Saturday, January 28, 2012

On The Prowl!

I know I have mentioned that I used to work at an independent fabric store. For the entire 5+ years I was there this hilarious jaguar print silk habotai sat on the clearance rack calling my name and daring me to design something fabulous to make with it. Many times I was on the verge of buying some when... nah, I thought better of it. Well, on my last day at the store I was buying a bunch of supplies to make use of my employee discount while I still could, and I decided the time had come for me and this fabric. It had been marked down three times and I don't think anyone in my entire time there had purchased any of it. What a shame! So I bought all of it. All. Of. It.
It really is amusing stuff. Check it out in my destash shop for a close up view of the fabric. I ended up making a retro pin-up girl outfit with it, which turned out super cute. I made little floaty tap pants for the set, but the piece de resistance is the top, which I based on a design from a pattern book circa 1970s.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Bu'uns

My mother in law was a fantastic seamstress and all around artist (a lot like my own mother mixed with me, really). After she passed away I was pretty much the only person in the family who knew what most of her equipment and supplies (she had a tremendous amount of both) were and how to use them, so the task of going through everything has fallen to me. Here is a little treasure I found today in a (one of MANY) box of buttons. These are vintage sterling silver Mexican made tribal mask buttons. I don't know what to use them on, but little gems like this are turning up everywhere I look. It's not a happy task, but it is most certainly an enthralling one.