crap, am i doing this right?

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a vintage collar for our house guest

tyler and i are once again dog-sitting, only this time for a rambunctious little beast named gracie. she's a pretty awesome dog and she, unlike my dogs, does tricks! she high fives, sits, lays down, gets off the furniture when you tell her to... she's great! so, i made her a new collar yesterday so she would feel like a lady.

i inherited about a dozen of these collars from a relative's hoard in pink, blue and yellow flowers. they are super cute and pretty and look great with lace and rickrack, but they are also pretty small... so gracie might end up going home with one in every color and maybe even a few to spare...

shorts on a sho'tay!

it's summer time and its hot as a crotch so i decided to make some shorts! also, because it sometimes get a little too hot for a crinoline and lifting my dress up and cooling down my lady bits at every low fan or window unit i see apparently isn't "socially acceptable."

.....whatever that means.


so here are my shorts! sorry about the awkward positioning of my body, but it is hard to take photos in a poorly lit hallway all by my lonesome!

there were some pretty intense issues with these and the massive fupa they created... i told them, HELL NO!

also, check out this cool button i used! i found it in a purse i bought at a vintage shop!

so i used mccalls 9021, view a. i can't remember where i got this pattern from, but i did like it after all of the altering was done. oh yeah, i also had to make them considerably shorter than they suggested. they length they wanted made me look like a softball coach.

and in conclusion, if you are looking for a cameltoe enhancing, fupa creating, softball length pair of shorts, make these! if you want normal shorts, make these anyways but be ready for a crap ton of alterations!

dear world of zippers,

don't you ever, and i mean EVER, suggest culottes again! what are you thinking??? maybe it's the 4 glasses of cheap wine i've had already today, but i'm feelin' frisky and i won't hesitate to sew you onto a fanny pack or something else horrible! you best watch yo' self, bitch.

xoxo,

moderately intoxicated crissy

a non-patriotic dress

for once, i'm letting a holiday pass without making a dress to match it. partly because i don't need more red white and blue dresses than i already have, and partly because memorial day wasn't all that long ago and i don't have anymore fabric in my stash to match. instead, i finally decided to use some fabric that i had been saving for just the right pattern... and i found it. behold! 

from simplicity 4116- thats right, this pattern is only 5 years old!

i even used a NEW pattern for a change! course, i had to make a  few alterations to make it more me.... like a fuller skirt, tighter bodice and a MUCH higher waist... i mean really, does a dropped waist look good on ANYONE????

finally used some of my trim stash!

i also had to add some cute purple and black trim. the pattern called for lots of ruffles and lace and what not, but i'm happy with just this. i looooooove the colors and print of the fabric. its all cakes and mushrooms and mysterious things that i can only assume are also food related!

 omnomnomnom!

i wish i had more of this fabric, but i only had enough for this. i also realize now that iron this before i took those photos would have been a good idea. we came home from a little get together with tyler's family and i had a hankerin' for some bloggin' so y'all are just gonna have to deal with it

a weekend on the grill

this was a pretty productive weekend! i ended up spending pretty much the rest of friday and a good chunk of saturday morning setting up and playing with my new sewing machine.

basically, i am in love. it is just SO AWESOME! it sews through everything! i'm not a huge fan of the walking foot it came with, but i need to go pick up some other attachments anyways so i'll worry about that then. after tyler got up saturday, we made out way to the farmer's market for basil fest and snagged up some goodies (bison meat, fresh veggies and fresh goat cheese) took them home and got busy!

this tasted as good as it looked. particularly the little portobellos! 

we also picked our first batch of figs from our tree, 

they taste better than they look...

ate a few, and then i made a really good vanilla meringue with fresh fig slices in it! it was goooooooooood...

sunday we traded some of these for cupcakes from our 75 year old neighbor!

and then on sunday tyler and i went to a birthday party for our friend josh and had some wonderful drinks and eats. i (of course) made a new dress to go to the party in-- behold: the jazz bear dress!

i think this is for kid jammies, so it is REALLY soft!

i love the fabric so much, just look at that print! bears, squirrels and raccoons! 

i used a pattern i hadn't used before, butterick 2906.... and lemme just say that had the most inaccurate measurements EVER! it should have fit me perfectly, but i ended up taking at LEAST 4" off the bodice!

 i guess it's always a good thing when you're smaller than you thought, but i was trying to finish this in about 2 hours and could really have done without the extra drafting! in the end, all was good and i got to wear the most girly shoes in the world-- and they matched perfectly!

a few new additions to the house this week

yesterday was a big day at our house! first, MY NEW SEWING MACHINE IS HERE!!!!!!

huuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

and then, tyler's momma dropped off her dog and parakeet for us to watch while she's on vacation with her mother, and to keep her company, my little puppy audrey finally got to move in too! 

that's bella the shih tzu in the back... no point in showing her face. 

its totally covered in fur right now!and that's my little one in the front

so far all has gone well. i got the machine set up and running this morning, the dogs are getting along fine, and splinter has taken up residence in bella's bed. looks like a good weekend for everyone!

i forgot these...

i actually forgot to post these for a long time...

these are two dresses i made to wear to funerals (bummer) and have not posted yet..... so here they are! the first is from spadea N-1245 ( i wanna say this is 1963 but i'm not totally sure)

looking at it like this, the front and back totally look the same.

another pattern i got for free! wooooooo!

i made the entire dress in this black lace, which my sister picked up a bolt of for me from a huge yard sale at a big local theater

she loves me....

 it's really light weight and soft, which is good for our weather. i've already worn this a couple times! the second dress is from simplicity 1536 from 1956.
 

 

this dress is a little too heavy to wear in the summer... it'll be a fall dress for sure!

the pattern is from my favorite vintage shop in town. they always have great patterns and clothes and furniture for super cheap! i think this was probably 50 cents or a dollar... and now that im writing about it, i realize i haven't been there in ages and perhaps i'll have to add that to my todo list for the weeked!

any occasion to make a new dress....

today i am going on a big business shopping trip with my new boss to buy a new sewing machine, fabrics and other dog bed things.... so i thought i needed a good new dress! some of the places we are headed to aren't the most well air conditioned places, and also this is south texas so i whipped up something cool and cute!

taa daaaaaa!!!

this is simplicity 6982 from 1975. generally, im not the biggest fan of the seventies, but a cute pattern is a cute pattern! 

i went ahead and left the sleeves off.... it might keep me a little cooler that way!

the fabric is really nice. i had about 4 yards of it and its very very comfy! the pattern called for a curved edge on the skirt, but i didnt want to mess up the border print so i just cut it straight and used my ruffle foot to bring it in... plus now it looks killer with a little crinoline! the pattern is really great. i wish my camera captured it better than it did, but what can ya do?!

i also dont think the colors are done much justice here

in addition to this, i also finished up a shirt i made for that handsome piece of man i call tyler. he loves him a pearl snap, and i love him, so i made this:

 

showing off before work... and shakin' that sweet caboose!

this is from a stretch and sew pattern, 1762. the men all look super doofusey on the envelope, luckily that wasn't transferred to tyler in the process. the collar was HUGE on this, so i ended up having to take it off when i was done, cut about 2 inches off, and then sew it back on. ridiculous. 

view c looks like my dad in the 70's

i did finally get to use these awesome snaps i've had in my stash for a while. i had 2 packages, both from 1950. i think that i got these at a flea market, but i cant really remember anymore.

these only came in packs a 4. how stupid.

this was the first shirt i made for tyler. i had started another a while back but i lost one of the sleeves before i could attach it. he came home from work yesterday with 3 packs of pearl snaps he bought online, so it looks like i'll be venturing into mens shirts a little more often from now on!

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.