simplicity 5315

When I see people in caftans, I get kinda jealous. They always seem so confident and easy in their manner. So I was pretty excited when I found this pattern. I even had the perfect fabric. I made it with out too much difficulty despite the copious amounts slippery, stretchy fabric used. And then I put it on. My daughter goes "Oh Mommy, no!" and my husband said "well...it's a thing." Yeah. It was that bad. 

So no pictures on me. Yes I know I will show of my mom bod in a bathing suit, but this was a new level of fug. I know now why people seem so confident in them. You must either be smokin' hot to pull one off or have serious delusions of grandeur, like enough that it warps the perceptions of the people around you into thinking you do, in fact, look amazing....in a mumu.

The pattern  - 

The dress -

 See regal right?!?

a little crooked stitching but other wise pretty right?!

WRONG!

Okay so the last shot is the back view obviously, but what you can't see is that this is how sloppy it looks from the front when it is on a person. Or at least on me.

Maybe a different fabric.....

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just for fun

Not vintage, but just wanted to do a little showing off of my cute kiddo and her Halloween costume. I made up the pattern, so even though it isn't perfect I am pretty darn happy with it.

I found a turtle neck and hoodie (complete with sequins) at Target and she already had the pants. That way she didn't look like a little tramp or freeze her tail off.

 She was most excited about the make-up!

Now it has turned into a dress-up favorite!!

I totally have a project in the works that is for real vintage and suuuuuper tacky! Stay posted.

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from past to futurama

This year I decided to go as someone from the future. If you haven't seen with the show Futurama, you may not recognize that I am member of the crew aboard the Nimbus. Yeah, you know, even if you have seen the show, that might be a bit to ask. Nerd Alert!

What was so fun about this is I took this amazing vintage velour dress and made it into my costume from the future.

It wasn't quite as straight forward as just shortening the dress. They had significantly different necklines so that wasn't an option. Instead I cut off the sleeves, cut off the top of dress, and then remade the neckline and armholes. I added little yellow wings to the shoulders. Which was quite a pain and I should have used stiffer interfacing. The gloves were going to be tricky. A) I have never sewn gloves before and B) these were a tricky design as they are supposed to not touch your arms and they are at an angle.

So here is Zapp Brannigan - He is the Captain (notice the patch on his arm and the stripes on his shoulders)

Here is Francine.

So I went with no stripes or patches and came up with a pretty good idea for my gloves.

Before - I actually felt kinda bad cutting up a floor length dress like this.

Cutting off the sleeves.

For the gloves I took these beautiful vintage gloves and wore them under some flannel "sleeves" I created.

The finish product!

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