Valentine's Day dress, dinner, and DIY

It's finally here! The day I've been sewing and DIYing for! Valentine's Day. Here's me wearing the Cynthia Rowley Valentine's Day dress that I sewed last week.

Once dressed, I put the finishing touch on my decoupaged love letter box, spraying it with a matte varnish.

Now, all I have to do is make dinner. Here's what I'm making...

Sweetheart salad

(The hearts are cut from roasted beets. I can't think of a better Valentine's day food than beets -- I mean, they look like anatomically correct hearts with leaves growing out their tops.)

Steamed artichokes with tarragon butter

(Artichoke "hearts." Eh? Also, artichokes are one of Ryan's favorite things.)

Goat cheese ravioli with parsley sauce and lemony swiss chard

As for the night's soundtrack? 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields.

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Sewing a Valentine's Day Dress: Day Two

I finished the dress last night! I'm super pleased with it, and I can't wait to wear it on Monday! It was a good project for me, involving some skills I'm not too proficient in yet, such as making a lining, gathering, ironing fusible interfacing, making pockets, and putting in a zipper. Here are the photos of the finished project on my dress form, and I'll make sure to take some of me wearing it when I do.

Sewing a Valentine's Day Dress: Day One

Today I finally broke ground (sewing wise) on the Cynthia Rowley dress, which I'm now attempting to finish in time for Valentine's Day. I hadn't planned to make it a Valentine's Day dress, but I must have been in the mood when I picked out the fabric, because I realized the other day that it's perfect.

So, I waisted about an hour because I accidentally started sewing the wrong sleeves (the ones for a different pattern variation) and they were quite complicated with tucks and everything. See?

That was frustrating; I felt so stupid. But, once I got back on track, I was able to finish the whole bodice, which is fairly complicated and fully lined.

I'm going to try to make the bottom of it tomorrow, which shouldn't take nearly as much work as the top (although the zipper and pockets might prove a bit tricky). I can't wait to show you the finished project!

By the way, I'm not the only one excited about a new outfit for Valentine's Day! My dear friend, Sarah, just picked out a romper that she's super excited to wear.

Cynthia Rowley dress: getting started

All day, as I sat at my desk at work, I thought about wanting to come home and cut out patterns. I spent three hours doing so as soon as I got home and then spent the next three hour lying on my back because it was so sore. (I tend to get up momentum and then obsessively keep crafting long after I should probably take a break, eat, pee, etc.)

Anyway, here's my progress. (I did some adjusting the the size/shape of the hips on the Cynthia Rowley dress, so that's what the brown paper pattern pieces are.)

Sewing dresses!

Okay, I posted earlier how excited I was about buying The Party Dress Book by Mary Adams. Well, I've just bought two more sewing books, and I'm super excited about them too. The first is Twinkle Sews by Wenlan Chia

I thought I'd like it since I love all the Twinkle knitting books. Wenlan Chia always designs fun quirky chunky knits that are super fast to make and look great. I've made a lot of them, including this hat.

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The second book I bought is Built by Wendy Dresses by Wendy Mullin. It's incredible. It has three basic patterns with a ton of variations (and variations upon those variations) as well as some great sewing tips. I've bought the stuff to make three dresses from it and I can't wait to get started on them

I'm going to make the Lumberjack Dress and it's variation the Empress Dress.

I'm also going to make the Tea Dress. Isn't it gorgeous?

She suggest making the Empress Dress in Chinese red jacquard, but I want it to be a bit more subtle and more me, so I'm using this pale yellow instead.

For the other dresses, I'm using the fabric recommended (red and black buffalo plaid flannel for the Lumberjack dress and peach and black silk for the Tea Dress) because I think they look so cute that way. But I have plans to make other versions later with different fabric. I'm thinking of some bright yellow plaid for the Lumberjack Dress and perhaps blue velvet with a white collar for the Tea Dress.

I went to Hancock Fabrics today to buy supplies (that's where I got the jacquard), but they didn't have everything I needed, so I ordered some stuff from Mood. Here's what I'm waiting for...

Marc Jacobs "mango" charmeuse

buffalo plaid flannel

horn toggles for the Lumberjack dress

frogs for the Empress dress

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Since I can't start on those dresses until my order comes from Mood, I've got another project to hold me over.

I bought this awesome Cynthia Rowley pattern a while ago and I finally picked out fabric for it while at Hancock Fabrics today.

I'm making variation C (the one on the model). Aren't the exposed shoulders lovely. I saw something similar in Fendi's spring 2011 collection, but this is actually more my style.

Here's the fabric I'm going to make the dress out of.

The rosebud cotton is for the main part and the burgundy velvet is for the accent at the waist.

I'll keep you posted on all these projects. I hope you enjoy following along!