Wednesday, January 18, 2012

a workshop and some babies, baby!

excited news! my brother kyle- who i mentioned was having a baby, is having twins! aaaaaah! i am so thrilled :) it was bound to happen sooner or later. twins run in his wife's family, and twins and triplets run in ours! in fact- kyle is a twin!

look at those sweet little peanuts!

i have known this for a few weeks now, so i should have posted about it already, but you know how i love to procrastinate! they should find out the sex(es) soon, so i will definitely post about that sooner since i already have a crap-ton of baby patterns set aside. i just need to know what colors to use....

in other news, i got all sorts of giddy last week when my friend kiki asked me if i would be interested in teaching a quick 1-hour workshop on how to use a vintage pattern at a d.i.y. clothing fest on the 21st! of course i said yes! i looooove teaching people how to sew! i think everyone should know how, it is soooo nice knowing that when i leave the house everyday, i am wearing something that no one else in the entire world has! it feels gooooooooooooood!

so, there is also going to be a market at the workshop. i've been busting my little hump to crank out a lot of new dresses, skirts and tops.... and i've also been raiding my own closet since i recently lost enough weight to not fit in some of my favorite handmade dresses! hopefully i will have a bunch of new photos of my market clothing and myself kicking workshop ass this weekend!

oh yeah, i got photos of my baked potato new years dress! enjoy!
i think its pretty obvious i don't like taking pictures of myself...
good thing booboo jumped in to make the pictures better!


Thursday, January 5, 2012

and now some new stuff!

last week i made two cute new dresses! it felt sooooo good. i haven't made myself anything since november... and as someone who NORMALLY makes at LEAST a garments per week for myself, i was going crazy. but, that's the holidays for ya! i made a pretty great new years dress, but i made it from a metallic brocade and photos do NOT do me or the dress any justice. i look like a baked potato in every photo i took. it was bad. so, instead of embarrassing myself, ill just post my other dress for now....
i made this cute black and white dress from some super soft vintage cotton i got a while back.

gotta say, i feel pretty damn cute in this....
also, those aren't orange stains. those are fluffs from another project

i used simplicity 1538,
view 2, obviously....

which i have had for a couple of years but never used. i don't know why i haven't... it was SO easy and only took a little bit of altering to get the fit right. needless to say, i will show up again in the near future.
the fabric i got from the mother theresa of sewing patterns, a woman named yvette. i don't think i've ever mentioned her, so let me tell you about ol' homegirl real quick...

so, when i first started sewing from vintage patterns in 2008, i put an ad on craigslist that said something like "i am looking for vintage sewing patterns, if you have any i would love to take them off you hands, blah, blah, blah, blah..." and like, the next day i had an email from a girl named yvette that said something like "oh, i have a few small boxes of patterns you can just have, you can pick them up or ill drop them off, blah, blah, blah, blah..." so we arranged a day for me to go get my "few small boxes" and let me just say, what an understatement.


she gave me like, 18 large postal boxes overflowing with patterns from the 1930's thru the 2000's, plus fabric, plus a machine carrying case, plus permission to use any of HER patterns anytime i needed.... and let me just tell you-- i would bet no one on the planet has such an incredible collection of early vogue and 1920's mccalls patterns!!! it will make you pee your pants its so amazing! so, i took home what was actually like, 1,000 patterns, sorted them out by date and type of garment, filed them into 22 boxes and started my pattern collection.... and then i lost all of her contact info.


fast forward to november 2011... and there i was cruising through craigslist again, looking for awesome estate sales and patterns.... and i saw an ad that said somthing like "looking for old vintage patterns, let me know your price, very interested in 1920s, blah, blah, blah, blah..." and i just had this feeling that even though i live in a city with 1.33 million residents, there are only two people who would make a post like that on san antonio craigslist... me and yvette. so, i took a shot in the dark and sent an email about how IF this was the person i thought it was, how greatful i was for the patterns, how i've made my living off of sewing because of her for the past 3 years, how appreciative i am for her generous gift... and more mushy stuff. and- IT WAS HER! she didn't just email me back, but she also said she had more stuff i can have!!!! AAAAAND- we have both moved since our last meeting and now we only live a mile and a half apart! ISN'T THAT NUTS??!!?!? so, i went over, and she gave me 4 sewing machines (two don't work, they are decoration for a friend's vintage shop now), lots of fabric (including the fabric my black and white dress is made of) and a couple hundred new patterns!!!! check it out-- here it is while i was sorting


what i brought home- all of those machines, 2 boxes, 4 bags and a sewing caddie

sorting out the complete patterns- yes, she goes through each pattern and marks 
what, if anything, is missing

 a more close up look at the 1930's - 1990's

 the highlights of the new 1930's and 40's patterns

isn't that all incredible??? this woman is a goddess. true story- i think i am in love.

aaaannnnnnd.... I'M BACK!

it only took me 2 months....
so, i have obviously been super busy lately...my part time job is working in a toy department at a hippie store... so as you could imagine, between the holidays and christmas craftin, i have had basically no time. 
so, UPDATES!

-my brother kyle has recently learned to sew. so far he has been a god damn CHAMP! he's been taking awesome old suits and jackets and giving them a more modern/european fit. he even started (after i nagged the crap out of him) his own blog! i think he probably intended it to be a blog about everything... he also makes wine and beer and is a great writer, but it's really hard not to want to write just about sewing when you are doing such a bad ass job at it! right? so-- check out his blog! 

-also in kyle news, he and his beautiful wife are expecting their first baby! 
I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! 
i will be the best aunt EVERRRRR!!!!! i already started sorting out my baby and maternity patterns! as soon as they find out the baby's sex, i will crank out so many outfits!!!!!

-oh! and my crack house is almost finished! in fact, check this out:

january 3, 2011

 january 3, 2012

not too shabby, huh? we moved in about two weeks after the first photo was taken. we still need to put on shutters and window screens.... and there is a little more of the house on the right that you can't see in these pictures- over there is the front door which i still need to paint red. on the inside we only have to finish the kitchen, and also our garage needs to be painted, but that is IT! once it is all done i'll post up before and after pictures that will knock your socks off!

aside from those things, i guess i don't really have anything. after my periods of no posting, i always feel like a little update needs to be done so my future ramblings will make *slightly* more sense. hopefully, this is a success!