one day i’m in, and the next day…

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…i’m out.

well, it was a good run you guys. i was the casualty of the double elimination on project run & play this week, and i’m pretty bummed to be out SO CLOSE to the finale, to be completely honest. but i also had a really fun time, and i truly appreciate you sticking with me and offering your encouragement, comments, and votes all throughout (and a special welcome to the new followers that found me for the first time through PR&P!). i’m so glad simple simon asked me to participate this season!

week 1: junebug remix

a bunch of random thoughts i wanted to mention…

  • i can draft patterns now, and without fear! i had done that only a couple times before project run and play (the junebug remix was a great first challenge for that reason). this opens a whole new world of possibilities. i almost feel like i don’t need patterns at all, but i will definitely still use them. they do make things WAY easier, and sewing is mainly a relaxing hobby for me, so easier is good.
  • my sewing skills improved exponentially in just a couple months! pretty cool to just FEEL my learning curve shooting up under such intense sewing pressure. i think i was just on the edge of having enough skill to participate going into it, and so i definitely surprised myself each time things worked out, sewing-wise. i kept thinking it was luck. 😉

week 2: boy week

  • i feel more creative than i ever have, and i’m very proud of what i made. i suddenly have the freedom of drawing whatever i can dream up and then i know i can probably make it happen. when i had the idea to make my art deco flapper dress, i was literally shaking with excitement and an urge to make it come to life. i’m most proud of that dress.

week 3: sewing through the decades

  • i like to compete (i knew this already, i’ve played sports since i was little). i loved the creative challenges, and i’m fine with being judged by “experts” like katy, dana, and shannon (plus a guest). however, the public voting was always really hard for me to watch (but i couldn’t look away!). i would have rather just had someone tell me what to sew and had no one go home, but i probably did my best work by trying to stretch as far as possible while remaining true to my own aesthetic so that i WOULDN’T go home! i wanted to win, and i tried my hardest every week.
  • friends are good, and i really enjoyed emailing my real life friends and a few of my competitors through the competition as a support system. we said more than once that we wished we were all in one room together, sewing away and chatting, like project runway. i’m excited to see what danielle, jess, and stef sew for the finale, and i can’t wait for friday! i’ll try to let you know when voting is open so you can see what they came up with too.
  • i learned some new things about blogging, mostly how to make my own collages (rather than using an online service). i have an apple computer, but no photoshop. wanna know how to do it? you drag and drop photos from iphoto into pages (the word processing program), resize and arrange them, then add a text box over the top. if you lower the transparency of the background color to 30% it adds a nice effect, and then use the skitch app to take a screen capture. drag and drop that back into iphoto and you’ve got yourself a fancy-looking collage! felt like that helped make me look “official” like the big bloggers. 😉

week 4: outerwear

  • i thought i was a big procrastinator, but in dealing with such major time constraints (working 4 days a week from 8-5pm, and primarily sewing while the kids were sleeping), i knew i had to be very organized and sew ahead. i made the handy dandy work process chart below, and had the first two weeks’ looks sewn before the competition even started. that definitely helped as it came down to the end and the competition got more fierce. i had the luxury of scrapping two looks that weren’t working and starting new, and i only caught up to “real time” in week 5. that’s my tip for any future PR&P contestants that may be reading! 🙂

  • i think i have a different style than others, and that’s why i started sewing in the first place. i thought of things i wanted my toddler daughter to wear, but couldn’t find them in stores. i’m not a fan of super frilly, but i like feminine. i love color and balance. my style is understated, and i care a lot about craftsmanship and little details. my garments seem to have a sense of place (i had no idea how much i was influenced by where i live until this competition). this design simplicity might be why i didn’t ever win a challenge or make it to the finale, but i’m glad i stuck to my guns and made what i love. as i was compared to others, my “signature style” emerged.

week 5: special occasion/party wear

  • and finally, the most important lesson i learned is who i sew for: my kids, myself, my family, my friends, and my blog readers, probably in that order. in the end, i made things that Em and O could wear once this was all over, and they have been! red riding hood coat is her current go-to, and she loves hiding in the giant hood. she wore her elephant jacket to the zoo last weekend to go see the elephants, while holding her stuffed elephant, and also wearing her elephant dress. he wears his pants and sweater often. since i was putting in a lot of time and energy, i’m glad these things are getting used!

so once again, i love you guys! you really get me! thanks for sticking with me and thanks for voting all these weeks to keep me in the running. for a tiny little blog (i have just a fraction of some of the other designers’ readership), i’m so excited to have made it this far. i’m a little giddy with the freedom of what to make next, and i have a rush of ideas. i do want to do a sweet tartan dress tutorial in the future for sure, and i’m also hoping to do a dora backpack tutorial…any other tutorials you’d like to see? i can’t promise i’ll get to them right away, but i’ll try to eventually!

thanks again, all. it’s been a pretty darn cool experience, but an all-consuming one. i know my husband has missed me! even if i’ve been around, i know i’ve mentally been in “PR&P-land.”

glad to be back!

japanese tea party: the outtakes

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i was realizing that in my sleep-deprived state leading up my japanese tea party post, i neglected to include as many of the photos from our super fun photoshoot as i wanted to.  everyone cool with a few more?  hope so!

(voting over at project run & play is open until sunday evening, by the way, and remember it’s a double-elimination round! – vote here – **Voting is now closed.**)

the indoor photos:

i hung pom poms from my kids’ rooms (i originally made them for Em’s first birthday party) and the pink bunting banner that i made for race for the cure last fall.  i wanted the background of the photos to be light and soft, to complement the petal top and tutu skirt.

gail provided the felt tea party goodies.  Em provided the elephants.

there was also some book-reading, of course (it is a reading nook, after all!)

the nook has the most amazing light even in poor weather, which is why i asked if we could take pictures there.  turns out we got a beautifully sunny day (almost TOO sunny at times, once we got outside)!

i was sure to take advantage of the light to get a few detail shots of the kimono coat and that blind-stitched binding that i’m so proud of, and a big reason behind my late sewing night…

the outdoor photos:

after i got the photos i needed inside, we went outside to “feed the chickens.”  well…that was what got Em outside so i could take my kimono jacket photos!  Em loves feeding the chickens (yes, people keep chickens in their backyards here…it’s actually a pretty common occurrence!).

more jacket photos here.  to Em’s delight, she and lila then got to feed the chickens (see how versatile this party outfit is?  it’s great for tea parties AND farmwork!).

while gail, wearing her lovely wiksten tova top that she made, held O for me so i could snap snap snap away.

all in all, it was my favorite photoshoot of the competition so far – great friends, great setting, great pictures.  i hope to return the favor someday, though my house isn’t nearly as cool!

have you made it over to project run & play to vote yet?  mine is the first entry you see this week so it’s pretty easy to find (though it is not first in the votes at the moment!).  VOTE HERE through sunday evening!  thanks for indulging my photo bombardment!  i just couldn’t not post them.  🙂

**Voting is now closed.**

PR&P week 5: japanese tea party

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we’re getting down to brass tacks here on project run & play! it’s week 5, and in case you may have missed it, last week’s outerwear voting (and judging) was so close they decided to make it a non-elimination round. that means this week is a DOUBLE elimination round, heading into the finale next week! eeps!

one thing that i’ve tried to be conscious of throughout this competition is remaining true to my aesthetic. it’s surprisingly easy to start feeling swayed by what other people are doing in a situation like this, especially because i tend to design things that are much more understated, normally. so i have worked hard to keep to my own look while still pushing myself to add “wow.” i think this week is my best example of that balance. the jacket has clean lines and is very wearable, the pink shirt and ballet skirt are more elevated from the everyday. most of the time i’m sewing what i hope she’ll want to wear anyway, and using pink, elephants, and ballet stuff are always a good bet!

for initial inspiration, i couldn’t stop looking at this lovely loveliness. it guided me to make the skirt, textured top, and use olive green tones.

source: pinterest, original site appears to be defunct

i did a bit more sleuthing around on the skirt and i believe it’s from shabby apple, although theirs only looks to be in white. regardless, i had to make it for my ballerina girl. it’s a batiste circle skirt on the bottom, then three layers of cream tulle, also circle skirts. gotta admit, i felt pretty smart when i realized i could cut them that way and avoid hemming the tulle!

oh and the shirt! did anyone recognize it from Em’s birthday???

i even used the same petal template! it’s all pink voile (the birthday pinata is tissue paper). i hand cut the 65 petals and decided to leave all edges raw for a fluttery look. i lined them up in a row, stitched them down, layered the next ones on top, stitched those down, etc. i then sewed the front and back parts of the shirt together, bound the neckline and armholes, and hemmed the bottom. pretty easy, but a really nice textural effect and added the dose of pink that Em loves.

here are my initial drawings of both:

so i had the general concept down and knew i wanted a textured shirt, but didn’t have the idea for the kimono jacket until monday this week! that morning, feeling a little stuck, i asked Em what she wanted me to make her. she told me she wanted an elephant coat with elephant buttons (i’d shown the buttons to her before)! i thought a kimono would add to the japanese vibe of the peony shirt, so once again, i hit the fabric store on my lunch hour. i don’t usually drive to work, so i walked to the only fabric store near me, which is smallish and has just a little of everything. jackpot, though – they had this dark olive sueded twill. i paired it with the kona olive that i keep on hand because it’s my favorite, and i thought the tonal effect was pretty magical.

i’m now calling this her “ballet ninja” jacket. other PR&P post titles i considered this week were “tea for elephants” and “skirt as top’s skirt and top,” but i chickened out. 🙂

for the jacket pattern, i took the one i made for little red and shortened it, slimmed it a bit, and shortened the sleeves by a couple inches. then i drew a subtle curve from one shoulder to the other armpit, similarly to how i drafted my sweet tartan dress. so the pattern is still originally based on the oliver + s sunday brunch jacket (out of print but can be found in stores, and they’ve been realeasing lots of out of print patterns as digital ones lately), but the only original elements left now are the armholes and shoulder seams! it closes with three of those cute little elephant buttons.

and yeah, i totally hand-finished the whole neckline and sleeve bindings with a blind stitch. i wasn’t going to, but at 10:30pm the night before i planned to take photos, i decided it was a must to preserve the cleanliness of the jacket. i’m so glad i did, even if it meant another late sewing night.

the lining is marrakech elephants by valori wells. i’m sure Em wishes it was on the outside. hehe.

all photos were taken here, which turned out so perfectly – i had forgotten that their house was the same colors as the jacket! my lovely host was thanked profusely and gifted some special fabric for the trouble.

i got waaaay too many great photos, so please forgive the overload!! oh just one more thing: the pretty little orchids in her hair came from the same florist that did our wedding flowers, and i just happened to go get them ON my 8 year wedding anniversary! i thought that was kinda cool.

i’ll stop now so you can head on over to project run & play to vote! japanese tea party! double elimination! vote here!

domo arigato!

**Voting is now closed.**

psssst…want EVEN MORE photos??? check out THE OUTTAKES!

PR&P week 4: little red

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oh wow, i am so grateful that i’m still alive and kickin’ in project run and play!  you guys are really the best.  i’m having a fun time thinking as creatively as possible and gaining experience in actually designing out of my own brain rather than following patterns.  this is all so new to me, and it’s changing how i will sew from here on out.  it was really uncomfortable and hard at first, but is becoming normal now and that’s pretty cool.  thank you for giving me the opportunity to continue on!

this week’s challenge is “Outerwear” and i was glad for my outerwear experience lately (here and here) but also stumped on what to make!  i sketched so many different designs for this one – it gave me the most trouble because i had lots of ideas, but none of them really sang to me.  i sketched capes, trench coats, jackets, but everything felt like something i’d seen before.  i tentatively decided on a simple raincoat that i’d make in a cool laminated cotton, and headed to bolt on my lunch break with a friend to look for fabric.  what i found actually surprised me – a bright red canvas that was actually very soft, and i had a lightning bolt inspiration – what about a red riding hood COAT?  hmmmm, i’ve never seen that before!  my friend suggested an oversized “guillermo del toro hood,” whatever that means, and i agreed that a giant pointy hood would be a definite must (thanks buddy!).

i looked for mushroom or some other woodsy japanese import fabric for lining but none was to be found, so i grabbed a great amy butler lark print instead.  on my drive back to work, i had a brainstorm – i’ll print my own fabric on linen!  back to bolt for this lovely natural cotton-linen blend, and then i started printing in a three-phase stamp process.  perfect.

the ticking stripe binding is what i had picked to join in this sewalong which i never got around to, but it got poached for this because i had another brainstorm to add 1/4″ flat piping around the whole coat and it was the perfect fabric!  it was a fun, easy way to add a whole lot of style and break up all that red.  i also added a little “e” label to the back – mine is machine-stitched, but i would have loved to embroider it like this beauty.

the coat pattern is actually based on the oliver + s sunday brunch jacket, which i altered heavily (those are the rules!).  i took the top bodice pieces and extended them out at a diagonal from the armpits to create the swing coat shape.  i shortened the sleeves and flared them out a bit, too.  those are the only pattern pieces i used!  i drew the hood pattern freehand and the canvas is so sturdy, it didn’t even need interfacing.  the sunday brunch pattern isn’t lined, but i lined mine except for the facings under the buttonholes, where i used the canvas for stability.  i piped the whole coat, sleeves, and pockets with the flat piping, and hand-stitched in the sleeve lining and opening that i used to turn the coat closed.  the only visible topstitching is on the pockets, so it has a very clean and finished look.

the dress that i made to go underneath is the leila and bed sweet little dress in a 3T, which i lengthened and slanted out at the side seams to create fullness.  i made it in the amy butler lark print that i’d originally pegged for the coat lining.

the apron is a simple muslin rectangle, gathered and sewn to a waistband that ties.  it has a little toadstool patch on it which i don’t think you can really see in my PR&P post, but it makes me happy and that’s what matters (secret: all toadstools remind me of super mario bros!!).

this coat is the first garment that i’ve sewn for project run & play that really evolved as i made it – the prior three looks were fully formed in my head before i even started sewing.  the piping was a later addition.  because of that, my sketch is super boring this week!

Em really does love this coat, though, and i’m so happy with it too!  it’s already getting a lot of use, which is fantastic!

alright – once again, it’s time to vote!  won’t you please skip on over to project run and play to vote HERE?  voting closes on sunday evening.  i thank you, the ducks thank you, and my little red riding hood girl thanks you!  🙂

**Voting is now closed**

PR&P week 3: flapper tapper

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thank you so much for your votes for my boy look last week on project run & play – wow, that was quite the nail-biter! the looks were so solid and the voting was so close, i think it should have been a non-elimination leg. they do those on project runway!

but i made it through to week 3, and i am so excited about this week’s design! we were challenged to “sew through the decades” and i really love the 1920s, so i chose it straightaway. i mean, i took lindy hop class TWICE in college (PE credit!), and as i mention in my PR&P post, i live in a house built in the ’20s and wear a wedding ring made in the ’20s. so yeah…i got ’20s cred. 😉 this is actually the second dress i made for this week – i first made a simple satin dress with a similar hemline to this one, but it had some fit issues and i ended up deciding to scrap it late one night. i woke up the next morning with the design for this dress in my head, furiously sketched it, and could not wait to start sewing! i’ve never had such a strong urge to turn an idea into reality before, so that was really cool.

the bodice took a few fittings to get right, especially with those shoulder straps, which are joined in an oval shape and had to be the perfect length. i’m not much of a quilter either, so the piecing definitely took some thought – i had to figure out which points i wanted to preserve, which to clip, and how to get it to all turn into a bodice that fit her just right! i also knew i’d need to use an invisible zipper, and i’ve only sewn one once before (without much success). i prayed for good naps from the kids and locked myself in my sewing room for the better part of a weekend, taking my time on the details. i got it to the point of hemming and then stalled out for a couple days from sheer sewing fatigue! 😉

but oh, it was worth the mental effort! i’m so proud of this dress. it makes me happy. that’s the cool thing about this PR&P competition – i’m making things directly from MY inspiration that fit the purpose of my entry for the week, rather than sewing what is “needed.” it’s both restrictive and freeing at the same time because as far as inspiration goes, the sky’s the limit.

speaking of inspiration, here’s my wedding ring – can you see the sunburst/trapezoid shapes?

and here is our fireplace mantel, in front of which i took the photos this week. this was one of the few original design elements left in the house when we moved in after many years of remuddling by prior owners. we’ve been trying to slowly restore some of the charm.

so now you can sort of see where the shapes came from for the flapper tapper dress. for the skirt, i pretty much was looking for any excuse to make Em a new circle skirt dress. she STILL loves to put on her christmas dress and dance to the nutcracker on an almost nightly basis. she renamed it “my wonderful twirly dress.” 🙂 i just wanted one in cotton that was a bit easier to wash. ha! i had planned on taking “on location” photos for this dress at any of the cool ’20s art deco buildings in town, but the weather didn’t cooperate and i figured our living room would be more conducive to dancing anyway…

and i doubt you could see the chevron ribbon detail in the PR&P collages, but i must give credit to gail for that lovely find.

they were perfect to tie in the pink from her felt headband feathers (felt feather inspiration here). those feathers were so fun to make, i highly recommend them! the pink one has a paperclip stitched into it to help it stand up.

so that’s my art deco flapper tapper! i’m kind of in love with it, and i hope you are too! if you haven’t yet, head on over to project run and play to vote…now!

TA DA!

**Voting is now closed**