The Dress That Led Me Down the Garden Path

So I mentioned that I'm crazy and attempted to sew my own wedding dress.  This is kinda what I was going for, but with a sweetheart neckline:

  

I realize that my sewing skills, while they have gone much further than they were back when I sewed my high school homecoming dress out of a curtain and my mother looked on in horror at my seams, that I probably shouldn't go buy a lot of expensive fabric and go to town.  Hence, my test dress is being sewn out of an old sheet.  This is what I came up with after a couple of hours, with a base/lining, and the top draping bit (which took by far the longest):

I then added the rest of the bodice top layer, but it's really loose because I was planning on doing a corset bodice, so it was basically clipped together in the back with a hair clip:

And that's where I stopped.  I decided that since I wanted to do boning, I should probably actually get a pattern that would teach me how to do it.  After looking at every single evening and wedding gown pattern on the internet (approximately 2,375,338), I settled on an out-of-print Vogue pattern as my base:

I got the pattern in the mail on Friday, but seeing as how my invitations have exactly 3 days to magically make themselves, it's been put to the back burner.  But it's been simmering, have no fear.  So here are my thoughts, feel free to chime in.  First of all, that sheer thing on the top of the bodice is hideous and isn't structural at all, so it's gone.  So basically what I have here is a simple strapless mermaid dress.  I'm not exactly what you would call normal, and this definitely extends to how I want my wedding dress to look, so I don't want a simple strapless mermaid dress.  My first dress, which has since been returned, was a gorgeous, simple silk sheath dress, which was vetoed as being too simple:

I loved the straps and the differentness of it, but it wasn't as flattering on as it could have been.  

So my thoughts for the front of the dress are to modify it to have some sort of strap that either is sheer that goes over the sweetheart strapless neckline, or modify it entirely to look more like the original dress, and this one:

My thought is that this will also still get vetoed for being too plain, so I'll add something like this waistline doodad:

The back is definitely too plain on the pattern, so I have to spice that up a bit too.  I have no idea if this is possible or not, but I would love to lower it a bit and have the straps do something like this:

Although I'm loving how the straps go down into the detachable train like this one:

I will definitely add some sort of detachable train, just not sure yet the best place and method for attaching it.

So there you have it folks.  Who knows if I will actually do any of this, but at least I have lots of ideas. :)  Any thoughts?

(photo 1: unknown, 2 & 3: my lovely camera phone,  4 & 5: Vogue, 6 & 7: Nicole Miller, 8, 10, 11: Amanda Wakeley, 9: Jenny Packham)

It's Official - Wedding Planning Has Made Me Go Crazy

My wedding is 74 days away, as my incomplete gift registry tells me, and I'm crazy.  Right now, there are two wedding dresses sitting at fiancées house (one of which is returnable, the other is not), and last night I spent 5 hours seeing if it was possible for me to sew a wedding dress.  Let's ignore the fact that we haven't even started making our complicated invitations that need to be mailed in like a week and half, just for starters.  I was actually pretty impressed with the results, but I still think I'm crazy.

I love clever solutions

This is just simply brilliant - who would have thought to use a tension rod like this?  My massively jumbled cupboard of cleaning supplies thanks Jen from A Thousand Words for this idea.

Looking Down

So, as you may have guessed, since I am planning a wedding in 3 months, my blogging with a) not be as frequent  and b) have a lot to do with weddings.  I'm actually trying to keep my intake on wedding blogs and shows and magazines and stuff to a minimum, because honestly, I find it depressing how much work and money goes into these things.  But since I am me, there will definitely be enough work and randomness to make it interesting.  Fiancee and I are making our own invitations, using wood veneer instead of paper, and he had the idea of doing a pattern that looks like a wood inlay floor.  So I've been look at wood inlay floors a lot, and realized I really like them.  There are just so many amazing patterns out there - here are a few of my favorites:

How do you feel about inlay floors?  Should they make a comeback?

Photos 1: Design Amour 2: Wood Floors Online  3: Ali Express

Big News!

So I've been pretty silent the past few weeks, but for a good cause, I promise.  Boyfriend and I went on vacation in New Mexico a few weeks ago, and while on top of a mountain overlooking Albuquerque, he proposed, and so now boyfriend has become fiancée!  We are trying like mad to pull together a wedding in Michigan in October (planning from DC), so I've been a little busy the last few weeks.  We have the church somewhat lined up, but we have to pick between two reception locations by tomorrow.  I haven't seen either place in person, but I've sent my parents to go check them out.  Which do you think?  (Seriously, I need help deciding here).

Option 1:  The Old Art Building

This is a building that is used for art shows and performances and whatnot, and is basically across the street from Lake Michigan.  You can't see the lake, but it's a short walk, and there is a river that runs right next to it.  It's the cheaper option (by a decent amount), and is slightly closer to the church.  It's slightly smaller, which means we might have to take down a few tables after dinner for dancing.  It's a similar style to option 2, just more rustic.  If the weather cooperates, I might set up lawn games or something, because there is a nice big yard.

Option 2:  Willowbrook Mill

This is a water mill that was recently renovated for the purpose of being a reception location.  It's gorgeous.  This is on the other side of the Leelanau peninsula, so it overlooks the Grand Traverse Bay.  Again, it's across the street, but doesn't have a super view of the water, but very easy to walk to.  And I will say it again, it's gorgeous.

So there you have it kids, what do you say?

What's Wrong With This Picture?

It's 96 degrees outside and I was excited to just go pick up something from the printer, because I was able to warm up my hands on the paper.

My Favorite Thing About Cleaning...

...is all the random stuff I come across that I forgot about. I tend to use my email as a virtual notepad, sending myself emails when I want to remember something, or go back and look at something on the internet, but my email is so full of all of these little reminders, that I can never find what I'm looking for. I decided to go on a cleaning splurge, and weed my way through all my little reminders, and see what I could find. One of these great finds was Kate Towers, a clothing designer from Portland, who has incredible designs. We all know by now that I love texture, and her work is full of it.

You can see more of her work on her website, as well as her Etsy store.

All images: www.katetowers.com

Come See Me!

I've been a little MIA lately, but that is because I've been hard at work, preparing to be at the Fenton Street Market tomorrow, peddling my wares. If you are in the DC area, you should definitely come see me!

This Sums Up How I Feel Right Now

"Work when there is work to do. Rest when you are tired. One thing done in peace will most likely be better than ten things done in panic.....I am not a hero if I deny rest; I am only tired."

--Susan McHenry

Almost to the Finish Line!

Apartment Therapy's Small Cool contest is approaching the end of Round 1, and I'm doing pretty decently, if I do say so myself, currently 10th out of 40 in my category. I could do a little better, though (hint, hint)! Thanks to everyone who voted for me! And definitely check out some of the other entries - there are some really good ones this year.

Stars Wars Celebrates Earth Day

Yesterday I realized that I am ridiculous. Completely and totally ridiculous. Because, for the past 27 years, I have been calling the glowy stick things they fight with in Star Wars lightsavers. Oh yeah, they can conserve energy and kill the bad guy. I never really understood the name, but I figured, what the heck, it's science fiction. No idea how I managed to last this long without figuring out I had it wrong.

Hurry Up Before it's Too Late!

Time is running out to enter the giveaway over on the Veater Family Adventures blog to win a $25 gift certificate to my shop, Totables! You have until Friday, so make sure you go check it out!

I just listed some new purses, and am working on several to list soon, so keep an eye out!

Bulls-eye!

So I'm not really allowed to look at rugs anymore, but in my internet perambulations, I happened to take a peek at West Elm's selection (I always like their rugs, my current one is from there via Craigslist), and came across this beauty. I don't have a room big enough for it (it's 8' square), but it's just such a fabulous rug, isn't it?

The Great Rug Adventure

So I've always had this thing about rugs. I don't know what it is, but I'm just really picky and can never make up my mind. In my last apartment, I looked at approximately, oh, 3000 rugs or so, and that's not really that much of an exaggeration (boyfriend can vouch for it - he was so sick of looking at rugs). So I finally got my rug, which I really liked, and it worked well in my current place as well.

The only problem with it was that I am just an inherently messy person. I've tried to change, but at least 5 days a week, I look down at myself and say things like, hmmm...why is there pizza sauce on my shoulder (two weeks ago). So the fact that the rug was mostly white proved to be difficult, even after I rented a steam cleaner. So up on Craigslist it went, and I got this one:

I really like the rug itself, and the brown background was definitely a plus, but the size wasn't quite right. I thought I could go down from the 5'x8' of my old rug, but this one was 3.5'x5.5', which didn't quite fit the bill. I left it for a while though, as I couldn't bring myself to get a new rug. That is, until I saw this fantastic tutorial on making a rug out of fabric, from High-Heeled Foot in the Door.

(Photo via High-Heeled Foot in the Door)

Sounds a little silly, but it fit the budget. She had used one layer of heavy-weight fabric, one layer of canvas (a drop-cloth), and a rug pad. Since I had already used canvas drop cloth for my bookshelf doors, I figured I would just do two layers of canvas. I also took some inspiration from a post on Apartment Therapy on using a doormat as a stencil to paint a rug.

(Photo via Apartment Therapy)

So I decided to combine the two ideas, and do a stamp of a gingko leaf on the canvas drop cloth. You can find better instructions on the tutorial I linked above, but here is how I did it.

Materials:

1 - 4' x 15' canvas drop cloth: $15

1 - 5' x 8' rug pad: $20

4 jars of fabric paint (red, yellow, brown, and white - only used half at most): already had on hand, I think about $4 apiece from the art store

1 - sheet of foam stuff from the kids craft aisle: $0.50

Spray adhesive: around $8

Total - around $40 or $50

How I did it:

I wanted to make sure that I made the rug the right size, so I spent some time looking at the various drop cloths, and decided the 4' x 7.5' sounded about right, so I bought the 4' x 15' one and cut it in half. Following the tutorial I laid it out, ironed the crap out of both pieces, and then folded one half back. I sprayed both sides, let it sit for a minute, and then very carefully folded it back, starting at the center line and smoothing as I went.

This is a terrible picture, but luckily I had just painted my bedroom, so I had a clear space to work in. This is with the top piece folded halfway back.

Unfortunately, after I did the first half, I ran out of spray adhesive, since I just used a can I had on hand. Since it was almost midnight, I had to wait until the morning to run to the hardware store. This time I bought the super heavy duty spray adhesive, as I had my doubts as to my general purpose stuff that I had used. Being super heavy duty though, meant that I was almost in tears by the time I got it all glued together, as it kept getting messed up, or I would step on it and mess it all up/track glue all over my floor, etc. This is not fun at all. But I do recommend the heavy duty stuff.

I let it dry for a while while I cut out my stamps. I decided to go with two smaller leaves, and just do a random pattern. I had also bought this foam stuff a while ago, and it worked perfectly. After looking at several inspiration leaves, I hand-drew my leaves and then cut them out.

I then mixed up my fabric paints to the perfect shade of yellow, which actually turned out lighter than I wanted, and stamped away with the larger of the stamps. I painted the stamp with a brush, so I didn't make too big of a mess. I figured they wouldn't be perfect, but I really like the texture they ended up with.

Once I had a good scattering of yellow leaves, I mixed up a brownish color (I was running out of colors to mix with), and stamped the smaller of my gingko leaves all over.

Before sewing the rug pad to it, I decided to check it out in the living room.

I left it like that for a while, with the rug pad under it, but not attached, and it worked quite nicely. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, I'm a little messy, so I spilled some coffee on it. I thought I would see what would happen if I threw it in the washing machine. The side that I used the heavy-duty spray on held up pretty well, but it needed a good ironing. The other side came apart, and was a completely balled up, wrinkled mess. Needless to say, it was not something I tried to fix before submitting my apartment for Small Cool. It is currently in a balled mess underneath my bed, and someday I will put it out and try to fix it. But take my word for it, never put a rug like this in the washing machine.

Behind Closed Doors

So I mentioned in my house tour posts that I modified my Craigslist bookshelves by adding doors, so I figured I would give a more detailed look at what exactly I did. For a while, this is what they looked like:

While useful, Staples paper boxes aren't exactly my idea of ideal design. I eventually migrated most of them either to the recycling or to under the loft bed, but there was still unattractive stuff on the shelves, so I came up with the idea of making doors. After my more fancy ideas got vetoed by boyfriend, I eventually came up with the idea of stretching canvas over wooden frames - simple and economical.

Supplies (for 3 doors):

3 - 1x3 boards, $3 apiece

1 - canvas drop cloth, $15 (only used half)

3 - cupboard magnetic closures, $2 apiece

3 - sets of hinges, $2 apiece

scrap hard board for frame corners, free (leftover from loft bed)

staple gun and staples, already on hand

Total cost for 3 doors - $36 (the bookshelves themselves only cost $25 for all 3)

I measured and boyfriend cut my boards with the miter saw, to make perfect corners. He also cut the hard board into triangle shapes. I then glued the triangle shapes to each corner, and tacked them in place with small nails, to hold everything together while it dried.

Once my frames were all put together, I stretched my canvas over the frames and stapled it in place. I'm not exactly a perfectionist when it comes to stuff like this, so the inside isn't the most attractive, but that's not the part that shows. :)

I then attached the hinges and the magnetic closures, and put them on the bookshelves. All in all, it probably took about 2 or 3 hours to assemble them, and it instantly upgraded my shelves.

And there you have it, my custom bookshelves!