Taking Care of Business

~It's the white tree this year~

The week of Thanksgiving is always very busy for me and my family. Aside from my oldest daughter assigning me relish and cheese tray duty this year (I got off light!) - she hosted her very first Thanksgiving dinner and she did a wonderful job - I decorated my house for Christmas and cleaned up the attic while I was at it. As you can imagine, there hasn't been time for sewing.

But soon, like tomorrow, I will be back into the swing of sewing things (with a whirlwind of fervor)! On November 16th, I opened my Etsy shop, and after Thanksgiving I thought I might like to get busy and start creating some product to sell - lol. That's what I've been doing the last couple weeks: talking to my wholesalers, updating my fabric inventory, and preparing product to sew and sell.

~Satin inventory~

It's been a few good years since the hubs and I left the fair circuit, and while I do not miss fair life (we had ten very good years), I miss our customers, I miss offering unique, quality products, and I miss being in business. My husband, God bless his sweetness, was in the business for me - he's a long-haired, hippy-freak, technogeek and his sweet spot (and vocation) is binary code and other such alien languages, not fair speak ("Anon!") and Ren garments. When we packed up shop, he was done. But, I wasn't. I figured I would jump back into business again one day. Well, four years later...lol! 

~Product cut and ready for sewing~

What's exciting about this time around is that my creative endeavors are not limited to what products of mine will or will not be juried into a show, but rather by my own imagination and skill - I set the limit. One year, I wanted to introduce a new garment (in the same line as our other garments, but made of leather) and the craft coordinator would not jury in the garment because the leather smiths would be in a stink over it (rolls eyes). This sort of product bias is common practice in juried shows and it stifles vendor creativity and revenue opportunities - it also robs the customer of a potentially better product. It's not all about making money, is it? (As any ethical business person will tell you, the answer is no.)

I'm excited! I have all sorts of ideas spinning through my head and I love it! Just so you know I haven't been slacking, but taking care of business...

Blessings and happy sewing!  

Marie's Gatsby Dress

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For The Great Gatsby premier in early January 2013 (the premier date has been recently updated from December 2012 - the movie is currently in post production), Marie chose a McCall's 1925 autumn dress from my collection of antique and vintage patterns. For the slip she chose a matte lavender satin, and for the dress a vintage print sheer crepe (this was quite a lucky find, and as I pointed out in the previous post, the width of the crepe was 39", the standard width for fabric in the 1920s). Finally, the orange "sapphire" buttons used for the cuff and neck closures are vintage Bakelite.  

Marie's dress is in the traditional tunic-style of the era, snug at the hip and loose on the upper torso. The bodice/shirt of dress illustrates the chinoise chic or Asian influence prevalent in mid to late 1920s fashion design, as does the stylized poppy flowers in the print. Despite the delicate nature of the crepe (I was a little worried and very careful!), the dress came together well and drapes beautifully. What do you think? 

~A close up of the crepe~

Later this week I will begin constructing my Gatsby dress - I believe I have found the dark plum and bone color linens that I will need to make the pleated skirt. I just have to get my derriere to the fabric store with a swatch of the bodice fabric and match it up to be sure. 

In the meantime, my friends, blessings and happy sewing!