Green Goddess Dress..ing

One day I almost wore an outfit made up of one color- asparagus green (matching sandals? yes?). I couldn’t go through with it though. My mother says I have an aversion to simple color combinations. I could never do it. Just can’t. 2 colors and no patterns is the closest I could get. Will ever get. Well, I threw in the gold…

I also wanted to blog about it because I made this dress! One year ago on a nice afternoon with a pile of impulse fabric (which I should note was also a year old. Making the fabric 2 years old. If we are counting) and an old sweater.

Maybe if I were the tutorial type. I would tutorial this. But, I shant. Part of the fun is feeling good you figured something out for your self, no?

Here are some tips though:

• trace a t-shirt you like made from similar material. My t-shirt was a lot stretchier, so the green dress had really tight sleeves that were hard to alter.
• Use a serger. it will go so much faster and the seams will hold better. Probably. I of course have no serger.
• Wear a belt. You just feel classier.
• Do it. Because you are never going to be like. Man. I wish I didn’t use up that pile of fabric I bought on impulse 3 years ago.

 

the back is my favorite part. Also. I literally cannot do one color. Just can’t.

Shannon

Forgotten Dresses

This is what I wore last Sunday. A dress I haven’t worn in probably 2 years. I don’t have a very good explanation. Sometimes I just get shy about my dresses or something.

Back in the day I made a new dress every spring. This was one of those wonders— Circa probably 2007 or 2009. It is very different then most dresses I’ve ever made because A. It isn’t cotton (at least not the top layer) and B. It doesn’t suggest pioneerism.

Anyways. Here is why. Once I was at Good Will with some friends in high school and I saw a sea foam vintage night gown. I was in love. It was all gathers and lace and softness. It was also all snags, shortness and sheer, so it rarely got wear. But it did inspire me to make this sea foam chiffon dress of essentially the same design.

I had to wear the dress because I got an incredibly sparkly and pastel cardigan I was hoping to wear. It was incredible—one of my sunbeams stroked the front of my sweater for 10 minutes. If it can keep a 3 year old engaged and quiet it has some considerable power.

I love the lace details and the soft folds of chiffon. Chiffon is possibly the most feminine fabric in the world. There are so many mistakes in this dress I laugh when I pull it out of the closet. But that is when the beauty of pastel chiffon comes into play. It is so lovely nobody notices the weird threads, snags and stitches. And I’m okay with that.

Shannon

Mountains and Clouds and A dress

Some things I love always. Like clouds.

Several years ago. When my family was moving to Toquerville and I was there helping, I discovered that my Sweet Grandma Brimhall had these sets of gloriously 70s sheets. One a desert landscape, and one a cool mountainous one. She let me have them and I immediately made the desert set into a cotton summery dress. That was huge. But I still wear it to this day because it is so comfy, and I’m boho enough I can pull it off comfortably I guess.

This spring I was itching for new summer clothes and comfy day dresses that weren’t circus tents. So, ready with a sloper pattern (one that already fit all my oddities) I made a simple cotton dress pattern for the mountain scene.

It took me a couple days to work it out, because I ran into a lot of snafus. Does that every happen to you when you are doing something that should be completely easy? But turns out to be unusually hard? In the end though, it was comfy enough to not be mad at it.  It’s elastic waist—so no silly zippers! Although, I can’t say it was any easier to put in.

yay! summer is coming!

Shannon

Thrifted

 

I managed to go thrifting at the local Deseret Industries one last time before I started my adult job. As it was Friday, and spring break (?) the place was cleared out of womanly clothes, I have never seen the racks so bare. You know how usually you try to push around clothes on those racks but it always pushes 5 hangers off the end? Yeah, none of that silliness. But, I managed to get Mr. Wood some handsome man things and a few pretty things for our kitchen.

 

 

In the details

 

It only took me 8 months to figure out what size is right for him. I have to put on the shirt though.

For the kitchen I got the sweetest little mason jar and two porcelain lotus bowls for only $1.25. Some of my favorite things include: creamy porcelain dishes, tiny bowls to eat Nancy's yogurt from, and old jars to fill with various kitchen flours.

Needless to say these pretty little bowls are getting lots of yogurt in them, and heaps of fresh strawberries.

Shannon

Dyeing to be Pastel

This lovely little post is the story of a pair of pants born white wanting to be pastel.
The idea came from Lovely Kiera B. my longtime friend and roommate. She wanted some red pants (having some of my own, I only encouraged the idea). So we went off to Ross to buy some white skinnies for each of us.
We commenced dying the next day. Goal: Kiera Red, Shannon Mint.
Unfortunately mine had a disco ball on the back pockets so there was a little work to do before I started.

Fortunately they came off in like 5 minutes. Cheapest. Rhinestones. Ever. Really Ross!
here are the bedazzling's of only one pocket

I know right?
Then the next step was dying. Which of course accompanied triple layer brownies and a chic-flick. If you are going to do something, do it right--you know?
Before:

We did 2 methods: Washing machine and Stovetop.
Kiera’s red pants in the washing machine worked great. We reset the wash twice so that they could get jiggled around in the dye for the suggested 30 minutes. Result? Hot Red Pants in an excellent shade of tomato red. The only con? It dyed my machine pink. A load of bleach took most of it out and a white scrubbing sponge took out most of the rest though.
As for the mint ones? Well, the dying went well. I followed instructions mostly from a RIT package though. Be sure to get your clothing wet before putting it in the dye or else it will not absorb evenly. Also, I used a 98% cotton product, so it sucked up the color like a thirsty giraffe. I didn’t dye it as long as suggested. I bought tulip dye in teal (pale teal would be a nice mint right?). It turns out teal=sky blue, and the only one who cares is me because I am a color snob,  but you all knew that anyways. It will work perfectly for Kiera’s sister’s bridesmaid dresses, but not for my legs.

Exhibit A

Now this I'm sure would work for some people. Although, if you all of the sudden add a slightly unnatural hue to your wardrobe with consists mostly of pale pinks, creams, yellows and tomato reds you are going to be quite sorry. So I had to suck the day glow out of these pants--for the good of the wardrobe.
Also I was incredibly disappointed that the color was not the color advertised on the package…
The solution was to put it in the washing machine in a hot bath of bleached water. Bleach is a tricky thing, never expect it to bleach something just a lighter shade of the current hue, you will be disappointed. Almost always it will bleach yellowish or pinkish (or completely white). So I took a gamble-either it would add just the right amount of pale and yellow to turn these pants mint, or I would get a weird pinkish color.
I was lucky.

Tah-Dah! Now you can look at this blog-made fashion shoot of me wearing my pants, and yes it is true--I just put them on for the picture. But! Still don’t believe me that this looks better?

 VS.

Although, I won’t try to hard to convince you, because in the end it is really just opinion.
To pale-pant-fads that I whole heartedly endorse! Although not for $50 (Gap…)

Shannon