A Creative Mess

I haven't decided what I want to do more sew, draw, write or design patterns. I finally decided I wanted to create this dress I have had in my head for a while. So I went and dug out my old dress form. I got out some Muslin. I had my pins and my markers. I was all set to drape. Then a funny thing happened. I realized that it's been 4 years since I had to drape anything. The worst part is I could remember snips and pieces of how to do it. I had my center line marked and squared on the form. So I figured ok, my old college text book should help fill in the gaps. So feeling annoyed at myself I dug the book out. I don't know what happened but I will blame it on having kids. Apparently in the last few years I have forgotten the skill of drapping. The book might as well have been written in Greek. All my oh so helpful notes that I scribbled in the margins during my college days are now useless to me. The straw that broke the camels back was when I found my old measurements filled in. REALLY!!! Someone should have force fed me in college. I am pretty sure it was unhealthy to be that tiny. I did the only thing any sensible women would do in this situation, I hid the book far far away where it will never been seen again and I quickly stuffed some more of my homemade brownies in my mouth. At least I solved that problem.
So now what do I have? I have a dress form with 2 yards of muslin hanging off of it mocking me. This was not working for me. I immediatly drove to Joanns fabrics, found the closest pattern to the idea in my head. I was able to cut the pattern out, make a few adjustments to how I want it to look, but nothing has been sewn. After cutting everything out I got blocked. You know like writers block, only this is for sewing. So my cute Spring dress is sitting in pieces just waiting for me to have the urge to stitch it. I guess Mother Natures being kind to me and giving me a few more weeks of winter before I feel guilty about not having made ths stupid dress. (Yes, it went from being Cute to being Stupid just like all great projects that start with good intentions and end up annoying the hell out of me). Just ask Josh about how well embroidered photoframes went.

Just for the record I want it to be known that at one point I could sew.
So here are a few photos from my college portfolio.
This is a piece that was inspired from a Victorian riding jacket. Their are three levels of split skirt. The bottom two are silk lined brocade. The top is black velvet. This piece was constructed in my summer tailoring course. I made the whole jacket in just 4 weeks. From pattern to completion. The best part was everything is stitched by hand! A sewing machine never touched this jacket. It was done the old old fashion way!
I still own this one and I think it truly is a labor of love.

This one is my next favorite piece ever. I made it for my boss at the time. She told me what she wanted for a wedding dress and I still needed a final piece for my college portfolio so we agreed. I would make a wedding dress and if she liked it she could have it for the cost of materials. Needless to say she loved it and it looked stunning on her. I did really good with this one. At the time I was cursing the dress out. There is over 5,000 crystals, sequins and pearls sewn onto this gown. I started with a piece of bias strip tape that went around her hip. Then I covered the entire strip with pearls, then silver glass seed beads, then AB Crystals, with some scattered sequins and crystals. This strip alone took me 60 hours of hand sewing. And her flowers covered it in the full length photo!!!! Oh well. I wish I could remember how many yards of Tulle was in the skirt, but I can tell you it filled my entire work area up to my knees! The top layer of tulle had scattered pearls, AB crystals, rhinestones and sequins on it. It was heaviest around the top of the skirt and became lighter around the bottom.

So see everyone there was a point in time where I could sew!