Gah, July!

Gah. where do I begin? I promised myself to blog at least TWICE a month and where did that get me? I have no other excuse other than I have been, as Americans would call it, "crazy busy." 


Let's see, I made more of those striped Maxi dresses for friends: 

Then I attempted to make a skirt with a bunch of cotton scarves that I got on sale:

I kinda wasn't feeling it, so I shelved the project for another day. Do you know why? Because my wonderful  mother distracted me with this:

She got me 4.5 meters of this staggeringly beautiful blue grey embroidered Indian silk. I want to do a tunic with it, nothing complicated with so many darts and tucks that I have to distort the beautiful embroidery on this fabric. I am, however, doing some more beading on it and it's so much fun. I'm using gold metal beads (not metallic beads, real metal beads. I'm so happy I found some.)


While I was beading, I also decided to make a wearable muslin of the tunic I want to make out of the Indian silk. I made it and my mother loved it so much, she claimed it. >D I will take in the sides a little bit and maybe add darts (maybe) at the back for the next version. My mom was happy with the first one, I'm not complaining. 

Self-drafted, 100% cotton.

Most of all, my time has been taken up by this little boy: 

I wake up to this everyday and I love it. 

And because there's nothing sadder than a Tropical Goth...

... I have decided to sink into the very depths of despair by crocheting a gigantic wool blanket during the most hellish time of the year. There is no sign of rain and you can fry an egg on the sidewalk.


Also stopped all sewing because I remembered it was Mother's Day in a couple of weeks. So this blanket will be hers. Happy Mother's Day, Mommy! <3

Black, red and the multi-dimensional shade of innards. (Knitpick's Wool of the Andes in Coal, Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Iron Ore and Noro Kureyon Shade #124)

Quick Update!

Summer is really here and the heat is depressing me, so I decided to make something summery without resorting to floral prints and bright colors. I got bored last night and made this dress:

Black and white striped stretch and a wide wide black garter. The total time it took to make this dress is about three hours. That includes drafting, cutting and sewing. It's so easy! I'm kinda thinking about making it a downloadable pattern. What do you think?

EMBROIDERY IS DONE!

Mwahahaha!

And here's a couple of mostly unflattering behind the scenes photos. No makeup, hair unbrushed, no dignity:

Stitching while watching North by Northwest. Yahoo.

Taking a Connor break!

He is the one I love the most.

Sewing the tunic is gonna happen tomorrow, bright and early. Hurray! Can't wait.

Almost DONE!

The embroidery for Mom's summer tunic is almost DONE! I can't wait to see this thing on an actual body (before summer ends too) I do miss the sound of my industrial machine. While I am enjoying doing all this hand embroidery, I also want to get some actual sewing done. I have so many projects in line and I want to finish them all before the 20th of June (my birthday). I just want CLOTHES, demmet! 

Cotton Silk Blend (70/30) from Fabric Warehouse in Natural, DMC Rayon Floss in different colors, my largest embroidery hoop and size 26 DMC Tapestry needles.

This is why I'm taking a while. Try doing some hand-embroidery with this cheeky monkey on your back. Hee.


In other news, I really need to do something about my hair. Hmm.

Quick Outift Post

Cebu was fantastic! We really enjoyed it there. The food was wonderful and the people were so nice. We did not meet a single bad cabdriver. BLISS.


This dress is what I pretty much wore while we were out (there was also the green Japanese fabric shirtdress, but I posted about that already) Glad I brought dresses because it was HOT over there. I don't think I would have survived the heat wearing jeans. 


These pictures show Connor and I where we love to be: Timezone and Red Mango Frozen Yogurt. 

Photobooth Picture from Timezone Cebu.

This is probably the loudest dress in my closet. This is probably the loudest dress I've ever owned. EVER. The contrasting collar is hot pink and the print is a combination of turquoise, pink and red. I fell in love with the fabric the second I saw it. It was so uncharacteristic of me to buy something so cheerful. So off it went to my seamstress for her to do another Red Cross uniform shirt-dress. I realize that with the sudden mushrooming of nursing schools in the country, this dress could resemble nursing school uniforms in terms of silhouette. I've seen several schools use white shirt-dresses as school uniforms with those large, hideous and translucent shank buttons. There was even a school that used red and white striped fabric, like a peppermint, for their uniforms. But with this print and contrasting fabric you cannot possibly mistake it for anything other than a loud loud button-down floral dress that's perfect for this summer heat.

I love my boys so much, it's making my heart hurt.

Off We Go!

Photo from Flickr via Google Images.

We are busy packing for Cebu! It's going to be our first vacation as a family in a long time. We're so excited about the sights, the food and seeing my parents of course. They recently bought a house and we can't wait to see it and stay there. There is also talk that we may be having a day trip to Bohol to see the Chocolate Hills. Pictures soon!