Simplicity 2209

 The "Passport" dress.  Comfy and sweet.  The bodice has these two darts that form a "V" in the center, which is pretty cool.  Too bad you can't really see it in my pics.   What you can see is that this material is a bit sheer, and will probably need a slip underneath.  Which I probably won't wear...

Here's the bodice.  Note the creepy mannequin torsos lurking in the background.  I think they were snickering at my dopey posing, but hey... I'm not wallowing in dirt, so ha!

Awesome day....





Michael Miller 1950's Kitchen



Isn't this fantastic fabric????  It's loud.  It's kitschy.  It has my red Kitchenaid mixer on it.  It RULZ.  Therefore, I have to make a dress out of it.  I know it's probably more appropriate for kitchen curtains or an apron, but um, screw that.   This is why I sew.  To annoy others' eyeballs.

I went to the Renegade craft fair today.  I love going to these things and getting inspired by all the creative folks out there.  Cool painted spoons to be used as garden markers, vintage books made into spiral-bound journals, necklaces made with old typewriter letters, this purse...

Mr. Fluffypants

This is Mr. Fluffypants, my Silkie roo.  It rained the other day, and he promptly became a third of his normal size.  I think he looks rather rock n' roll. 

Dress fabric

Here's a close-up of the dress fabric. Fantastic kitschy illustrations complete with gaggy drink recipes. How can a girl go wrong? (the louder the print, the happier this girl is...)

Dress explosion!

I've been on a roll lately. I've churned out tons of dresses to wear for this summer in steamy Texas.

One of my main motivations to sew so many was that a lot of my vintage dresses are POLYESTER. Polyester and hot, blistering sun just don't mix. They just don't.

Cute cotton dresses that don't cost a mint are hard to find, so I figured I'd make my own.

Enter Simplicity 5626, a 1970's sundress pattern that my dear friend gave to me. I think I've made about 8 dresses from this pattern so far! It's easy and fits great. I'm a big fan.

Peeps!

Well, I couldn't resist. I had to get some more peeps! Last year, I got 4, which ended with 2. Honk has had no desire to sit on her eggs and be a mother so I'm helping her out a bit...I got 2 Ameraucanas (blue-green eggs! Easter every day!), a White Brahma and a Buff Cochin. The last two will have fuzzy pants and feet. I think just looking at chickens with pants will make me giggle. They're inside right now under a heat lamp that keeps them a toasty 80-90 degrees. In a month or so, I'll put them outside in a small area away from Woostah and Honk so they can get used to the idea of each other. Then the feathers shall fly!

Sproing!

Spring has sprung here in Austin! Mountain laurels are in full bloom and the air is filled with the intoxicating scent of grape Kool-aid. The chickens seem to enjoy eating the purple petals that fall. I like 'em cuz they bring lots of bees and butterflys. With all the fuss over bee populations dying out, it kinda relieves me to see them. We used to have bee hives on our back upstairs deck when I was a kid. I would sit about 3 feet away from the entrance and watch them, fascinated by their big blobs of pollen they brought back. Such efficient, hard-working little bugs!

Even though spring is here, it's been pretty cold the last two days, after a week going into the 80's. Today's dreary and I'm playing some Perez Prado I found at a thrift store this week. It's cheering me up and clearing up a stupid headache. Yay, sizzlin' latin rhythms!!!

Way belated Valentine's.

A belated Valentine Woostah. I made him a quick simple tiara cuz I was too busy to do anything elaborate. Otherwise, I would've bedazzled him with sparkly rhinestones all over and painted his beak red. Just kidding. Ugh. Isn't he handsome?

Wallz...

My downstairs bathroom walls were hideous. So I painted them a cool 60's surf blue. They were still hideous. Crappy bumps and ripples and nailholes and such. What's a girl to do? Rip up 60's Ladies Home Journals and slather every inch with Mod Podge!!! What a definite improvement. Always something to look at, and such delightful fashion inspiration for my daily dressing. Uh huh. Oh yeah. Then to waterproof, I mixed 1/3 Mod Podge with 2/3 water and used a paint roller to go over the whole thing. It looks bubbly and uneven when it's wet, but dries quite nicely. Now my walls are fantastic and only I know what crappiness lurks beneath...

Fish-eye!

Fisheye photos are fun! But alas, those specialty lenses are not cheap. So....if you wanna fun way to take those kinda photos, buy a security peephole (the largest you can find) from a hardware store and put it in front of your camera lens. This will work on point and shoots with small lenses, not a giant SLR, though I imagine you could try it and just crop out the black. You'll have to play around with the distance and focus, but it's fun and you can make wonky pics of your pets. (not good for human photos unless you have a good sense of humor and don't mind a fat head) Poor Monkey.