Month: November 2012

Pyramid Pattern Progressing

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We have another winner!! Run over and see Mrs Mole and her prize picking cutie!

mrsmole's avatarfit for a queen

Well here we are, Wednesday, and 7 names to go into the drawing.

Let’s start with the names folded into squares:
   and they go into a magic candle holder  then we need a willing blindfolded assistant  He draws the name:and the winner is…..holding my breath…

Anne of Tulle and Tweed in Scotland!!! And she thought she could not play the game because she lived so far north…you see what happens when you are minding your own business…your next assignment is to select a pattern or two or three and replace them with patterns from your own stash and offer the chance to more seamstresses and keep the collection rolling along and evolving.

Congratulations, Anne!!!

Please send your mailing address to me at surroundedbywhite@gmail.com and I will send your parcel off to you.

My readers can follow the progress on her blog and join in the fun.

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Wearable Wednesday Facetasm

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Tokyo, we are back! I am overwhelmed. I may have lost all facilities….

wha-

huh-um…hmm-

Is-ok, I think, I have it-

yah, I know what this is!I can’t stop looking!Ok, so this promising young girl group was flying to their first overseas concert tour and they hit turbulence over a long-inactive volcano next to an Incan ruin and their plane plunged downward and the heat, radiation and mystic Inca enchantments turned them into the Glam Mutants! Their mission is to roam the catwalks of  the world and fight evil with their amazing hair and layering powers!!

photo credits: style.com

Burda 7220- Hah! I win this time!!!

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If you asked me what my wardrobe was missing, I’d say maturity and blouses I can wear all the time.  I can’t do much about the former, but the latter- I am working on.  Now I want to keep you reading, so let me say that this is not another of my meltdown Burda rants. I LIKE THIS PATTERN! 7220:I made view B, then altered it a smidge. The back pleat is great in theory, but just toooo huge in reality. It removed all of my dainty shape. So I added the little bar thingy (technical terms- me loves them) to the back too. Mirroring – oh, I’m innovation on 2 wheels.Now since this is Burda, I feel like I need to do these pictures in a Burda way- but I couldn’t find and abandoned airport, a may pole or an old villa to hang laundry in, please settle for this:Now pretend the backyard is Barcelona and those are tiny bulls. On saturday we dined on more turkey at the mominlaws and the dachsies were overwhelmed with her giblets and her huge backyard. Much short-legged joy. Other than using some self-bias on the neckline, I changed nothing else. The front did cry out for some gaudy-ing, so I added the button…..Hey, I think I found more gravy! This was around the time the dog involved photo shoot went bust and I can’t figure out what I’m doing in most of the pictures- I’d make a lousy historian. I think that I was summoning a dog, but I could be moving an invisible albino rhinoceros out of the direct sunlight….Ok, not sure about this move either- I  may be hand cranking his tail so he will run faster….

Anyhoo- I hope everyone is having a great week and please- try this pattern!

photo credits: pattern review and meadhawg

Butterick 5679. for Gluttony Week 2012

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Ah, me. This week is Thanksgiving and what am I grateful for? Oh, not now, I’m not ready for that post- we’ll get back to that in a bit. Much as the husband and I would just love to stay home, eat all the food ourselves and watch the parade, it is our jobs to enrich the lives of others with our presence and my husbands killah grub. The man is a serious chef- I am blessed. There you go- the first thing I am thankful for- Mr B, my sweetie.Our Thanksgiving night stop on the holiday  tour was our dear friends house for casual gluttony.  I wore my new Butterick 5679 tunic and I’m very pleased with it. I spin for you: Not much deviation from the pattern here, I am not 100% thrilled with how the woodgy back neck laid down for my stitching assault- it may get a redo today. See the glassy look? I was having trouble locating my inner camera whore with the neighbors gathering on their deck over a turkey fryer. The dachshunds were unhinged at their lack of safety protocols in place! teutonic hounds are quite rigid about such things.Gees!? I look like the well-upholstered prow of a vintage cruise ship! I love it! This will become a goto pattern once I conquer that neckline, I love how this moves.Yes, if you are curious, it is a Charlie Chaplin pendant, one of my favorite silly purchases!

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving if you are in the US or just a lovely friday otherwise. I’m off to hide in the sewing room, I have another try at Anouk on the table- Theresa and Kazz keep making me think that I gave up too soon.  I also have a frankenpattern- my first- planned- to wear to see Mary Poppins in a few weeks- so send prayers and patience my way!

photo credits: pattern review, google images, meadhawg

Pattern Pyramid Pile Update!!

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Mrs Mole and I have been friends for quite some time now- heck, I can’t even remember which Thanksgiving the above shot of us was taken at- precious memories!  Thanksgiving in the perfect time in my humble opinion for Senora Mole’ita to win the Pattern Pyramid Pile! because aside from being a fabulous sewista who makes every bride look beautiful and not fall out of her frock- and willingly explains her intricate, magical work to us on her sneak behind the veil blog- Fit for a  Queen– she has the patience of a saint! We’re talkin’ Catherine on the wheel patience!  As Thanksgiving turns into shopporama around 4pm, I can’t help but give thanks for people in industries that put up with our obnoxious customer butts! If you haven’t enjoyed her comment insight here, please, go to her blog and read her tailoring stories that will curl the hair on your toes!

Now, lets get our pattern loving juices flowing- here is the original Pile:So why don’t you pop over to Mrs Mole‘s house and get in on the latest grouping?

photo credits: Mrs Mole, google images

Wearable Wednesday Albino

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I just want to ask what the deal is with this sinister lighting? Are the major fashion buyers moths? I like this first one- it’s sort of an homage to Phyllis Diller-

This is not the lighting for these shoes- she could do herself a mischief! I think this is made for SCI junkies! Check this ones dress- I think she has some evidence on her! I like this bow action- but you will lose alot of things in these folds. Good choice for a magicians assistant.Someone missed their fitting. Hey stop her! She’s stealing that tea cozy! Hmm- this borders on Stella Mcartneyville or me. I do not care for it’s Kirsten Dunsdtyness…..Hey! This one is trying to escape thru the window! Get the net! She’s going Vogue!

photo credits: style.com

Who’s Down with OOP?

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Yeah, you know me. Some wonderful enabling sewista lovelies spread the word about Vogue et al having a major OOP pattern sale. I took the hook like a guppy! I found many wonderous things to work my skills toward. Lookee! and:Now why are all of these lovies OOP? They don’;t look half as crazy as the things we see on an average wednesday, right? I also noticed that just about all of the Mccalls that I liked…..I already had. I am like a home for unloved patterns it seems.

So be honest, you can tell me- do I have bad taste or something? whats up with most of my patterns being picked last for dodgeball? Do you ever feel like you are the only one that gives love to a pattern? Simplicity 1939, I’m looking at you! And what about the ones NO ONE sews but they keep producing?Why??? This Mccalls is evil! I swear it!So style  explorers- what patterns make you feel alone in the jungle? what is your pattern that no else seems to notice? Lets bang the drum for some humble tissue and beat up on some patterns we don’t understand the appeal of….

photo credits: pattern review, little me, google images

Wearable Wednesday Ne- Net

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I know we all had a nice time last week enjoying some reasonable, inspiring fashion, but I cannot resist this. She has a bird head. Luckilly she has put down a trash bag drop cloth for possible droppings. So does she. I think. Someone needs their knitting machine confiscated. Did anyone see that sequel to Donnie Darko? Hmm, now what made me think of that? I do see this designers deep affinity for recycling. I also see a stretched out sleep shirt retailing for $600…Is that a shirt stapled on a shirt? Is that the new layering? Is that the designer behind her? That is very distracting. Ok, what am I supposed to buy here? The pinata mask? The grandpa sweater? the orthopaedic booties? The mascot lurking behind her? Help me out. I’m confused and a little scared. Oh, crap, I think I like this dress…I think I need someone to take my temperature. Ok, is that literally a ‘wing collar’?? Now, try to say ‘pompom gimp mask’ 3 times without giggling! I think I’m getting a headache trying to drag my focus off of Sasquatch and the soft-sculpture head horrors, but this is kind of ok, isn’t it? This is interesting too- oh great, I’m resorting to ‘interesting’. I sound like my Mother describing a foreign film I made her watch. Ok your turn. How about a comment summing up this collection for us? Or maybe just a thought or two about whats in the basket.

photo credits: style.com

Butterick 5791…a gigantic sewing achievement

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Well, it’s been at least 2 makes since I worked in a faux animal print, so I was getting twitchy! You know I love animals….Moving along! I made a Butterick! I know, I whine about them and then what do I do? I fall for a $1.99 sale and I’m like Charlie Brown and that football?!This week we are headed into the big city (Greenville) for some cul-cha. The Peace Center is hosting Kevin Smith and as a New Jersey ex-patriot I just have to go. There are alot of things about New Jersey that I will always miss, tho it’s not my home anymore- my family is here, so I am a loving hostage. Like New Jersey, Kevin Smith is an acquired taste. Did you know he was a dachshundist? Here is Schecky and the man!This evening presents a bit of a wardrobe question. I usually bring out the big style guns for evenings of ‘thea-ta’, but kevin Smith is not exactly a velvet and pearls event. So the new Butterick seemed like a nice compromise. Do you see how low the under arm areas is? On the envelope cover it is a little more obvious- this little devil is huge! I made my standard size- that’s kept in the vault, just like the Queens measurements- and then ended up taking 2 inches off of each seam and still I could do that slumber party trick where you completely change your clothes inside of your clothes?!

Any more shaping and the concept would have been lost, I know it’s not supposed to be fitted, but it is a trifle hockey jersey-esque. AHA! Now you see the little pink lightbulb that went on for me. This is a perfect shape to wear to listen to Silent Bob cuss all evening! Oh, i just love a  theme outfit!You know you need a Star Wars reference if you plan to spend an evening listening to a very inspiring Q&A from a big old Scifi geek. God bless him! The husband wasn’t initially thrilled with this. He has very few strong dislikes, but yoga pants and hoodies are among them. I am grateful- I’d hate for him to try to get me to dress like Avrille Lavigne- I’m too old for put-on surly. I have real surly! The surly of the aging debutante with tired feet! As I wore this out for a trial spin it really grew on him and me, too. I may have to have another of these easy, easy makes. No new skills breached, but a win is a win and builds my confidence. These pics are all pre- Greenville, I hated for him to have to lug the camera stuff around all evening- he is a man of many accesories! As am I- check out my hidden Mickey pin…Lord I am cool- please no flash pictures!photo credits: meadhawg, pattern review, google images

What to do, what to do…..

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Some decisions are quite easy….Some require more thought- and since my husband has been called into work, I insist that all of you out there take on his role briefly and help me out. I will set the scene for all of you method actors out there:You are trying to watch Tottenham while covering in dachshunds and eating a poptart. I stomp in (like a wisp of springtime) and brandish the following:Choice 1: the lovely Chaddo in a leopard print microsuede…..Choice 2: the tunic length in this lovely whimsical print.

So which do I make next? Now no fair answering with crappy man answers like, ‘Which one will you wear more? ‘or ‘which one will keep me from driving you to Hancock for the zipper you don’t have?‘ or ‘which leaves me alone with the tv longer?‘  cuz I’m totally wise to your tricks!

Ok, commenters, go!

photo credits: little me, google images