runway recap: because i must.

okay, let’s do this.
there are plenty of people out there doing project runway recaps, so i’ve shied away. but last night’s episode?
yeah.

****WARNING: BEYOND THIS POINT THERE BE SPOILERS (and possibly dragons)*****

 

alright let’s pretend that the entire episode wasn’t just a huge shill for heidi’s new “line” of clothes for babies ‘r’ us.
let’s pretend it had anything at all to do with what the premise of the show is.

okay, no. can’t do it.
it was so fabricated and, well…dumb. baby clothing is a genre all to it’s own. the construction and design of garments for babies has very little in common with that of adults.
basically, it was a huge commercial. (although not nearly as bad as the “make a dress inspired by this…CAR!” challenge)

BUT.

was the stunned disbelief really necessary? every designer was all huh? what are these tiny creatures? are they…people? only smaller? whaaaa?

and then they did the whole pseudo-huggy kissy thing. oooh my baby is SOOO CUTE!

::cue major eye roll::

granted every designer there is childless. would they have done this challenge if someone like, say, laura bennett was there? hmm. because face it—any mother would have ROCKED this challenge.
what’s that? an ENTIRE DAY to sew a garment? and what’s that? i only have ONE baby to care for while i do it? oh, you want me to go to mood with just the one baby strapped to my front?

puh-leeeze girlfriend. that’s a VACATION for me. send them shopping with five kids if you want me to be impressed.
every week jeremy and i watch and i can’t help but ask WHAT are they doing with all of their time!?! yes, you see the good ones come down the runway—the tailored coats and gorgeous gowns that definitely take hours of labor. but as someone who sews, when i see a shoddy looking dress with puckered seams and uneven hems and they had a DAY (or 2!?) to make it, i’ve got to wonder!?!?! if *I*, as a self-taught, untrained sewer can crank out a complete garment in a couple of hours, certainly these self-proclaimed and schooled “designers” ought to be able to create something decent with hours and hours of time and hundreds of dollars in supplies.

okay, moving on: the mechanical “babies”. as a silly twist i actually thought it was kind of funny. watching the designers reactions was priceless. the majority of them couldn’t scramble away from the real babies fast enough, and then finding out they had received the PR equivalent of a nightmare family studies assignment? HA!

source

although—side note—fabio? dude’s creepin me out a bit. i think there’s more crazy there than we’ve seen.

anyway, i can’t help but sigh at all the (what seems to me) obvious producer manipulation. heidi is NOT putting garbage out with her name attached to it. somebody better get in there and crack the whip—gather them dumb babies up and MAKE SOME GOOD CLOTHES. cue tim, here to “take the babies off to day care”.

and the “make a dress for mom that will be PART of the judging but not REALLY part of the judging so lets go to mood yay!!” seriously, i rolled my eyes so hard i saw my brain. i can only think they’re contractually obligated to go to mood at least once every episode? mood. mood. moodmoodmoodmood. thank you mood!

the clothes? well, in my opinion based on design alone dmitry should have gone. that ill-fitting crazy looking one piece jumper with a pointy hat? no. thank. you.

source

ugh. looking at this photo makes me dislike it even more. the praise for it was odd. and when michael kors started to question it and everyone jumped all over him? weeeiiirrrd.

but it was obvious elena was getting the auf. i haven’t been a huge fan—her designs just don’t appeal to me and her personality is kind of off-putting (understatement) but i didn’t hate last night’s. as a target demographic for the challenge last night i’d have to say her outfit was leaps and bounds over dmitry’s.

source

cute, usable pieces. and the mismatched colors are what’s in style now, right? or am i wrong?

eh. it was her time to go. she wasn’t making top 3, and melissa will probably be next. girlfriend can’t be squeaking by every week with nervous breakdowns and half-finished clothes. if she made it to fashion week she’d probably be sucking her thumb and crying in the corner.

okay, so to sum up: all in all the fact that i felt so strongly about this episode…well, i can’t help but think that’s a good thing. after last season—YAWN. i was starting to think maybe PR was done. but this season is giving me hope.
so what say you? good? bad? love? hate? agree? disagree? let’s dish.

bunny dress

if i was the type of person who named the dresses i make, i’m certain i could come up with a whopper for this one.

in case you’re confused, the above is not a name. it’s simply a statement of fact. here comes ellie cottontail. period.

the fabric is just the right mix of formal + a touch of whimsy: the staid trellis pattern punctuated with hopping pink bunnies, the bright turquoise and hot pink color combo.

it practically screamed TAKE ME HOME AND MAKE ME A DRESS! I WANNA BE A DRESS FOR ELLIOT!
who am i to ignore the siren sounds of fabric?

the front of the dress is simple.

deep box pleats for fullness, pom trim at the hem, and a bit of a scallop around the neckline keep it from being too simple.

but the back. oh the back.

i’m a sucker for a peekaboo diaper cover (like this one). it’s the only time in a girl’s life when a peek of what’s under her skirt is neither highly embarrassing nor extremely risqué. instead it’s just the right touch of vintage and a healthy dose of stinkin’ adorable.

oh yeah. i love it.

i cut a big open circle in the back bodice, and closed the dress with two chubby white buttons. then, rather than sew up the back skirt seam, i just folded over the two edges and hemmed them separately.

that’s it. just those two buttons are the only things attaching this dress. the skirt is split and i sewed four rows of pom trim on to the matching diaper cover.

and her little mini-rabbit-tail covered bottom is out there for all the world to see.

needless to say, i try my hardest to make her bend over as much as possible. we go up and down stairs (backwards, like any good toddler big baby)

we draw with sidewalk chalk.

can you tell i love this dress?
dress +
black strappy shoes +
ruffled socks +
white bow +
golden curls +
one fresh soft pretzel to ensure cooperation +
those baby blues…

that one curl there on the left? the longest one? that one’s my favorite.

= one completely smitten momma.

it’s these times when i’m sewing and i start cackling excitedly. yes, cackling. like a chicken. i call jeremy over—look what i just thought of! these are the times are when he looks at me and shakes his head. you’re having way too much fun with this, he says to me.

will i cry when this dress is done with, outgrown and passed along?

you bet your cottontailed bottom i will.

 

p.s. does anybody else notice the left hand? in almost every shot—she holds it out so…properly. like a little lady. ;) i didn’t see it until i was editing these photos. cracks me up.

welcome to monday, with a side of my brain.

i’ve never really hated mondays.

in fact i kind of look forward to them. no, it’s not because jeremy goes back to work and some of the kids go to school. why ever would you think that?

i guess i have enough type-A personality traits to enjoy the schedule that weekdays brings. even if my weekday “schedule” is totally unwritten and 100% flexible.
whatev.

although it seems like i can’t get my stuff together enough on weekends to prepare monday morning’s blog post. leading to a kind of random monday pensivity (yeah, it’s a word) that inspires flowy stream-of-consciousness type posts. like this one.

ready?

so i’ve been thinking a lot lately about two separate, yet related things. first i read somewhere (i’m thinking maybe the girls at simple simon mentioned it?) about a book called “the handmade home”. i don’t necessarily want to read the book, but the phrase stuck with me.

A Handmade Home.

yes.

this is what i want. obviously this house literally is handmade—in our 10 years here we’ve managed to rip down, redo and touch virtually every surface with mostly our own two four hands. but it’s the inside i’m concerned with. the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the blankets we snuggle under.

it’s sort of indefinable—this “handmade home” i’m after. because it’s not that i want every. single. thing. we use and/or have to be handmade. that’s simply not practical, nor is it even something i’m interested in. but i want select important things to fall into that category.

i want warmth, love, sunshine, flowy curtains, quilts, handmade clothing, fresh bread. i want candles and laughter. i want peace and books and fluffy blankets for snuggly times. i want baskets and red wine and family and friends stopping by. and preferably a soundtrack consisting of 25% frank sinatra, 25% beethoven, 25% 70’s and 80’s rock, and 25% current good music we can all dance in the kitchen to.
cause everyday we’re shufflin’.

is there a way to create that pandora station? and have it intuitively know which one to play based on the current mood?

i mentioned back when i made elliot’s quilt that i wanted handmade blankets for the entire house. and that hasn’t changed. i’m hard at work on a crochet blanket for the family room. i’ve grown to hate the mish-mash of blankets thrown into the corner we use when we’re in there. in my mind’s eye i see 2 or 3 soft and worn quilts folded neatly into a large woven basket.

maybe i’ll take up basket weaving, too.

it’s become sort of the apex or sticking point in my desire to have what i imagine to be the “Handmade Home”. until i have that basket of blankets i will not rest. each additional row i complete on my crochet blanket brings me that much closer.

and clothing fits into this indefinable desire, too. i’ve found that--while it’s fun when i work hard on matching outfits for the herd and they have a special place or day to wear what i’ve done—it’s somehow just as enjoyable to me to see the things i’ve made them simply pulled from the closet in normal rotation.

does that make sense?

that the simple fact of it being no big deal to put on a dress mommy made is flattering to me. it’s just an accepted fact of life to them. oh, this dress? yeah, my mom made it.
we had friends sleeping over not that long ago—2 extra girlies, each who needed a dress to wear on sunday morning. and when they all came out of the room dressed to the 9’s, 5 of the 6 girls in our care that day were wearing garments i’d made. not because i’d made them or told them to wear that particular dress, but because they’d scanned the closet, surveyed the options, and chose that one.

and i loved that.

so on that note, maybe i can get myself motivated to finish up tomorrow’s post. which, surprise! is about a dress. for my littlest monkey.

and then there’s brain worm #2. something i read at another blog, which i again can’t remember, that stuck with me.
she said if you think about it you get 18 summers with your children. that’s it. and she was on a quest to make sure each one was fun and special.

it really struck me, you know. because—let’s be real here, you’re not getting 18 summers with your kids. by 15 and 16 they probably have their own plans and summer jobs keeping them busy 90% of the time. so what is it? 13? 14?

and follow that out—14 winters. 14 springs. 14 falls. that you truly, truly have them in your hands. it goes so, soo fast. crazy fast.

i have a 12 year old. so by that logic i have 2 or 3 good summers left with her.

(and if she’s anything like her mother by 18 she’ll be hearing wedding bells!) 

have i done what i need to do? have i taught what i need to teach? time is so short.
this isn’t anything new or revolutionary. obviously we know how much time we have to teach our children.

but it’s not always the deep and profound that’s necessary. sometimes all you need it a simple statement of fact.

another summer has passed. it is now done. it was my 12th, 10th, 8th, 3rd, and 2nd summer with each of my children, respectively.
was it what i wanted?
did i do it well?
did we make memories?
what did they learn?

she learned which is the business end of the watermelon. check that off the list.

it helps. it helps me stop and think: the clock is ticking. do i want my children’s memories of this day, and in turn this week, and in turn this season—to be of what is happening right now?

i’m not entirely sure we’re getting through to this one. even with 30 summers.

are the words i’m using the words i want to hear mirrored back to me?
am i helping my son become a good man?
my daughters good women?

intensely learning to make embroidery floss friendship bracelets. a very important life skill.

now is the time to think about it. because now so soon becomes then and it’s all over.

enjoy your monday.