I already have. This makes going to fabric stores very difficult for me, and this time I failed. I don’t even remember what I was there to buy anymore, but I walked past a bolt of this fabric and knew I was in trouble! It is a beautiful lilac colored linen with an amazing scalloped eyelet hem.

When designing for myself, I tend to gravitate towards full skirts as they are fun, flattering and easy to put pockets in (not to mention make wearing my petticoats possible). The fabric wasn’t cheap though, and only had the eyelet on one edge so, this dress was going to be a little different. I chose to go with a simple high slightly scooped neck in the front and a deep U in the back to let my tattoo peek out. I cut some of the fullness out of the top of the skirt and that allowed for seams to put the pockets in.

I love the dress and look forward to wearing it again. The one thing I leaned however is that dancing in heels and an eyelet hemmed dress is a bad combination! I ended up on the floor twice with my heel caught in my skirt! Oops!