hello, bombshell

oh. hello there. (to be said in your most seductive voice)

perhaps you were beginning to get the idea that all my talk about sewing, and the fall palette challenge was really just that, talk. well you're probably right obviously you're wrong! i finally (and i can't tell you just how sincerely i mean that "finally") get to reveal what i've been working on since... oh... august!!! i kid you not. this little number here has taken me a whole two months to complete. and she is a pretty little number, isn't she?

this is my bombshell dress (why, yes, i have added a little bombshell button on the side there). back in august i decided to take gertie's online course at craftsy.com. the lovely, and talented gretchen hirsch walked you through making this dress, and then some. we used a burda pattern, that came with the course, and then gertie took it allllll to another level. i made two, count them two! muslins for this dress (i rarely make one, and i probably should have made three!) this little lovely is underlined, padded, boned, and then lined again - with a good amount of that work being done by hand. thats right! i said by hand!

and you know what... i loved every minute of it. i learned so much from this course. i probably went a bit overboard with the "couture touches" because i also happened to be reading claire schaeffer's book "couture sewing techniques" at the same time. the two created quite a heady combination and i often found myself at 11pm saying "well why can't i sew the whole skirt by hand?! let me just perfect my backstitch..."

i decided to use a marc jacobs fabric i found from mood. the fabric is offwhite with a woven red, blue, and purple floral design. its quite a heavy fabric, and probably not ideal for this project. it made gathering the skirt in the front pretty difficult, but in the end i don't regret my decision at all. the dress feels really substantial, and the print fits the sort of sweet 60's wiggle dress look i wanted.

this dress makes me feel like a gajillion bucks. from this point on, i plan on making all my clothing with a substantial amount of boning and padding. just kidding! and hey, though it was not officially on my list for the fall palette challenge... it is fall... and these colors do fit my palette....

woohoo! totally made one item for my fall palette!!! go me!

xx