lately...

...I've been working on a few different projects.

Drawing, checking out the non-headlining bands that will be at Pitchfork this summer (foxygen!)(as will I with several of my friends. super. psyched.), learning (er, trying to learn) HTML and CSS, and making my own Brooklyn quilt. Fun fact: quilting is one of the first ways that I learned to sew! Talk about being a cool kid. Also, my friend and her husband just had their first baby out in Seattle, which is somewhere between exciting and terrifying. We all just sent her this onesie to initiate her into our ol' shabbos-wine-drinking gang:



As part of my quilting process, I've recently gone on a binge of movies I meant to see in theaters last year, but never did. Handquilting is mostly busy work so having something to also watch/listen to is useful if I want to work for a few hours. I've mostly been Netflixing the smaller movies that fall into the sort of quirky-indie-romcom category: Ruby Sparks, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Five Year Engagement, Lola Versus, etc. (but there was also a day spent going down the rabbithole of watching old Arrested Development episodes, which is dangerous on Netflix because the next one just queues up right away). I would most strongly recommend Safety Not Guaranteed or The Five Year Engagement. Ruby Sparks was okay, as long as you don't have a viscerally angry reaction to movies with MPDG character types. Lola Versus has Greta Gerwig, who I love, and was written by the same team as Breaking Upwards (enjoyable / streaming on Netflix), but at times made me feel like I was watching an episode of Girls. Since I already have a strange love-hate relationship with Girls, it left me with a similarly ambivalent feeling.

Today is beautiful, though, so I'm going to go outside and not think about how yesterday it snowed all day and today it's 53 degrees. Then hopefully later my mom will actually get on a flight that takes off and brings her here, as opposed to yesterday when she spent all day at O'Hare including boarding two planes, one of which actually left the gate and got in line to take off before they were told to come back and the flight was canceled. Airlines are a confusing shitshow.

Halloween was fantastic...like a fox

Happy (belated) Halloween! I had a great time making my costume this year - everything from the dress to the accessories...it was like my own personal Project Runway challenge. I modified a sleeping eyemask to make the mask, covered a headband to make the ears, and made a large tail to match! The dress has a subtle polka dot pattern to mimic the dress in the new Wes Anderson movie, with the necklace to echo the red of her actual dress. If you haven't seen the trailer, check it out! The movie comes out around Thanksgiving, and I'm very excited.

Here it is...my very own Fantastic Mrs. Fox!

Most of the night I wore the mask flipped up like this, worn like a visor. It worked out great, because it still looks like a fox! You can't see it in these photos, but the belt is also holding on a tail.

I hung out with these finely dressed folks: (sexy) Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. I think they look lovely in this sepia filter:

Prior to our Halloween adventures, we made a pair of delicious pizzas! Yum!

Halloween was great - I went to a party at my friend's place in Williamsburg, and then we went off to a few places in Manhattan. We placed bets on what the most common costume sighting would be - I bet on Max from Where the Wild Things Are, and I saw 10! The big surprise of the night was how many gnomes we saw...never would have even guessed that one! And, a shocking lack of Michael Jacksons.

officially Fall

Happy first day of Fall! This really is my favorite season.

The whole time I was in Chicago, it was so nice and warm still - a welcome change from some of the coldness that NY had been experiencing. But now that I'm back in Brooklyn and it's "officially" fall, suddenly we're in a little spurt of warm weather. My wardrobe is super confused.

Also while I was just at home in Chicago, I gave out these latest projects of mine to some of my favorite summer birthday girls:

^ for Ali (I made myself almost exactly the same one, too)

^ for Eve, perfect for her "law school wardrobe" color scheme

These have been a great way to go through some of my old fabric, which continues to pile up in every apartment I have. It's all bits and pieces (on rare occasion do I actually have leftover yardage, such as the print on this dress), but clearly they can be re-used so I'll never actually throw anything out! Such is the life of a pack rat.

I'm still going through the pains of finding a new job, and working on finalizing what styles I want to offer on Etsy.

new projects

While clearly varied in topics, if anything this is not a fashion blog--even though I work in fashion, and it's my blog--nor has it even touched upon this topic, really. However, I've been getting back into sewing lately, after about a year's hiatus (post-graduation), and I'm quite fond of all the things I've worked on. A lot of it has just been altering some vintage dresses, and hemming things to a short-person-appropriate length.

One of my favorite projects so far is this top, which I made to wear on the 4th of July (I made the skirt as well, and it has become a staple of my summer wardrobe):

here's a close-up:

I was originally inspired by this photo I saw on Sartorialist:

Post-4th of July, I noticed a similar vibe popping up all over the Internet (or maybe it's just all the extra time I've spent online...), namely:

as well as: http://www.refinery29.com/trend_watch/cut_copy.php

I guess I accidentally have fallen into a trend? Oh well. It was a pretty easy top to make, and it was great for the 4th!