The Right Preg at the Right Time. A Kidney-Shaped Dress To Make the Children Happy


It was pregnancy challenge time this week, so a lucky someone is getting a spanking new dress for her baby shower!

I cannot say that I have never made a maternity dress. In fact, I just did a few weeks ago. But this is the first one I have made for that which can no longer be hidden...

Since this dress was designed for a real person with real color preferences, I went ahead and broke my usual rule of only using bright colors, which should make Heather happy. Also what should make her happy is the floral material I used. She actually talked me into buying it months ago at a garage sale we went to together. I argued that I "don't do black" but conceded when she told me it would look good on Raine!

And how, do you ask, did I pregnify the dressform? It was easy. Some dollar-store bras, a couple socks, and a balloon from the bag I bought for the baby shower.

Show-wise, this dress still follows my strategy. I maintain my formula that for the first two or three shows, clean, cute, and pretty keep you alive. They always get rid of the designers that they can't understand first. Next will start the weeding out of people that do sloppy work, followed by the Boring.


I hope this dress looks good on the Kidney! Her shower is on Sep 29, so I'll add pictures of her wearing the dress after the event!


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Angie: 1940's+1980's= 2020's? The World May Not Be Ready.

I LOVED the show, "Angie."  I know I usually start with the lead character, but Raine and Nora are fighting over who gets to play Angie.  Nora says she looks better in the red hair, and Raine says she'd do a better job wearing the clothes.  Guess who won.

On a quick sidenote, can I just say how AWESOME the theme song is to this show?  If you haven't watched the video I posted, please do so now.  It's my favorite TV opening theme song next to Love, American style.  I think I have a thing for song containing background singers that Ooh and Aah in an ascending scale, which is another reason why I can listen to "Could it be Magic" for hours on end.  Can anyone think of other songs that do this?  Let me know!

So, with the other two models fighting, Trina was more than ready to step into the fashionable shoes of uptight Joyce, played be the delightfully upright Sharon Spelman.

Joyce was very proper and often wore big, slanted hats and long pencil skirts, very 40's, so I decided to try to mix the 40's with the 80's and came up with something that is interesting, but I think I forgot to add in "the 2010's," because it kind of looks too 40's and 80's!


Still there are lessons to be learned and there are some cool things about this.  I've been waiting to use this fabric.  It reminds me of chocolate mint ice cream.  And I continue to perfect my shoulder pad techniques.  Yes, shoulder pads are back in, thank you Lady Gaga.  But unlike the 80's, the pads now start further out and go up to a point, as opposed to starting close to the neck and covering the entire shoulder.  So there should be no fear of the football player look coming back...

From the Beginning. Fit for the TV Land Awards



This week's challenge was to create a "red carpet" look for an awards show of your choosing. So, keeping consistent with my angle, of course I had to pick the TV Land Awards as my event.


Red carpets no longer necessarily mean satin evening gowns unless you're at the Oscars. For the TV Land awards, I went 50's retro, inspired once again by The Donna Reed Show, with what Donna's daughter, Mary (played by Shelley Fabares) would wear today.


With this design, there is some strategy.
As per my observation, Rule #1 on design shows: In the beginning, start simple, well-tailored, and pretty, with a hint of your signature style. The risks will come later. The weird people with ugly dresses that no one can understand are the ones that go home first.

I chose the era of inspiration on purpose. The 50's is the decade where I start, and will plan on showing a progression in a timeline from there!

Can you also see a few elements that I seem to favor as a signature look? I like the look of Bishop sleeves, and have used them in some manner a number of times before. I also like the look of a short-sleeves with long-sleeves sticking out underneath. It's not something you see very often and I think it looks cool and different!




Phail Bonus! This journey did not exactly begin well. I attempted to make a long dress with a gathered bust as my first red-carpet attempt. I surely would be ripped apart for making something that looked like a bridesmaid's dress. Important lesson finally learned, though! Satin is not my friend unless it's lining! Posted by Picasa

Taxi - Tony Toni

Alright, finally a completion to my Taxi Trilogy!  Raine gets to play the boy this time, and she's okay with it because I let her use her real hair.

Tony's "other" job on the show was an amateur boxer, so I wanted to add some boxer elements to this outfit.  The dark demin shorts were originally supposed to be baggy and more "ghetto," but I chickened out at the last minute.  I don't really do baggy... Besides, did you ever see Tony Danza wear anything but tight jeans?  I decided instead to use a cool piece of fabric to make "boxer stripes" as an accent.  I didn't have very much of it, so using it as trim worked out very well, EXCEPT for the fact that RIGHT there in the front, at the most visible area, the word, "Safari," looks like, "Fart."  How unfortunate and unchangeable...

Moving on, notice the cool hightop shoes that look like boxer boots.

For the upper part, I wanted to bring in the Taxi Driver element.  Under the red jacket, another piece made out of scrap fabric.  I had just enough to strategically cut out the front of a yellow and black print vest.

The jacket, I like.  It's a little on the simple side, but the fabric is a nice faux suede with a stiff body.  It behaved a lot like leather, i.e. it can't be ironed, which is why all the seams are topstitched as well for more than decorative purposes.