Souvenier Dress!

I am going to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my friend and his family this year.  This is the perfect opportunity and reason to kick my butt in gear and start sewing up a new dress.  I bought the most gorgeous turquoise dupioni silk while I was on vacation in Savannah, GA in June.  I got it from a little shop called Measure.  I had so much fun browsing in that store.  She carries a wide variety of fabric including leather hydes, silk, linen, and rayon, and she even has Liberty of London prints.

Isn't it beautiful?  I'm in love with it.

I stumbled upon this Vogue pattern number 1192 and instantly decided it was absolutely perfect for this fabric and for me.  Vogue makes the worst fabric choices.  This dress has amazing detailing and it is lost in the cover photo.  You really have to look beyond the sample when you are selecting patterns to get a better idea of the pattern's potential. 

For only five pattern pieces, it sure is work.  I trace all my patterns out onto freezer paper to preserve the pattern's integrity and to allow myself more room for making the modifications I need to.  Since I will likely have to make several adjustments to get this pattern to fit my 4'11" body, I started a muslin in some cheap polyester dupioni I picked up at JoAnn's for about $5.  I'm not exactly sure how to make the mods I'll need with this pattern, but I will figure it out.  I think the waistline is going to have to come up an inch.  Well, wish me luck!  I have about 18 days to finish this up.  I can't wait to wear my souvenier. :) 

Do you sew?  What do you like to sew? I mostly just sew dresses because I live in Florida and I know the basic mods I need to do to get the right fit.  Pants are a little out of my comfort zone for the moment.  Leave me a comment or email me at ellelittleblog@gmail.com

(If you need a little enabling to blow the dust off your sewing machine, JoAnn's has McCall's patterns on sale for $1.29 through tomorrow and Simplicity patterns at 5 for $5 November 8-12.)

Happy Halloween!

1)      What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?

My mom made all my costumes for me.  I won many contests.  I was Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck.  I was Wednesday Addams one year and a prairie girl the next.  My favorite costume was probably Daisy Duck.  Here are some of the costumes of my youth: 


Genie 1992 (and, yes, those are balloons in my pants)



 

Black cat with GIANT glasses, welcome to 1991

 

Daisy Duck 1990

Leave me a comment and let me know what your famorite childhood costume was.  I would love to hear from you!

 

2)      If you could go back and dress up as something what would it be?

I have never dressed up as a witch.  I always wanted to because it seemed like the “it” costume.  Now that I’m an adult, I figure I’ll keep the *itch trend going and just not be one.  ;)

3)      Favorite costume as an adult?

I love the costume I wore to a party a few days ago.  I went as a black widow—the actual arachnid.  I was unsuccessful at finding a picture.  I know pictures were taken, but Facebook is failing me right now. Here’s a crappy picture I took with my iPhone during my “trial run” instead:


I looked damn sexy!



Drinking tequila with a big girl straw



4)      Favorite Halloween candy?

I love, love those black and orange peanut butter taffy candies.  What was even better about having these as a favorite was no one else did!  All your candies belong to me!  Seriously, my friends willingly gave me these candies as if they were worthless.  Kids those days…

My least favorite candy is jujubes.  They are too hard and kind of minty tasting to me.

5)      Favorite Halloween memory?

My family and another family we were close with dressed up as the entire Addams family.  I was Wednesday Addams, Gomez and Morticia were played by the Calderones, my dad was Uncle Fester, my mom was Cousin It, the Calderone’s two boys dressed as Pugsley and Lurch, and my three-year old brother was dressed as a dog.  I know.  A dog. 

6)      Favorite scary movie?

House on Haunted Hill.  “Oh hi guys.  So here’s the deal.  You guys go to this house over here. It was actually an asylum that was shut down in the 30s, but neither here nor there.  If you can make it the whole night, you each get $1,000,000.  Deal?”

Plot:  The film is set in an abandoned asylum. The head of the facility performed grotesque experiments and medical procedures on the patients, killing many in the process. The hospital was closed in 1931 after the patients escaped from their cells, killing almost the entire staff  and burning the hospital. All the patients died, their souls rumored to be trapped there forever. Vannacutt had rigged the building with numerous iron gates, activated by cranks and levers, to serve as barriers to keep patients from leaving the building, should they escape; some of these were controlled by huge, clock-like timers that wouldn't open for twelve hours. During the fire, he released these gates, keeping the inmates, employees and the fire itself contained. After several unexplained deaths during reconstruction of the facility, it was dubbed "The House on Haunted Hill". (wikilink here)

I haven’t seen the 1959 version yet.  I’m going to put that in my netflix queue right now.  I love Vincent Price. 

Happy Halloween everyone!

So you think you can blog?

There are over 150 million public blogs in existence.  That's about one blog for every two people in the United States.  I never realized blogging was such a big thing.  Sure, I follow blogs and anxiously await the next post (I'm looking at you hyperboleandahalf), but half the US population worth? 

One of my favorite quotes is "If you can't make a mistake, you can't make anything."  This will definitely hold true for my blog.  I'm an accountant.  I'm super-crafty.  I love to cook, bake, sew, snorgle my dogs, walk around, get lost, meet people, drink beer, be silly, and enjoy life.  My blog will involve all of this and much, much more.

I was sewing a dress a few months ago and I needed to figure out how to modify the pattern to fit me.  I was making a fairly popular indy pattern.  I scoured the innerwebs to find the modification I needed and couldn't find anything.  I had to figure this thing out on my own.  After I successfully completed my dress, I thought to myself how I should start a blog because I do know a few things that could be useful to people.  It was that moment of frustration that pushed me from "meh" to "yeah!" on joining the blogging public at large.

Here are a few things I have in the works:  a recently completed sexy/sassy apron, a black convertible dress, and a 30-day backpacking trip in Central America (!!!!!).  I welcome your questions and feedback.  You may email me at ellelittleblogATgmailDOTcom

And now I'm a blogger too! (cursor hovering over "publish")