Please meet my three new favorite dresses: an elegant as eff floral Lilou from my girl Tilly and the Buttons, an obnoxiously bright and cheery yellow Moneta from Colette Patterns, and a striped Coco, also from the magical wood sprite known as Tilly. These beauts bump my me-made dress inventory up to six. Only one more before I can dress in Atelier Neenuh every day of the week.
If you compliment me on something I made myself, I’m probably going to tell you why I don’t deserve the praise. I have this sick compulsion to point out every single mistake, ones you probably would never have known about had I not been so adamant to show them to you. Maybe it’s because I feel like I’m bragging when I tell you I made my dress, and the Minnesotan in me wants to take it down a notch so you know it’s really no big deal. Maybe it’s because I’m still an amateur seamstress and I want to point out all the places where I need improvement so that when I get it right you’ll know. What I do know is that it’s not healthy and the only appropriate response is “thank you”… but here I go doing it again.
Like this dress? Thanks! Here are all the parts where I could have done better.
Since Laurel’s nuptial festivities have coincided with my seamstressing apprenticeship, she gets to be the beneficiary of several veering-on-wonky handmade gifts whether she likes it or not. For her Duluth shower she received one poorly executed throw pillow cover and one semi-decent one, and as of her most recent shower she is now the proud (?) owner of a unicorn dressing robe that *almost* covers her butt. Continue reading
Skirts? Child’s play. Making a fully lined dress with gathers and darts and a ZIPPER is the real freaking deal. I didn’t start this bad girl until I was already halfway through my sewing class, and by the last class I hadn’t gotten to any of the hard parts yet. Thankfully, Treadle Yard Goods hosts Sewing Salons multiple times a week when you can go in for a few hours and get help with a project for $20. I was so intent on gittin’ ‘er done that we came home early from Bayfield so I could get schooled in zippers by my sewing sensei Elizabeth. Continue reading
Meet my skirt! It enjoys longs walks to the office and shimmering under fluorescent lighting. It does not enjoy being worn over spanx (which one might be tempted to wear in case a stiff breeze caused a Marilyn Moment), and will show its discontent by bunching unattractively whilst its wearer walks. Its wearer will soldier on despite this aggravation, for the skirt’s golden dots are so dotty and so, so golden that she will suffer any indignities the skirt sees fit to impose. Continue reading
It’s my chief life goal to become a Renaissance Woman. While a traditional definition may dictate that one must excel in all form of arts and sciences, my own definition calls for proficiency in the following areas: cooking, baking, baking pie crusts (which is its own thing), knitting/crocheting, sewing, gardening, floral arrangement, canning/preserving, videography, photography, painting, basic car maintenance (lest one think I care only for the traditionally feminine arts), and skilled Netflix curation. This post is about acquiring the skill of sewing. Continue reading
Frippery and Curiosities 