Cotton dress for summer!

This post is overdue--this was the last dress I made actually almost overnight--I saw the fabric the day before leaving for Asia in August, and just had to make something out of it. I ended up wearing it a lot on the trip, so it was well worth it! The only thing I would do differently if I ever use this pattern again is not use muslin as my lining material--it tends to be a little thick and wrinkles easily.

flower cascades

I'm in the process of making this necklace for a wedding. The client wanted cascading magenta flowers, so I found these cute bellflower shaped czech beads for her. Can't wait to see how they all turn out!

hint: Raspberry chiffon...not a cake!

Made this to wear for my sister's wedding in Sept. :) After reading on sewing forums and such about how difficult chiffon is to work with, I was pretty petrified and put this project on hold for about a week. But then I decided to just do it and see...I'm super excited because I finished within 4 days (after work daily) and actually it wasn't bad at all! Now I can say I can sew chiffon!

My very first Silk Dupioni Dress!

finished product first



This is the first of the tutorial that I'm starting.
I spent an entire week last week working on this dress. A bit obsessive--but I like how it's turning out so far! I'll be posting chronological photos of the process as a kind of "tutorial" for my friends that have been asking me how to sew. It's definitely a lot more complicated to make a pattern from scratch, but the general idea is similar.

next sewing project

Attempting to make a dress for K & A's wedding as I'm in the party. This is the mock-up. Long story short, but I already did make a dress but decided I don't like it after all. I'm much more excited about this fabric and style. :) I'll post the old dress soon...

Digital Painting assignments fr D

Week 1
D, a friend and an amazing art director from work, has graciously offered to give me a "crash course" to help me become a better painter (in photoshop)...Weeks 1 and 2 have been copies from Master painters. First is from Sargent. He promised he would be tough, but so far he's been really nice about his comments. hee hee. :) hope I can get better. I'm supposed to be on Week 3's painting, but that hasn't started...
Week 2

figure sculpture class

these were from last week's model--first time we did a full figure (previous 2 weeks just playing w/clay) on an armature. Can't wait to see how to improve!

New Figure Paintings

I attended Randy Sexton's painting workshop early in January. It was great b/c I used Pixar's educational stipend for it! :) Hope to get some feedback from some co-workers still, but overall it was a challenge for me, and will continue to be. With the exception of the first 2 paintings, all of these were quick 20-min exercises, posted in order of latest to earliest. Considering the landscape class right now, but not sure yet...

new winter coat

My winter break project was to build a coat from this beautiful teal wool that I purchased from B.Black & Sons while in grad school. It was on super clearance...I vaguely remember paying no more than $20 for all 2 1/3 yds of this amazing wool. Anyway, 5 years later, I finally decided to make use of this material and test my coat-making skills once again...

It turned out beautifully--a lot better than I ever expected. My goal was to finish the coat in a week, which I ended up almost doing, except the button holes proved (once again, same thing with my first coat in school) a PAIN. My sewing machine wouldn't take the thick wool, so I ended up trying it for 2 days, and seam-ripping everything out, and doing it by hand. It looks okay, and no one can really tell.

These are pics of the process, final coat pic to come. The only thing I didn't document was the mock-up that I had to do the first day, since I re-designed the pattern and had to change a lot of things about the coat in order for there to be enough fabric. Then it was a couple hours of laying out the pattern and cutting. The pictures probably are from Day 2.