Monday, May 23, 2016

Sewing Room Redo Progress

If you've been following my Instagram, you already know I've been super busy with renovating my sewing room! It's essentially my birthday present this year. I keep meaning to share some pics here, but just haven't had a spare second until now.

Here you can see my old wall color, a lovely olive green that I enjoyed for many years.

Lately, though, I've been craving something lighter, so up went the primer and new paint color! I used Flora by Behr, it's a really lovely soft green with hints of blue or gray depending on the light.


I didn't start out planning to redo the floor, but I started dreaming and checking just for fun, and found a very budget friendly option for wood laminate at Home Depot ($0.64/sq ft!). Even more importantly, I mentioned the possibility to the hubby, since he would be the one doing the majority of the work, and he was not opposed! So that's what we spent my birthday weekend doing. :-) It makes SUCH a difference!!


We got rid of both bookshelves in the room, as well as the old computer desk, and I decided to replace all of them with Ikea's Algot system of wall shelves. I love how customizable they are, and how light, airy, and open the room feels now! I need to go grab a few more shelves to finish it off.


Another thing I'm excited about is my picture taking space. I've never had one great place with natural light to take pics of my projects. I realized where one of the bookshelves used to be would be perfect because it's right across from the windows. So I decided to paint some faux moulding as a backdrop for my projects. I'm sure you'll be seeing this wall frequently on the blog!


I decided to repurpose my ung drill frame, which I'd used as a fabric covered cork board, to a decorative frame on the background wall. I asked my collective Facebook friends for opinions on keeping it black or painting it white, and got the excellent suggestion to paint it gray, which continued a theme I already had going! I ran out the same day to get paint and did just that. :-)


These were some of my other gray themed accessories, a new gray table, gray striped curtains, and a gray striped ironing board cover. I was also able to use some vintage Barbie fashion prints from an old calendar that I loved...still debating adding a couple more!


And that's about where I am now! I have to start the task of moving all the stuff back in, which is not a small job. I'll be sure to share more pics when everything is back in place!

Monday, May 9, 2016

Vintage Mashup Maternity Dress


This was such a fun project!! My friend Theresa (who I made the minty tulle bridesmaids dresses for!) is a fellow vintage enthusiast, and also happens to love classic movies. Every year she attends the TCM movie festival, and usually wears an amazing true vintage gown on the red carpet. This year, she is expecting (yay!) and since there aren't a lot of formal vintage maternity gowns around, she asked if I could help her keep the vintage theme going by making a maternity dress using vintage patterns.
 We started looking at patterns from the 60s mostly, going for that popular empire waist of the time. We settled on vintage Vogue 5942 for the top, an empire bodice with a lovely low back, and vintage Simplicity 8497 for the bottom, a gorgeous flowing floor length full skirt. Neither of these are maternity patterns, but the empire lines just lend themselves perfectly to it! Then we found the most amazing silk that was just screaming to be used for this dress, a radiant teal silk with metallic copper/gold giant polka dots. This stuff just shimmers like you wouldn't believe, I think it looks like coins falling from the sky, lol.


It was really pretty quick to put together, it fit her great right off the bat. I didn't even have to alter the skirt much at all, it was full enough to accommodate the baby bump! I just left some length in front so I had plenty to work with when hemming.



I added a ribbon around the empire waist to break up the print a bit (was just testing the color here, didn't plan to keep that bow!)


And bra loops to keep the bra straps hidden.


I also added a pocket, of course. ;-) Then, probably my favorite part, we snuck a sweet little bow on the back!



I was able to snap a few pics of the final dress on her when she picked it up. I think she looked just stunning, as always.



And here she is shimmering on the red carpet at the festival!