New Dress: Stripes

I want to get one more dress made before I leave USF for the season. I also want o finish Little Women, use up my baking supplies, get my portfolio figured out for Korea, and get a good start on grad school communications.

But you just want to hear about the dress! I brought a couple of fabrics to Cedar, two of which I've had for probably 5 or 6 years just waiting for the perfect project and I've found it!

The stripe is going to be the dress with probably the neck edges etc piped in the blue. Here's what I found on Pinterest that made up my mind for me:

The stripes of the fabric are actually printed crosswise so the waist yoke'll be on grain, the bodice will be crosswise and I'm hoping I have enough yardage to get the skirt on the bias bc I LOVE matching chevrons a la Oscar de la Renta...

The neckline is up in the air, opinons? I think the dress will end up more summery than I want as I have probably one fall/winter dress, but oh well. I'm terrible with sleeves, but I could do a short straight sleeve with a blue cuff or something, or I could just do a short kimono...

 I'm also trying to decide what stripe variation I should do for the waist...(blogger flipped the photos, stripes will be horizontal)

normal

solid flowers

two flowers, one white

two flowers, one white, one flower etc

three flowers one white

Depending on the stripe choice I'll either have covered blue buttons or the print in a way that's unique, or I might just get really earthy wooden buttons or something. I'm super tempted to do bound buttonholes in the blue....

Let's see what this project ends up as!

Leopard Dress and Cross Over Party Dress

Alright! Here they are! The dresses I've told you about but which I've never actually shown you the finished products of...was that good English?

Anyway, both of these dresses have had their debut, but I was too lazy or whatever to take proper shots of them at said debuts.

 Leopard dress was originally opening night dress, but it got bumped for the 1940s crepe loveliness. Its debut was at the Masquerade Party which was I think much more appropriate. At the party I had a black domino mask and was super foxy, ask anyone. The foxiness does still come through w/o the mask though...

My cross over party dress was originally going to be a repro of a Balenciaga dress, but it was too expensive and I waited too long so I made this little beauty out of some fabric I brought with me. The dress is a basic two dart bodice with petal sleeves and a gathered and flared skirt. The neckline is what I like to think of as leotard neckline, so fetchingly scoopy in the back. I wore this to church today with a green cardigan, such a Sexy Sunday.

I love my cross over party dress because the shoulders and hip a-symmetry are fixed perfectly!

Overall the issues I have with both dresses are very minor. I'm getting better and better at this!

The Ruperts...

because I always get confused.

Graves

Everett

Evans

Grint

Friend

New bridal designs

I was talking to a friend recently ab my dream of having a bridal boutique in London and realized I haven't been designing in awhile! So here you go, I've been working hard. As always I'm not in love with them all, but there are a couple I could see myself in!

The first of course is my opening night dress as a wedding gown. I have very little to say about most of my bridal decisions as that's a long way off and I'm not a psycho, but I've thought for awhile that silk faille would be my fabric. The first dress makes me seriously consider silk crepe....

And yes, all of them have my body and some of them have my face.

Which do you like the best?

Official ball gown photos

These are the official photos of the ball gown I made for the beautiful and fantastic Elizabeth Telford in Les Mis, designed by Kevin Alberts. Wig styled by Brittany Hartman.

Time to get serious about this haircut

Ok, so as some of you may or may not know I've been growing my hair for 5 years to donate. I started with a pixie, so five years of growth and trims is going to get me about 13". The original plan was to cut my hair for my Tom Baker Doctor Who Halloween costume, buuuuuut...I'll be traveling on Halloween so that's waiting for next year, boo.

I was still going to lop off my hair in October, but as South Korea approaches I think it wise to wait until that is over seeing as traveling with hair product to maintain a bob is not conducive to happy Shelby. I can get my hair up and fabulous with three bobby pins (one if pressed) straight out of the shower. That's ideal for international travel.

So, mid November seems to be the new chopping date. Now, the style!!!

I'm so excited! I love planning major hair cuts, they're basically the only kind I get and I've been ACHING to have a real hair style again as I cut my hair to one length in April and it's killing me.

Right now I'm projecting having 13" if I cut to mid neck. I love bobs for my hair. The last time I had one I had no idea the natural finger wave potential of my hair...but now I do! So, we're going for a bob that I can finger wave naturally or with curlers. Here are some options for the cut and what I'm looking to grow it out to. I'm thinking I'll keep it neck to shoulder length for awhile. Ok, that was a lot of words, time for pictures!

I'm most excited for Sunday hair like this!

Don't tempt me...

Cowboys

No, not the football team, the rodeo men I will be missing this weekend bc I'm working Les Mis. I love rodeos! My ex had been a real life cowboy that team roped in high school and branded the calves our Thanksgiving together. I love cowboys. I don't mean the romanticized kind on the cover of cheesy novels. I mean real rodeo cowboys with tight tight Wranglers and giant button up plaid shirts. Rodeo boys are usually rather wee and are super wiry, unless they're the older cowmen, then they're rather hefty. Their hands are always rough and they always have a farmer's tan. They'er SUPER handsome from across the arena, but I have no illusions ab them being actually all that attractive up close. Put them on a well trained horse in chaps and watch them rope some livestock,  hubba hubba. I WANT TO GO TO THE RODEO!

Team roping video and photos are from the Lehi Roundup last summer. I haven't been to a rodeo since June! Pity meeeee!!!

A friend of mine actually wants to marry a cowboy and live in the middle of nowhere, gross. I'm happy to look and have them be oh so polite and gentlemanly towards me.

far away....

ok, so this one was above average up close too :)