Wedding for the Lord's

I am in the midst of doing a project for a friend of a friend's wedding. She's having a Lord of the Rings themed wedding and I need to make a White Gandalf costume for my friend that is marrying them and then a similar costume with brown and tan tones instead for her godfather.

   At first I thought this project would be a very simple and quick project. But, of course, it's not as easy to make as I'd anticipated. I'm very excited to get this whole process underway to a point where I feel good about it, but I have to make sure everything will come out perfectly. It's my misfortune that I happen to be a perfectionist (thanks Mom). I should have be at a good point by next week to post some pictures of the progress, and I can't wait!

   In other news, I will be making some more curtains for Emmit's Irish Pub. There are some large glass block bricks in the upstairs section, which just so happens to turn the upstairs into something like a sauna during the summer, which would be nice if there were a pool...but alas, no pool. If course I'll be making these without a pattern, just like I did with the curtains in the downstairs area.  Oh, my. I just realized that I never posted the pictures of the curtains I made. Trust me, it was a vast improvement from the old, crusty, beer laden, ancient curtains that used to be. I will make sure to post those ASAP!

Can't wait to show my progresses!

Oh, and just to add a project I have completed in the last while, here's a new spring arrangement I made with some lovely faux flowers I got on sale at Jo-Ann Fabrics. Definitely livened up the area.

Holiday Delight

 I know it's been a while since I've last posted but I got the design bug under my skin today and HAD to post this. I decided to go to Jo-Ann Fabrics (which is having an awesome sale on fake plants for the holidays right now) to make a poinsettia plant decoration for my apartment. Here's the breakdown:

Start with the supplies you need. I have a six pack of dry floral foam, 

three poinsettia bunches, two acorn and berry bunches, three golden accent bunches, 

a roll of red wrapping paper, and a roll of wire edged ribbon

Then I took my large empty pot in preparation.

I arranged the six foam blocks in the pot so as to make them not tilt around.

I proceeded to wrap the pot with the wrapping paper. 

You need to use two sheets of wrapping paper so that it covers the whole pot 

(depending on how big it is). Then I wrapped the top edge with the ribbon.

Arrange the flowers in the middle and accent with the other fixn's to your desire.

Here's the final project. Now my apartment has a holiday flair.

 

With the sale going on at Jo-Ann Fabrics, this whole endeavor cost only:

$42.67 with a total savings of $32.80. 

Definite plus!

Oh what a night...

I finished Ali's dress! Yay! And just in time for their wedding. It turned out beautifully. Not only did I design Ali's dress for her honeymoon, but I made my dress for the wedding as well. 

Needless to say, I was a busy bee. Whenever I'd have an issue with one dress I'd go to the other so I could work my brain in to thinking of a solution. It was all worth it though. 

After finishing my dress at 2 am the morning of the wedding I thought it best to get some rest. Once I was finished getting ready it was time to find a cab...somewhere. I walked past a myriad of people walking this mile to find a cab and along the way people would comment on how beautiful my dress was. I was trying to be modest, but I was so excited because they were the first people to see this dress come to life! It was supposed to be a simple dress to make, but I was working with taffeta which likes to be a bit difficult. I finally make it to the wedding after melting just a little from the heat and am amazed that I am still in one piece and the dress still looks great. 

It was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to. And then I realized I'd forgotten to get a card for the present. WHAT!? No card!? But then it hit me...Ali's come over for fittings for her dress...if they don't know who that one-of-a-kind-dress is from, then they are just crazy. I heard from them the very next day telling me that Ali tried it on and showed her mother and they were kvelling over it. I can't wait to have pictures up of Ali in the dress, but here are some pictures of the dress on my dress form.

It's business time

Since I have been working on Ali's dress I have gotten some offers to do even more.

I am going to design a keepsake blanket out of a childs clothing for his bar mitzvah and I am even going to design some more outfits for friends.

My gal pal Megan is all about me designing clothing now that she wants to do a trade. She crochets and is going to trade a hand crocheted blanket for an outfit made just for her. I'm totally down with this trade. It's great!

Other than that I am going to design an outfit for my old school-mate Brit. All she did was send me her measurements and I'm going to go from there. And she's even going to pay me! I'm liking the sound of that. If anyone wants something made especially for them, send me your measurements and I'll go from there. I can even schedule some fittings for you.

On a separate topic, I was informed that there are markets around the city where people sell different homemade articles. I of course already knew this, but learned that purses are sold at these venues. How great that I make purses! So, I have decided that in my other random spare time between designing clothing I am going to bang out some purses and find out how to sell them at these markets.

Ali's dress should be finalized within the next week, so final shots will be ready for that!

I'm a designer!

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but now I am going to make this a regular habit so everyone can see what I'm designing.

My dear friend Ali is getting married in June and I thought to my self "Hmm, what can I give her as a wedding present that no one else would give?" A dress! So, I have been designing a dress for her to wear on her honeymoon. This morning was her first fitting. I can't believe how great she looks and how great the dress looks on her!
This whole process has been made easier by the fact that that I am now the proud owner of a dress form. I only got it on Saturday and have already been designing away. It's the most fun I've had in a long time.

The other week when I brought up the idea of the dress for Ali we were talking about what my store's name could be (down the line when I actually have the start up capital to do so) and we came up with a great name. Collina's Clothing. See Collina is my middle name, and I don't feel pretentious enough to name it Alexis, so I think it's a good fit.

Here are the pictures of the dress thus far. I still have to put cups in for the bust and connect the whole dress, but it looks pretty great.

And so it begins

After attempting to start this blog months ago I am finally beginning. It will be a slow process I'm sure. But I have created about 5 purses since and will be posting their pictures up very soon. I created the patterns entirely on my own and am very excited!

Just the other week I bought a new sewing machine. A Brother QC1000. I get it next week and cannot wait to create a plethora of new purses. The machine I have presently is also a Brother, but so basic all it does is sew, but the tension is quite off. Needless to say, I've been in need of a better machine seeing as my talent has surpassed what my current machine is capable of.


Once I have the pictures of the purses up, I am willing to make personalized purses for those who wish to have them in the colors of their choice. I will also list prices appropriate.

Can't wait!