Ageing Well

I've spent the past four days in West Hartford, Connecticut doing SFX makeup design for Hartford Children's Theatre production of Willy Wonka.

And I spelled correctly "ageing": without the "e" to soften the "g" it would be pronounced with a hard "g". Or so they teach me in French!

SSS Days 9-13

Things have been so crazy around here! I promise I'll get around to looking/commenting on everyone's SSS posts someday and also posting about my new projects.

Until then...

Day 9: I wore my peasant top (Simplicity 2415), and "Meh Dress" Simplicity 8788 (1970)to work. I still find the jumper/dress to be a bit unflattering, but it is ten-fold improved  with stockings and a blouse underneath! It provides some contrast and prevents it from washing me out so much. Clay/taupe just isn't a good color on me. I was so excited to wear tights finally!

Day 10: Yet another peasant top, this time Scottish Highlander style (Simplicity 2415). Zipped out the night before so I could wear it to work. I screwed up royally trying to finish it two days before and then made myself slow down and do it right (although one sleeve is actually backwards, oops). It it made of a lovely, cozy flannel. I want to make a jumper to go with it. I'm holding up my new treasure from JoAnn's...you'll be finding out about that later.

Day 11: Peasant top (Simplicity 2415), worn to work. Are you bored of these yet? Despite the repetitiveness, it goes great with my new fall-colored argyle sweater, which I am SO EXCITED about and my olive Gap jeans.

Day 12: Simplicity 3358 (1960) tie blouse. Worn to church, which is a great excuse to wear the more dressy items I've made. I paired it with my new plaid skirt, my old wool Gap sweater, teal tights and those great Sofft shoes I posted about. My sisters told me I looked like I was from a WWII movie (especially with the beret I was originally wearing). How about some close-ups?

Day 13: Crocheted Puff-Stitch Slouchy Hat from Ravelry. I wore it to my first production meeting/rehearsal at my new theater job for good luck, since this was pretty much what I wore everyday in my last year of college. The jacket is vintage 80s does 40s and I've got another one in a yellow, scotch tape plaid. They are 100% wool and toasty! I love love love them and am always keeping an eye out for more at local thrift stores.

SSS Days 5-8

First things first, I got the delight of my life this morning when I woke up to find that Alison of Project Runway, Season 3 had mentioned my plaid dress (see previous post) in an article on Mad Men for Burdastyle! By the way, if we're not already friends on BS, please friend me! I miss a lot of your sewing projects because I don't get around to checking my computer every day :( and this would prevent that.

Moving right along, here are my days:

For Day 5 I had my trusty peasant top (Simplicity 2415) and my knitted headband which, as you can see, I wore apple picking and then to work. Day 6 was kind of a bust because I had a long work shift and had to wear sneakers (so no self-stitched-skirts) so I just wore a headband I'd made.

And for Day 7 I popped this fancy little 1950's bolero on for a lunch date at Whole Foods with Jason. I downplayed its cutesiness with ripped jeans and old chucks. I'm proud of this one because it made me take the time to fix the bow by adding snaps to prevent droopy-bow syndrome. And the pose? To show why I haven't been sewing! My uncle is re-doing our countertops, meaning everything it in the dining room - my usual sewing space.

 As for Day 8, I had a much better and more comfortable outfit planned since I was going to be doing sewing and chores all day but this backfired when it the weather got humid and my original shirt had a big off-yellow stain down the front. Hopefully bleach will take it out as I've already tried regular laundering. This outfit only lasted so long, as pencil skirts are not floor-sitting garments and that is where I was doing my sewing work.

SSS Days 3 and 4

There's lots of sewing and planning and whatnot going on here at WWNDW, particularly inspired by Sarah's Hepburn/Hepburn project at Rhinestones and Telephones and Miss Dandy's post on Annie Hall, but you'll have to wait on those because I'm dashing this post off before I scurry to work.

Yesterday was rainy but not really cooler so I opted for a lacy shrug I knitted awhile back, paired with 2/3 of my yoyo brooch. It was worn out for errands, especially, as you can tell, to JoAnn's to scope out yarn. Of course I got fabric instead! I love my shrug but it has stretched out under its own weight over time, so I need to re-knit it.

Today was much cooler, in the 70s, so I decided to take advantage of it and wear the "Mad For Plaid" dress. I'd never actually worn it in the past 3 years because it was huge in the bodice. I finally did alterations in August and now it fits great.

I'm also really excited because I just ordered the pattern to make this dress, as seen on a blog called Green Apples (she makes loads of cute stuff!) Of course, I don't have her gorgeous hair color or that fabric, but I'm hoping I can pull something cute off.

SSS Days 1 and 2

1-2 Peasant shirt  3 Ruby shorts  4 Corduroy skirt  5 Flamingo dress  6 Flyaway cardigan  7 60s blouse  8, 13-14 70s blouse  9 Sailor skirt  10 60s Pencil skirt  11 Knit shrug  12 50s bolero  15 High-waist shorts  16 60s bloomers  17 40s drawers  18 50s poncho  A Headband  B Knit Hat  C Brooch  D Pillbox hat

In order to help me choose outfits I've made an SSS chart for myself! It gives a great overview as to what I've been making and is helping me fill in the gaps. For example...no pants! And who knew that almost everything I've sewn is either blue or pink?

Choosing my first outfit for SSS was pretty easy though, because I found something out about this skirt over the past week...

LL Bean is selling practically the same skirt! In several different styles, for $14.99 as part of their end of summer sale. Now, I was tempted to buy one, particularly the sailor-themed one, and then said, DUH. I can just make myself some more! Although I think I would go down a size or stitch up the pleat a bit for the more fitted look and also shorten it. You too can make some, you just need Simplicity 2656 which is a modern pattern. 

So, in general I felt pretty awesome about wearing this skirt to work yesterday. Later, when I went out for my sister's birthday dinner I used my new, self-sewn purse! It is from Sew Pretty Homestyle by Tone Finanger.

 For day 2, I went with my final summer essential because of the 90+ degree weather. Curse you, indian summer/Hurricane Earl! That knocks out a good portion of the patterns I wanted to make during SSS.

 

 I don't love it since it doesn't fit properly. No "new narrow shoulder look" for me! The color is also questionable and it looks completely unflattering with anything but shorts. I put my hair up in little-swiss-girl buns to go with the trim, which I just added this morning and has warmed me to it a little.