spring spring spring!

"Spring is the time of plans and projects." -Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Hello hello!

As you may have noticed, it's been pretty quiet around here lately.  Two possible explanations would be that I have been traveling the world on a secret mission and had to maintain radio silence, or that I have been trapped in a time-space continuum paradox and had to avoid contaminating the timeline.  However, neither of those explanations is actually the case.  It's just that in the winter, I can't stay awake past about 9:30 at night.  The sun goes down and I can't resist the siren song of my warm, cozy bed.  Now that we're well into spring, though, I have a lot more energy and I'm hoping to get back to posting more regularly.  Really.  I am.  In the meantime, though, I've been posting relatively frequently on Instagram!  I'm JulieRoseSews over there, too.

Here are a few of the pictures I've posted over there lately, to give you an idea of what I've been up to.

One of my favorite thing about spring is seeing all the flowering trees.  My walk to and from the train to work has been beautiful for the past couple of weeks!

I went home to my mom's house for Easter, and the daffodils that my dad planted a few years ago have spread throughout the whole yard.  It was wonderful to see these cheery signs of spring that he planted.


Bucky and Cocoa remain cats of leisure.


I'm still knitting hexipuffs for my busy bee blanket!  I knit this little guy out of Koigu KPPM with thin stripes of Claudia's Handpainted Yarn.  Ridiculously, this is the first striped thing that I've ever knit.


I've also been trying out some art journaling.  This spread was inspired by the lyrics from this song by Of Monsters and Men.  I think everybody feels like that sometimes-- like their internal world is moving at a wildly different speed than the external world.


Another journal page, which is kinda-sorta a self-portrait.


I started on a project I've been wanting to tackle since I moved into my apartment-- sewing new slipcovers for my two living room chairs.  My original plan had been to use the old slipcovers (not pictured) as a pattern, but the more I looked at them, the more I realized that they were probably just sewn as a one-off, with lots of weird little darts and tucks and oddly placed seams to make them fit onto the chairs.  I decided to drape my own muslin pattern instead, and I'm really glad I did.  (Friends who sew:  yes, I totally did fix that bit of sagging and pulling on the back panel.  It lays nice and smoothly now.)  I washed my fabric this afternoon, all 8 1/2 yards of it, and tomorrow I'm going to begin cutting and sewing!  Yay!


Last but not least, Bucky would like you all to know that he works very hard and needs lots of naps.  After all, he and Cocoa helped me drape the new slipcovers.  It's no small task for them to make sure to plop themselves exactly where I am trying to pin or mark at any given time.

I hope you're all doing spectacularly well and enjoying this beautiful spring weather-- finally!  Hooray!

♥

introducing...

well, hello there darlings.  today is the first installment of a new feature called 'one pretty thing,' where I'll share one of my favorite possessions with you and give you a peek into my home and my workspace!

today I'd like you to meet my little green squirrel.  I got this little guy a few weeks ago I think he's such a cutie!  I love how it looks like a tiny shaped hedge, or a stone sculpture covered in moss.

when I'm sewing, he lives on the windowsill of my craft room, but the rest of the time he stays right on my sewing machine. 

right now I'm making a dress from a beautiful vintage silk dupioni that my dad chose for me at an estate sale a few years ago-- it's almost finished, so you'll be seeing it soon!  

are you working on any fashion or craft adventures?

♥

leather and gingham and ribbons, oh my!

Today I turned in my last garment of my FIT career!

This is the dress for my leather class that I mentioned yesterday.  

The bodice is a beautiful, soft, deep brown leather, and the skirt is cranberry and white gingham seersucker cotton.  It has an exposed gold zipper down the front, with cranberry zipper tapes, and the straps are looped through gold grommets.

The back of the dress has cute bows where the straps loop through the grommets.

This is one of my favorite garments I've made this semester-- it's very comfortable to wear, and since the skirt is so full (160 inches at the hem!) and is supported by a separate crinoline, it moves in a fun, flirty way.  When I run down the millions of escalators at FIT, it billows a bit, fulfilling one of my life-long goals...

...running/gliding down stairs like Cinderella.

Yesssss!

In other news, even though there won't be any new school garments to show, I'll have something exciting to share with you after tomorrow afternoon.  Yay!  In addition, my b-e-a-utiful cousin Kaleigh has agreed to model my garments for me, so there will be some pretty pictures coming soon-- I found the perfect place for the photoshoot, I'm really excited about it.

I'm so mysterious today!  But not to worry.  All will be reveeeealed.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

♥

curiouser and curiouser

Hi lovelies!
Just a few school updates I wanted to share with you...


My illustration work was chosen to be displayed in the FIT Museum!  Each of the approximately 200 seniors graduating in Fashion Design prepared a two-page spread as an overview of one of our portfolio collections from seventh semester, then thirty were chosen to represent the Fashion Design BFA program.

Here's mine!  We weren't told ahead of time if our work was picked, so I had the fun surprise of walking by the display and realizing I was looking at my own designs!  If you're in New York, you can see it in person, along with a lot of other beautiful work by graduating seniors in a variety of majors, on display on campus.  

eyes, why won't you stay open for photos?
this, people.  this is why I don't have an actual fashion blog.

I also finished my third look for my senior collection-- a double-layered embroidered silk taffeta skirt, with a separate crinoline, and a stretch cotton jersey top in a soft heathered gray.

I really love this look, it makes me feel like Alice from Alice in Wonderland.  

And the skirt makes a very satisfying rustling sound when I twirl around in it.

Now all I have left to do is finish up my last dress for my leather class!  It's soooo lovely to work on, the leather is buttery-soft and thick and pebbled, it's gorgeous.  And while we're at it, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge my sewing machine!  From my first garment at FIT to this, my last one, my darling 1973 Singer has never let me down.  Yay!

I hope you're having a wonderful week!

p.s.  Lexie, over at Pieces of Wonderful, is having a giveaway to celebrate the one-year birthday of her blog!  Having been partners with her in our two-person craft exchange, I promise you that the things she makes are absolutely adorable and you should definitely enter her giveaway before it ends on May 21st!

♥

utility pinafore

I finished the leather pinafore a few weeks ago!

for newer readers, the leather pinafore started out as this enormous jacket from Goodwill.   Earlier this week, the finished garment was shown at a conference on sustainability at my school as a reclaimed garment!  yay!

so many pockets!  it's great for sewing and crafts because there's a place for everything-- bobbins, chalk, scissors, tracing wheel, anything!

And here's the back!  The adjustable waist tabs are actually the sleeve tabs from the jacket.  

I feel the need to add that Rikki asked to try it on, there was no coercion involved.

Aaaand here are my friends Rikki and Brittany.  The hilarity of this class...

Have you finished any projects lately?

♥

bon week-end ♥

On Sunday I went on a walk to do some errands...

These beautiful ornamental pear trees are blooming all over the city.  I love them!  So pretty!

...including picking up macarons...

chocolate, french riviera, and strawberry thyme

and then I came home and sewed for the rest of the day.

Except when I was taking breaks to nibble the macarons.

one of my errands was getting that yarn!  yarn-getting errands are ok with me.
also, the chocolate macaron was delicious.  the strawberry thyme one was, too.
the french riviera one?  not so much.  although to be fair, I'm not sure what it was supposed to taste like because I bought it strictly based on prettiness.

And this morning in my senior collection class, I got to see the results of my weekend-of-sewing.

including the two back panels (already finished), the bodice of this dress has 60 rows of fluting.

This was the single most time-consuming element of my entire senior collection, so progress should be much quicker now!  Yay!

I hope your week started off well too, and that you have a lovely Monday evening!

♥

senior collection updaaate! ♥

Hi there lovelies!

Just a little update on how my senior collection is coming along...

Today we had our first model fitting.  We were able to put our pieces, in either fabric or muslin, or a combination of the two, on three sweet and beautiful models to test the fit.  It was so exciting!  My fitting went well-- my pants need a few adjustments, but that isn't too surprising considering that they'll be worn by a real, live person after being draped on a stationary dress form.  One piece that really came to life on the model was my burgundy-and-white gingham dress, the one that will be fluted at the bust and has a full skirt.  I made the crinoline (an underskirt made of stiff netting, to give the skirt lots of body) and attached it to the outer fabric over the weekend, and it looked just how I hoped it would-- full, flouncy, and fun!   I made another muslin of the sweater out of a fleece blanket the same weight as my sweater-knit so that I could make any fitting adjustments, too, and now I'm ready to sew of the pieces in their final fabrics!  Yay!

Here's the original design illustration from my portfolio.

To go along with all the senior collection festivities, I'm offering a special promotion in my Etsy shop.  Enter the code 'SENIORCOLLECTION' at checkout to receive 20% off your entire order.

Are you working on a fun, creative project?  I'd love to hear about it!

It's always great to read the words of people who love their art.

to read more about my senior collection, check out this post.

♥

music to sew by

♥

Still sewing the day away in my sunny little room.
Here's what I'm listening to.

(just press play to listen)

hope everyone's having a cozy, relaxing Sunday!
♥

weekend plans

This weekend will consist of...

countless cups of tea...

lots and lots of sewing...

and sunshine-y napping.

What are you doing this weekend?

1.2.3
I can't quite decipher the watermark on the teacup photo to link to the original source.  if you're able to, pretty please let me know?

♥

lovely leather

It's basically required by law that I start a blog post about leather with this video.

So now that we've got that taken care of, today I went to Global Leather with my leather apparel class.

I've never considered myself much of a leather person, but there were so many gorgeous colors and textures that it would have been impossible for anyone not to find something they loved.

Naturally, I was magnetically drawn toward the pink section...

This basketweave-embossed leather was beautiful, but....

...this bit of loveliness stole my heart.  Isn't it incredible?  I'm going back tomorrow to purchase this for the bodice of a dress I'll be making next.

Here's a close-up-- look at the detail on the acorn!  I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted this on a back shelf.

Meanwhile, I'm finishing up my utility pinafore.  I finished the pattern and cut and all the seams are taped, so all I have left to do are two buttonholes and the actual stitching, along with reshaping the pocket linings.

The seam edges are all scalloped-- isn't it fun?  My professor has kindly let me borrow her scallop-edge pinking shears for this project.  They are definitely on my list of things to purchase-- in fact, I'm not sure how I went this long without knowing about them.

I have a lot of school projects going on at the moment, but I'm so excited about all of them!

Are you working on anything exciting?

♥

bubblegum barbie

One of my projects this semester was a tailored wool coat.

I've been affectionately referring to it as my Bubblegum Barbie coat because it reminds me so much of something a 1960s stewardess Barbie would wear.  I actually shortened mine by nine and a half inches from the pattern our professor gave us-- a straight, below-the-knee coat just isn't something that has a place in my wardrobe.  It would smoosh all of my twirly dresses.  But I love it at this length!  It's hard to tell when it's on the dressform, but the shortened version of the coat has a cute little balmacaan shape, it's much less boxy when it's on a real life person.

As for the 'bubblegum' aspect...

The lining is bubblegum pink!  I'll probably wear it with the sleeves cuffed like this because, being 5'7", long sleeves tend to stop about an inch short of my wrist, which is just really awkward-looking.  So 3/4 sleeves it is.  The whole coat is so comfortable, it's made of a slightly felted wool, so it has a nice spongy feeling.  (Ew, I never noticed what a gross word spongy is.  Spongy.  Sponnnnngy.)  Oh, and then there's my favorite part of all...

Are these not the cutest  buttons ever?  There may have been grabby-hands made when I saw them in M&J.  Luckily I had a very tolerant professor who didn't mind that they are definitely not the kind or size of buttons he told us to get.  I just adjusted the buttonhole size, moved them over an extra eighth of an inch from the end of the lapel, and tah-dah!  Flowery goodness.

♥

that special time of year...

from here, via little chief honeybee

     That little picture?  It is 100% accurate.  But it is finals time, so the sleeping part?  Not so much, although I'm not anticipating having to pull any major all-nighters.  Plus side of being a senior in college:  learning that procrastination does not work for you and sacrificing a social life for sanity.  And anyway, I love everything I'm working on.  two girls from my portfolio fall/winter collection...

One of the seams of the bicycle-print raincoat I'm making for my outerwear patternmaking class-- isn't it cute?

I especially like the tricycles...

...and the unicycles!

And one of the welt pockets on my woolly blue coat for tailoring...

Surprise! It's lined in bubble-gum pink!

So that's what I'm working on!  Blog posts might be a little scarce for the next few weeks while I finish up my second-to-last semester ever.  Ooooooh.

How are your finals going?

♥