attack of the down/feather blend!

so i'm finishing up another dog bed today. we are trying to make them as luxurious as possible... so far we have tried cotton batting, poly blends and a memory foam mattress, but this bed- oh, this bed.....

 FREAKING FEATHERS!!!!!!!!

good GOD they are everywhere! i knew this was going to be messy, but i didn't expect them to be literally in everything. when i went pee after doing this, there were feathers in my undies. no joke. 

the good thing about this is that i got to make my second trip to the foam products store, which has become (embarrassingly so) my new favorite store. it is so cool in there! they have so much neat stuff for pretty cheap! you can get all kinds of foam and mattress in absolutely any shape or size... they have cheap leathers and upholsteries  fabric dyes, binding, glues, things for ironing, things for wrinkles, neat tools, commercial sewing machines.... i feel like a kid in a candy store! 

when i got the feathers i decided i would see how big the bags are to determine how much to buy. you can only buy in 5 and 10 pound increments, and in 50/50 or 25/75 down/feather blends. the 5 pound bag didnt look like it would fill a whole bed so i got the 10 pounder. it was about as big as if i held my finger tips together like a ballerina. seemed perfect! 

WELL...

then i got home, untied the string at the top and it EXPLODED into a bag 3 feet tall and spewing with feathers! 

 i probably should have known it would take a lot of compressing to make a 10 POUND bag of feathers so small. and i should have known 10 POUNDS of feathers was a shit load of fluff.

there is soooo much left over! in all i was able to stuff a big bed, 2 pillows, carpet my house and dog, involuntarily stuff my panties and stir up tyler's down allergy.
lesson learned: next time charge more for feathers.

memorial day dress!

i'm sure it has become obvious by now that i can NOT pass up an occasion to make a new dress/dress up when totally unnecessary. 

so yesterday we went to a big bbq on the river with mine and tyler's families and i got to wear this:

(this is the front, and the back is on the right... 

tyler kept saying i had my dress on backwards all day...)

i only wore it for a little while before we got in the water, but then i got the give my new swimsuit a good run! it worked out perfect by the way...

i made the dress from mccalls 5314, which i used earlier this month for the market is sewed for... 

but this time i took a photo that didnt make the dress look like a turd. i even was able to completely do all of the sewing in the 2 hours i had in the morning before we left! those are some speedy skillz, yo. i am 100% sure i am the only girl in texas who wears petticoats to the river, but i dont think anyone else had a dress this awesome for the holiday either! i loooooove the back detail, it is such a fun dress! 

(probably should'a ironed the bow first.....)

and just to make you jealous before i post this, behold-- the amazing place we spent the day:

at the river...

looking towards the house....

suck it anthropologie!

like i'm sure most of you have done (because i keep seeing it mentioned on blogs) i too recently fell in love with this swim suit from anthropologie... but realistically, most of us aren't gonna shell out that much money for a one piece swimsuit. i mean, come on guys. thats just silly. 

so in an effort to feel better in a swimsuit with my newly grown big ass, i took a little trip down to hancock fabrics (which is still weird, i almost never use new fabric) bought a yard of their swim wear fabric and a bundle of black elastic and went to work! i drafted and sewed this up today in about an hour-- CHECK IT!

in your face anthro! i'll be spending my $143.64 elsewhere, thank you.

POWER WEEK!!!

so just to explain why there was never a picture of my in my madonna get up- i was defeated by a crummy plastic zipper. as we were about to walk out the door the zipper busted on it so i ended up wearing just a slip and a vintage bra :/ what a bummer....
on the bright side though, i already have my halloween costume done!!!
in new news-- about 2 weeks ago i was asked by a really wonderful girl who owns a really wonderful vintage shop in town if i would like to sell my clothes in her shop! how could i say no??? so i busted ass to make a shitload of clothes for her to sell in a little market that was held this weekend at the pearl brewery- which used to be a brewery but is now an incredible live/work/eat/play/market/awesome space that i also work out of now for the dog bed job! so behold! this is only SOME of the stuff i whipped up for her!

i was given this fabric last year and i had apparently been sitting on the 

shelf waiting for this dress....

this actually has a waist on it. i regretfully did not get good photos of 

pretty much any of these. i just rushed out the door with crap-shots.

this was my favorite, but these photos couldn't do it less justice. i am

remaking this for myself and will get the good shots!

this came out so cute!!! it is a plus size, which was a little new for me

to work with, but came out easy! i looooove the lobster :)

in all i sent her 16 outfits. i was BUSY!!!!

AND i have been doing sewing other than for the shop! my sister's birthday was on the 8th, so we had a party for her the following weekend. the theme was one my siblings and i have been dreaming of using for years-- HANNA BARBERA COSTUME PARTY!!!!! it was soooooo rad :)

i used these two patterns for tyler and my costume shorts:

and i came up with these:

 taaa daaaa!!!!

we kicked ass as the harlem globe trotters! we also had the entire cast of captain planet, shazaan (the birthday girl), 3 or 4 pebbles, 3 shaggys, a member of the hair bear bunch, lots of scooby doo and flinstones characters, and sea lab (an exception since its not hanna barbera but is awesome.) it was a great night... it actually got cold which is totally bizarre for may in texas, but it was pleasant all the same. 

so not that that is all done with, i am now working on tailoring some suits for my brother, who recently graduated college and is ready for interviews, altering my cousins 1930's style wedding dress and i am also (this is my favorite new project) making a dress for my beautiful friend lauren who is going to a vaudeville themed wedding this week! she needed something fantastic so we designed a paul poiret inspired dress! its being made with a nice cobalt blue satin with a white and black striped under layer. pretty much this is going to be the best dress ever! hopefully i will post the photos today or tomorrow!