Going green

Well, you guys, I did it. I wanted Green and that's... kind of...what I got! I threw all caution I'd expressed in my previous post to the wind and threw this beige/grey eyelet dress into the vat (my kitchen sink) of Kelly Green dye. Here's how it turned out.

Before:

...and after!

The cotton fabric part of the eyelet took the green dye really well and is a little, tiny bit more saturated looking in real life than in this picture. The thread of the eyelet embroidery and the matching grey lining, however, did not take a drop of dye and magically look exactly the same as where I started. This is what I'd been afraid of, but I'm actually finding myself liking the way it looks now! The (now) contrasting lining and stitching make the flowery pattern of the fabric much more pronounced and ...interesting.

Here's a closer look.

The one downside of this project has been that the cotton part of the dress, mainly just the skirt, though, has shrunk a little bit from the hot water and subsequent washing/drying of the dyeing process. Now the grey lining peeks out and is longer than the hem of the skirt. That can be easily fixed, though. :)

I also threw a bit of bright white, synthetic something-or-other, lace in the dye solution in hopes of making it some shade of green. Surprisingly, it came out baby blue! It's pretty but, I'm not sure what I'll do with it.

Those cut pattern pieces you're seeing are part of my latest sewing project, which also happens to involve the emerald cotton sateen I picked up at G. Street fabrics during the sewing blogger meetup earlier this month. I'm hoping for a cocktail dress to wear around Christmas. It was totally unplanned, but after looking on etsy for something vintage, and drooling over this dress pinned to my inspiration board, I decided to just make something...and if it doesn't quite work out, I'll just wear something I've already got. :)

Hooray for green! More details on my WIP soon.

Lately...

This weekend, I had a couple of good thrifting trips. Some of the items I picked up you'll be seeing more of in the coming months (so secretive!), but one you'll get to check out right now. It's an eShakti grey/beige eyelet dress that I found at Goodwill.

As you can see, the color is a little bit ...meh, but the fabric says it's 100% cotton (I'm assuming that excludes the shiny, matching greyish lining), so I was thinking I might try to dye it. I've got a couple of packs of Kelly Green RIT dye that I'd bought with the idea that I'd dye a length of white (probably synthetic, not receptive to dye) lace I've had laying around and try to make some kind of blouse out of it. Sound weird? Well, it looks great in my head.

When I showed Tom the newly thrifted dress and held up the box of dye next to it, he was like, "Green...??," which got me thinking, maybe this is another idea that only sounds good in my head. I have no idea if 1) the lining that peeks through all of the little holes in the eyelet will take dye at all, and if it does, how much; and 2) if the silky (rayon?) thread used in the embroidery of the eyelet detail on the fabric will take any dye either. This means my results could be crappy. I'm thinking maybe a more subtle color might be better...but what?

Duke is by my side for support, but doesn't have much advice to share.

Also this weekend, I've been trying to do a little mending that's been waiting in the mending pile for far too long. More of Tom's shirts that need taken in with some darts (copied from the job the tailor did on another of his shirts recently).

I was initially surprised when I saw the tailor had made two long darts down the back of the shirt he'd asked be adjusted so the fit was more...fitted, but it seems to be the best/easiest way to take care of it. Taking the shirt in at the sides might sound simpler but would probably actually be more annoying than darts, I'd think, due to the fancy (flat-felled?) seams there.

Anyway, I'm working on those shirts. Mending, blerg.

Another update: remember that holiday gift-making sewing I'd mentioned briefly before? Well, now I'm starting to think I might end up waiting on that. I'm actually feeling rather un-motivated to sew lately. So those holiday gifts might end up being belated... or just random late-winter (think...January/February) "just because" gifts. We'll see.

Life update

Well, people, it's happening -- I'm starting a new job at the end of the month!
What? You didn't know I'd been looking for one? Oh. Well...

This opportunity just kind of came out of nowhere and seemed like the kick I've needed to start pointing my career in a more creative direction. I'll be saying goodbye to the training company where I've worked as an editor/admin. on an (awesome!) curriculum development team for the past 2 and a half(ish) years. ...and saying HELLO! to something totally different. It was a tough decision to make, since I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my life, career-wise, and I've really bonded with and will miss my coworkers, but I'm excited to take this leap.

My new position is at a custom t-shirt company where I'll be working with customers via phone/email to proof and review their custom designs and help resolve any issues that may arise before their orders reach the Production Artists. I'll be learning a little bit about Adobe Illustrator, and maybe Photoshop, which is super exciting to me. Though it's not the most artistic role I can imagine, I really can't even express how thrilled I am to be joining a fun, design-oriented company.

Anyway, enough gushing...for now.

"Any other updates?" you ask.
Well, yes.
I've managed to finally switch out my spring/summer clothes from the boxes they've been hibernating in and shove everything into my closet. There was actually just enough room for them since I also weeded out all of the "useful" but un-loved office-appropriate pieces in there that were really just taking up space and detracting from my overall happiness (hah!). At my new job, I'll be able to dress very casually if I want, so I can chuck out all of the ill-fitting pencil skirts and secretly ugly tops I've collected over the years. Ahhh, what a relief.

non-ugly, vintage springy top, recently freed from storage

While doing my wardrobe rearranging, I dug out this cute little eyelet blouse I bought about a year ago (I think? ...how quickly vacations blur into the all-encompassing Past) when Tom and I visited Napa, CA. We stayed in a b&b in downtown Napa, and, between trips to nearby vineyards, we explored the town a bit and found Wildcat Vintage, a great little shop that sells both authentic and reproduction vintage clothing and accessories. I'm fairly certain I chatted the poor shop owner's ear off whilst trying on nearly everything in sight, but she was very tolerant of my feverish, crazy-person behavior, even though the store was about to close for the day.

little peter pan collar

The combination of a peter pan collar, sweet white eyelet, and the little pleated peplum-like detail at the waist, was irresistible to me. It's a top that just begs for a high-waisted skirt, or cropped pants/shorts to pair it with. I don't know its exact origin, but I'm guessing it's from the early 1960s...?

pleated peplum

Looking at this blouse for the first time in a while has really got me wanting to sew a top or something out of eyelet! (which I have yet to try) One thing I noticed construction-wise, which may seem obvious to you but wasn't to me, is that the under-collar appears to be white organza, rather than the usual fashion fabric + interfacing combination I've seen prescribed in collared blouse patterns -- I suppose most patterns aren't created specifically for sewing with eyelet or otherwise sheer fabric.

difficult to photograph, organza under-collar

I'm looking forward to wearing this with my Ginger skirt and any other high-waisted pieces I can come up with.

Hopefully, I'll have some dressmaking progress to share with y'all soon, though I do have another busy weekend coming up and haven't found time to sew much of anything lately. Blerg.