{halloween: a vintage voodoo dolly}

Ah, Halloween!
Truly, my favorite holiday. My favorite day of the year. Costumes and candy: feeding both the actor and the sugar addict within.

A couple years ago I spotted this thread of Craftster.org of a Vintage Voodoo Doll and I knew I wanted to recreate it for my own costume. I wasn't able to get organized enough last year, but this year, with the help of a sewing machine, I was able to pull it together in time.

I love the juxtoposition of it being the creepy voodoo doll combined with the prettiness that you would see in a dolly. I tried to play up these opposites as much as I could.

I used the Danielle pattern from Burda, with the only real alteration being that I shortened the sleeves significantly. I also decided to use an extra long exposed metal tooth zipper up the back for more of the voodoo grittiness.

Added to the basic dress was a red felt heart with exposed black running stitch around the edges and for the pins I used two of my smaller double-pointed knitting needles with styrofoam balls painted black on top. Top it off with some fishnets, red hells and X's over my eyes and I was in business.

My hubby wanted to find a costume that could share theme with mine, so I suggested Baron Samedi or a New Orleans with doctor. Here he is, almost in his full costume, with me.

Many people got what I was, but felt they had to check to make sure. I'm slowly discovering how many costumes don't carry over as well in The Great White North since it isn't as common a cultural reference. I had almost decided to go as the Morton's Salt Girl one year, and it is a good thing I didn't because it turns out they don't sell Morton's up here and nobody would recognize the image. Sela vie.

Regardlesss, I quite enjoyed the costume for the night. I only wish Halloween lasted longer.

Pin It

{workspace remake and new machine}

Well, let me just say how incredibly blessed I feel right now!

A little while back, I posted that I was committing to 4 goals ala Elsie at A Beautiful Mess, one of which was to spruce up my sewing workspace and perhaps make a dressform in the process. Here be the awesome update:

Well, first lets start with a review of were at before...

Here is a shot of my former workspace as it was just over a week ago. Way too tiny table (slatted patio table, so it wasn't even an even surface), highly unattractive not to mention uncomfortable chair, and nowhere to store all the little trimming and such that come along with sewing.

And here was Catalina, my first ever sewing machine. The old girl tried, but she wasn't up to much. Note the lack of stitch variety, and even the widest zigzag stitch was broken, as well as a thread holder that was broken and missing when I got it, so I concocted a ghetto temp fix out of a bamboo skewer and tape.

Then, about a week ago, my darling hubby suddenly said he thought I should get a real desk (so that my projects would no longer cover the whole living room) and we headed out to Ikea. I settled on the desk they showcased in their sewing room display. Go figure. But it did seem the wisest and cheapest choice for a sewing desk. Once we got that set up and I tucked things into my new-found drawers I was already feeling like I was living the good life.

Then I received a mind-blowing package from my dear MIL.

Along with a lovely note came a BEAUTIFUL sewing machine!

Now here is the crazy part: when she told me to be expecting a parcel arriving soon, I didn't even want to admit it to myself, but I started having daydreams that maybe she'd gotten a new machine and sent me her old one or something like that...but I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up for such a crazy idea. Coincidentally, in my failed suppression of said daydream I thought "I hope it would be a Singer so I could name it Ella."

....

It is a Singer!
So I'm pleased to introduce Ella to the world.

And look at all the feet and dohickeys it came with! I have no clue what each of them is for, but I've ordered a copy of the manual for Ella and can't wait to try them all out.
AND it says that it can do easy buttonholes! That was one of the things I wanted most in a new machine! I know I'm using way too many exclamation points for good form here, but they are still not as many as I feel.
Just a review: Catalina vs. Ella. I think there is a clear winner.
I don't think I can explain just how happy I am about this. This is one of those situations where I don't talk, I just hop up and down with joy.

And now, a full view of the new space.
I also whipped up some wall art to keep me in the creative head-space when I'm sitting here.
These babies quick project, but quite fun.
The middle one is a cork board from the dollar store that I painted the frame black and then hot-glued fabric onto, and the two side deals are canvases that I drew as inspired by the same Elsie as above, got wood frames from Ikea and painted those black too, and then hot-glued the canvases to the top of the frames.

Here is the space on lock-down. So neat and tidy!

And my comfy-cozy new chair so I don't leave my sewing sessions with a broken back.

And finally, an update on the dressform aspect of this space remake:

I got together with a friend a while back who wanted one of these as well. I made her one on her first, and it turned out pretty great. Then we tried to do mine and before she could reach my waistline I was on the verge of passing out and could no longer stand up. Don't know what was up with that, but we had to call it quits for the time being.

So here is as far as we got. In fact, we would have needed to do another one anyways because the method we'd employed for separating the paper tape from me was seran wrap. This proved to be the wrong choice since, when I measured this thing after it got off of me, the bust is three full inches smaller than me. Not all that helpful.

We shall try again.


My head is still reeling from the awesomeness that sits before me on this desk. I can't wait to get started using Ella. She didn't come with a manual, so I ordered one online which will take a week to get here. For now I must practice a measure of patience and only experiment so far as I feel safe I won't break her. But OH MY GOODNESS! What a day. I really am blessed.

{voting for burdastyle/liberty art fabrics contest}

If you feel so inclined to vote for me, or any of my other esteemed colleagues, you can find the poles here:

BurdaStyle Members Create with Liberty Art Fabrics

{bright burda frock}

Hello friends!
Sorry for the hiatus. I'm fresh back from surgery and with it have come severe dizzy spells that seem to worsen with reading text on a computer, so... not a lot of time spent online.

I've been waiting for a while to share this frock. Back in...oh, I guess it was Julyish, BurdaStyle.com contacted me and asked me to participate in a little competition of theirs. Now I'm not generally interested in competition for the sake of competition, but I can't lie: when the offer came with a free pattern from them, plus free material to make it in, how could I say no?

It was an interesting process because I wasn't really sure how this all worked as I went along. First assignment was to pick out a pattern out of the Burda Style Magazine designs on the website and a fabric pattern from the Westminster Liberty Art line fabrics. All of the fabric choices were much more extreme patterns than I had ever dared to tackle before, so there was no being shy about this. Considering the number of crazy darts in the pattern I chose, I thought perhaps a busy pattern would be better than a sparse one.



For pattern, of course I was drawn toward the dress with the low v back. Of course.
In retrospect, I do kind of wish I'd chosen a different pattern because I noticed after making my selection that this pattern required material with a cross-wise stretch to it. The material I had to chose from did not have any stretch. That's not the end of the world with this dress, but it sure does make it a 'wiggle skirt' in the truest sense of the word. One can't help but walk like Joan Holloway in this one.



The other notable hitch with this pattern is a bit of a mystery to me: the sizing. I first cut out the pattern to the sizing for the pattern according to what it said it should be for my measurement. This already included the usual jog up one size at the hips and down two at the waist. But when I made my initial try of the dress it was HUGE on me. Not even kidding here: I ended up taking the bust and hips down two sizes from what it said I should be, and taking the waist down 3...and it is still far from fitted around my waist. Very odd.