Little House Of Nellie, Now in INC!

This week's challenge was to design two outfits for the INC brand, which is exclusive to Macy's. INC is a line of clothing that I would describe as "young city professional with an edge."















This work was also supposed to be done all in blue, but I don't always have the luxury of going shopping with a $100 budget for each of these exercises, so I used what I had available, and I have been waiting for an opportunity to use these two fabrics for a while. They were good finds!











I chose "Little House on the Prairie" for this TV inspiration. Seems strange, doesn't it? Not really, though. I feel like the character of Nellie Oleson today would have grown up to want to be a bitchy business woman like her mother, but still want to dress in frilly, ruffly garments like she did as a spoiled child.

Ruffles ARE NOT used to hide flaws. They add visual interest, femeninity, and romanticism when used correctly, thank you very much. Chew on THAT, ruffle-haters!


This top is convertible, as you can see, and can be worn with or without the belt/sash. I like it both ways. Raine is excited to be holding a purse. That is the only way she is tolerating being a bleached blonde for a week.















Also, be sure to click on the pictures to see the larger view. There is a cool pattern on the pants that you can't see too well in the small pictures!

Little House of Laura: The Country Girl Remembers The Easy Life

Everyone knows that Laura grew up to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, first a teacher and then a famous author, so as a grown-up, she would probably be dressing a little more professionally than this, but on the show (at least when Melissa Gilbert was still little and show was still good) she was labelled a "country girl" from the first time she met Nellie at school.






So I went with the country kitchy vibe and gave it a Behemian 70's translation. Bohemians are poor, and so was the Ingalls family.

Laura's child costumes all seemed to have similar features, whether they were her play clothes or her Sunday best: square cut front with a round collar, gathered dirndl skirt (a simple rectangle of fabric gathered into the waistline), and gathered/puffy sleeves.

I could go into the reasons why all these aspects were appropriate to the period and social class, but I'm sure it would bore you. Let's just say that it has something to do with the fact that Laura's mother made all the family clothing.





This is again for the INC challenge. This line is from Macy's and it also seems affordable (compared to expensive designer outfits). So this dress is very simple (HA! Read "Simple" when I made a similar dress a little over a year ago and it took three days! OMG! Same wig!) and actually photographs more fancy than it looks in person, which is fine with me!

Little House of Mary: She's Blind, You See.

Okay, so I am getting hard on myself. Or as I would alternately think of it, my standards are getting frustratingly high. I don't care for this outfit at all.

It was a good excercise in making tight peg-legged pants, which are back in now, but I wanted the top to look peasant-y and artist-y. I think it ended up looking like a renfaire shirt made out of cheap floral print material.

(I perhaps want to partially blame the fact that I had just watched the wretchedly historically inaccurate "The Other Boleyn Girl" while taking a break and the style got stuck in my subconcious mind.)

To tell the truth, it pretty much looks like the sketch I made before construction, so really there's no one to blame but myself.

I really hope I come out of this slump, and fast!