Speaking of Zippers

I'm still fooling around with the Geranium Dress and it is such a mess because all my zippers were all over the place. I just had them rubber banded by color in a box. Other ideas for storing zippers, or so I've read are:
on a tie rack,
in a binder, or
ziploc bags.

 My sewing room is my laundry room/pantry, and I'm squeezed in pretty tight, so the space is limited.

This pic on The Domestic Diva's Disasters by Teresa Franco inspired me.
 (link doesn't work, but you can kind of get the idea by the picture.) 

Using safety pins to bunch up the zipper, and thumb tacks to hang them on the wall. 

Time to use my cheap big brain.

I liked the safety pin route because I've got a billion of those.
 I don't have the wall space to hang them up but I do have a window.

For a split second I thought I could string some cord across and have some zipper bunting in the my window.

I scout around the house looking for ideas and looks like besides safety pins, I have a plethora of curtain rods. I've uses a tension rod so I didn't need any hardware.

Pics look funky because I have a cheap camera, and you wouldn't believe how hard it is to take a picture facing a sunny window.

Besides safety pins, and curtain rods, I have paper clips I bought in a clearance basket somewhere because I had a fantasy about paper clipping knitting patterns, and bills, and letters.

I bent the paper clip like this:

Threaded the clip through the little hole in the safety pin, and then "hooked" them on the curtain rod.

I labelled my invisible zippers with masking tape.

It certainly does the job.
Believe it or not, its pretty fun to look up and see this zipper rainbow. 

 

Makes me want sew everything with zippers.

 I'm digging it.

Zipper-de-do Instead of Buttons

I have been wanting to make The Geranium Dress by Made by Rae for awhile. It's simple and cute, and sort of reminds me of this vintage pattern I have:

I love vintage patterns for a number of reasons. I like looking at the price most of all. 85 cents?! 

Did you notice the Goodwill price sticker? 49 cents. 

But Goodwill, and vintage patterns shall be left for another post entirely.

The Geranium Dress I love. The options, blah-blah-blah. We've heard it. 

The only thing I don't like was that the pattern calls for buttons.  

I'm not good at button holes, I'm not good at placement, I'm not good at sewing them on. 

I found lots of different tutes that go from zippers to buttons. Not so much the other way around. 

And I didn't really need a whole tute, I just wanted confirmation if adding a zip in my way was going to work before wasting materials.

Ah-ha! I'll take some pictures while I make a muslin! 

*This is by no means a tutorial on anything, but just what I did.

If it helps you, then that's awesome!

My bodice pieces are red cordouroy. 

The floral is yard-sale fabric which are the bodice lining pieces, as well as the skirt piece.

 

And this was the first pic I took because I forgot I was going to document anything! DOH! 

What I did was take the Back Bodice piece and draw a line straight through the button hole placements. I added a 1/2in to that line for my Seam Allowance. I cut out 2 pieces each, fabric and lining.

I'm using an invisible zipper, so before sewing any pieces together, I attached the zipper. 

These tutorials helped me once upon time: ProfessorPincushion, Craftovison

Whee! Sewing around the neckline. 

Confession: I am a sloppy and lazy pattern cutter-outer. 

See the 1/4in difference in the lining fabric and outside fabric? Just ignore it.

And I didn't use the pattern to trace the neckline cutout either! :/

Pattern markings? What's that?

Wrong side of the neck before trimming and pressing.

Right side of the back bodice, w/ lining pressed under.

This is the lining. 

Well, I serged too soon, and too much. 

But that's okay, it's a muslin, and it's on the inside.

Folded the lining about a 1/4in, then hand stitched it to the zipper tape.

One side done.

Finished lining. Neat and clean.

Outiside invisible zip. 

This is the inside of the completed muslin. I made the bodice lining pieces longer so they would cover up the skirt seam. Then just serged the lining edges. I didn't want to have to hand sew them down.

The armholes are bound in bias tape, hand stitched on the inside. (Okay, my bias tape used to be curtains or napkins or something, it was the only yellow I had.)

This was a size 6. 

The skirt doesn't flare out, and is very straight because I used a left over piece of fabric.

I was able to gather it a little bit, but not too much. It has no pockets, and only a back seam.

I can't wait to make another one, just have to narrow done my fabric choices!

Another muslin:
( The bodice was a vintage dinner napkin. )

Back:

 

Invisible zip:

And the bodice lining was a vintage curtain:

Off to find more fabric!

Mantis, Mantes, Mantises

Having any kind of plant growth in your yard means you're going to be home to lots of little critters. And when you have a garden, your door is open a lot wider for things like this:

Back yard nature at it's best with that one. Does anyone know who those eggs belong too?

I let them out of the jar after their photo shoot, so don't worry. 

My favorite thing to find in the yard has got to be a Praying Mantis.

It's really special to spot them, and scoot them back to the grass.

And then find them when they're gigantic, l O O king at you for crashing through their home.

So cool. 

Guess the Silhouette Contest Winner!!

See original contest post here. 

Whoopee-do! I hope this was as fun for you as it was for me. 

And the winner is..Sophia M !

Congrats! You have until September 17, 2013 to claim your prize.

Thank You everybody for playing!

Answers:

My fabric design was my based on my interpretation of things that could be made into yarn.

1. Alpaca
2. Camel
3.Hemp
4.Soy
5. Angora Rabbit
6. Angora Goat Horns
7. Llama
8. Rayon
9. Bamboo
10. Cotton
11. Qiviut/Musk Ox Horns
12. Wool
13. Bison Horns
14. Flax Plant
15. Silk Moth
16.Yak Horns