Fashion Forward

ssThe Holiday was good to me in many ways.  One way in particular which will foster my fashion journey, was that it provided new educational resources for my library:

I received six books total:

For inspiration and historical reference:
 - 100 Dresses
 - 100 Shoes
both of the above are from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
and
100 Unforgettable Dresses (by Hal Rubenstein)

For Design Reference:

Fashion 101  (by Erika Stalder) - This is an extensive encyclopedia of each type of clothing as well as each's history

For Design Training:

101 Things I learned in Fashion School (by Alfredo Cabrera with Matthew Frederick)

and

Fashion Design Course (by Steven Faerm)

So, I have already dove right into the books and am currently working on designing my first dress.

I am still finishing up a couple Monster Hoodies as Christmas presents for friend's kids:

But my children's wear will have to be put on hold for a while.  I still have my Etsy shop and will continue to take orders, but I will limit how many I take on. 

I am looking forward to making fashion for me.  I am Fashion Forward For Me!

The time has come to stop thinking about and learning about fashion, but to just do it.  I will make dresses, slacks, tops, jackets, etc. etc.

2012 here I come...

While The Boy Naps...

I'll take this opportunity to get caught up here.  In an organized fashion, let's tackle the following topics:

1. Completed sewing projects.

2. Currently.

3. Future Outlook.


1. So, the first project completed was Lucy's Princess Dress for Halloween:

I like how it turned out and she loved wearing it.  I listed it on my shop adding that I can do any color variation, but knowing that it is time consuming, I made it an expensive item.  It is fully lined and well made, so worth it.

The next items which took up most of November, was Sarah's Flower girl and jr. bridesmaid dresses.  The Flower Girl was easy, but making a bigger one was not.  I actually started all over on the jr. one as the first was not long enough in the torso and I wasn't in love with the design.  The girl it was for was taller and more slender and more "hip" for the first design.  She was a size 13, but I was using a size 8 dress form which I had padded, but you can still get an idea of how it looked.  

Flower Girl

Jr. Bridesmaid

2. Currently I am working on Christmas gifts - which I cannot elaborate on now, in case a relative or friend is reading this!  But I will update you after the holidays.  Also, I have been corresponding back and forth with several potential clients via my shop on Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/mousebeecouture).  They have been planning First Communion and Flower girl dresses, mostly.  However, one woman, was interested in me doing dance recital dresses, ten total.  If that happens, I'll have to take time off work to get them all done in time (February) and I'll have to stop taking any other orders until then too.  So, it would be a mixed blessing.  

3. I had to raise my prices in my shop because I can only take on so much as I have been working more and making good money at the restaurant.  It makes me sad because I do think that I could make it a real business if I had the time and money.  I often day dream about it: having a shop and employees and new designs and samples and an awesome website.  Maybe someday.  For now, I'll take on what I can and make each one awesome.  I still am wanting to do more of my own projects though.  I ordered four fashion books for Christmas for myself that I am anxious to get a hold of.  After the holidays, I will reavaluate my agenda and  make a list for the new year.  For now, here's Lucy in a holiday dress I made last year.  It is a super light and crisp dark green taffeta skirt with a festive green and gold striped cotton bodice.

Happy Holidays! 

It's All Over...

...Project Driveway, that is!  What I thought was going to be a drawn all out through the winter and into the spring project has been completed.  And, don't tell Ben, but I do like the car.  I used to have a keen little red Miata back in my early twenties that I loved, so having another convertible will be fun.  Anyway here are some pictures:

      This is how the project began (you can see how this may have been a little unsettling at first!)

But it didn't take too long to change out the bad engine and here we the finished car:

And Lucy:

It's All Over...

...The ninth season of Project Runway, that is.  And I must say that it was pretty disappointing.  I was thoroughly let down by the lack of talent this season which is confusing because I am sure that they get thousands of applicants.  And here I am "in training" myself, as I do not think I am experienced enough to even try out and along comes Anya with only four months of sewing experience and she wins the whole thing.  Although really it came down to who didn't completely blow it.  The competition was Victor's to win, but out of nowhere he throws in all these transparent black chiffon cut out monstrosities which was a shame as his other looks were good.  But Anya had no depth to her collection.  She had no jackets or pants, only flowing dresses or jumpers.  Kimberly had some interesting pieces, but her collection was just ok.  BUT at least Joshua, the Bedazzler, didn't win.  I can not believe that he made it that far with some of the things that he made during the competition.  His color pallet was awful, particularly the chartreuse items.

I just kept thinking about past seasons' designers and current designers and design students everywhere and how they must have been at home shaking their heads in wonderment at how things have come to this.

but I will keep on course.

Let's just chalk it up to a rotten season.  Now, I will keep up with my game.  I have an imaginary $9000 to create a collection of ten looks.  So - stay tuned as I will be posting my "collection" soon.  Currently I am finishing up Lucy's princess costume and then I have two more Flower Girl dresses to do - which I will post all of those pictures, too. But I did want to reflect on the end of the show as it was still fresh in my mind.

Flower Girl Gallery

So... these are the dresses that I have been working on for the Autumn wedding season:

The first was an existing dress that I took off the dark brown velvet sash and installed a light pink taffeta sash.  It ended up going to Australia!

This dress is a mini version (size 12 months) of my popular silk and lace design that went to Tennessee.

This dress was a replica of a J.Crew design that went to a Flower Girl in California.  The ruffles kicked my butt, but I was happy with the end result.

There was actually four dresses (the rust colored sash one is not pictured as I only have three mannequins). They are eyelet dresses with coordinating skirt lining and saves all in Autumn colors.  They ended up in New York.

And here we have two dresses in very different sizes, that went to Miami, both in the silk and lace design:

The Final Challenge - "Ello Govner!"

For the final challenge, the remaining designers are swept away to Governor's Island to final inspiration in creating three garments.

Governor's Island is really not all that inspiring, however, nor were the final collections of the final designers.  For my designs, I looked away from the island toward the surrounding water for inspiration.  I used a color palette that reflects the water with a dark steel grey/blue flawy silk.  With the structured city in the background, the top of act design is more constructed.  The belts I couldn't find on Piperline, but could just paint the mint green color onto a thin belt.  This pop of color (which also is sneaked between the folds of fabric in the gown) is a literal nod to The Statue of Liberty, but was not actually intended.  I just really like the mint with the dark grey blue.  Anyway, here we go:

Coming Up Next:

My next blogs will show all of the dress orders that I have been working on (all of the internet orders are finished and shipped!)  My next projects will be:  Lucy's Halloween dress, Sarah's Flower Girl dresses - one of which is a Junior Bridesmaid's dress which I'm really excited to create, and a dress for myself to wear to the wedding.

For the Birds

So this dress was inspired by the green parrot that inspired the losing garment this week.  Poor Bert got the axe this week and I didn't hate his outfit as much as I disliked Laura's.  But, here we go:

This look would be made with as much tulle as my $300 would allow with a graduation in color that would differentiate my dress with a one toned yellow "Big Bird."

 

Every Day I'm Shuffling...

to get everything done.  I am still getting caught up on all of the Flower Girl dress orders and I do plan on getting Lucy's dress done for Halloween.  I have also increased my number of shifts at the restaurant (which received a four star review last week!).  The major victim in my life right now, receiving less attention from me, is the laundry.  I'm hoping that soon my husband will wake up to find that he has no clean undies and will then realize that he needs to help out.  But, alas!  He has found his passion, too.

My husband has taken on his own project, which I have aptly named: Project Driveway.  He has procured a 1994 Audi Cabriolet in non working condition that he is determined to transform into working condition. I would rather he would come home from work and declare his desire to play with the kids, do a couple of loads of laundry, empty the dishwasher, etc. so I can sew, sew, sew!

I really don't know where the time goes.

But, I have managed to get my designs done to get caught up with Project Runway. And I would like to give a shout out to Lucy for letting me use her box of 96 crayons to help illustrate these designs.

Enjoy!

So, the first is the challenge where the designers had to design garments for "real people."  They met with a man who would describe a perfect outfit for his lady.  I ended up designing for the woman who wanted something girly and pink for attending a wedding in.  The actual design made for her was the losing design.  My design is a layered, tiered chiffon wrap dress.  I love it and may create it someday:

The second design in this post is for the episode where the designers had to design a garment for a member of a rock band.  Again, I took the losing designer's client and redesigned something.  My idea here was to have a snakeskin leather pant in a deep brown red color and on top a gauze (think thin linen) bottom down shirt over a brick red jersey tank.  

And last week's challenge was to create a look inspired by the seventies, but still modern.  The first look was to be done with $150 and the second with $50.  The second could not be separates.

So, I am caught up on the design challenges now.  I am currently working on a new design (new to me) for a flower girl dress that is almost complete.  I also got my new tags in the mail.  They are really sharp - embroidered silver thread on white that say: Mousebee Couture with Cincinnati, Ohio underneath.  I will do a post on my flower girl dresses soon.

Now off to bed!

Up to My Ankles

Just an update on what's been going on with me.

You're probably thinking, "She's two episodes behind!" I know, I know.  I plan on getting caught up soon with the show.  I have my designs in mind, I just need to draw them out.  Maybe I'll do that tonight at work on my server notepad before the dining room gets busy. I'll mention this, though: my husband was geared up by last night's challenge which featured the designers creating men's wear.  He asked me if I could do that which I replied "Why not?"  He wants me to make him some jeans - so I'll put that on my list of things to do.

This morning I finished up and shipped off four flower girl dresses which were cotton eyelet with Autumnal colored taffeta sashes.  When I am all caught up with all my orders of these flower girl dresses, I will post pictures of them.  This weekend I will be changing the sash on an existing dress and shipping it off to Australia for a November wedding, then I will be making a new pattern for a dress made like a current J Crew design that a buyer could not get shipped in time for her wedding from the J Crew website.  New patterns and designs are always fun for me.  I won't feature the design on my Etsy shop, though, because it is not my original design.  Then I have two silk and lace dresses going to Miami, Florida for a wedding.

I hope to get Lucy's (my three year old) princess dress done for Halloween.  She helped to pick out her own fabrics and I'm excited for the beautiful Cerulean Blue and silver Brocade fabric that I'll use on the bodice.  The dress will even have a literal silver lining!

And then, I will finally get to make my first junior bridesmaid dress for a friend's wedding at the end of November.  I am also making a flower girl dress for her too.

So I am still busy with dress orders to the point where I had to stop taking orders until mid-late November.  BUT I will get those Project Runway designs done before the next episode airs.

I promise!

By the way, my Etsy shop link is: www.etsy.com/shop/mousebeecouture

I don't know if I've mentioned that before?!

Create a Print - Team Challenge

I am finally catching up a little with the show as tonight a new episode airs and I don't want to get two episodes behind.  If I had more time, and I would love to revisit this idea later, I would have actually designed my own print using the website spoonflower.com.  And I didn't have a team to work with, so I just did my own print and one design.

My idea was inspired by my love of toile.  I love looking at the different stories a toile fabric is telling.  And I love discovering new and interesting designs.  My idea was to create a toile pattern based on "Mid Summer Night's Dream."  I have included a close up of the scene where Titania, under a love spell, is in love with the mortal, Bottom, who has had the unfortunate circumstance of having his head transformed to that of an ass.  The idea of my toile would be to have various scenes from the play throughout the fabric.

I thought a simple flared sundress would be the best canvas for this design and I just love the combination of green and blue!

Up to my knees...

Dear blog friends, just a mention that I have been up to my knees in Flower Girl dress orders. Therefore, I have been away from the blog for longer than I would like. But I will get caught up soon. This is a good problem to have as I am making some cash. But don't feel neglected, or at least, don't feel alone. The laundry is the true victim here. It has been piling up all week. Oh the irony: I love to make clothes, but I hate to clean them.

Until we meet again...

Artistic Inspiration Challenge

Ok, these challenges are really silly.  Why can't they just give them a lot of money and a good amount of time to make a beautiful red carpet gown.  I wish the challenges would try to be less creative and get back to fashion.  I haven't been blown away yet by any of the designers, but I am waiting.

So, Project Runway used to be my show that I would watch while my husband was not at home both for the reason that it annoyed him and for the reason that it annoyed me to have him make fun of Tim Gunn's little catch phrases.  But, for some reason I can't pinpoint, he started watching it with me this season.  Maybe it was a curiosity on his part to see what this show was all about and to see what I would hypothetically be getting myself into?

Anyway, he is enjoying it - mostly for the remarks of the judges (Michael Kors specifically) that have been cracking him up.  He was also excited to see that Kenneth Cole is a straight male designer.  And I mention this not to knock the gay male designers, but to point out that straight men can be creative and fashionable too.

And I mention this bit about my husband because it was his idea that directed my design this week.  After watching this episode, which the designers were to create a haute couture garment inspired by a piece of artwork (the artwork was created by the designer and an art student), I asked how I was going to create my own design.  Where was I going to get an original piece of artwork?  To this question, my husband pointed out that I should use one of his paintings.

So I did.

Here is one of his paintings.  All of his work is done on large canvases made by him and is based on the Golden Ratio.

And here is my design.  Normally I do "shopping" at mood fabrics.com to try to truly mimic the challenge. But I have a babysitter today and I want to get some sewing done before my "time is up."  But know that the dress would consist of stretch velvet as the basics of the dress (with black mesh at the top and down the back) and different colored pastel chiffon would be the flowing detail.

And, I am not married to the black mesh on top, but thought it might look good strapless too.  But there it is.  The green velvet horizontal stripe would actually hold some of the chiffon in as well.  And there would be a chiffon train in the back.

Project Runway Application Question(s) #2:

Have you ever worked or do you currently work for a designer or manufacturer? If yes, please list any and all positions you have held working for a designer or manufacturer to date (include your responsibilities and if it was a staff or intern position):
Nope


Please describe your job history outside the fields of fashion and design:
I have been in the service industry (as a waitress and bar tender) part time since I was 16. 
 I was also a high school English teacher and Drama director.  I was an actress in a local theater company for one show (Miss Saigon) that ran for 8 weeks.  Then I was a Realtor, followed by a Leasing Agent for a Property Management company.  Then I had a baby and was a stay at home mom.  I went back to waitressing part time when the baby was four months old and did that until I had my second baby.  I stayed home for 11 months with both kids and then went back to part time bar tending and waitressing which is what I do now.


Have you attended a fashion design school or a fashion program? If yes, what was the school and program you attended? Did you graduate?  If you graduated, what was the type of degree earned? If not, why did you leave the program?
Nope

If you answered "No" to the above question, what is your fashion/design background?
As a hobby, I taught myself how to sew together pillows as gifts for friends.  When I was a drama director, I had to piece some costumes together.  But the driving force of my designing of fashion was the birth of my daughter.  I found a woman in town who gave private lessons and she taught me over the course of one year (about once or twice a month) how to sew from commercial patterns.  I started experimenting after that  and was refashioning adult clothes into infant clothes (which I actually got to teach others to do at my sewing mentor's studio).  When I was pregnant with my son, I met a girl who was a fashion design student at The University of Cincinnati's Design, Art, and Architecture Program.  She was waitressing with me and  was searching for an internship position.  She couldn't afford to move to a big city yet, but wasn't getting any local offers either.  About that time, I had come up with a brand name and was making toddler dresses to sell.  I offered to have her come work with me and my start up company.  One month before my son was born, my intern came to work with me five days a week, 20 hours a week, for three months.  I couldn't afford to pay her, but provided her with lunch every day and a great experience to add to her portfolio.  She still worked at the restaurant in the evenings, so she could get by with not being paid by me.  She designed a website for me (currently not being used, however) and helped me get my Etsy shop up and running.  She also helped me build my inventory.  What I got from the experience was another sewing mentor.  She helped me to polish up my sewing, especially with linings and hand stitches.  She also taught me the basics of pattern drafting.


Do you know how to:
   - Cut?
   - Sew?
   -Sketch?
   - Make your own patterns?

Yes to all of the above.

Please describe your design philosophy/point of view:

I had the opportunity to make a surprise visit to see my grandfather who was ill.  My grandmother had him get up out of bed and get dressed.  He wondered what the big deal was, only to understand by my arrival that he was getting a visitor.  He said to me as he realized this, "It does feel good to be dressed nice."  


My grandfather passed away months later, but that simple thought stuck with me.  Those days when I would stay at home with my kids, I would find inspiration from him to get out of my pajamas.  And those rare occasions that got me out of the house, requiring to dress up, did make me feel good.


So, I think fashion is supposed to transform our emotions.  It makes us feel confident, or strong, or sexy, or mysterious, or fun, or dangerous, or important, etc.


I  want the clothes I design to evoke feelings of confidence in beauty.  


I think that's all I can say on the subject for now.  I want to revisit this later as I gain more experience.  Then I can articulate better my design style and philosophy.

New Balance

This challenge was hard for me because I don't wear sneakers or denim.  But I thought that if I did, I'd want them to be comfortable and stylish.  I designed a dark blue denim jean/legging and a beige suede bodice with a jersey cardigan with features two bold and bright colors.  It would be very loose and flowy which is not truly demonstrated in my sketch.  But I think it would be pretty awesome.  This week's challenge had them creating three designs in teams of three with $300.  So I created one look under $100.

Nina Challenge

I finally had time to sketch my ideas this morning after working all weekend.  Work is going to be a definite hindrance to this project, but it is suppling finances.  In fact, my French curve ruler set arrived on Saturday.  Hooray!

I also started to piece my black skirt together.

But, back to the show.  This week's challenge was to create a look for Nina.  The budget was $200.  I do have to say that I did like Kimberley's winning design.  However, there were a lot of designs that weren't so great.

So, I have brought two designs to the table as the designers were given a chance to sit down with Nina and get her thoughts.  My first design idea is separates.  The top would have this fabulous tweed between an almost white fake leather.  The pants would be a satin charcoal/platinum fabric.

This is a close up of the tweed fabrics:

And the satin pants:

My second design idea would be to make a simple mod long sleeved white dress, but paint a cool design on it with acrylic fabric paint:

Well, I have to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday this week and I will be beginning to create four flower girl dresses for a bride in New York, so I will be plenty busy.  But I still hope to get the skirt done this week and I want to get some more application questions done, too.  Until then!