Father/Daughter Banquet 2016---The Making of 2 Special Dresses

Yesterday was yet another FUN Father/Daughter Banquet--for the 6th year in a row!!! 48 hours leading up to it was non-stop sewing for me as I worked to complete 2 dresses---one for my Daughter and Goddaughter! But the hard work was well worth it. Both dresses turned out absolutely beautiful and the event was amazing as usual! I was asked to help serve as I normally do for the event.

Here are some pics I shot at home......I actually REALLY love this dress. I think it's my favorite out of the 6 I've done for the other Father Daughter Banquets. She wanted an edgier dress and wanted it to be short in the front and long in the back. So I came up with this design by modifying Simplicity 6388.  

I LOVEEEEEEE the fabric. It's a shimmery gray blue satin with shimmery bronze abstract flowers. The trim believe it or not is imitation leather with 3 rows of gold chains. It really gives the dress a little bit of edge. I decided to use the trim as a belt. I like the juxtaposition of hard and soft. And I used chocolate brown tulle in the front. Although the belt is black I felt the black tulle would have been too much so the chocolate coordinates with the blue and bronze.  It really works

                                      This fabric is so amazing! So luminescent---and shiny! It has 2 sides---I used                                       blue background/bronze flowers for my daughter's dress.

                                               When I saw this trim I just had to have it! 

My Favorite picture---love the back view!

Here's her hair.  At first I wanted her hair to be a a little edgier to go with the style of her dress but in playing around with her hair came up with this style. I love adding the metal hair beads

 The event was held at the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum and it was beautiful venue! 

Her and her handsome date got their picture taken together. My 2 FAVORITE people in the world! Love em'

They met up with her Godsister and Godfather!!!! I made my Goddaughter's dress using the same pattern and the reverse side of the same fabric. She wanted a "Princess Style" dress so I made the skirt really long and added a beautiful trim around the neckline. I also added a belt with the same trim and a solid colored matching blue bow.

My cute Goddaughter and Handsome Dad (my daughter's Goddad) posing for formal pics

Front view

Here dress is actually made from the same fabric as my daughter's---but it's using the reverse side. So hers is bronze background with blue flowers while my daughter's is blue background with bronze flowers!

Back view---trim is on neckline and sash

After pictures there was mingling, time to eat and lots of dancing!!!!

 Hanging with friends

So many dads and daughters! A beautiful thing to see!

 They look like twins to me LOL!

Hitting the dance floor

As usual there was a dance off between Dad and Daughter---actually there were several. Here's those two being silly....

I enjoyed the opportunity to make both my Girl's dresses! They looked absolutely beautiful! The last time I made them both a dress for this event was HERE in 2011! They were so "wittle" then!!! Sniff, Sniff! Growing so fast!

My two girls! Love them!!!

When Inspiration Strikes!

Beware! When inspiration strikes you can be anywhere doing anything!!!

I'd been waiting SOOOOO long to  get some inspiration for the upcoming annual Father/Daughter Banquet dresses I'm making. This is the 6th year my Hubby & Daughter are attending. Here's last year's post and you can search my blog for the other years if you like. Anyhow my tradition is to make my daughters dress!  The banquet is this Friday and I have 2 dresses to churn out---(1 for my daughter and Goddaughter so I'm going to be sewing non-stop for the next 72 hours).  But that's par for the course and last minute sewing is something I'm used to! Anyhow I'd been waiting for some inspiration for the past 2 months. But I've been up to my eyeballs in client work so even if Inspiration had come a-knockin' maybe I was too busy to hear. Well Inspiration decided it was going to be heard and cornered me a couple of days ago while I was at the hair dresser. My mind was spilling over with ideas and by the time I'd left and headed to Jo-Ann's my mind was racing. I found some supplies at the store. I manage to leave the store but realized Inspiration wasn't done with me yet. By this point my mind was full of ideas and I figured I needed to get them on paper. I found the nearest spot I felt Inspiration would feel most comfortable telling me all it's secret. And yup I was right! Seems like great ideas really flow with a relaxing pedicure LOLLLLL!

 It's always easiest to be inspired when you're relaxing for sure! Studies have shown this to be true. Here are some other helpful tips!!!!

Got to jot downs lots of ideas and do some doodling. Won't use them all but it was great to think them through! Creating is all about the process and embracing all of the steps from start to finish!

So just as quickly and dramatically as it came in like a whirlwind Inspiration was soon gone. But that didn't bother me too much because I knew it would soon return again. And better yet if I need it to return sooner I know what to do. Because it's returns are what I always look forward too!

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Here's a sneak peek at the fabric I picked for their dresses. I bought it from Fine Fabrics in Atlanta last month.  It's beautiful---ice blue and bronze abstract flowers design. I  don't really know what it is---it's either a brocade or double sided satin. Each girl will wear one side which is cool because they'll coordinate.  More dress details to come.....

Correction re: Wax Tracing Paper!!!

I was having a delightful email convo with my wonderful sewing buddy Myra from Simple Inspirations and discovered I made a mistake---thanks Myra. I posted a few days that the 26X39 Wax Tracing Paper was $14.85-$17 per sheet. I was wrong. I called to verify and it turns out you get 3 sheets for that amount. Their "3 sheet minimum" wording confused me. This news is spectacular for me! I'm probably going to buy 2 sets of the light blue and 2 sets of the white. That's 6 of each color. There's a reason I need so many and when I get them I'll give a little demo as to why.  A thousand apologies for the confusion!!!

Time for a Little Pampering.......

I've been sewing and working like mad so it's really important for me to take some time out to pamper myself. For those who know me really well know that I'm all about natural skin products! I'm pretty picky and a bit of a simple girl so one or two good brands is all I need. Well I was SUPER EXCITED to give the Ju Bel Le Natural Product line a try. I LOVE the philosophy of the company. I've known the founder,  Tayia Belle for a few years and she's passionate about creating a product that nourishes skin as well as excite and amaze the senses. Well I received my first 4 products  and all I can say is I wish I'd ordered sooner!!!! Here's my review of the products below....

 The products came very beautifully packaged.....

I LOVE this little wooden box!

I couldn't help getting excited just unwrapping them. So pretty! And the smell of the soap was amazing! The box contained a 4oz jar of Vanilla Lavendar All Natural Body Scrub, A generously sized bottle of Hydrating Moisturizer, a 4 oz jar of Vanilla Lavendar All Natural Body Butter and a bar of vanilla lavendar soap!

Here's the body butter jar and it was packaged so beautifully, as was everything else, and completely sealed. I peeled back the wrapper and.......

....was delighted to see and feel wonderfully textured body butter. This stuff is fluffy and thick! The perfect consistency. Reminds me of  the perfect cake cake icing. I've had body butters that were a bit watered down but that's not the case with this. Plus is smells so yummy! The combination of vanilla and lavender makes for a very calming yet invigorating scent!

The body scrub product was equally impressive. Again, the smell is simply amazing!

I like the consistency of this too. The oils in addition to the sugar and dead sea salt and other natural ingredients gave this just the right amount of thickness! This went on fairly easy. I enjoyed rubbing it around on my hand while I watched my favorite TV show. When I rinsed it off the skin on my hand was completely soft. That's saying alot give the fact I have really rough, dry hands! I added some of the body butter and I can't stop touching my hands! They're so soft!

I also tried the hydrating moisturizer which has a lovely citrus scent and moisturizing capability and the soap! I'm excited to give my current natural products the bump and enjoy these! So if you're looking to try amazing natural products for the first time or want to try a great new brand I can't recommend Ju Bel Le Naturals enough! I am a small business owner and I LOVE other small businesses out there that are producing great products! Give Ju Bel Le Naturals a try and you'll receive 10% off your first order after joining their mailing list!!!! Also check them out on Facebook! Now I'm going to rub some more body butter on my hands and get back to sewing.......:)

Birthday Gift

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!! I'm super excited to have made it to 21 (my 16th year of it LOL!). Anyhow although I'm usually low key on my Bday. My Hubby and Daughter were awesome giving me the sweetest gifts---you know one of them was a gift card to a fabric store---they really know me well! Again, I'm usually low key but I do like to use my bday as an excuse to do something a little special for myself.  You know do a little personal pampering and buy myself something special---usually a sewing item I've been coveting. We'll I've had a particular item on my Wishlist---dating back to when I worked on the Ballet costumes last September. I've become a bit of a notions snob since working on that project. I LOVE the supplies costumers work with and after using this item FELL IN LOVE! Well let me reveal...................drumroll please.................
The item I've been wanting forever (ok, it's only been a few months but that's how badly I've been wanting it).................is...............

                                Photo courtesy of RichardtheThread.com

Wax Tracing Paper link

Wax Tracing Paper! Now wait, before you get all unimpressed let me just tell you it's not your "run of the mill" tracing paper. Most people use the tiny Dritz strips they get at their local fabric store. No this is MUCH different. These sheets first of all are HUGE---26X39. And it works EXCEPTIONALLY well. The wax markings are amazing (thicker and not chalky since they're really wax) and don't leave residues all over your fabric.  They are either $15 or $17 a sheet dependent upon which color you get.  ETA 2/17/16--- you get 3 sheets for those prices not just 1 :)

The Light blue is $17 and it's really popular! It and White are the 2 colors I worked with and pretty much great to have since you can use the blue wax paper on white and other light colors and use the white on darker colors. You pretty much have all bases covered. They also last a LONGGGGGG time. I worked with Mrs. Pat on the project and she'd had hers for a few years. It was evident they were well used since you could see all the markings on them but they still worked like a charm. Again I loved working with them and am impressed with the results so they're absolutely a worthy investment. They're excellent when doing your usual markings (darts, pleats, etc) but they're great as a whole when working with sheers. You can trace out full pattern pieces and prevent shifting. I'm going to get several sheets and come back in the near future to demo how great they are to use.  Have you tried these sheets? Do you use wax tracing paper in your sewing projects?

Yippee I found Joe Zee!!!

Happy February!!! If you haven't watched Joe Zee's show "All on the Line" then you have missed out on a TREAT!  It's a show centered on Joe Zee, Sundance Channels' Fashion Guru, helping struggling designers with their fashion lines The shoes have covered everything from Women and Men's wear to lingerie. It's featured celebrity designers as well as Project Runway Alums!  And he gives great advice starting from design critiques, manufacturing all the way to presenting to buyers. It's such a great sneak peek into the intricacies of launching one's own fashion line.

 The show is a few years old and back in the day I enjoyed streaming it off Netflix. I later left Netflix but recently reinstated my Netflix account and was disappointed that the show had been removed. I'd seen the first 2 seasons and wanted to catch up on Season 3. Mind you Season 3 is from 2012 but the advice and insight never goes out of date! Well to my delight it's on Itunes and for a great price. I plan on downloading asap! Anyhow if you haven't seen it, check it out! Here's a sample show from Season 2......Enjoy!