Square Pegs: Around the Corner

It would probably be overdramatic to tell you how I agonized and agonized over this outfit.  I made three different tops before settling on this one.  The others were either too old lady, too unflattering, to just too wrong.  This cardigan-like sweater is a little on the simple side, but I actually can see a high school/college age girl wearing it.

The reason why I had such a hard time was that I started with the fabric with no TV inspiration!  I was totally lost before I noticed the squares in the pattern and the pegged pants.  Square Pegs!  That's it!  There's no particular character this would fit.  It's not dorky enough for the nerdy girls and not uppity enough for Muffy.  So let's just say that Trina would be playing an extra on the show.

Speaking of Trina.  Raine is quite upset right now because Trina is using her body.  Well, namely her torso.  I needed a pose that was a little less upright to make the look work.

The Cosby Show: For the East Upper Village Bohemian Socialite Side!

This outfit is dedicated to four of my new fans, the Mandarin Martinis!  It's out there, it's strange, it's HALF A JACKET! It's ART!

This past week's challenge (yes, I'm a little behind because of the Faire last weekend) was to design outfits based on different areas of New York.  I haven't had the opportunity yet to walk around the city, but I do remember in one episode of the Cosby Show, Denise taught Vanessa the appropriate way to dress in the East Village.  You dress in clothes that you steal from your father's closet!

This avant garde outfit is a combination of Vanessa's plaid suit (East Village) that she borrowed from Cliff, and the voluminous over-one-shoulder wrap that dancing Claire (Upper East Side) wears in the opening sequence of Season 3.  The result is this totally unusual mesh of Vanessa's youtfulness (and her Hair), Claire's sophistication, and Denise's artsy/strange taste.  I love it, I don't care if everyone else hates it!  You don't see stuff like this every day!

Hardware store challenge: bidi, bidi, bidi...

This was fun.  This week, the challenge was to use items found in a hardware store to make an outfit.  I wasn't too sure about this one because on the show, they had a budget of $150 to get their materials.  But you  know what?  I went to the hardware and automotive section of two different dollar stores and made this entire outfit from materials that cost altogether Nine Dollars.

Before I get to what the dress is made from (I know you are all dying to know, so now I can be mean and make you wait), I want to mention that I've been waiting for an excuse to make a Twiki outfit for some time now.  I sure am glad I waited until this challenge came up, because I like the way it turned out.  I always liked the Twiki character, although I did restrain myself from going around the house saying, "Bidi Bidi Bidi" as a kid, at least not while anyone was watching.  Maybe I liked him because we were both short.  Maybe I envied his bowl-cut haircut, a style that I was never allowed to have.

Okay, are you ready?  I know this outfit looks like it was made from glittery black fabric and burgundy satin, but it is actually made from silver car windshield shades, black rubber shelf lining, and red cleaning rags from the automotive department!  The earring accessories are mini hex wrench sets (2 for $1!) suspended on keyrings!

(I considered making an accessory representing Dr. Theopolis, which Twiki wore around his neck, but decided it would be too distracting and just hinted at his presence by the rounded closure at the front of the jacket)

I originally thought to make the whole thing out of the silver shades at the risk of a "Tin Man" callout, but when I happened to overlap the shelf liner on top of the shade, I noticed it gave off this cool glitter look!  Amazing!  The added bonus was the shades are backed with a thin sheet of foam.  This made it absolutely perfect for creating those insane shoulders/sleeves without necessitating shoulder pads or stuffing of any kind.  The sleeves stand up all by themselves.

Not to say the whole thing was easy and I will be quick to use material like this in the future for "stand up" features.  My machine hated these shades.  Well, I should say, the presser foot hated it.  The back was rubbery and therefore would not glide under the presser foot at all.  I had to use machine oil (applied with a Q-Tip) to lubricate the top of the material for every single seam.  But, hey, she's supposed to be a robot, so I guess it's appropriate!

Dynasty: Nouveaux Alexis Carrington

I found this fabric tucked away in my "stretch" collection.  I usually don't do a lot of work with jersey material because I like making things that are a bit more structured as opposed to drapy.  I know it seems strange to not like fabric that by nature molds to the body shape, but I guess all my years of doing period costuming and corsets has made me preferential to fabrics that can stand up by themselves with a body underneath or not!

Anyway, my last many outfits have all been very darted and tailored and form-fitting, so I decided that I wanted to excercise my alternate skills and do a drapy outfit.  Once I discovered this long lost material, I knew I had my Alexis Carrington, and she was going to go on a trip on one of her yachts, and she was going to definitely look bitchy.  Oh, God.  Raine was almost jumping off of her mannequin stand to do this one...




My parents liked watching Dynasty when I was a kid.  I should ask them why, because I never really did. I get kind of jealous/disgusted when I see shows about rich people and their problems, even today.  Regardless, Alexis (as well as Crystal) Carrington still today remain rich-bitch icons and are so fun to recall fighting and slapping each other silly.

Surprisingly, this dress only took about five hours to make from start to finish, much less time than usual.  This is because I wanted to focus all the drapy attention to the just-this-close-to-being-nasty cowl draped back.  The sleeves are attatched to the main bodice, so I did't have to do much work there, and the hemline between the top and the skirt is simply pulled into a metal piece from an 80's belt that I got from a collection of old belts that I bought sight unseen from craigslist.

I ALMOST didn't finish this dress because it was looking a little bit sloppy until I did the finishing stitches!  I took a chance and didn't do a mockup of this garment before cutting into the main fabric because it's not fitted.  So when it was just in the stage of simply the main seams being sewn, it just looked like it was hainging there and messy.  I'm glad I finished and I like the way it turned out!

Dynasty: Hello, Krystle Carrington. I hate you!

Okay, people, don't expect to see this post up front for long.  I hate this one!

Combine creating an outfit for a Krystle Carrington, a character that I never really connected with, simply because I felt it necessary to create a pair for Alexis, and giving myself less than 12 hours to create it, plus making several stupid mistakes, equals Phail!

Okay, I like the skirt.  I'll probably use it again sometime with a different outfit.  But the top makes me so disgusted.  I thought about making something with immense shoulder pads, but then twisted it by instead creating volume in a collar instead.  It would have turned out better except I committed the ultimate cardinal sin when it comes to making ruffles.  I IRONED it.  The ruffles as well as the supporting collar stand underneath were leaning in instead of out, so stupidly, I ironed the base of the collar to make it lay outwardst, and in turn, irreversibly ruined a rich ruffle effect in exchange for a forever flat looking raggedy mess around her neck.  I know better, but I still did it!

But in addition to the iron travesty, there are also other flaws that I can't even bring myself to point out that I will NEVER do again.

So, enjoy the pictures while you can, because very soon, I am hiding Krystle away where she belongs!

Knight Rider Mechanic Chick. April, not Bonnie...

On Knight Rider, there was the "eye candy" auto mechanic chick who was always there in the back of the big tuck to do maintenance on KITT when Micheal came back from whatever heroic ordeal he had juct performed. The first was named "Bonnie," who was rather... handsome. I always preferred her replacement, April, played by the more estrogen-featured Rebecca Holden.

I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking when I decided to make a pair of coveralls as a fashion statement. I mean, they aren't really meant to look nice or fashionable, they are used to protect the clothing underneath. It is quite arguable, however, since there IS something incredibly sexy about what coveralls may or may not be hiding, and you are usually doing something dirty while wearing them.

So I did envision this outfit as a "racer pit crew" chick who works on cars, zips off the top of the coveralls, and then goes and waves the checkered flag in all her greasy sexiness. This is, I suppose, an excercise in making something that looks more gritty and less meticulous than I am used to. It took just as long, however, to make something that looked thrown together, just like, and I have said this before, spending hours on your hair to make it look like you just rolled ot of bed.

There are a few details on this outfit that serve a purpose. The fabric is heavy-ish, but has a good stretch on them so my girl can bend and squat to change tires with ease. The lower part of the pants have zippers on each side so she doesn't have to take her shoes off when she changes out of her outfit. each shoulder has a gathered shoulder "pad" covering to mimic the shoulder safety pads the drivers wear. The top and bottom front are all attached to one zipper, although I did my "boobie" treatment on top so that the front isn't meant to close at the bust. After all, in fashion, Sexiness>Functionality.

The thing that started this whole concept was the fabric that I used for the yellow tank top. Well over a year ago, the Shell station near my house was having a promotion for racing. They lined the lawn with flags of #29, Kevin Harvick, the driver of the car they were sponsoring, and when the promotion was over, I took one of the flags. I wish that I had remembered to take a picture of what it looked like before I cut it up! Nonetheless, it looked a lot like this.

Personally, I like the way this looks with the top down!

Sushi Ra - A Delicious Treat and a New Alter Ego

I remember there was a random skit on Saturday Night Live with Jamie Lee Curtis in the 80's.  She played a teenager who was rebelling against her parents and insisted she be called, "Sushi Ra".  That is the only thing that I remember about the scene.  It must not have been that funny, but the name stuck with me after all these years.  When I found this sushi fabric, I knew Sushi Ra would have to rise again.

This dress was meant to look like a life-size sushi roll.  Obviously in addition to looking interesting and edgy, the band around the middle is meant to be the seaweed wrap holding the whole thing together.  Adorable, isn't it?

I originally sketched the dress to have a ruffle applique detail on the side.  I wanted to make multi-colored circles to look like tuna rolls stitched onto the left side of the skirt and bodice, peeking out from behind the belt.  I spent hours gathering strips of fabric and stitching them together to make three circles, and when I placed them on the dress, it looked SO cheezy!  Interestingly, I didn't get as upset as I expected.  I still got to use the medium-sized tuna roll, however, by folding it in half and making it into a clutch purse as shown in the picture to the left.

Of course, the funny Japanese theme is also inspired by John Belushi's Samurai character from the 70's as well.  That is one reason why Raine's hair is weird, because his hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail. I have put the most popular Samurai skit on the top of the page here.  Back then, this was considered the most HILarious skit of all time.  Funny how tastes in humour change, huh?

I have a lot of this fabric left, so look forward to seeing another Sushi Ra sighting in the future!

Moonlighting Stranger: A Mistakenly Grey Suit for a Mature Professional

Here it is! Made entirely out of newspaper!

Well, not really. I decided that only one outfit a week was just not right!

I have been working on this one for a couple days. I wanted to do a professional looking outfit for a woman that is not necessarily in her early 20's to be ready for that very plausible future challenge. I chose a Maddie Hayes "Moonlighting" private investigator type as a character to dress. I think the suit turned out okay.

I kind of had a hard time picking a material after I did the sketch of the suit. The jacket part has a lot of panels and peices and I needed something that had a good weight and behaved well with the iron. I ended up using this houndstooth patterned wool that I got at a garage sale. As plain fabric, it looked blue, but as soon as I finished sewing the pants and stood back, I realized the navy and the white in the pattern blended to look grey! Eek! No color?! NOOooooooooooOOOOOOO!Anyway, it was a good practice in jacket drafting and I really like the shape of the pants. In a different material (like a warm solid that would highlight the seam lines) I would make this again with perhaps interesting gathers at certain points of the bodice and/or a more pronounced tunnel collar to make it look less like a Korean Army Uniform.

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...

Villains and Vixens Collection Entry I - Capt. Lewis from "Private Benjamin"

I remember watching "Private Benjamin" as a kid. I often would ask my parents, "WHY is that lady (Capt. Doreen Lewis as played by the worship-worthy Eileen Brennan) so mean?!" For a character so cold-hearted, I could not help but to like her, and especially looked forward to seeing the recruits get back at her each episode (blue food coloring in her showerhead, removal of the brake lines in her jeep). Love her or hate her, Capt. Lewis was a bad mamma-jamma.

As the first in my installation of a TV "Villains and Vixens", I sexified the Captain up... um... just a bit? I like to imagine this girl walking down a city street toting a Doberman and a single grocery bag filled with wine and ridiculously overpriced french bread, just DARING anyone to talk to her.

(In case it is not obvious to you, I will note the boots in this picture were photoshopped in, so as not to take credit for them.)











So character explanation aside, this outfit was NOT incredibly easy to make. There are a lot of details and mixtures of softness and toughness going on. This outfit was kind of an excercise in sewn-in pleats with one open end. You can see examples of this in the sleeves of the blouse as well as under the bust of the jacket in the picture below.


This outfit was also an unexpected learning experience for me. I can't design shabby. I had in my head for this peice to be a little bit more raw, with unpretty elements like unfinished edges and parts that didn't exactly fit perfectly. Well, as you can see by the tailored look of it all, it didn't exactly turn out that way! That's good, though. I can more than accept that I like to design clothes that fit and look clean.