Blog sick leave and Happy Holidays!

Dear readers, my family is down with a flu and I am having a second one in a row, so please forgive me for light posting over these couple of weeks. While I will be uploading a couple of posts I have planned, I will resume regular schedule after the holidays.

Thank you for being part of my life this year 

and 

Happy Holidays!

Thursday inspiration: Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum

Words are redundant  for this post, dear readers. This is Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum:

The best thing is you can download the entire museum and explore the exhibit with a cup of tea or coffee and chocolate pralines until you are completely exhausted  of this beauty and craftsmanship!

Enjoy!

Strapless guipure dress: hidden details / Part 1

I promised you, dear readers, the innards of my guipure dress! Below, I am posting an image of a work-in-progress shell. This is pretty much how this dress left the workroom after the Couture Sewing School in Baltimore.What's missing and will be featured in another post is an inner foundation (corselet) and lining. Here, I wanted you to see details hidden in a finished dress.

If you click on the image you will see it somewhat larger - I had to keep the file reasonably small for the web.

I know some of you wanted to know more about the engineering of such a dress. I planned an in-detail post first, but then I thought I may as well let you speak - I truly enjoy the interaction with you and believe that sometimes it is more fun to change the how-to post format and make it more like a conversation.

So, this time it is your call - ask me any questions about the shell, lace, underlining - whatever you want to be explained on this image. I will then compile a Q&A in a new post. How does it sound?

 And, of course, follow-up posts on the corselet and the final assembly are in making!

(U).F.O. Party: Week 4... & last week's links!

Friends, here is this week's button to link up to your (U).F.O. posts! For newcomers, explanations are here.


Now, let's have a look at last week's accomplishments and we will start with a new star trooper on our starship, Lavender of threadsquare! She made her first pair of jeans - read more about it on her blog. By the way, while you are doing it, add her blog to your blogroll - Lavender is a(nother) Downton Abbey fan and is currently planning to test some early 20th century patterns. I am so looking forward for her updates on it!

Now, let's proceed to our starship commanding officer Devra of Puu's Door of Time. Yay, readers, I am not the only procrastinating sewer here! Look at her flying saucers! Not sure she has finished those two, but right now she is agonizing about Colette's Meringue skirt and Pastille dress, ha!

And yes, she is also a Downton Abbey fan! Now, I got to check Downton Abbey - if it is really so good there is a hope for my UFO pile! I just found out, actually, that as an Amazon Prime member I can watch Season 1 for free. I just need to finish watching first Law & Order episodes, and then...

Ok, fast forward to Rachel of House of Pinheiro, of course! Guess what, she has UFOs as well. I thought she finsihes everything she starts, but no, readers, this one is a good old UFO as we like them. Her initial post about this Chanel-style jacket dates back to September.

Sorry, Rachel, now you got to prove you can finish this one. Her deadline is this week, so let's see whether she can make it!

what about myself, readers? hmmm, I spent most of the week volunteering at my daughter's school, building gingerbread houses, and preparing the house for the upcoming holidays, cleaning, baking, de-cluttering... I don't know how about you, but I cannot sew in a cluttered environment - it just makes me nervous and inefficient.

enough of it, anyway! Good luck and productive sewing week, everyone! I am now off for a good night sleep! Tomorrow, tune in for the innards of my guipure lace dress - I got a game for you!

Winners of the "How much Fabric?" reference cards!

Dear readers, my children's school obligations and holiday preparations kept me from blogging and sewing last week. But here what I have for you today! Two lucky winners are getting the great 'How much fabric?' cards, offered by Gwen to the readers of Frabjous Couture. Congratulations, Isis and Joen! To claim your prize, please send an e-mail to Gwen at gwynhug(at)gmail(dot)com!

It was interesting to see that most of the commenters (and myself) tend to overbuy fabric to be on the safe side. I personally tend to round up to a full yard. Isis was one of the few who asks staff members or checks information in pattern books.

Isis: "I discuss it with someone who work in the store. They usually know pretty well how much fabric that is needed. Or flip through one of the patterns books and look for a similar model. I would love to have set 2."

Joen: "I generally buy 3 yards for a jacket (used to buy 2 but found I never had enough!!) 2 yards for pants or a dress. More yardage is added if the fabric is a narrower width the above usually works but I have been disappointed many time so the guide would be great to win!!! I would need Set 1 if I was the lucky winner."

In any case, I think these cards can help save some money (for extra fabric) or time!  A wise investment in the long run!

Thank you everyone for participating and if you want to treat yourself to these cards just in time for the holiday season, visit Gwen's website here. 

Finally, the random name picker to document all the entries:

Have a great week!