Catching up on lots of stuff - What I've been up to and upcoming Creative project plans

Hi Retro & Vintage lovin' friends!

Many apologies for the radio silence these past several months.  Time does have a way of sliding by pretty darn quick when you aren't expecting it.    By way of explanation, life has been a series of not-so-great events that have zapped much of my creative energy and put me on auto pilot.   My mom had an illness and hospital stay.  My son had a cancer scare that culminated with a surgery and removal of a large (thankfully benign) tumor.

Then there was the  Never-ending Winter, where we routinely had 8 ft. snowdrifts and were digging out until April.      

I am incredibly thankful that all my family members are on the mend, and winter is now behind us.

Creative Endeavors 2015

This year in sewing -  My daughter went to Anime Boston in March.   She wore her Elizabeth cosplay that we made for PAX last year for one of the days.  Then she and her friends had decided to do Steampunk versions of the DC Comic characters.  She was Harley Quinn.   I didn't unfortunately document carefully the fabrication process of the cosplay, as I usually like to do,  but here are some pictures of the finished ensemble.   (I made the skirt and frock coat,  she made the hat & hammer prop.  the bodice, gloves and wig were purchased).    

This is the Elizabeth Cosplay from last year, she is posing with "Booker," Her character's brother in the game. 

Steampunk Harley Quinn

The Girls of DC Comics:  Poison Ivy, Black Canary & Harley Quinn.

DC Comics' gang

I have plans to work on another dress for my 'adopted' daughter.   Our inspiration dress is one by Romanian design team Chotronette, comprised of Silvia Chiteala & Laura Cazacu.  Their dresses are beautiful and whimsical.  They have a 50's- (early) 60's vintage feel to them.   My plan is to use one of my vintage patterns and make modifications as I go. 

"Ivy Garden Sorbet" by Chotronette

Other crafts:

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon a video about lacemaking on youtube.  I have wanted to learn how to make lace for a long time.  (my ancestry is Dutch,  I love the beautiful lace that it made there. In addition to things like hankerchiefs, table covers, pillow edging, etc., there are the bonnets. In the 1700-1800's, traditional Dutch costumes included a bonnet or cap that incorporated lace. Each area of the Netherlands has a different costume.  My people come from Alkmaar, (one of the great cheesemaking towns) where the woman's dress is a blue & white striped one, red kerchief, and a simple flared bonnet.  Anyway, I bought myself a set of lace-making bobbins, and am slowly amassing the other items needed to give it a whirl.    

Reading

 So maybe not a creative endeavor, but definitely an individual passion.  For the past several months, I have been indulging myself in reading.  When I was younger, I almost always had my nose in a book. The library was my second home, so much so that when I turned of age, the librarian offered me a job there!    When my kids were little, I always felt guilty about stopping to read. There was always something to do - housework, shopping, kid wrangling,  all the mommy and wife and caregiving stuff. Maybe the mommy martyr syndrome had set in....we are really good at denying ourselves things.      Although I would catch a book here and there, it wasn't as much as I used to.

 I started reading more again awhile ago and it feels like part of my soul has been awakened again after a long slumber.    I am partial to historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy & paranormal stuff. I  have discovered several new authors and am literally devouring books. At some poing I might create a 'have read' page on my blog with a summary and what I thought of the book.

Gardening

My son & I came upon the idea of creating a Carl Sagan tribute garden.   Not sure how the idea came about exactly, but Peter is a big fan of Carl Sagan, and astronomy in general.   The plan is to create a plant bed that includes several species aptly named flowers - 'comet gladiolas', 'stargazer lilies'  cosmos, sunflowers, moon flowers etc.   Along with several gazing balls that will be placed strategically as the solar system,  some ground cover flowers meandering down through the center to resemble the milky way (probably white alysium), and maybe some twinkle lights as the kuiper belt. We are still in the creation phase, and I expect that most of the things we do this year will probably not come to fruition until next spring/summer,  but it is a great project and we are having fun planning & doing it.

stuff we got for the Carl 'da man' Sagan Tribute Garden.

Also this year, we set up several birdfeeders next to our large window and have had a ball watching tons of birds and squirrels come daily to have breakfast  (and probably lunch & dinner!)    Gives the kitties something to watch too.  (I call it Cat TV)

Birdies!

That's most of what I've been up to.   Probably a few things I have forgot,  but I will try to get back in the habit of posting a little more regularly.     

Have any great summer plans?   I would love to hear about them!  Comment below :)

xo Yvonne

Mad Men Sewing Challenge

Hey Everybody!

At least it's not raining this weekend, but still very cold (mid 30's Fahreinheit)  overcast and gray.     This morning took my doggies to the dog park.   We have a lovely one in town and I have met lots of nice people and their puppies there.

My dog Charlie (my beagle mix doggie) was born to run, and he is fast. Every time we go he gives the dogs a good work out playing chase (the other owners love him as he tires their dogs out).  

Calvin (my mini-dachshund) was never particularly fond of the park. He always has been anxious by breed and nature, and the first several times we went, I couldn't even put him down, he would just hover around my feet and then beg to be picked up.   He eventually got used to it though, and would wander around a bit.  As the park is covered with pea-gravel and not grass or dirt, I think the little stones bother his feet, he never really ran while he was there.   Also, since his injury, moving around has been difficult (Calvin ruptured a disk about 6 months ago, due to IVDD and as a result, his hind legs are mostly paralyzed)
I sling-walk him, and we will soon be getting him a little doggie cart. (the vet said to wait awhile before getting a cart once they get used to using it, they don't make much progress with trying to use their legs).
Here are some pictures:

At home - Calvin & Charlie snuggle in the warm laundry

Calvin at the doggie park

Charlie romping with a Great Dane

Back to Sewing....

  I spent last evening cutting the pattern and fabric for the beginning of my Sew for Victory project, but will post about that shortly.   I believe I was going to talk about the "2nd Mad Men Dress Challenge" from Julia Bobbin's blog.

Here are the reveal pictures from last year's challenge.      Julia is absolutely cute as a button! (From the same tiny island nation as my sweetie Chris, btw ....  Australia)

I have to admit that before this, I had not even heard of the TV show "Mad Men."
I sort of wondered if there was a 'beyond thunderdome' connection (she being Australian and all) ...but alas, no, it is a show about TV execs in the 1960's.  
That being one of my favoritist decades mind you, I was almost immediately sold on the idea of doing the challenge because the dresses WERE RIDICULOUSLY GORGEOUS back then.

So I looked at her inspiration ideas as well as did a bunch of googling about the show and came up with the following dress that I would love to do:

Betty from Mad Men

I did some looking around for fabric, and have to tell you to my dismay, that not too many fabrics sport roses now-a-days :(       A few quilting fabrics had little rose designs, but nothing as large and beautiful as the Betty dress.     The other drawback was that the dresses from back then were very voluminous, and require around 5 yards of fabric, so I wanted to be careful not to have to spend a small fortune on fabric.
 In true Scarlett O'Hara fashion,   I did some thinking and came up with a creative solution.  I found a lovely set of sheets with a beautiful bold rose print in purple and violet.  I got it at a local discount store for $10, it is a queen sheet set, and had some additional pillowcases (which I'm always needing extra for my home anyway)

A Queen flat sheet runs 90" x 100",
A fitted sheet is 60" x 80" (with about 8" along the gusseted edges)

so if I were to cut the flat sheet in half, I would have 2 pieces 50" wide by the 100" -which is 2 1/2 yards long. (This is for theoretical calculation purposes so I can figure about about how much fabric I will end up with that would be equivalent to what I would buy at the fabric store off the bolt.  I may not end up actually cutting it in half -I have to see how best the pattern pieces lay out first),  
 For the fitted sheet, I would leave the 60" width, and have the 80" (which is a little less than  2 1/4 yards long). So all in all, about 7 yards of equivalent 54" fabric, which is plenty to do this project.

For Patterns, I went through my collection, and found 2 that could maybe work:

More than likely I will end up using the one from the first picture, McCall's 6146.   The bodice on my inspiration dress is a little different though:

so I will need to make some alterations to the pattern so that the finished product more resembles this bodice. I will, to quote sewing guru Tim Gunn: "Make it Work."

I am really excited to get started on this project!   The wrap up date is April 19th to get pictures emailed to Julia.  



Before finishing this post, I thought I would include a picture from a skit comedienne Carol Burnett did.  (I was remembering it earlier while thinking about Scarlett O'Hara)   It is a parody of "Gone with the Wind" from her Carol Burnett Show that had me absolutely in stitches (no pun intended).    If you have a couple minutes for a good laugh, you can check out the entire skit here on youtube.

Have you used alternative fabric sources for any of your sewing projects?  Do share!    Thanks for reading!

Update ~ 4/22/13  See my completed look....