Saturday Dress Challenge

Sometimes I like to challenge myself to small feats. Last Saturday was Spring Gallery Night in Fort Worth and I wanted to have a new dress ready to wear. I had weeks to accomplish this but had spent so much time on pattern development that I had not sewn a real, wearable garment in over a month. So Friday night, I issued the challenge - go to bed by midnight, get up early, and finish a dress before 6:00 pm.

I used the same pattern that I used for my wedding dress, with a few tweaks including three-quarter sleeves and pointed collar instead of peter pan. I didn't actually get started until 10:45 am, because I wanted to finish a muslin I was too tired to finish the night before; this was probably a mistake. By about 3:00 pm, I was pretty sure I was going to fail miserably, but I pushed myself and somehow managed to finish by 5:58 pm. Then I had a shot of tequila and jumped in the shower. Gallery Night with my husband was a lot of fun!

Overall, I was very pleased with how my dress turned out, though I could have done a little better job with the zipper and hem, both of which I had to tackle in less than an hour. Zippers are just a pain in the ass and I cannot hand sew the hem of a full skirt in 20 minutes, so that had to be done on the machine. On Sunday I tore those out, and will give them the attention they deserve this week. I bought enough of this fabric to make two dresses, so I hope to have my first dress available for sale soon...

It has also become clear that I am losing the most time laying out and cutting the fabric. I need to find ways to improve the process - a bigger cutting table certainly would help!

FUJIFILM FP-3000B

FUJIFILM FP-3000B is being discontinued. This is probably my favorite film. So sad. I'm stockpiling as much as I can afford in our refrigerator, but it isn't much and film doesn't last forever. The tough thing is deciding what is worthy of a shot. The cost of the film has already doubled. Two bucks a shot and when it's gone, that is the end.

Desert in December

For our honeymoon we took a nine day road trip through the Southwest. I had driven between Los Angeles and Texas twice, but was in the process of moving (with my cat) both times and was not able to enjoy the trip much.

I've recently become interested in 35mm photography. In my collection of old cameras I found a Nikon FM, which I cleaned up and brought along on the trip. These photos were taken in White Sands, NM and Joshua Tree, CA.

I love the desert.

My first entry. I've created this blog to document my adventures in designing and sewing clothing. I imagine I'll include some music and photography stuff, as well. Admittedly, I've had trouble keeping up with blogs in past, but I will try to do better this time around.

I got married about two months ago. Like many brides, one of my primary concerns in wedding planning was my dress. I knew what I wanted early on. It was very simple, yet too specific to be found ready-made. At first I thought I would hire someone to make the dress for me. Then I remembered that I've been sewing for over 20 years - paying someone else to make my dress was ridiculous. So I decided to design and sew the dress myself. In hindsight, I am very happy that I accepted the challenge and I'm glad that so many people supported my doing so (though at times I felt like damning them). Ultimately, it has given me the confidence I needed to finally start designing and sewing dresses to sell. My desire to get out from behind a desk gives me the motivation. And without further ado, my dress. Much of the detail is lost in this picture, but you get the idea.