Update: Los Angeles Needlework Website Suspended

This is the power of the sewing and craft  blogging community, folks. 

Eat THAT, "Dixie at Los Angeles Needlework".

Thank you all again, for reporting the theft of my and many other bloggers' patterns and tutorials. 

And thanks to the domain and hosting sites who so generously and quickly 

worked with me this afternoon to investigate. 

Everyone rocks and is special 5-ever. 

Amen. 

East Coast Love

last sun of the day

October 28, 2012

Sending my blog friends on the east coast positive thoughts and 

hopes for better weather in the wake of Sandy.

Stay safe everyone!

A song in my head and a dress in my heart.

And a blog I adore.. But first, the song in my head. Do you watch the X-Factor?  Holy Amazeballs, Batman, I can't get enough of Carly Rose Sonenclar:

A fair portion of those 10 million youtube hits might be mine and my 3rd period class...we're all starstruck!

Nextly..I've got dress envy. Would you just look at this Colette Crepe?

source

Gorgeous, right?  Ok and summery, and I'm heading into fall, but I. Don't. Care.  I really want to sew a Crepe now.

This one is super cute too, love the Lizzy House fork fabric;

source

Frankly, I've been dreaming of this Crepe thing for a while now...ever since I noticed the dress Amy Adams wears in the final scenes of Leap Year was so similar in cut and style:

I had it all planned out in this post. I even still have the fabrics, prewashed and ready to go. Deep royal blue dotted swiss:

And a very-similar-to-the-original-dress chambray stripe:

All of which goes to show you...time has sped up way way WAY too fast this year and I plan way way WAY more than I will ever hope to accomplish.  Good thing the planning is fun.

I leave you with a blog I am loving right now, Miss Green.  She's adorable!  And has great style.

Happy Weekend!

Blog Love: nanacompany

I've LONG been a huge fan of Amy's Flickr!  (and she has a Pinterest too!) In fact, several years ago when I first started following her and my Lu was still a sweet little girl who played with dolls, I made some felt foodstuffs inspired by Amy's adorable creations.

And now she blogs!  She recently finished a reproduction of a vintage quilt that is just gorgeous:

nanacompany:finished quilt

A few months ago she did an wonderful tutorial for this needlebook, that has been on my "to-do list" ever since:

nanacompany: tutorial

Go visit and oooh and ahhh over all the wonderful things she makes.  I do.

My Teachery Blog...

Just a quickie post this morning for my teacher friends! I've decided to open a Teachers Pay Teachers store to upload my freebie stuff to, AND to share my classroom/teaching stuff on it's own blog. 

A few times the past several weeks I've been dying to post something about teaching or my classroom or to share a free digital item, and I've held back because I know the majority of you aren't teachers and wouldn't be interested.  The good news (I think?) is, there are a lot of teachers blogging now!  Teacher blogs are EVERYWHERE! 

I'm keeping the name I used to use for my class blog...Yo! Ms. Amos!  (This is what a student used to say to me, years ago, when he wanted my attention.  It was probably annoying but I don't remember it that way now. haha!) 

If you are a teacher, I hope you'll follow me on over to the new blog.  I'll be sharing all of my classroom and freebie teacher stuff there from now on.  I made a little icon that links to the new blog, you can find it on my sidebar if you'd like a copy to share. And let me know if you have a teacher blog too!  I'll add you to my growing list to follow!

No worries for you vintage and fashion sewing bloggers here on Quality Time though! I still plan to blog just as much here as ever!

ps...I'll be back later with yellow Violet blouse goodness!

blog love: Elsa Billgren

I've been meaning to do a post about Elsa for months.  Sadly, I had a computer crash/data loss in late July so all the images I had been collecting to share are gone, so I had to go find some more!

Elsa is a blogger for Swedish Elle.  She has this funky, vintage style that I really love. She's also not a stick person!  Yay for women with curves! 

 

It's kind of amazing to look through her blog photos and see her and her friends enjoying life.  But it's her carefree, "whatever I love, goes" style that I really enjoy.  She's adorable too!  I chose all older photos to share here, so you can discover her new stuff for yourself (that's half the fun!)

You can read Elsa's blog here, and she conveniently provides a google translate button at the bottom of each post.  Seriously, a rock star.

And...it's FRIDAY!  Yay for Fridays!  I hereby promise some me-made goodness this weekend.

Really.

Pattern Giveaway & Skirt Progress

Firstly, I have to let you know about this gorgeous pattern giveaway by Debi of My Happy Sewing Place:

Although I really don't want any of you to enter, to increase my odds. Ha!

Secondly... Skirt progress! 

I went with the coffee linen for the plackets and waistband.  Plackets are attached and topstitched, I just need to add the waistband and do buttonholes & buttons. 

Hopefully a finished skirt later today!

a little retro makeover!

I've been feeling like a bit of a blog makeover for a few months now.  My inspiration for this retro re-do was a very prolific pinup artist named Enoch Bolles. 

Not as well known as Vargas or Elvgren, but I love love love his style, and his "girl".  All of the girls on my blog were taken (and altered a bit for my blog design) from Mr. Bolles' "girlie magazine" covers from the 30s and 40s.  If you'd like to read more about Enoch Bolles and his art, I highly recommend this fabulous blog dedicated to his work.

And now we are off to the vast wonderful wilderness that is Yellowstone National Park. 

I've got one small but fun post scheduled for while I'm gone, but other than that it will be quiet for a few days!  Don't miss me too much!

(**Disclaimer: Copyright is a hard thing to grasp, and public domain availability an even harder thing to track down.  As far as I could find in my research, Mr. Bolles' suffered the same fate as many other unknown artists of his time and did not retain ownership or royalties rights to his work, and all publications ceased long ago.  Even though I believe Mr. Bolles still has living heirs, it would seem most of his pinup illustrations are in the public domain.  In any case, certainly no copyright infringement is ever intended here, and I hope my blog graphics will serve to play homage to a great pinup artist and introduce new fans to his work.)

Fave Blogs: Sew Country Chick

I just have to share this new (to me) blogger, Sew Country Chick.

Justine is like my kindred blog twin or something. I love reading what she's been up to!  She has one heck of a nose for a bargain too.  I'm always so jealous of her flea market and yard sale finds!

She's also as cute as can be and loves vintage dresses (and looks like vintage dresses"

And she does modern stuff with panache too.

 

These are all recent things...I'll leave you to explore her awesome archives on your own! 

Rather madly packing and vacuuming here in prep for vacation!  I may be able to post one more finished project before we leave, and if not I'll share the in-progress photo.  Have a happy weekend everyone!

reading obsession: Her 5-Year Diary

Are you reading this?

Because I'm totally hooked!  I can't wait each day for the new post.

Today I'm working on a Built By Wendy top...

I'm doing the sleeveless version, no drawstring/elastic.  I also lengthened it a bit.  I'm using a thrifted, super soft white cotton with tiny blue rosebuds.  Reminds me of a nightdress I had when I was 8.  (That would have been 1979 if you're keeping track).

So...I may end up looking like I'm wearing PJ's.  Hmmm...

Once Upon a Pie...

You already know of my intense love of all things Pushing Daisies.  After all, I did an entire series of collages based on Chuck's wardrobe!

Then my blogger friend Barbara, of Moxie Tonic, decided she wanted to create a Pushing Daisies wardrobe/fashion blog.  When she asked for input, I jumped at the chance to help!  More Pushing Daisies?  Yes, please!

 

Together we have been (sometimes feverishly) putting together a wonderful new blog featuring all of our favorite people, places, and things about Pushing Daisies.  Finally, I feel like our baby is well enough on it's way to share with you! 

May I present....Once Upon a Pie! 

While our main goal is to ultimately document every single fabulous outfit that the ladies wore on the show, we also have plans to include a Stitching Daisies section, for all of those "inspired by..." creations, a vintage pie recipe section, Emerson's knitting patterns, and tons more Pushing Daisies inspiration.  

I hope you'll come see what we've been up to, and follow along!  Pushing Daisies, the television show, may be a thing of the past, but it lives on in our hearts.  

Grab a button if you'd like to share one on your blog! Just copy the linky text below and paste into a new "add html" gadget (if you're using blogger).

<a border="0" href="http://jiminykrispies.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g38/jemimabean/pdblogbuttonsm.jpg" /></a>

lovely blog inspiration

Brief intermission to bring you flash fashion news...

I ran across a really gorgeous fashion pictorial a couple of days ago and wanted to share some images here.  The blog is From Me to You.

I had high hopes upon stumbling across it that it was a vintage fashion blog, but no, it appears to be a photography blog.  (All images are credited to the blogger/photographer, I just had to share, they're so lovely!)

These are from Fashion Week, and feature a variety of glamorous, vintage celebrity inspirations. 

Such beautiful outfits, and all so easily worn today too.  I hope you'll go visit the frommetoyou blog and see all of the daily outfit photos.  There are several featured with each outfit, and well worth the visit.

Carry on.

bloggy people are, like, the best!

Seriously. Who else but a sewing geek would fussy cut you a Cylon snowflake?


To which, all I have to say is this:

So say we all.

(why is cigar-lighting Lee as hot as naked Lee? Something to ponder.
Better stare at both pictures a while longer, hmmm.)

This was my second bloggy friend surprise this week, the other one was also awesome and unexpected. I'd shop her into some half-nude photo op, but I google-imaged and John Simms pretty much keeps his clothes on.

Which is a shame.

You really gotta love the internetz.

Much love for ya people, much love.

i heart u giveaway WINNER!

Yay! It's #22:

And it's Faye of Faye's Sewing Adventure!!

Faye just finished a GORGEOUS Colette Lady Grey coat. I love her blog, she makes such beautiful garments.

Congratulations Faye! You have my email, so just send me your mailing address and I'll package your goodies right up, just in time for Christmas!

Thank you everyone for the very sweet comments about my blog. I haven't been sewing much this fall and I often think about the blog, and how I'm going to write a post with nothing concrete to show you! So your feedback was much appreciated and I'm glad that even inspiration posts are appreciated.

The good news is, I have a planning period (I'm a teacher for those of you who are new or aren't aware) in the spring! I've been teaching through my "plan" all fall, which has seriously cut into my free time at home. That's the main reason I haven't been sewing.

So the new semester should find me refreshed from a nice break, and with some extra time to sew during the week to boot!

Thank you again for playing! Have a great week!

skirt tutorial envy.

Oh, you know how it is. Cut out a shiny new skirt. Can't find time to sew. Discover shiny new skirt tutorial online.

I haven't been on the paperbag waist skirt train yet. For one thing, I rarely used to tuck anything in, and this skirt really needs a tucked in, slim-fitting top for the full effect. Now that I'm wearing more cardigans and things, I'm pretty sure I can rock the whole paperbag waist.

Here are some cute RTW versions for inspiration and ogling (albeit several are so short your pootenanny might need covering to prevent said ogling of another sort):


I'm lovin the paperbag pencil skirt from Asos above (actually I think all of these but one are from Asos. The khaki is by Tulle.)

Anywho. I randomly landed at this adorable paperbag waist skirt tutorial in two versions, a zipper with pleated version and an elastic/gathered version. Here's a pic from Suzannah's blog:


Adventures in Dressmaking is a new blog to me. I think sewing (and especially fashion sewing) blogs exploded among the 30 and under set in the past 15 months or so. I've kind of been oblivious since I had my favorites and not a lot of time to venture out and find new blogs to read.

The author of this blog is an easy read and she's talented and full of great ideas. I read through most of her archives last weekend while in a turkey coma. If you haven't found her before (some of you are followers I know) you might jump over there via the link above.

Just so you know, it is an ad-supported blog, which I usually prefer to avoid (because the ads tend to be very distracting and clutter-y) but I love her style and her carefree sewing mojo.

The real question is...do I shove aside the HP and go for the shiny new or persevere?

Wait. Isn't that always the question??