Back from Conference

At the Harlequin book signing event.

The Writing
I've just returned from the Romance Writers of American National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, energized and ready to write. I think the most valuable thing I took from this conference--other than a warm glow from meeting up with friends and professionals in the writing industry that I see once a year, and attending the awesome Harlequin party--was the feeling that I'm ready to stretch my wings a little. I'm going to try some free writing with no particular audience in mind and see where it takes me. And I'm also going to work on the book due in September because time is slipping away. As I see it, I have at least three weeks of solid writing before I have to think about getting ready for the school year, and I plan on those weeks being productive.

The Sewing
I only took one dress that I made to conference. I had mighty plans to bring several, but due to many circumstances, most of which had to do with me
messing up, I only had one dress and jacket that felt conference worthy.

I made New Look 6514 out of an Italian cotton remnant I brought at Britex in San Francisco and lined it in poly cotton. The cotton was wonderful to work with, but it did tend to wrinkle easily, so I packed a can of spray sizing for the trip. Problem solved, even if the can added quite a bit of weight to an already heavy suitcase.

The construction of this dress was very straight forward. I cut the bodice pieces out separately so that I could match the design across the front and back. I'm especially pleased with the back--there's a zipper in there!

The zipper installation is different that any I've done before. The center back seam is not basted shut. The right hand side of the dress is pressed under 1/2 inch and the zipper is sewn to the fold.

The left side is done is two steps--one below the waist and one above.

Here's the below the waist area. I used tape to mark the stitch line and top stitched on the outside.

Then I did the same for the bodice.

I just love cellophane tape.

Instead of facings I fully lined the dress. I didn't want to make facings on top of the lining, due to bulk, so I cut facings out of fusible interfacing and fused them to the bodice lining:

I accidentally got the perfect amount of stability using this method. Yay! 

And now the reveal! Here I am in my natural habitat, where I wouldn't normally wear a white cotton dress:

And guess what? I'm going all matchy-matchy. Yes. I'm carrying a patent purse with patent shoes because I've decided that I like matching.

This is the red jacket I made out of the fabric I'd bought to make a different jacket.

 I didn't wear the jacket at Nationals. It will be the subject of a future blog--The Tale of Two Red Jackets.

I'd like to mention that my skirt is suitably poofy due to the layer cake crinoline I made using Gertie's excellent instructions which you can find here.

It really does a nice job of giving the skirt some body. I did discover, though, that if one uses poly organdy, one should wear another slip under it. Poly organdy is not skin friendly.

And here I am at conference in my dress. I wish my camera would have cooperated, but it didn't. You probably get the idea, though.

An lastly, this has nothing to do with this post, but this is the cute and fearless little night hawk that sleeps on my husband's folded lawn chair during the day. I just love him.

Survived the Deadlines and Ready to Sew!

I'm see a trend here--when deadline approaches, I disappear for three weeks. I guess that's the price I pay for not figuring things out until the last minute. This time I had a double deadline--the revisions for Cowgirl in High Heels were due on May 27th, followed one week later by the first three chapters of my next book. I pushed send on the chapters today and now I can relax my brain for a few days.

In addition to double deadlines a week apart, the last day of the school year was last Friday--for some reason I always have a major deadline when school ends, just to add to the general chaos, I guess. It was a crazy few weeks--in fact most of May was a blur, but now the summer stretches before me with no immediate deadlines and no students. I, of course, think that I can write at least four books and plow through my sewing stash in that time. Summer lasts forever, right?

I'll be thrilled, however, to finish the book I just started and perhaps make a dent in my sewing stash, which is getting out of control. In fact, I've decided to commit to finishing at least six projects I have on hand before buying any more patterns or fabric. I've even picked out my first three projects:

Vintage Vogue 1136 which I'm making out of red and black rayon challis (dress) and red crepe (jacket). I've already made a muslin of the dress, which fit well, and I'm going to assume that the jacket will fit, too. Don't those sound like famous last words?

Vintage Vogue 2787 out of black and white charmeuse. I have long black gloves and a great black hat, so I'm set once I get this made.

New Look 6514--I'm very excited to tackle this one. My daughter bought me some Italian cotton at Britex and it's gorgeous!

I noticed that the red crepe for the Vogue 1136 jacket matches the color pallete nicely. I don't think the 1940s style jacket is going to work with the New Look pattern, but you never know. And perhaps I can squeeze two jackets out of the crepe.

Now that should keep me busy for at least a week, right? That and writing those four books. Summer stretches on....