1960's Vogue Dress

I absolutely love finding vintage patterns. This one was a great find that I discovered at a thrift shop back in my hometown in eastern Washington. It's been sitting in my to-do pile for a while now, because vintage patterns have a smaller range of sizes and this one is at least two sizes down from me, so I have had to alter the pattern to fit. My first cut was too big, so now I have to resize down without cutting it too small. Also, vintage pattern instructions are structured differently than modern patterns, so it's been a bit of an adjustment trying to navigate the pattern. Below is the pattern and my cut fabric. I'll update more as I make my way through this tricky project.

Rapunzel dress promoting Champion Family Parties

My Rapunzel dress was commissioned by my friend and used to promote her party business! So happy to see how excited the kids were to meet Rapunzel and how great the dress looked in action.

1950's Minnie Dress

Having been busy with work and starting a family, it wasn't until I dusted off my sewing machine to help a friend with a project that I decided to pick up some of my sewing projects.

As an avid Disneyphile who's lived within a hour's drive of a Disney park for the past decade it was about time that I made myself a Minnie Mouse dress. Since Disneyland was built in the 1950's it was only appropriate that my dress should reflect the iconic style of the time. I got this great retro pattern, some fun Minnie and Mickey buttons, and a pair of mouse ears from a party store that I could add a custom bow to. It was a pretty easy, straightforward pattern and I'm excited to wear it when we go back down to the parks in October.

Here's the retro dress pattern. Unfortunately my dogs got to the pattern. Luckily they missed most of the instructions and only got some of the cover.

Sewing the pleats took a few tries since I hadn't sewn anything in a while.

The fun Minnie and Mickey buttons to attach the front of the dress.

Here's the dress folded with the custom bow attached to the Minnie Mouse ears.

The resulting 1950's Minnie dress!

Frozen gown

 After watching the movie Frozen, I knew I had to make Elsa's infamous gown. To make the most of my time I put into it, I'm planning on making a convertible gown so that I can wear it with the traditional sheer sleeves and snowflake encrusted cape, to reveal a sweetheart, floor-length gown with a train. Although I would have liked to maintain greater accuracy with fabric choice, with my limited fabric choices I decided to go with a swirling sequined overlaid on the bodice and meticulously cut and sewed over the length of the skirt of the dress. Check it out!

I added additional strips of teal sequins to the bodice to make it contrast greater against the skirt.

Meticulously cut sequin strips sewn on the skirt of the dress.

The finished product that I wore at Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland (with my husband as Olaf).

Ball Gown

So I found this amazing fabric at the Goodwill Outlet, which if you are not familiar is the place they send the things that don't sell at Goodwill before they incinerate them, so they sell everything by the pound. So I got this great gold costume fabric for about two dollars. I then saw this amazing gold dress in In Style by Salvatore Ferragamo, so I decided to attempt to replicate it. I got the fabric, the pattern for the base of the skirt, and the necklace for under $15.

Here it is:

Updates - my new interior design page!

Since I just moved across the country a few months ago I had to put my sewing projects on hold to drive all the way across the country, wait another three months while my sewing machine was in storage, and then while I unpacked and focused on putting together the house. So while I get caught up on my sewing projects I decided to create another page that focuses specifically on my creative and maintenance endeavors as a new homeowner.

New alterations page

Check out my new page! Since this season's all about sparkle, shine, leather, feathers and overall embellishment. I added extra embellishment to the shoes that I already embellished in another post. I also took the extra embellishment and stitched it onto the shoulder section of a dress that I am altering.