Another Cosmopolitan Dress!

As I posted yesterday, I needed a dress to wear to a banquet I am attending with my boyfriend tomorrow night. I absolutely fell in love with this polyester/spandex knit print over at Gorgeous Fabrics and thought it would be perfect for yet another rendition of my favorite dress. All I have left to do is the hem which I will get to later tonight or tomorrow afternoon. With my blindstitch machine it will take me longer to pin the hem than it will to sew it!

I changed the pattern’s scarf sleeve around a bit, which you can see here at the Sewing Divas. This is a super-easy sleeve to draft and is different yet simple.

I’m undecided about which bag to carry: the celery/beige Goldenbleu Emerson crinkled patent clutch or the black python clutch. BTW, the black python was the first expensive bag I bought with my own money right after I graduated high school. In the 28 years since it’s seen a lot of action!

Shoes were easy! I chose these black patent platformw from ABS:

Build the outfit #1

As I was getting ready to go out on Saturday night I really wanted to wear these fabulous sandals (which my boyfriend calls stripper shoes - I don’t care, I’ll wear them anyway) and realized that I had only one garment that really went with them - a dress I’d worn last Saturday! How did this happen? So, inspired by Manolo The Shoeblogger’s build the outfit contests I am going to start from the ground up for a change and make a few things to go with the shoes.

My thought is that these are pretty sexy shoes and need something clean, simple and not too bare to keep me from looking like a working girl. What I’ve come up with so far:

Item #1 - White shirtdress: The first one is perfect, the second needs to be a few inches longer

A great pattern to start with is this Threads for Simplicity pattern that I had forgotten was in my stash!

Item #2 - White knee length skirt: LOVE!

Item #3 - White skinny bermuda shorts: LOVE! A definite must-have!

Item #4 - Sundress: the first one would be perfect if it were a few inches longer, the second one has a nice shape but I wouldn’t add the girly details

This forgotten New Look pattern is the perfect base for a sundress! I’ll probably use the strapless version and add tiny spaghetti straps for wearing ease.

Another style that I think is absolutely perfect for these shoes is this Hot Patterns Plain & Simple Iconic Shirtdress. I think this would look fabulous in red because a clingy white knit dress is certainly out of the question!

What do you think? I welcome any and all input!

ABS at SmartBargains!

I received a sale announcement yesterday from Smart Bargains (and you know how I can’t resist a shoe…) so I thought I’d pop over and see what they had. I was so excited to see that they had one of my favorite shoes, Abagail by Allen Schwartz, for the ridiculous sum of $69.99! I have these in black and absolutely love them. I paid full price and wish I’d checked Smart Bargains first! Yes they are super-high but the wide straps and platform make them quite comfortable. Last night, I wore them out to dinner (they look fabulous with my black/white HP Cosmopolitan Dress!) and then stood in a club for several hours afterwards and never once felt like I needed to sit down. Best of all, they make your feet and legs look incredible! Naturally, at such a great price I HAD to order a pair in beige which will be so useful all summer long.

Also available in chocolate brown, here’s the LINK. I highly recommend joining the Smart Shoppers Club for $9.95/year. You get private sale, clearance and new arrivals notifications and pay only $2.95 shipping on each order.

Christian Louboutin for the soul

I recently decided that I would treat myself to something ridiculously extravagant once my divorce is final. I already have enough fabric and sewing supplies (although I did consider buying an industrial straight stitch!) so I think I’ve narrowed it down to a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes:

Don’t these look like they belong on the feet of some super-fantastic woman? I love the color! They are different enough to be extravangant yet not so different as to be impractical. I can see myself wearing them with a dress, pants or jeans for years to come. Sold!

On the sewing front, I just finished the dress version of the Burda pattern and will post a photo tomorrow. The only issue I had with it was that I found it a little snug around the hip/thigh area. It’s not as much of an a-line as I thought. I’m pretty narrow through the hip so you might want to allow some “insurance” room there if you make it. Nothing adds 10 lbs. faster than a knit dress clinging to your butt and thighs! I usually change the seam allowances to 1/4″ on knit patterns and did here as well but I left the 5/8″ at the side seams (just in case) so I was able to let it out a little bit below the waist. I will probably flare the skirt out a bit more when I make it again. Still, I am very happy with it - it turned out really cute.

I love my UPS man!

Well, the Delman wedges arrived today along with two beautiful knits that I ordered from Lucy’s Fabrics last week. I was going to make a top out of the gold/raisin/rose rayon/lycra but I may make a dress instead using the metallic gold area at the bust and hemline. I’ll have to drape it on my dressform and see… The asian floral is going to be a quick summer dress, something I can toss on with some cute sandals and look pretty and be cool and comfortable. If I have a coordinating solid for the bands and ties I may make the new HP wrap dress out of this.

The shoes are amazing! I probably could have gone 1/2 size smaller but I’ll be putting one of those little pads under the ball of my foot anyway and I need to punch an additional hole in the ankle strap as it’s too loose there. I’ll have to try them out on a rug later and decide then. I’m a pretty solid 9.5 sometimes even needing a 10 or 10.5 depending on the brand so I hesitate to try a 9. I guess I could order the 9 and then send one back. Can you believe I ordered these on Saturday and they were delivered today? Zappos.com’s service is really awesome!

Stay tuned…my fabrics from Ann over at Gorgeous Fabrics will be arriving in a day or two. I’m very excited to see them in person and will post photos then. I have a pattern selected for the dress but can’t decide on a shirt/blouse/top pattern.

Happy Valentine’s Day to me!

I have been so stressed lately that I decided to pamper myself with these beautiful wedges from Delman. The minute I saw them on Zappos.com I knew I had to have them! Aren’t they adorable? I can just imagine myself wearing them out on a date. Yes, you read that right. Pretty soon I will be single for the first time in 24 years! And what does a single girl need more than cute date dresses and shoes??? Besides, I have all of that extra room in my closet now.

Some of you may remember that months ago I posted about closing my embroidery business. I’ve done that but still been terribly busy running our restaurant. If any of you have ever been in the restaurant business you know that a light week is 80 hours long! Well, I am selling and hopefully the new owners will be taking over on March 1st. You know what that means: I will be working *normal* hours like a *normal* person and will finally be able to have some time for my beloved sewing! Patterns are all lined up, ready to be altered - I even bought some beautiful German cottons from my good friend Ann at Gorgeous Fabrics last week for a summer dress and blouse as well as some pretty rayon lycras for the new wrap dress from Hot Patterns. As you can imagine, I hardly have any fabric so I had to stock up again. Seriously, there’s nothing like a new piece of fabric to get you excited, is there?

Have you missed me? Trust me when I tell you that I have missed you, my dear readers, and my sewing immensely. I can’t wait to get back to it!

PS: Here’s a link to the shoes if you love them as much as I do: Delman Lane. They are even on sale!

Ooh La La!

No sewing going on here, I’m afraid. I am just swamped with work! But, I thought I’d give you all a little bit of eye candy today. My darling son just returned from a trip to Newport Beach and Las Vegas. I asked him to bring me a souvenir from Paris to which he responded that he had already bought me something much, much better at the Bellagio. Talk about an understatement! Check these out:

Are they not absolutely gorgeous? Oh, how I love a slingback! I am in shock that my 19 year old would spend his own hard-earned money to buy me such a wonderfully extravagant gift! Good heavens, I was expecting a t-shirt! I will wear these until they are nothing more than a thread. The Manolo, he would approve, yes?

Back to Basics

I’ve had the blahs lately. You know, sort of like a bad hair day all over, every day. My favorite garments just aren’t exciting to me anymore. You’ve had it too, haven’t you? Last night, with both of our husbands working, my best friend and I decided to go to one of our favorite little Italian places for dinner. I was in a red shoe mood so I decided that plain black pants and a black top would be easy. I put on simple silver hoop earrings and grabbed my favorite red bag. When I gave myself a final mirror check I realized that I looked more chic than I had in many months. While none of the individual pieces were spectacular, together they were perfect. I’ve been concentrating so much on making stand-out pieces that I have neglected the bones of my wardrobe, those go-to pieces that are always right. It’s time to get back to basics and fill in the blanks.