PR+P week one: put me in the zoo

you guys. this is it. today’s the day. i’ve been sewing and sewing and sweating and worrying and experimenting and DESTROYING MY ENTIRE HOUSE and it’s finally here.

project run + play starts today, and it was a toughie: put me in the zoo—animal inspired, not costume.

and here’s what i ended up with:

flamingos. but it took me a long time to get there. i sketched and googled (seriously—have you ever done a google image search for “animal inspired fashion”? cue scared face) and as much as the armadillo shoes looked awesome, and the animal shaped hair really got my wheels turning, it was the flamingo that really got to me. i considered a few other birds too (they’re about the only things i enjoy seeing at the zoo), but i knew the pink would be a hit with the girls.

here’s the thing—at first i was completely determined that these dresses needed REAL feathers on them. i researched…well, i can’t even tell you how long i spent looking at various options. i even bought and tried a few. nope. in the end the look i had in mind would have cost a small fortune and been washable, uhh…never. not the best option for little girls.

generally people think of flamingos (at least i did) as being that hot pinky/coraly/salmony color. and they are—but there’s a lot of that lighter color on them. so i ended up with 3 yards of this pale peachy pink knit, and 3 yards of the brighter taffeta-ish material. i say taffeta-ish because i bought them at a discount fabric store for $2/yard and what you save in price you lose in knowledge.

via

so then i started cutting. and cutting. in the end i cut about 350 “feathers” from the knit. yikes. i did it over the course of a few nights in front of some t.v.
 

so on to the nitty-gritty. i hope you’re in this for the long haul because you’re about to get word and photo overload. everything i couldn’t squeeze into the three photos and couple of paragraphs on the pr+p site.

elliot
the self drafted top is made of the knit, completely lined with the taffeta. it has a full skirt in the taffeta, covered with a metric ton of knit feathers. i love that when she spins and moves the darker color peeks out—another little nod to the flamingo. it also has a self slip with a tulle layer for puffiness, and seriously is this weird? but i just love the way her dress sounds. it’s got that ruffley crinkley sound i can’t get enough of. i’m also in love with the back—it has a contrasting button placket with big pinkish rhinestone buttons running from top to bottom.

they were shaking their tail feathers ;)

gigi
gigi’s dress is made from the taffeta in a simple tank style with piping made from the lighter knit running down the front. the back is where i got spicey though—i was playing with the idea of the flamingo’s smoothly feathered body and fluffy backend feathers. so i did a peekaboo cutout and a cutaway skirt, both lined with more feathers. she’s got a separate slip for fluffiness, and then i added a little jacket with a big ruffle around the neck. everything on gigi was self-drafted also.

mid-spin :)

then to wrap it all up—i was determined to get my feathers in somehow, and what better way then little fascinator/hat thingys? i made these from wool felt, stiffened with a water/glue mixture. then they’re covered with more felt to smooth the edges, and a layer of the dark pink tafffeta. i added puffy feathers, a knit flower and some tulle. they’re remarkably light, and with a haircomb glued to the underside they stay in perfectly. even through all the twirling ;)

and in one of my (many, many) runs to joann’s i stumbled across these two little flamingo purses, on clearance. talk about random. they had a dolphin, a cheetah head, and two flamingos. SOLD.

altogether i couldn’t be happier with my look for week one! the only thing i would have changed is the hour we spent driving around looking for a spot to take pictures!!! it was supposed to be 60 degrees that day, and we got primped and ready only to get there and find it was windy and FREEZING! this spot was a little more sheltered and the wind had calmed down somewhat, but it took us an hour of driving to find it. i was running in to just any building/store/hotel/office complex we passed that looked like it potentially had good lighting and open space. (pretty sure the people in the local harley-davidson place thought i was crazy).

so i’ll wrap this up with a link—head on over to project run and play and check out the other ladies entries! i know we’ve all worked so hard and sweated over these outfits, so i’d love you to check them out!

the land of make-believe

join me, won’t you? we’re going to pretend the sun is shining, bees are buzzing, and it’s a balmy 77 degrees outside. you know what? make that 81. yeah, that should work.

we’ll ignore the dirty snow mounds that will probably not be gone until june. we’ll ignore the hum of the oil heater as it burns away our almost-$4-a-gallon oil O.o and we’ll most certainly ignore the velour pants and oversized sweatshirts we’ve been living in for the last few months.

let’s wear something a little more like this…

these dresses were photographed back in our giant photo shoot, and the pics have just been waiting patiently on my computer for the blog post to accompany them. and i’m actually kind of glad that i’m such a lazy procrastinator, because now we get to have a little sunshine-y summer type post instead of the winter dress i was going to write about. yay for delaying things!

so these dresses were based around that bottom layer of fabric—the french city scene. if you know me at all then it should come as no surprise that  it had me at hello, but it’s pretty busy and pretty pricey and i limited myself to just a little bit of it.

by pairing it with the polka dot and the solid pinks i could make two SUPER FLUFFY and SUPER TWIRLY dresses that coordinate for my littlest girlies.
because we can all agree that it’s all about the fluff and the twirl, right?

the front bodice is simple—i sewed a little pleat in the center, then added that strap to the middle. it goes around the back and down the front, sewn in to the bodice and skirt seam on front and back. so the pleat is doing some of the work of shaping the bodice into a sweetheart, and the little strap is doing the rest. and of course i gave these dresses my beloved spaghetti straps.

come to think of it, this dress is really just an amalgamation (word of the day) of things i love: fluffy, twirly dresses on little girls, with sweetheart necklines and spaghetti straps, a nod to paris, invisible zippers and piped hems. swoon. oh, and not ironing, as obvious from the above shot.

the dresses are completely lined with a separate, equally fluffy and full layer with a piped hem. and between the two layers and piping that’s enough to give the dresses their fluffy factor without any itchy tulle or slips. which makes them super easy to wear.

so that’s it. two little summer dresses to maybe get us through our dreary winter day. think of me as the punksatawny phil of the sewing world—i definitely see my shadow, so 6 more weeks to spring dresses. better get crackin’.

i can just see us now…the skies will be blue, and you guys’ll be there too. when we finally do what frozen things do in SUMMERRRRR!

all the things. in one post.

o1) contests, i just don’t know how to quit you. picture me right now doing the beauty pageant hyperventilating hands-on-mouth I CAN’T BELIEVE IT squeal, because i’m in season 9 of project run and play.


for those who don’t know (gasp! how?) it’s only my favorite online sewing competition EV-AH. for realsies. 6 “designers”, 4 weeks, fight to the finish. hopefully the cornucopia is full of japanese cutting shears and high end machines, because i require the best. :/
anyway, there’s a theme for each week, and my brain has been churning since i was asked to be a part of the contest a couple months ago. i’ve been counting down the days and now it’s really happening and i’m all pukey-excited. the actual competition doesn’t start until next month, but for me the sewing begins STAT. i haven’t really sewn in a couple of months now, and there’s a LOT of pent up sewing energy stored in me.
i’m also going up against 4 awesome seamstresses. some i already ‘knew’, others i’m just discovering. and i’m feeling there’s a super big chance i’ll be the first one thrown off the island. or shot with an arrow, whatever competition metaphor floats your fancy. but i’m going to try my hardest to have a blast with this no matter what.

let the games begin.

(you thought i was gonna say let the odds be ever in your favor, right? heh.)

o2) we bought a dog. or, another dog i guess i should say. thing is: i am a hardcore believer in rescues. also, i am cheap as all get out and the thought of spending ooh-gobs of money on an animal makes me throw up in my mouth a little. oh, and i like big, BIG dogs.

well here i am with my tail between my legs. i bought a dog, from a pet store, who is AKC registered and i can trace his lineage back 4 generations. and i paid ooh-gobs of money. and he’s 2.5 lbs.



but that face. THAT FACE. he’s a chihuahua (in case that’s not glaringly obvious) and his name is Santino Burrito. and if you could trill your ‘r’ that’d be great.
he’s technically for gigi, the child who would gladly give up 3 of her 4 limbs to own a cat. but the googiedaddy is prejudiced against things that poop in the house, and i’m prejudiced against things that make me not able to breath. so we found the most catlike dog we could.

o3) i’m seriously lost when it comes to things like SEO and pageviews and stuff. but once in a while i poke around in google analytics for giggles. here is a list of search terms people use that lead them to googiemomma.blogspot.com.



refashioning, sewing, crocheting…all your basics WAIT WHAT?

boobs. on a shelf.

well. i…why? nevermind. i don’t want to know.

o4) the sickies: ava had a foot checkup. insert thumbs up here. doc says all good, no need for casting for a while. picture me doing the dance of joy. yes, like balki.


GIFSoup
i'm so old.

gigi had a blood test which placed her platelets at 770,000. a mere TWO TIMES NORMAL. umm, ok. doc says all good—means her bone marrow has been working like gang busters to catch up, and the immune system has probably stopped killing off platelets so now it’s overcompensating. like peddling a bike really hard up a hill, then you hit the top and start going down but you’re still peddling really hard for a minute until you realize WHOA i made it!
so…a more cautious dance of joy, because she’s still having mild spells of petechiae and occasional bruises that make us go on high alert. nothing warranting a run to the ER, but concerning…

o5) i’m working now. well, i mean like outside of the home. and, not just for the family business. okay—i’m working more. ha. i got a little gig waiting tables at lunch at the local pizza place we frequent. i actually really enjoy it, and i’m making decent money (FABRIC FUNDZZZ.) for doing about 9 hours a week. only problem is i’m finding sewing time a bit harder to come by. and blogging time. oh yeah and cleaning the house time. yesss…that’s why it’s not clean. ;)
but i’ve still got a back log of things i never blogged, and with point #1 on the horizon you can be sure i’m finding sewing/blogging time in the next few weeks! even if i have to cut out something major. like sleep. nah, i need my sleep. sorry kids—it’s pb & j breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next few weeks.