Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Its not all about the knitting....

Sometimes its time to get out the sewing machine...

Several weeks ago a dress shop in town was having a blow out sale, as it turns out it was their swan song as well.  In the window was this gorgeous knit LBD with a carmel colored leather hem.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  This dress shop was known to be very expensive, so I figured it was out of my price range.  Blow out sale meant it was well within my means...  IF I happened to be a petite XS person.  As it is I am a happy Medium!  The dress was so simple, in a smooth black jersey, boat necked, three quarter sleeve.  I got to thinking about it, and my thoughts said to me, you could make that dress yourself.  

I went web hunting and found this beautiful deer skin that is a dark chocolate suede on one side and a slick carmel on the other.  


I dug into my old pattern stash and found this very simple Donna Karan pattern with three views, I can easily use the boat necked dress bodice with the the three quarter sleeve...


Here is my rendering of what the dress will look like when I finally find the right weight jersey.  This is what has me stymied in this process, most fabric stores that I have easy access to happen to be JoAnn Fabrics or quilting fabric stores.  I am probably going to make a special trip up to Britex, which can be very dangerous...


Additionally I am having a very old sofa recovered in a gorgeous dark blue herringbone fabric (supposed to be very dog resistant!!!  Whoot!).  We live in a swamp of mismatched throw pillows, and so while my mother and I were shopping for the sofa fabric we found this bold print at Calico Home.  Of course they offered to make throw pillows, not knowing that I can sew a bit.  


My thought is to center the design in the middle of each pillow, and use big wooden buttons as the closure on the back....  Hunting for the buttons now.

I love this view of a bolt of fabric!


In knitting news, lots of swatches have come off the needles, but as of yet no finished projectss.