The ootds will be first followed by the "Tangled" made by me file (yes, it references the movie, and no, the outfit made wasn't for me). ;-)
Day: Wednesday, September 18, 2013.
Where: CW's Birthday night with a trip to Whole Foods (Winesday), followed by her birthday dinner at El Paso Cafe.
Ease of Wear:
(3.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) This beautiful Boden dress of mine from a few years ago is comfortable, but I wasn't over the top happy that it was so wrinkled so quickly. Maybe the last time I wore it to a stand-up party, lol, and there were no wrinkles, but more than likely I was more sensitive to it this time. ;-)
But I could be wearing a itchy burlap sack and feel great since Winesday is so much fun.
Cool Factor: (2.5
of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.) Nah, I looked exactly like what I was, a happy and proud momma of a now *five* year old girl. Not especially cool, but the broderie on the dress is pretty and unique, and that is enough for me. Plus there was wine...and later margaritas.
Anecdote from the Day: The people at the Winesday were thrilled that CW had turned five. One of them gave her a gerbera daisy (in pink!), another gave her a VERY big cupcake decorated with flowers and leaves, etc., and one gave her two desserts from the dessert table. She also got lots of, "ooh, look it's a princess," since CW insisted on wearing her Ariel costume to the store and then to dinner.
Day: Friday, September 20, 2013.
Where: American Girl Store for a special birthday girl dinner followed by surprising CW with Kit, the American Girl she had been eyeing for about a year.
Ease of Wear:
(4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) Oh this Anthro skirt is so comfortable, with its super soft jersey fabric and deep pockets. The sequin tee from J. Crew was way more easy to wear than I thought it would be, but I did size up to a small, so I suspect that may have contributed.
Cool Factor: (3.5
of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.) I really liked this outfit and feel like it looks decently cool. I loved how the pieces all worked well together, both in silhouette and in color, with no one piece taking center stage. Even the cool Ghanian-made necklace looked like a natural, even though I don't know that wooden beads and plastic sequins are meant to be next to each other.
(The necklace is from my father-in-law who has now gone to Ghana twice on mission trips. I am very happy for him, and kind of jealous, too! I have a lot of friends from Ghana and would love to see the country they are from.)
Anecdote from the Day: It was exactly like you would think it would be...a five year old in an American Girl store surrounded by dolls, pink flower lamps, and little itty bitty dining pieces for the doll that comes with you to the store (we brought Caroline, her other doll). In other words, CW was overstimulated and over the moon.
Day: Saturday, September 21, 2013.
Where: CW's birthday party. I promise this is the last event celebrating her birthday. I don't do much for the kids when they turn one, but five is a pretty big deal, so I definitely indulge. I bet #10, #16, #18, and #21 will be similar.
Ease of Wear:
(5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) I have written enough poetry about the Garnet Hill jersey dresses in the past. I love this dress so much, if it were human, I would have a big, fat crush on it.
Cool Factor: (2.5
of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.) I have always loved resort wear and the "hostess" gown, which is what this reminds me of...a hostess gown.
But instead of being many hundreds of dollars and from Milly, it was far less.
Anecdote from the Day: In addition to crafting a Rapunzel dress from scratch, I also had to get all the party favors and food ready for the party. I almost did it all, but I finally had to break down and ask for help with the favor bags since I didn't have enough time to get those filled. Thank goodness my good friend from bowling, S., and her daughter, I., helped me in my time of need. Are any of you all like that? You don't ask for help unless you desperately need it? Why do we do that to ourselves?
I wrote more about the creation of this pattern (
Simplicity 2065
)
here at Pattern Review. You will be able to see it for six months without joining Pattern Review, but past mid-March 2014 you won't be able to see it anymore. Hopefully I remember to update this post with more info when that occurs.
Detail of the lace embellishment that I added to the sparkly purple tulle. Like I mentioned over at Pattern Review, I was glad to have a walking foot on my machine because that helped me control both the velvet (the white skirt was made from that fabric) and the tulle. Both velvet and tulle are such a pain to sew, and the walking foot keeps the fabric nice and smooth and even when sewing.
On CW. She is holding her Rapunzel doll, natch. :-)
Can you believe that I took out parts of the pattern because I didn't have quite enough fabric? Yeah, I thought so...this pattern was supposed to have one additional skirt and overskirt piece, and some tulle lower sleeves. Oh, and I was supposed to make an underskirt that would have added poofiness. I think the dress looks more than poofy enough as is, thank you very much.
She *really* enjoyed posing. Such a little ham.
The tank underneath is an addition since the bodice turned out to be too big. Part of that is because I made the size 6, which is a bit big anyhow, and part of that is because I didn't add a zip to the back of the dress and had some extra ease (about 1.5 inches) added since the extra ease was supposed to be used to add the zip. The plus side is she can wear it longer, but for now, she will have to have something under for modesty.
This is my favorite photo of her wearing the dress since it shows the full of effect of the time consuming details...the gathering of the waistband on both the tulle and velvet skirt, the application of the various trims, like the cord at the waist and sleeves, and the lace on the overskirt, and the insertion of the very puffy sleeves (setting in sleeves can be its own challenge).
Anyhow, I am glad I spent the week working on this dress, since it made her so happy and it allowed me to take on many new sewing skills that I hadn't tried before. All in all, I would call this a success...but please, don't look to closely at the hem or the eyelets. LOL.
Alright, that's it for now. Thanks for reading all about my "tangled" week.
If you are one of my readers who comes her for Boden stuff, I have a quick question for you. How would you all feel if I created a page within my blog where comments would be allowed and you could post reviews of items you have received? Since it would be powered through disqus, you could also add links to any photos you wearing them (photo sharing sites, facebook, etc.), which would add an extra layer to the review, if you have them. (They aren't required, btw.) I know that my BWRR is a big hit here at the blog, and as much as I can, I try to have it appear at least once a week, but as we know, I am very backlogged, and a page like that could help keep the reviews coming while the BWRR is written. Once I am able to use your review in a BWRR, I would delete the comment from the page, and a fresh set of comments could be posted for the next BWRR. Do let me know if this sounds like it work for you!
