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.

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.

Dollies!

Digging through old notebooks and folders I found this paper doll that I drew back in college. I drew paper dolls pretty much constantly and I think they were a lot more helpful in developing my rendering skills than any fashion illustration class I had to take. Fo sho. Or maybe the classes were a good starting point and gave me the basic tools needed but the rest comes with practice, as is so often the case. Anyway, I just thought this was a fun little one and wanted to share.

Everybody Here Would Know Exactly What I Was Talkin' About

So I have been on this slipper kick (ha!) lately. The original plan was that I was going to make slippers for all the lovely ladies I know for Christmas. Except... yeah. That didn't happen. I bought a free use pattern and whipped up a pair in my size to see how it would work. But, they didn't fit. Not by a mile. So over the course of the next week I made something ridiculous like four pairs of slippers until I finally found a shape and size that would fit me. I made myself a pair. Then I adjusted the pattern to be a more catch-all shape and after considerable gnashing of teeth produced two pairs for the shop. The first pair can be found on Flikr or Etsy and is (sailor-style, of course, because I love sailor style!) made from reclaimed ticking. This second pair is one of Those Projects.
You know. Those.
I am such a picky perfectionist. And, sometimes I just make something and then decide about half way through that I am Not Sure About It. These gave me that moment of insecurity at one point, though in the end I do think they are pretty cute. I changed things up a bit and added a fleece-lined sole. Which is why the insides look a little wacky-do in the photos. They are comfier to walk around in, though. Also added: non-slip patches on the soles. I designed a more sleek ballet-slipper-esque shaped patch to use on other slippers in the future, but this pair wanted diamond shaped patches.
You see, it all started when I rediscovered the money-print cotton fabric in my stash. I bought it about... 6 years ago. The day before my wedding, actually. I was out shopping for baby-quilt fabric for my nephew, who was about two months old at the time. ANYWAY. So I found the fabric again, and decided it would be a great slipper lining. And then I found the vintage corduroy (Hi, I'm Corduroy McClure. You may remember me from such I Will Fly designs as the Organ Grinder short vest). And then I had a sudden flash of inspiration. So now they are the Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.
I dunno. Sometimes I just out-twee myself.

Door Buster?

Golden Afternoon blouse
Originally uploaded by I Will Fly design

Well, the weather is finally dropping below 75* in central California, and the leaves on the trees are starting to blossom in to Fall colors. Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous Autumn to us all!

I am pretty anti-black friday (I worked retail for SEVEN Christmases!) and intend to spend the biggest shopping day of the year snug in my living room with a cup of cocoa laced with chambord and maybe get a jump on a project that has been sitting around waiting for me to feel like making it for a very long time (it's booooooooorrrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggggg). I encourage everyone to stay home and watch movies in their jammies. It's so much more interesting than battling the crowd at the mall.

knittin' the mittens

"Snow White" mitties
Originally uploaded by I Will Fly design

Not actually mittens, but around here we do call them "mitties".
I knit, though I am not the very best knitter in the world, or even on Etsy. I hate to admit it, but I find knitting a bit tedious. I decided to knit something to sell, though, because I found this fun yarn spun with strands of iridescent sparkles and thought they would make excellent fingerless gloves. I wear mitties almost constantly in the cool weather to help keep my junky hands and wrists warm, but, though I love white I just can't wear it because I work with my hands.
So, here are the mitties that I designed to use this pretty yarn. You can't see much of the sparkle here, but it's there!
The good thing about knitting for the shop is that I can watch TV while I knit (not so much while I sew, I usually listen to music instead). These mitties were knit to the accompaniment of Star Trek the Next Generation, the Tudors, and a strangely surreal anime show called "Princess Tutu".

detail oriented

Buttercream trapunto short vest
Originally uploaded by I Will Fly design

I like to try new techniques. In fact, I have a massive backlog of interesting details I want to incorporate and handwork I want to try out. A lot of designs end up being inspired by the simple fact that I want to try something new and different. I have wanted to try this style of quilting (which is called "trapunto" these days but was called "Italian quilting" back in the day) for years, and finally decided on a garment I could use to experiment with. I had this wool suiting around the house already and I designed this little vest pattern last year for the Organ Grinder vest. I've decided that it is just about the perfect thing to try out interesting fabric manipulation and embellishment techniques, because it is relatively small and is made up of two basic and simple shapes. Interesting surface design benefits from simple garment construction for practical reasons but it's also a good idea to limit garment complications to keep it from looking too "busy".

Anyway. Here I used a simple double-arch shape (which reminds me of gothic architecture) and threaded black cording underneath the ivory colored fabric, to create a subtle pattern. The finished product reminds me of scrimshaw and wedding cakes. It also oddly reminds me of the church my husband's family belongs to, as they use that peaked arch shape in just about everything in the place.

In a related note, I love craft books from the 70s. While there are lots of lovely craft books out these days (to go along with our great crafting revolution) the last great resurgence of crafting was in the 1970s. That is the era our moms were inspired by, and those are certainly the books I grew up with. In my adulthood I have actually gone to considerable lengths to acquire old copies of some of my favorites. I absolutely love the Sunset Soft Toys and Dolls book ( I found it used through Amazon marketplace). I also use a sturdy old copy (that I stole from my mom, sorry mom!) of the Golden Hands embroidery book for a lot of my embroidery, quilting, and surface design inspirations. I think these two books did more to inspire me to sew and create than anything else in my childhood.