I had an awesome mail day last week.

I got a package from my momma who went to Austria a couple weeks ago, and a jewelry order from Forever 21!

I love mail!



The box from Mom: post cards with pretty dresses, a wire shoe, a cute notebook plus Cadbury Chocolate!



Small vintage Austrian porcelain plate, they don't make these any more!



An antique silk hanky, thread covered buttons and silk bias binding!

My Mom is awesome! :)




Also, my new necklace, to match my pearl & bow earrings.

It was a good day.

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Procrastination...

Last night I didn't feel like moving things and while I wanted to sew, my sewing area is a mess (see: moving). So instead I made a little magnetic needle case from an altoids tin! See?












Those used to be business magnets on the fridge. :). I covered the top with fabric and then glued on some velvet ribbon cause I thought it needed something more.

And that fabric in the back is going to be my new sewing project bag, as soon as I can get some fuseable fleece.

I don't know why but I am suddenly in the mood to make a ton of bags and purses! I'll have to share some links soon to some of the patterns and tutorials I want to use.

I really should be starting my pioneer dress. It's not like it's going to be hard, and I'm machine sewing the whole thing, but I still haven't decided how I want the bodice to look! I need to have it done by June 4th though. Access to Miss Ella is kinda blocked right now though (again, see: moving).

So I guess I better try to do some moving tonight. *sigh*
My back hurts. :(

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A bit of rambling...

Oh man.  I have been just wiped out since Costume Con last weekend.  Sorry for not sharing any pictures yet!  I have uploaded them to my computer, just not the internet yet!  I'm putting it on the list though!

I haven't had much time to relax since coming back last week.  I'm still in the middle of moving and am getting started on the wedding dress I'm making!

So that Couture sewing book in the last post?  AMAZING!  So many things I have never heard of, techniques that will be perfect for the dress and can be used on future costumes as well!  I am already more than half way through it.  I highly reccomend it!  Maybe a lot of my costuming buddies know this stuff already, but I've been sewing for 12 years and seriously, so much of it is new to me.  I am so glad that I started hand-sewing dresses this last year.  I think it will be really helpful for me as I'm doing this dress.  I'm more comfortable with it and my stitches are much smaller now!

I don't think I'm going to be handsewing the entire dress, but I will be hand basting all of it especially and even if I machine stitch some of the seams.  The lace I will have to applique entirely by hand I'm thinking.  I'm still trying to work out how I'm going to do that exactly, but I'll need to play around with the placement on the bodice when I have a better working toile.  Anyway, it's making me really excited to work on this dress (not that I wasn't before, I was just nervously dreading it a bit) and I'm feeling very confident.

I also never realized that many couture garments are finished inside the way I do a lot of my costumes now.  I'm pretty sure I'll be putting a nice lining inside this, but it's kind of fun to see that the techniques haven't changed much over the last 150 years... :)

Just came in the mail...

I'll be pouring over this book in the next several weeks to make sure my best friends wedding dress is perfect! Inside and out! I made the first bodice toile today and we're fitting it tomorrow. I think it's too big, (couldn't find the measurements we took weeks ago but I went with what I thought would fit her bust) but that just means I'll be able to fit it to her perfectly! :)


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