what happened to August?

My sister got married last weekend, and while I was spending my time trying to finish a few things, all of the sudden, summer was GONE!

Well, my sister's wedding was lovely, to say the least, and I finished her hair flower about 5 minutes before I put it on her head that morning.

It was also really funny when the limo my mom ordered came to pick up a bride and groom to go to their party, and everyone was in shorts and tshirts, because the wedding happened in the morning and the afternoon reception was casual dress.

Anyway, I am almost finished sewing a pink silk chiffon skirt for my sister (I just need to take it in an inch and then finish the waistband).

It is a fully silk version of the lengthening rays skirt that Anthro sells for $128 in polyester chiffon.

I also made myself one in a dark teal color, and I must admit that it really does feel very comfortable for everyday wear, yet also luxurious with all that silk flowing around you.

I will be posting a tutorial this week with hints for sewing on silk just in case anyone is interested.

for my sister...

My sister gets married in less than 2 weeks, and that has meant a few things for me.

First, that even though I have been doing a lot of pattern drafting, I have done very little bag sewing.

Second, that I still have a few projects that I need to finish before the wedding:

1. the hair flower

my sister sent me inspiration photos of ivory flowers with sparkly centers and frilly feathers

inspiration 1

inspiration 2

here is where I am so far:

hair flower in progress

I have a flower assembled (I started with a fake gardenia from Michaels), with comb, feathers and more crystals in my possession for finishing this baby off.  it's all hand sewn together so far, and I hope to finish it that way, as long as the feathers cooperate with my needle and thread.

2. my dress for post-wedding brunch

dress foundation and pattern

I am making Vogue 1174, which is a fully lined and boned strapless dress.  I have really enjoyed putting together the inner support, and will probably do this on future strapless dresses.

But I must admit that I made a decent number of changes, and I assembled the dress in a very different manner from the instructions.

top of dress

It's looking pretty good so far though.  Just need to line the skirt and finish the hem.

3. a skirt for my sister for her honeymoon

She fell in love with a hot pink chiffon skirt at Anthropologie which cost $128.  We thought it was silk chiffon, until I looked it up on Anthro's website and found out it's made of polyester, and therefore not worth the price tag.

Anyway, I found some hot pink SILK chiffon at my favorite discount fabric store, and bought enough to make the skirt for under $20. In silk. (that's $108 less than Anthro is charging for a POLYESTER skirt).

And don't ask me why I just happened to have a hot pink invisible zipper sitting at home...I don't really wear hot pink, so the explanation is beyond me.

Anyway, let's get to the REAL question at hand...

Hot pink.

Is it "in"?  Would you wear it?

I was trying really hard to think about whether I wanted a skirt for myself, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy any hot pink silk for me.  I just don't think it's my color.  So I chickened out and bought teal silk chiffon for myself instead.