kids kilt

my attempt at a child sized faux utili-kilt in stretch corduroy for my nephew

Halloween

Here is Terri looking bewitching (pun intended) in her Elphaba costume. I was a tad bit overwhelmed at first, its been a little while since I've worked from a picture. It turned out really well though and I can tell from her smile that she's stoked!

Jesa

Silk taffeta bridesmaids dress for an October wedding.

One more for Johanna

I am going to have to make one of these for myself once the work backlog has cleared a bit. It is my standard dress pattern; she wanted it to be a black dress with a pleated sleeve which has a white inset. I piped the hem, neckline and sleeves in the same subtle white on white stripe. The hem is faced which gives it an incredible weight and stiffness. Very much in line with structured details that have been all over the runways for fall. Girl knows her stuff and is going to look fabulous at the GLBT gala she is hosting later this month. I included a detailed pic of the sleeve, it turned out so much better than the first few sleeve samples I put together to test.

Autumnal colors

This is a skirt I made for Johanna. The green goddess is receiving an award and needed a great skirt for the presentation event.Her only requirements were that it had fall colors and a gold ruffle. I love the way this one turned out! I did a yoke skirt with smashed ruffles, the way they move and the sound of the rustling silk is evocative of autumn leaves rustling in the breeze. Very cute with some super high heeled mary janes and a simple black top.

fuzzy cape

Fuzzy cape I made to donate to the Auction
at Root Division on October 22nd. Root Division is a local resource for artists and the community. They provide classes for the public from the resident artists and they provide artists with the education and resources to grow art-based businesses. They provide a great service to artists and also to the community.
I wanted to make something versatile in the hopes that it will be an enticing auction piece. The inspiration I got was to make a cape for the upcoming cold weather. The great thing about this pattern is that it can fit just about anyone and it cna easily be dressed up or down. This was the softest fake fur I could find - it seriously feels like petting a kitten. I made the lining out of a black and white shot fabric that has the appearance of being gunmetal grey and it has a tie front made of black and white cording.

new shrugs

fall is coming, its time for a warm shrug! I have been working on a few lately, was storing them on my dress form and noticed that the three on top of each other makes a really cool looking lapel. The plum and filigree are for sale at retrofit on Valencia and 20th, along with some great new lace skirts for layering which you can also find on my etsy shop now with a convenient link from this page!

photoshoot from last April - Photographer is Tristan Crane

ribbon and lace capelet modeled by
Nina















Sari Fabric dress modeled by Catherine
She was given this fabric by an Indian friend in London years ago and it was in a box of fabric that she had given me - I had fun figuring out motif placement and matching on the bodice and the border made an awesome hem detail













Nina in a reproduction of a women's gown from 1911, I used the silhouette of the 1911 gown and used modern fabrics - the underlay and upper bodice are made of miami powermesh and the sleeves are made of powernet.













Catherine in a lace button-up blouse and gold basketweave brocade circle skirt with velvet box pleating and ribbon detail at hem

Romanesca

So I know this has nothing to do with anything else here, but I have to include this picture.
This is the craziest vegetable EVER!! It is fractals in a vegetable! If Mandelbrot genetically engineered a vegetable this is what it would look like. Its like watching a fractals special on PBS in your fridge!

Nicole's dress started out too long so I added channels and cording so it could be drawn up like draperies. I love the effect! I definitely will be using this idea again in future projects.

sheepdog coat

This is the sheepdog as vicious rug. I have been wanting to gut this thing for months and turn it into a hoody. it isn't quite hoodified yet but it has been gutted. It makes the cutest hood with a tongue hanging over the side of the wearers face and it makes a pretty good womens large jacket.

Swimming with the Fishies

So I found some old files today with a fish graphic I made in Illustrator last year. The first image is the black and white file I originally created, I copied the large one, scaled it down and reflected it to make a small school of angelfish.

The second image is the fish print that I printed directly on to an iridescent green/blue fabric

The third image is a long underbust corset I made with the printed fabric. The blue overlays are a water-patterned transparent plastic sheeting.

The Wedding dress that made it all better.....

Every time I sew a wedding dress I swear it will be the last one. I usually windup making slave wages in the end and am frustrated beyond belief with brides that aren't totally clear on what they want.

This one was fairly easy to make and Miranda was great to work with. She brought me the sad first attempt at a dress that someone else had tried to make.

Silk peu de soi does not make a good underlining those of you that are wondering. The first seamstress had used fusible interfacing on the silk for the foundation. The foundation was too small to fit the bride, although the outer dress zipped up just fine over the foundation. Ugh what a mess! Luckily the bride had purchased more than enough silk and I had a go at it - It took about 30 hours and worked a bit better with a cotton twill underlining and some light boning. She also wanted an outerskirt of flowered fabric which turned out so much better than I thought it would. I made it detachable and interlined it with silk organza.

Sunhat

This one is a pretty sunhat, another Lynn McMasters pattern. I wore it home the day I finished it and it was a bit windy in the city. The wind picked it up off my head and it turned into a really sweet frisbee. I got it home and covered it in a few yards of tulle which made it a bit less aerodynamic. It truly is an awesome sunhat - very dramatic and it offers shade all the way down to the waist. I wore it on a rare sunny day to Dolores park and got some great compliments. Mysterious is my middle name when I wear this hat......

This is a miniature version of a Lynn McMasters hat pattern. She makes the most amazingly detailed instructions for the patterns which include drawings and photos. I took her pattern for a Wellington hat and reduced it, made it of black buckram covered in lace and attached an adjustable plastic see-through strap to it so it stays on your head and its not terribly noticeable. Very saucy. The only drawback of the hat making experimentation was the amount of blood I lost through my fingertips. If I had one of those cool CSI flashlights that makes blood glow, the inside of this hat would lite up like christmas.

Snakeskin Pants

John wearing a pair of fabulous snakeskin brocade pants I made for him a couple of weeks ago

more Whisky marine

The light in the park was so magical - it was that point right before sunset where the light is impossibly bright and the colors look super saturated
This is Kalina the little bird person holding the sponge that Boticelli will later throw at the canvas to create "the birth of Venus" after he is done arguing with Davinci

Whisky Marine

This was another great project - It's a short film based on the surreal autobiography of Max Ernst

My challenge was to make bird-like costumes and also to make costumes based on paintings done by Max Ernst

Oh yeah, and in a bizarre twist I also acted in it - I was the eagle who gave birth to Max

Autumn from Photosphere was great to work with and the film turned out to be another project that I am really honored to have worked on

I know, I know Eagles shouldn't smoke - its bad for the feathers

Costume for a video production from 2006

This is work from a few years ago but it is one of the most amazing projects I have had the pleasure to work on. Uli Beuter has done some really powerful work and I miss her dearly. The project was called "White" and it was a conceptual piece about tyranny of the majority and identity and losing yourself in blending with the majority along with feminine vs masculine, and it was one of thos projects that could have hundreds of different messages depending on the framework around which it is viewed

I loved working on this costume and it still is one of the craziest pieces I've put together

Tina giving the thumbs up on her new dress.

She had purchased a dress while in Brooklyn for a wedding which was last weekend. She opened the box two weeks ago to discover that it was nothing like the dress she wanted - $270 for an unlined ill-fitting dress.

Its only saving grace is that the print is AWESOME!!!

I'm embarrassed for the person who attached their label to it

but it's all better now and she was able to get it back in time for the wedding

velvet ribbon detail on a dress I am working on.
I'm traditionally not a big fan of pale pink but with the black and white stripes it fits