189. Giveaway Winner!

Thanks for playing along in the new BBW: Dresses giveaway! Congratulations to... Corvus! I'm emailing you now for your snail mail address.

Enjoy your day, everyone.

188. Giveaway! Built By Wendy Dresses

I'm telling you: There is no good reason why I keep winning blog giveaways! I enter because the item is something I would appreciate and use and don't have, and I only ever enter when it's easy and fast. But I never expect to win. When I do I feel like I've got to keep the goodness going. That's 2010 for me -- the year of keeping goodness going.

I recently won a giveaway on the sweet blog Carrie Girl. Carrie offered a copy of Cal Patch's Design-It-Yourself Clothes book (which I promise to review after I've made a pattern from it and sewn up the garment), and I WON!!! Immediately I felt I needed to keep the goodness going, so I emailed Carrie herself and asked if she had a recommendation for a hip, hot, new sewing book I could offer as a giveaway item, and she suggested Built By Wendy Dresses: The Sew U Guide to Making a Girl's Best Frock.

I've never seen or read this book, but Wendy Mullins' Sew U was possibly the very first sewing book in my library from my early days learning to sew clothes, and it is really an exceptional sewing book. Which gives me faith that this new one will not disappoint. And you know how I love my dresses! It would make me so happy to see another dress lover win this book!

The book is released for sale tomorrow, so let's end the giveaway and pick a winner tonight at midnight CDT. I'll announce the winner tomorrow morning and hopefully the book will be on its way to the winner, stat.

HOW TO ENTER: Leave a comment describing the dress of your dreams -- the dress you'd make if you had the skills, the fabric, the time, whatever -- and your email address so I can contact you if you win. Good luck!

113. Serendipity

Thank you for your great suggestions on the upcoming pant project!  They have all been recorded for reference once March 1 arrives.  I think I will pick a very basic pant pattern that will be my pant sloper -- this worked for my bodice slopers and I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before you suggested it!  And then BurdaStyle Nichola for sure.

I received several book recommendations from here and from patternreview.com, and I found one of them -- The Palmer Pletsch Pants for Any Body -- in vintage 70's, excellent condition at Half Price Books the other day.  In fact, it was bundled in a plastic bag with some other pant-related gems from the time, all for $4.98!  When opportunity is right in front of you, take it, right?

Despite my recent focus on draping Clementine, I was also delivered via Half Price Books a cosmic reminder that my still-shallow apparel construction roots are in patternmaking:

I've gone through Pants for Any Body and it is amazingly relevant and very much in line with many of the tips you left me in response to my Pants post.  I am looking forward to this epic pants journey!

A few of us are game for the pants sew-along.  I say, let's keep it informal and easy.  I'll be host and will add a widget in the sidebar once we start on March 1 with the schedule and links to everyone's site who wants to sew along.  I'll try to keep that updated as you post on your pants progress.  We'll have a rough schedule to reach the finish line by March 31 and use our blogs to update everyone else on our progress, ask for feedback, and encourage each other to complete their pants no matter how painful the process may be (I added that last bit for me. I just remember how my first 3 pants attempts went and anticipate needing some extra encouragement).  So here's the proposed schedule:

March 1 - Select pant pattern/ trace pattern/ draft pattern; blog it
March 7 - Sew first muslin; fit; blog it
March 14 - Alterations to first muslin or sew second muslin for fit; blog it
March 21 - Final alterations for fit; blog it
March 31 - Final pants finished in fashion fabric; blog it for the whole world to rejoice!

Quick update on the status of tutorials... I have begun the first tutorial, which will likely be an empire waist men's shirt refashion a la Refashion 11: Grainger.  Even though I had a full month of no travel from my last trip to my next, I am spending this last week of the month off preparing for my next big trip.  So I may not post that tutorial till the end of Feb., but hang in there with me!  I'll really try to get it done.  

I also made an interesting deal with myself when I started this almost-month-off-from-work: I would just create -- clothes, ideas, artwork, crafts, anything that came to mind -- with no mental editing.  No "this won't work", "that's too hard", "don't cut there!", "you don't want to start that" or anything of the sort.  For 3 weeks, my sketchbook, camera, and computer went with me nearly everywhere.  And some really interesting things are happening.  I can't say too, too much yet because it's not crystal clear in my head yet, but I think life is about to get really... interesting.