First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
It gives a lovely light!

~Edna St. Vincent Millay

(via the lovely Rika)

Vanity Fair October 2010

I haven't looked inside the magazine at all, but I am loving Lindsay Lohan's look on the cover of the current issue of Vanity Fair.  The retro-styling is divine (as is the color of that dress), and for once, Ms. Lohan looks classy.

XOXO,

The Paper Bag Waist

When I bought this cotton fabric in South Africa last winter (their summer), I knew I wanted to make something unique and distinctive with it.  I am not sure where I got the idea to make a paper bag waist skirt-- I think it just came to me.  After I decided on the silhouette of the skirt, I did a search on the internet for similar styles, and while there were not a ton of skirts with paper bag waists out there, there were a few (I was directly inspired by this Fendi Spring 2010 look).

According to one website, the paper bag waist is hard to wear: "A super slim, non-curvy body type, plus height, a smallish chest and great gams are the prerequisites."  I don't fit that description; I am slim, but my body is definitely curvy.  I do think my legs are nice, which is one reason I chose this style.  I am not sure how the skirt will look on me, but I think I can pull it off.

I had hoped to finish this skirt by tonight-- I wanted to wear it in honor of the Fashion's Night Out festivities.  In typical fashion, it still needs a little work (the balloon skirt is pinned up at the moment and still needs to be attached to the underskirt).  Hopefully I can post pictures of me wearing it soon, and you can be the judge as to whether or not it looks good on me.

XOXO,

My first Homemade Vintage Dress

I cannot pinpoint when it was that I started loving vintage fashions.  Growing up, my sister and I loved watching AMC (American Movie Classics), and later, TCM (Turner Classic Movies).  I don't know how we got into that either (although my parents did consider an almost yearly watching of Gone With the Wind as an integral part of any good Southern upbringing), but afternoons after school were generally filled with the visages of Jimmy (Stewart), Cary (Grant), the Hepburns (Katherine and Audrey), Liz (Taylor), Paul (Newman), and others plastered on the television screen.  I can only imagine with so many beautiful clothes in the movies, designed by the likes of Edith Head and Adrian, that it is only natural that many of the styles sank into my subconscious.

I have been eyeing vintage patterns on eBay for some time, but decided to go with a current Butterick pattern.  It is a reissue of one from 1947 (B5209).  The great thing about buying these reissued patterns is that you know all the pattern pieces are there, the patterns are printed (many older pattern pieces don't have anything printed on them-- they're simply blank pieces of tissue paper), and the directions are modernized.  It really is the best of both worlds.

I wrote a review of the pattern on PatternReview.com, detailing what I changed about the pattern and my recommendations.  You can read it here.

Cover Girl

One of my favorite clients to work for is the McCall Pattern Company, who also owns Butterick and Vogue Patterns.  Everyone there is wonderful, and I have been working for them for a while, so they feel like family.  I also always thought it was a perfect fit-- I love sewing, and buy their patterns frequently.  Moreover, my great grandfather, who died in 1933, worked at McCall's as a printer.  It feels like things have come full circle!

If you happen to be in a fabric store anytime soon, you can see me on the back cover of the Fall 2010 Butterick catalogue.  I am on several of the patterns inside the book as well.

In sewing-related news, yesterday after dropping my parents off at the Philadelphia Airport (they're off to Italy for vacation!), I took advantage of my proximity to the city to go to one of my favorite fabric stores.  After being relegated to the fabric-cum-craft stores in Delaware, it is indeed a divine experience to browse through the bolts of cloth in a real fabric store.  It is a strange thing indeed, but I derive true joy from examining and petting all of the different textiles and trims that they had on offer.

Just a peek in my buggy (that's the southern term for shopping cart, y'all) reveals some of the tempting delights that I treated myself to.  My modus operandi was to walk around and put everything in my cart that caught my eye.  Most of the fabrics I chose were wool, although I had a few satins as well.  I didn't purposely choose colors in the same colorways (the blues and the salmons), so I guess that is just what I am being drawn to these days.  I do have some projects in mind-- here's hoping that I'll be able to follow through.

XOXO,

Sweater Girl

Although I'm not usually a Lara Stone fan (she's a beauty, but has nothing on Raquel Zimmerman), I think she looks amazing in this spread for the September issue of American Vogue.  I am also loving the 1950s silhouette-- this look is back big time (thanks, in part, to the success of Mad Men)!  In other news, I am getting ready to re-open my Etsy store with fabulous vintage apparel for sell.  Hopefully in the next week or two, I'll have some stuff posted in the shop.  I'll be sure to keep you posted!

XOXO,

The Day is Done

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain,

Come and read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.

For like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents like Arabs,
And silently steal away.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), The Day is Done


It seems that every few months I go on a poetry kick-- it's just so beautiful!  Posting the Emily Dickinson quote yesterday makes me want to go find a good biography of her life.  I also find a good quote to be quite satisfying.

Do you have any poems you recommend?

XOXO,

A Letter Always Feels To Me...

"A letter always feels to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend."


~Emily Dickinson, in a letter to a friend

XOXO,