I'm Just a Little Crazy

A few months ago, I wrote that I was done with my huge batch of red outfits that I started last year.  That might not been the complete truth.

While I was cutting out the "Dial M For Murder" red lace dresses last year, there were a lot of leftover scraps.  Since one of my sewing goals is to use up all my fabric, I decided to make a bunch of different cocktail dresses with red lace bodices.

 

I ended up with 35 bodices.

 

Some dresses got white chiffon skirts, some red ones, I also made some of the dresses with tulle skirts.  I ended up with 13 different styles by the time I was done.  I had fun finding 13 dolls and 13 pairs of red or white shoes for the group shot.

 

 

This is a different version of style H.

Some of these styles are sold out.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these dresses click here.

 

Travilla's "Evita" Suit

Bill Travilla is one of my favorite Hollywood designers.  He is best known for designing for Marilyn Monroe.  I have recreated several of his costumes already and hope to make many more in the future.

This stylish suit was designed for the 1981 made-for-TV movie "Evita Peron", staring Faye Dunaway.  I never had the opportunity to see this movie and I couldn't find any pictures of it on the Internet, but his many sketches for this movie are wonderful.

I made a gray version of this suit too, I love how it turned out.

The "Frogs" are actually Lazy Daisy stitches.

photo by Maria Muljono

Maria gave me the idea of making the suit in gray.  The suit looks great on the Tonner dolls too.

I thought about making this suit in royal, forest green, and mustard wool.  I think it would look great in these colors, but I made ten red suits and five grey suits in this last batch and I am DONE.

If you are interested in purchasing this pattern, click here.

Jacques Fath Cocktail Suit

When I saw this suit in one of the 1955 editions of L'Officiel it was love at first sight. I loved the collar and original neckline. I loved the hat with the rose. I immediately started thinking of how I was going to make this beautiful suit for Gene.






The biggest challenge was finding the white fur. All the stores in my area only carry cheap looking white fur. I haven't had much luck finding fur on the internet either. When I went down to the "Hollywood Ahoy" convention one of my goals was to find some white fur in the garment district. I scored! The fur on my suit is a little fluffier that the fur in the original suit, but sometimes that happens when miniaturizing fashions.



For that same reason I wasn't able to make the cuffs look like they were pieced together. I tried, but the result was too bulky, and I didn't like effect.





The next challenge was finding the fabric for the suit. I really wanted to make the suit out of the same silk crepe I used to make this coat, I had loved working with this fabric, it was like butter. I loved the texture, and weight of it. Unfortunately, I found it in a grab-bag I had bought and it was all gone. I ended up making one suit out of a textured polyester crepe (my copy) and five others out of lighter weight black silk crepe.





The fur collar is attached to the suit with two hooks. The jacket could be worn without the collar for a different look. I need to take a picture of the jacket without the collar. The neckline is very lovely.





I changed Tornado's lip color again to match the rose on the hat. I am still thinking about repainting her lips. I really like her in red.



Oh La La in my copy made out of the textured crepe. I like this version too.






I hoped you enjoyed my saga of the suit. My next project is a suit from the film "Lucy Gallant".

Recent Commissions

I have done more commissions this year than any other year. Many of the commissions were outfits I had made years ago. It worked out well because I had never made myself a copy origially. So I made myself an outfit at the same time. Here are some of them.