The Frilly Panda

Just a couple of new things to show you guys today. I finally managed to get my hands on some Harry Potter fabric - this is a feat considdering the WB discontinued the fabrics in 2002 and the only people I've found selling them online are charging an arm and a leg for them. (literally one person wants $95 or something for one yard of my fav print - obscene!) I managed to scour the depths of the net and find a livejournal post from someone dated sometime in 2008 and she had 2 yards of this print she was destashing.

She was selling it together with 2 yards of the mottled blue fabric (both have fine silver sparkles too) for a steal of a deal. I was weary about contacting her because the post was so old and I thought for sure such a good deal wouldnt have been passed up in the last 4 years. I was wrong. Not only was it still available, it was the same price! I won't say how much I got it for (buyer/seller protection and all that) but I will tell you it was less than half of what I have seen that particular print go for. AND I got all 4 yards for that one price! Damn good deal. So anywhoo, I got the fabric in the mail, oooh'd and aaaw'd at it for a while then put it in my "to make projects" box. It wasn't in there a full week before I broke it out and made my dress. I just couldnt let it sit as a yardage when it had clearly sat on a shelf or something untouched for so long. It deserved to be used! I couldn't decide on a design to use so I just used my old trusty box pleated jsk design with a few alterations. It is a really simple and basic design so it is really easy to change the look of the dress when worn depending on what I wear it with.
The main alterations were that I moved the natural waistline to the empire waistline to accomodate my growing belly (this dress will be worn throughout the pregnancy), and the hemline sits a few inches lower than normal again to accomodate the belly. I hate it when I have a hem that sits perfect and then the belly raises it a few inches and then it looks too short. I am already short so I don't need to make myself look even shorter with a weirdly placed mini.
Here's the finished dress shown over a single tier petticoat. I think I'll most likely ditch the petticoat for the summer because of the heat involved but once it starts getting cooler in the fall I'll actually wear my regular crinoline with it. I think it will look really cute with a cardigan and flats. Also can be dressed up easilly with a dressy cap sleeved blouse, jewellery, and low sparkly heels. Or if you're me and weird, probably my 3/4 sleeve crop cardi, sparkly jewellery, and either my saddle shoes or some wicked 5" heels. I haven't decided yet.
I also made these little bow brooches to wear with it.

I first put them at the top bust line where the strap meets but it looked a bit busy with the box pleat detailing underneath for a casual look so I moved them to the empire waist at the bottom of the princess seams. They look much better there :) But because they're brooches I can move them around really wherever I want or remove them entirely which is nice. The beads underneath are hand strung swarovski bicone crystals in Golden Shadow, Sapphire, and Dark Sapphire in 3mm and 4mm. They give just enough sparkle with movement to be pretty but not overbearing.


I've got a bunch more maternity summer dresses planned and I want to have them all done in the next month or so but we'll see how that actually goes :)

Hello all! Well good news (for me anyways) I have been nausea free for the better part of a week! That means a lot to me because I was throwing up everyday of my entire pregnancy last time and i was taking the max dosage of Diclectin the whole way through too. I'm still taking it at night to stave off the "right when you get up queezies" but otherwise I haven't had to take it at all :).

I've been sewing a bunch lately and finished some pretty neat things. I made this beauty

They've all got matching linings and they are very cute - currently they're about 50% complete as I still need some zippers and a lining fabric for one of them. But being as it's easter weekend I highly doubt I'll be able to go and get them until Tuesday at the earliest. But they'll be all done by the end of next week so I can ship them out to their new owner :)

This is a project I've been working on for a while inbetween commissions and it's coming along quite nicely. I had originally intended the pattern to match up at all the seams but at the last minute I decided to add the piping as a detail and because of the width of the allowance in the piping some of the pattern now doesn't match while some of it does. A little off putting yes but it still looks good to me. I won't say what this is until it is completed (mwahaha) so you'll just have to guess for now.

The LIT Cosmetics video shoot was awesome! I can't wait to see the final images and video cut. It's not everyday I get to dress up as an "inspired" Sailor Moon covered in glitter wearing a floofy dress and massive shoes (well the Sailor Moon and glitter part). I wore this skirt as a tube dress

The hem is so heavilly stitched and embellished it stays out completely on it's own - no crinoline needed - and the length is perfect. As a skirt it hits just below my knee (it's a high waisted skirt) and as a dress the hem hits mid thigh so it's quite cute. And these shoes

So it was a pretty cute outfit - not your everyday outfit mind you but awesome none the less. As for the make-up, it wasn't an exact replica of the Sailor Moon look but it was clearly inspired by it. Also the make-up artists who worked on me didn't really know what her look was to begin with so they were going by a description so they did the best they could.

I have another summer dress half made and a few others planned with fabrics in mind that I already have in my collection. I have been thinking about what my summer is going to entail with the pregnancy getting further on and everything and I think I'll have to take it easy when it comes to the sewing. My husband made a very good point to me last night about my studio and the work I'm currently taking on and everything that goes along with it. Last time I was pregnant I didnt find out until 3 months in and I had already signed up to do Alberta Fashion Week and was thusly crawing around on the ground, drafting, cutting, producing, fitting, altering, etc at 6-7 months preggo. It wasn't fun. Plus I was working full time during the week so needless to say I was pretty stresso. I don't want that to happen again so I am going to lighten my load I think. I'll post more about it when I decide exactly what I'm going ot do though.