Use Cases - FTW!

My vision is blurry after logging about 20 hours of writing systems analysis documentation. Just when I thought I've escaped from this life! All for the money, as usual. I'm so glad it's over for now.

Fabric shopping

Undoubtedly, one of the funnest things about sewing, for me, is shopping for fabric. It's an adventure - finding that perfect print for your project and at the same time being inspired by what you see. And being so in love with anything colorful and pretty, it's easy for me to go overboard. This is just a portion of the fabric loot I've amassed in the past two weeks.

{Fabric - floral, gingham, polka dots, lace and tiny ribbons all from Cotton Depot at Glorietta 5.
And then practically invisible tiny plastic snaps,
tiny pompom trimmings and even tinier buttons from Etsy}

While still on the subject of sewing -  I found this in Toys R' Us the other day. Micro Lalaloopsies! BAAAD! REALLY BAAAADDD!!

Making doll dresses

This past week, I worked on a couple of doll dresses. Well, they're so much better than my first attempt. Mainly because I was serious this time. :D I had my orange tracing chalk handy, to add to the seriousness of the whole activity. Many of the women in my family sew. My grandma's sisters are accomplished seamstresses, my mom sewed a lot too. And now my sister is making her career in sewing. I remember as a kid watching my grannies and mom sew, they used the orange chalk to trace. (But not my sister -  she uses fancy sewing stuff) So I just had to buy my own because I mean business!

I made a short dress for Sabrina using this floral fabric and a few strips of color-coordinated ribbons.

I was quite happy with this dress, though there's still a lot of room for improvement. As you can see here, the skirt's seam is actually at the front of the dress :D Luckily the shirring makes it less obvious.

This is the beginnings of a maxi tube top dress for Candice. Cutting the fabric was pretty straightforward. I just cut a rectangular piece of fabric to her measurements. What proved to be absolutely tricky when making this dress was getting the tiny garter through the equally tiny casing I sewed on the top part of the dress. After about 4 tries and throwing a bit of a fit, I finally got that darn elastic through.

 

Okay, so time for finished products. Here's Sabrina in her dress.

And here's Candice. I just hand-stitched the ribbon to the hem. The fabric is pretty sheer so it's peekaboo undies for now. Hehe. I still have to buy fabric for the lining.

Dal Darony

I named her Sabrina, after the last company I worked for (Sabre) -  I used some money from my last paycheck to buy her. At first I thought she was a cow, then found out she's actually dressed up as a dalmatian. Dal - dalmatian. Clever. She wasn't a serious choice at first. Because, come on, the outfit is a bit silly. But then I saw pictures of her without her dalmatian gear, and I was sold. Her faceup is so pretty and her simple hairstyle is just adorable.

See? Luuurve her! Maybe it would be nice to replace her eye chips though... thinking about it...

A lootful day

I opened a lot of boxes today - it was almost like Christmas. I was ecstatic when I found the Mini Lalaloopsy Tales on the shelves of Toy Kingdom the other day. I've been wanting them since last year and I didn't think they were going to get here that fast. Of course I had to buy me some! But there was no Alice lala, so she's still on my got-to-have list. So, I got Curls N' Locks, Coral Sea Shells and Snowy Fairest which are the cutest of the bunch. I'm still deciding if I should buy the others for the sake of having them. Err.. hm, maybe.

As you can see on the picture above, I bought some more Rement Disney vintage tableware (still no Chip and Dale salt and paper shakers) and a Disney Birthday Cake. I should really stop buying that stuff. REALLY. But the main event, of course, was my Dal Darony which arrived this morning. Hooray for the wonderful people at the post office! I might be one of a very few handful of people singing praises for the Philippine postal service, but the people at our town's post office are just the best. Quick and prompt service. Only one thing to remember when shipping to the Philippines - never use expedited courier services lest you be taxed heavily by customs. The people at customs probably think your package isn't worth taxing if you're not in a hurry to get it. I haven't had a lost package yet using slower services (like USPS priority international), so it works for me. But that's only for toys, snack swaps, craft stuff and jewelry making supplies. But for big, pricey electronic gadgets, I'd skip buying online altogether.

My first attempt at Pullip fashion

I'm working on my long dormant sewing skills.

Yesterday I was attempting to make a dress for Candice using a Blythe dress pattern and fabric from my sister's scrap pile. The fit was fine, it was my sewing that wasn't. It's not so obvious from this picture how horror movie and asylum-ish this dress is.

After that I picked up a few beads and a ball of crochet thread and made a quick necklace.

The finished product looks like seaweeds. 

Oh well. Try again tomorrow...