Dresses, Purses, Vultures and Camelot!

It's been to long since my last Blog...
Christie and I have been busy making products along with creating two dresses for a Valentine's Bash in our town. We both lead busy lives in general and now we've turned up the volume. I am not complaining... I choose this CRAZY LIFE!

First off, I am going to thank my husband and kids for their patience. As usual, everything in the house gets turned on end when I am in a project. I am in many! My middle daughter is in Camelot at her High School. I designed the set for the show. I am building part of the scenery. I am, also, sculpting and painting it. Christie and I have agreed to sell product at the East Coast Vulture Festival. We are busy coming up with products to sell. We will be giving a portion of our receipts towards the festival. Normally, I am up on the stage for this event dressed as a turkey vulture do a dance routine. Yes, I know it sounds a little outlandish and a bit geeky, but I am both of those things.  ;-D We are, also, going be in charge of the face painting for the Vulture Festival. Our daughters and a couple of their friends have volunteered to be trained and help out! We are in the process of finishing up the logo for our company and researching Esty. com and a PayPal account. Starting a business is crazy hectic! LOL!!! We have, also, been up-cycling t-shirts, skirts, dresses, and making purses from scratch. It is very tedious! Luckily, I love patterns and tedium! LOL!!! The following shots are the before shots of the dresses Christie and I up-cycled. 

Notice the neckline and the A-line cut of the dress. Christie changed her neckline and had to adjust the size and I changed the size and form of the dress. We both hand painted them. We, also, painted and beaded two different purses based on the style of our dresses.

Here are photos of the purses I have taken photos of. I will get a shot of Christie's later, hopefully today...

Anyhow, I must be off... I am headed to the gym, then the High School to paint, back home to sculpt and then Belly Dancing tonight! Wahoo!!! As always, more to come... Thanks for reading!

First off... Friday, January 29, 2010

I am posting pictures of the dresses Christie and I made for our two girls for their Snow Ball Dance. As you know from our previous Blog, we took dresses that we purchased from Goodwill for less than $5.99 and re-designed and re-constructed them. The dresses had good bones but needed a little something something...

Christie removed the original straps from the velvet and organza dress and changed them to a organza type ribbon in aubergine (eggplant). She then added the organza ribbon to the Empire waistline. She found a lovely silk flower in the same color and added it to the waste line off to the one side.

Christie then painted an Art Nouveau style treatment on the lower part of the dress under the organza layer. It looked lovely!

As for the dress I re-designed... I first pinned the red ribbon to the black cotton dress, making sure to pin myself a couple of times! LOL!!! After sewing the ribbon on I took apart the inner seems above the Empire waistline so I could remove the 1 1/2" straps. I then pinned and sewed the ribbon straps. I must add, seem ripping is not the fun part of the project but absolutely necessary for a professional product. I, finally, sewed the seems of the dress back to the zipper area. I drew up a design for the stamp pattern based on my knowing my daughter's taste. She loved it! YEAH!!! I then transferred it to the SpeedBall Speedy Stamp material and started carving the designs. The next morning I pinned the additional lace and beading to the dress. After I was finished I brought out the red fabric paint, roller and paint tray and printed the dress. As always with paint, I had to wait for it to dry before printing another section. In between the printing process I did laundry! Ugh! LOL!!!

All of the pin holes...

My daughter came home from school shortly after the dress was finished. After seeing her expression, it was worth the pin holes, the linoleum cutter cuts and technical frustrations! Priceless!!!

 

Patterns, patterns and patterns... Monday, February 1, 2010

I see new patterns every day in everything. I am so attracted to them that my brain wants to force everything into one. I see patterns in the trees, I see patterns in my dreams, and I see patterns in the every day. I have patterned working out into my life. They say it takes two weeks to embed a pattern into your life. I say it takes more than that, it takes feeling that passion every day... that is much easier to say than do! Being alive in the moment, at every moment, takes a ton of tenacity! 

Dresses, skirts, shawls, purses and such...

Today I am drawing up a different kind of pattern: patterns for sewing. Sewing patterns are an art form in their own way, even if it is a technical necessity. Christie and I will be able to reproduce the objects over and over again, hence the word pattern. We will be creating new ideas and items along with up-cycling older items. It is truly exciting!

Motherhood is a pattern, as well... I need to sew Boy Scout badges on my son's uniform for a field trip his troop today. In the meantime, I've done two loads of laundry, a pattern I'm not as fond of... and now, I am typing this Blog... a new pattern. Later today, I will go to my daughter's High School to look at a couple of pieces that the Tech Ed Dept created from my designs. I will check the stage for the additional pieces of scenery built based on my designs. This year the High School is doing the production of Camelot. It is the third year I have done the scenery and the second year I have designed it, another pattern. I am looking forward to seeing the progress of the build. I hope to be painting Wednesday and Thursday during the school day. After I leave the High School I head to the Elementary School for my son's Parent/Teacher Conference. Life is filled with patterns, whether they are art or life! It's all good!!!