Feeling Beautiful Each and Every Day

Whenever we set a challenge, I think it's important to give ourselves a little leeway. After all, we aren't perfect, and then there's life. All in all, my 1 Year Challenge is going well, but I have missed 2 days. I was a little disappointed, but in the overall scope of things, this is hardly a problem. I think the most important thing is to just keep going.

Wow, how things can change in a month. I wore this outfit on August 12th. It was a super warm period in Chicago. A month later, we're having a high of 63 degrees. I actually bought the fabric for the skirt at Walmart!!! It came with the print laid out for a circular skirt. All I had to do was figure out the mathematics for the circumference of the waist. I've had this skirt for years,and I take very good care of it as I love it!  

The following day was a flight day. I made this outfit last summer. The top is the Chelsea Raglan Tee from fabrics-store.com The pants are the free pajama pant pattern from Martha Stewart. Just a nice, basic pant pattern.

I flew to Lexington, Kentucky that day. This was just before leaving and coming back to Chicago.

I absolutely love this t-shirt. You've seen it before. I had scraps of both the solid blue and the ruffles. Thought I could get a tee, and it all worked out. I used the Molly Tee from Pattern Union. 

Be sure to watch the video to the end. You'll see just how human I really am ;)

Because I love a rectangle, I wanted to give the Envelope Dress from Chris Wood a try. Super, super easy piece to do. Just 3 rectangles. It's not an actual pattern, but instructions on how to draft it out. As I said, super easy.

This little dress is STILL puzzling me. I was looking for fabric to make the Envelope Dress, and thought this would be so cute since it has a border. Pulled it out to find that I had already cut it. I have absolutely no memory of cutting it, and I have no idea what pattern I used to cut it. So, all I had was a front and a back, but I decided to make it work. Added some darts, made shoulder straps. and called it a day. So happy I found it as I really love the dress now that it's made up.

This dress has a fun story. I had gone to a luncheon. A woman 

came up to me and told me how much she liked my dress, and then asked, "who are you wearing?" I replied that it was my dress. She then said, "Oh Rhonda, I know the dress belongs to you, but who is the designer?" I replied, "Me!" She was shocked to say the least. Best compliment ever!!!

 

Another flight day. When there's a jet on the tarmac, I just HAVE to have my picture taken :) Hey, a girl can dream! I'm wearing a top that I made for my Sleeves On Saturdays series, the Square Shoulder Sleeve. I so love this sleeve in a stripe. The pants are another pair made from the free Martha Stewart pajama pant pattern.  

I made this dress back in April and I absolutely love it. It's Vogue 9112, a Marcy Tilton pattern. So perfect for a hot day. A little shorter than I typically like. I'll just lengthen it a bit next time around :) 

Another flight day, and it was cool for a change. In the video you'll see that I am wearing one of my most coveted garments, a jacket that was a gift. I'm wearing a pair of pants made from Simplicity 9017. It's just a great, basic pant pattern, and works beautifully with ponte. I paired it with a long sleeve Molly tee from Pattern Union.

I think that just about everyone who sews has made this Donna Karan Vogue pattern, Vogue 1250. It's out of print. For the life of me, I don't know why because it's just such a great pattern. One that's truly a classic.

We're finally up to August 22nd. I've had both of these pieces for quite some time. I was in a grocery store in Houston, my favorite, Central Market. I had just walked in, and was looking around the produce section when a man came up to me and said, "You are absolutely beautiful!" I stood there rather shocked. He then said that he just had to tell me, wished me a great day, and walked off. I thought, "Wow!!!, I think I need to wear this outfit EVERYDAY!!!" Truly made my day :)

The skirt is nothing more than a rectangle. I will do a tutorial on it soon. I just purchased a tool that will make doing tutorials so much easier. If all goes as planned, once I get it, watch out!!! ;)

    

So, that's it for the dog and pony show today. 

A number of you have sent notes telling me that I have inspired you to not only start enjoying your wardrobes, but I've also inspired you to do a little more sewing. Oh my goodness, that makes me so very happy. Life is so short, much too short to not celebrate each and everyday. By all means, wear your lovely makes, and allow yourself to feel beautiful each and everyday :)

Rhonda 

A Great Circular Skirt Comparison Guide

Welcome to the weekend!
I had intended to do this post yesterday, but I spent the day working on the upcoming post for the Upline Jacket sew along. I am so very happy with how the longer coat version is turning out. Thought I would give you a little sneak peek ;) 
I cannot wait to wear this coat! As pretty as the seaming is, the coat looks even better on.

I receive some of the loveliest gifts. A week or so ago, I opened my inbox to find a message from Claire. She had made this wonderful circular skirt comparison guide using the skirts that I did for a guest post on the Sew News blog. This would be great to download and have handy for whenever you are thinking about drafting out a circular skirt and wondering about how much fullness you might like to have.

I've printed one out on card stock. Like I said, it's such a wonderful resource. The thought just occurred to me that a fabric yardage chart might be nice to add to this. I will work on it and post it soon. 

Thanks so much Claire for taking the time to do this. Not only a nice gift to me, but for all who sew!

If you would like to take a look at drafting the circular skirt, you can find the tutorial HERE. 

By the way, Claire blogs at www.sew-incidentally.com Be sure to check out her blog!

Circled In Stripes

Last year I was the chairperson for our annual fashion show that our sewing club here in Chicago hosts. We usually have two challenges during the year to inspire the members to sew and prepare for the show. The theme of last year's show was Le Tour De France. We "toured" France throughout the show. Our first challenge was a red challenge and the ladies kicked it out of the park with incredible garments. Out second challenge was a stripe challenge. Once again, the ladies did an over the top job with their garments. In fact Cennetta of http://themahoganystylist.blogspot.com/ won the Palmer/Pletsch Win A Workshop Contest with her incredible jacket. You can see her jacket as well as the other winners here.

This past weekend was the opening of the opera season here in Chicago. It's always such a lovely evening, beautiful clothes and wonderful opera. I decided to finish up my dress made from the stripe fabric for the opening night. The skirt is a half circle skirt and then just a princess line strapless bodice. The picture above was taken once we returned home. It was virtually impossible to take a picture at the opera house because it was so crowded.

I am especially happy with the bodice of the dress. Matching the stripes on the princess seam was a bit of a challenge. The photographer at the opera had asked me to sit down for a picture. Hopefully the picture he took was better than this one.

A back view of the dress.

 Close up detail of the trim. My stripes are just a bit off on the right hand side. Oh well.

This is how crazy I can be. In making this dress, I was determined to use what I have. I found the black and gold trim below and thought it was nice but not quite nice enough. Then I pulled out the rhinestone trim and thought, "if I twirl the rhinestones around the black and gold trim, that will give the dress just that little hint of shine that I'm looking for." So, I sat down and hand sewed the rhinestones to the black and gold trim and then sewed the combination to the dress.

The lining of my dress. I love putting something a little unexpected inside my clothes. It's like this lovely little secret that only I am my husband know about(and now you)!

I did do an inner corset. This makes all the difference in the world. Your gown will stay in place and you won't be tugging at your dress all night.

If you'll notice, my right hand is inside a pocket. I love putting a pocket in my gowns as long as they won't show. A little pocket makes for a lovely place to hide a tissue or even a tube of lipstick.  

I am planning to add a tulle underskirt to the dress. I decided to wait and not have it in the skirt for this event as I didn't want my skirt to intrude in my seat neighbor's space.
A circular skirt is such an easy garment to draft. I've posted a tutorial on circular skirts as one of the Fabulous Free Pattern Friday posts. You can see that post here.
A very simple dress, but it has such an elegant appeal, at least I think it does. I'm excited about adding the tulle underskirt and wearing it for dancing!! Fun, Fun, Fun! The circular skirt should twirl nicely.
If anyone would like, I would be happy to do a little tutorial on adding a side seam pocket as I did in this dress. Just let me know.
Have a wonderful day.
Rhonda