Bags, Fags & Drags

A little over 10 hours and I am done! Tired. Stiff. Proud. This is how I feel after this challenge, and I know ya’ll have been waiting, so let’s jump into the sewing pool!

This morning I went to pick up a Marie Claire, and realized I have been spelling it wrong. I don’t know if I have really looked at Marie Claire. I get Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and US weekly, so Marie Claire was new to me. I had a half hour to sketch and look over the magazine.

First off, Mary-Kate Olson is on the cover, which threw me for a loop, because she dresses like a crazy person most of the time; a crazy person with one hell of a wardrobe. What she has going on in her style is the same thing Marie Claire has in their magazine, take your 5 favorite pieces and put them on at the same time and voila!!!! You’re ready to hit the town! All of the spreads in the September issue are all about mixing decades, prints, weights, colors, prints, crazy and grandma. I am pretty into it, being a Goodwill shopper myself.

I did some sketching while flipping through the magazine and felt pretty pumped when I hit Fabric Depot with my $75 budget…that was until I realized Fabric Depot had NOTHING on sale. (For those of you that shop there, you know the horror of having to pay 100% retail, when usually all of their stock is between 20%-40% off). I knew I wanted to make a structured vest and an airy dress, mixing and matching styles with a rock-n-roll edge. I had my fabric cut and paid for well before my half hour shopping limit was up, but that is only due to the fact that I know that fabric store like the back of my hand.

HOME. Whipped out the muslin to drape my vest pattern, because I had a strong vision of how I wanted the vest to look. My Mom stopped by and read Marie Claire while I worked for a bit, I love my Mom, but I was glad to see her go, she really slowed me down, which made me think:
“Working with a bunch of designers in the room, chatting, joking, asking for advice must slow them down, not to mention they haven’t worked in the studio before, nor do they know Mood Fabric really well….” I had an advantage.
Vest. Done. BAM! Try that on ladies and gents. It fits perfectly into my vest vision. It has Rock-N-Roll, it has structured tailoring with touches of raw fraying for the ‘I’m not trying too hard’ look. I am really happy with it. But all designers should be really happy with their garments.
Dress time. Shit. What did I pick out? The vest was made from wool (one of my favorite textiles to work with, which is renewable), and the fabric I got for my dress was also environmentally friendly: Bamboo knit and Lyocell (also called Tencel). Both fabrics feel like butter and drape really nicely, which is what I wanted for my ‘light and airy no fuss’ dress.
But I was stuck. My energy was drained. My mind hit a brick wall and I stared at my dress form for at least an hour, draping the fabric this way, then doing it that way, making tea, letting the dogs out, finding new music to get my flow back… but…. Stuck. DAMN!

Here is the dress. Easy. Light and carefree. But DAMN! I wish I had gone army green and tangerine not baby mauve pink and tangerine. I think the dress would look much less sweet and more dirty Mary-Kate if it were army green and tangerine… but oh well… you only get a half hour for shopping, so if this is my only qualm, I am pretty happy about the outcome.
The challenge was to make an outfit for the Marie Claire woman, whom they describe as: Intelligent, Practical, Fashion Forward and Sexy. You be the judge. Did I tackle this Challenge, or would I end up in the bottom three?