Fashion by Mayhem meets J.Crew

On February 26th, 2014, a little girl making paper dresses exploded onto the internet. On February 27th, I joined instagram purely so that I could follow her mom's account and watch this little one's creative journey. It's been really fun to watch her creations grow over the past year, and especially delightful to see her get her first sewing machine! (She's starting out even younger than I did, folks!)

But now comes the craziest news of all - Mayhem has her own label at J.Crew! I'm tremendously excited to see what the line has to offer (coming Summer 2015) and whether there will be anything I can afford to get for my niece.

In a world where parents can so easily exploit their kids, it is important to be cautious about what we give our virtual attention to. But everything I have seen from Angie and Mayhem indicates that Mama and Papa are working hard to give their daughter a normal childhood. Which would be difficult anyhow, since Mayhem (a nickname) has food allergies even more severe than my own! But nonetheless, food and fame aside, they seem to be very dedicated to letting her remain a kid. Angie has stated more than once that if anything of the fame stuff stresses her or Mayhem out, they don't do it, period. The dresses are first and foremost about fun and mother/daughter bonding. The fame is just a side effect. And that's how it should be, folks.

Designs in White

Hello faithful followers who are still checking my pages! I've been out of commission for quite some time due to a trip to Louisiana that got a lot crazier than expected.

I'm starting to miss my sewing room and my fabric stash quite a lot, but I've been staying textile happy by playing around with Doll Divine - it's about the most I'm up to anyhow. Since we're down south for a wedding, I have (naturally) been inspired to create wedding designs. It's a fun way to stretch the capacity of each dollmaker, by creating variation with texture and layers, rather than color.

First off, the four dresses of Westeros. Influences of Tyrell, Stark, Lannister and Targaryn. 

The Lord of the Rings designs were my first in this exercise. I just started playing around with variations of white dresses and then it became wedding dresses... try as I did to keep everything white, I couldn't resist the red flowers in the Hobbit gown. (Which is one of my husband's favorites in this line-up, incidentally.)

Here I deliberately went more Elizabethan/Tudor "inspired" rather than "accurate." I wanted to design gowns that would be wearable today without seeming too much like cosplay. In other words, a bride could wear one of these gowns, but her groom wouldn't look out of place next to her if he wore a tuxedo. I actually really like the middle right one... it is totally not historically accurate in any way, but still very Elizabethan evocative. And honestly, it's still more accurate than most of the dresses on "Reign."

A Tale of Three Sisters and their Wardrobes

Finally "Once Upon a Time" brought us some more insight into Ingrid's past. Like with most of their villains, it is a deeply sympathetic one. But that's another story. Today's post is about the three princesses of Arendelle's choices in pastel dresses.

I must say, the three dresses worn in the kite scene were probably my favorite. They were the most grounded in historical influences, pretty and innocent and childlike, with enough frills and texture to befit their royal status.

I was less enthusiastic about the party dresses. Pretty, but lacking uniqueness or originality, and looking just a trifle too juvenile for the maturity of the actresses. Plus, Ingrid's blouse and skirt combination looked absolutely horrible on her.

Helga and Gerda have gorgeous cloaks, that unfortunately reveal nothing of the outfits underneath. (we see a few tantalizing glimpses in Gerda's scene with the trolls later). Ingrid, meanwhile, stays in drab colors with a horrifyingly ugly dress that does not flatter her at all. I can only hope that they were deliberately trying to cast her as the "awkward ugly spinster sister" because it is painful to think that anyone thought this was a good look for Elizabeth Mitchell.

All About Belle

In Once Upon a Time: Family Business (2.4) we got not one, but four new fairy tale outfits for Belle, plus one for her mother! 

I was unable to find a good photo of the new blue bodice, but this gif is decent. It's basically the same as her original blue dress, just with more princess-y embellishments.

Alas, no good photos of her frilly nightgown!

From Midstorm's Tumblr

OUAT is kind of known for awesome cloaks, but to be honest, it's refreshing to have a different sort of outerwear make an appearance. Belle's coat with capelet is certainly more practical for mountain climbing!

From TryingToFindTallahasee's tumblr

Perhaps most exciting was the lavender gown worn by Belle's mother. It is made in the style of the late 1700's, which is when the movie really should take place. A most delightful historical homage!

From Hope2X's tumblr

From Spottytonguedog's tumblr

I much enjoyed seeing Belle in a similarly historical gown, but was uncertain about the texture of cloth they chose for the light blue. It just seemed weird to me.

While it's fun to see different variations of Belle's blue gown, I do wish we could see OUAT interpretations of her pink and green gowns.

Inbox will be attended to soon! Plus, Little Dresses

If I continue to improve, I should be getting those promised e-mails out tomorrow. Meanwhile, a peek at what I've been doing to recuperate... small projects for small stamina!

I like making Barbie dresses because the time and money investment is so little, that I can indulge in some pretty dressmaking for "myself" without it detracting from my paid commissions. I don't get much chance to make full-size costumes for my own use these days!

This was made with the "c" view on this Vintage Paris pattern. I actually thought I was making the green "e" dress, which looked an awful lot like a "c" when I printed it out. #lowercase problems. So anyhow, that's why the shoulders really aren't right, this dress wasn't made to work with heavy fabrics (even this very light velvet).

However, it still turned out cool-looking.

Then I was going through my pattern box and discovered this renaissance barbie dress from McCall's that I had cut out years ago but never sewn. Cutting out is my least favorite part of a project, so I was thrilled to only have to sew this one! 

Doesn't she look like a proper Juliet? And although Anne Shirley might disagree, I think her red hair goes very well with the pink brocade!

Halloween through the years.

Costumes have always been big in my family. My sister and I will don them at the slightest invitation, and sometimes just for random photoshoots. So, as you can imagine, we've always enjoyed Halloween. 

I blame my parents for the beginning. I mean, yes, it's a banana, but a pretty cute one, if I do say so myself!

Then began my obsession with Robin Hood. My brother and I wanted to go as Robin Hood and Maid Marian from the Disney version, so my parents had to figure out how to make us look like foxes. I think they succeeded!

Star Wars was a bit easier to pull off, even if my hair barely made it up into tiny buns and my sister needed another galactic princess invented for her. 

My sister's birthday falls just five days before Halloween, so we've had more than a few costume birthdays for her. This was the year she wanted us all to dress up as a decade from the 20th century. She was the 50's, I was the 70's. (My parents even dressed up for that one, but I'm going to spare them the internet fame here).

And this was us dressing up for the harvest festival at church. She was a crazy artist, I was Agatha Heterodyne from Girl Genius. No one knew who I was, of course, but I still felt cool.

And this year? Well, you'll just have to check back tomorrow to find out! 

Most Popular Halloween Costumes, by State

An interesting map popped up on my Facebook Feed today.

See full image here

Lest you puzzle too much over why three states are obsessed with banana costumes, let me show you what I wore for my first trick-or-treating in Minnesota.

Me, not quite 2-years-old.