10.23.2013

we call this muppet buckles


there are many perfect weekends to be had, of many varieties, and this past weekend was one of them. myriad marvelous ladies, mimosas and mood on saturday, followed by a firefly marathon.  sazeracs and steelers on sunday (TROY POLAMALU STRAIGHT UP THE MIDDLE I DON'T EVEN CARE THAT HE DIDN'T BLOCK THE KICK) and a snuggly sweater dress by sunday eve.

as you know i've been stuck in the bayou with old blue, and i was one hundred percent certain i would NOT have her finished (and oh, i do mean finished) in time for my scheduled mood sewing network post.  inspiration struck when i strolled the second floor with homies devra and clio.  we were there just for a minute, having shown fine restraint when saying goodbye to wanett's crew at the door on the first pass, but a second driveby was too much.  presumably we entered to get ideas for clio...as usual i found booty for myself.  devra left empty handed, as she "wasn't looking."  i asked her how do you not look when your eyes are open.  it is impossible not to see.


whoah!  one too many weekend libation?  non, photographeur extraordinaire ruggy simply insists on taking these shots at an angle.  it is apparently more artistic.  it takes a correction of 2 degrees clockwise, to be exact, EVERY TIME.  cropping hacks off half my hair n' footsies.  i can't complain. he accomplishes in four minutes what takes me forty.  artists.


returning to the point.  holy humped up hell, there is so much to see right now on the second floor.  i never know what i’m going to find up there, but i always walk away hugging something fiercely.  like i’ve just won a prize that must be guarded with my life.  this poly sweater knit came in many eye searing colors in an aisle full of sweater knit, and it is sooooo soft, which only added to the hugging factor.  i believe the tag said it was from italy.  is that the secret to poly of quality?   italian birth?

having a bit of the italian in me myself, i’d say it’s a good theory. 


for real, i have had my share of meatballs.

i’ve always wanted to work with sweater knit, but have been too afeared.  besides getting chartreuse muppet fluff everywhere, this was way simpler than i thought it would be!  and muppet fluff is fun, let’s face it.  it was an amusement park for our 23-pound beast of a cat.

of course i did plenty to make it hard for myself anyways, like cut the all-in-one front piece out whilst leaving myself with no room for the back, necessitating an eyeball surgery of sleeves, which was already an eyeballed hack on a burdastyle magazine pattern traced back in 2008 and then abandoned, really i screwed with this so much there's no point in mentioning the pattern.


what really made it easy was testing everything i wanted to do on the many bits of muppet parts left lying around after cutting out the pattern.  meg extolled the virtues of test runs over at mood sewciety last week.  although she rightly suggests testing before cutting out the whole shebang, there is a bonus to cut-now-test-later: it makes you feel better about all those post-cutting scraps that would otherwise go straight to the garbage, unused, in a fit of MUST CLEAN EVERYTHING DONE WITH THAT DRESS BEGONE REMNANTS NEW FABRIC NEW FABRIC NEW FABRIC

what, you don’t get that part?  you save all your scraps?  scraps make me want to pick a fight.

notey notes
pattern: hacked beyond recognition
fabric: italian poly knit, 14/yd from mood fabrics (an MSN project)
notions: pellon seam binding, leather buckles from pacific trimming, twin needle, jersey needle
tips: i used the seam binding at neck edges to keep the neck from growing to barbarella proportions, and after sewing other seams, fused the same binding to one side, and overlocked the seam. kept the seams nice and flat and safe from unraveling!  though i need to find something better than the pellon, it seemed pretty cheap.  the neck and hem are folded under a good inch and twin needled down.

this poly poof was made using my monthly fabric "allowance" as part of the Mood Sewing Network.

42 comments:

  1. really glad you didn't tell me there was a firefly marathon or i might have followed you home instead of going back to mine for family shenanigans :-)

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  2. Love this dress! It's so happy and fun!

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  3. OMG! This is just so fantastic!!! Absolutely love the dress design and color. Love it!

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  4. This is so fabulous and just your style. Amazing job as always.

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  5. Hey Kermie, I adore your muppet skin skirt :)

    http://asaucystitch.blogspot.co.uk

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  6. *LOL* Great minds think alike, Giddyauntlola - couldn't get Kermit outta my brain! :)
    Looks amazing, Oona my dear, as per usual ;)

    Ta!

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  7. Firefly Marathon!! And I wasn't invited, Hmmph. ;-)
    Very yummy sweater dress. Loving the hackery. Is it super comfy?

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  8. Love love love it! That's how solids are done :) The color is amazing...and the fabric looks a lot like it wants a big snuggly hug! Perfect for this chilly weather we're having!

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  9. I love this dress! It looks so perfect and comfy and it's a sweater knit!! I've been eyeing sweater knits and I'm not sure how awful an idea it would be to head over to Mood because I would spend entirely too much money, but I think you've just inspired me. Hmm.. Great job on the hacked dress!

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  10. LOOOOVE IT!!! The color, the shape, the buckles, the ass it give ya... dress to not mess with!

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  11. You're babetastic as usual!! I love that color on you!!

    This aisle has some kind of mystical energy because even the kids petted everything in it! lol

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  12. Love it! I keep thinkign about how there should be more dresses made out of snuggly fabrics! MOAR SNUGGLES

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  13. Muppetastic! Look at your booty in that dress!! (She says in a I-am-not-hitting-on-you and I'm-not-a-stalker-either way! LOL!)

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  14. This COLOR!!! So glorious! And you just look so darn snuggly in that muppet fabric. And I love that Ruggy's photos always tilt the same amount in the same direction! Hehe!!

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  15. I love how the buckles give some shape to something so simple. I so need to copy it :)

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  16. Very chic! LOVE the happy color on you!

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  17. fabulous dress, sis.. love what you did with them buckles, that little trick made really pretty front, and splendid curve hugging back of the dress

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  18. Stellar rebound from the blue dress angst. If you retain your edgy style, no problem-o with solids. Love love love the buckles.

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    Replies
    1. and shockingly enough, i'm working on ANOTHER solid, and two more in the queue.

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  19. Yesterday was a weird day for commenting. I tried to comment on two new dresses on two sites; one landed me as a spammer, and here I somehow did not like my comment and forgot to rework it.
    But it really just boils down to FABULOUS!!!

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  20. You so rock this colour but again, you rock everything with colours :) (great work on the sleeves and neckline by the way, that probably wasn't a walk in the part using knit!)

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    1. it wasn't! but testing scraps made it MUCH easier, less unpicking and more "do that".

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  21. Did someone say sexy muppet? I love this!! It is so you, with color, texture and drape! I need me some leather buckles!

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  22. don't tell anyone marce, but I hate fabric scraps too! Confession, even if I have a 1/4 - 1/2 yard left, I throw it away. Yeh, even though my bras require less fabric, I THROW IT AWAY. I used to save, but it was pointless because I never used any of them and developed a monstrous stash. I'm am completely and one hundred percent a buy-fabric-per-project type of gal/sewer.

    P.S. - looking forward to November 15th!

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  23. This is epic! And looks huggable which is the ultimate knitwear compliment. Love the buckle :D

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  24. Love it. I feel like a 23 lb cat!

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  25. of coarse it's amazing. i would never dare, and that is what i love about you. great job sister!

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  26. This comment: "Scraps make me want to pick a fight." Fucking YES, omg... For me it's the GUILT, and then the ANGER about the guilt, and just ugh. I used to save every little thing, then one day recent I just trashed it all. Just having it was making me postal. Anyway, back to YOU. Incredibly cute make, and you look inferno hot... I'm sure Ruggy isn't that bothered by the batwings... ;)

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  27. You always look like a fierce disco diva. You really ought to be on roller skates!

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  28. Love this dress and what became of this fabric. And madam your bottom! You have one of the best bums that I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of bottoms! I'm not even going to try and make that sentence non-creepy!

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  29. Love it! Its so you - and its solid colored! You look amazing and I wish I could rock those leather buckles. I can't tho. Instead, I'll just admire them on you.

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  30. What an excellent weekend - I don't think anything can go wrong when there's alcohol and a firefly marathon involved. Add an Italian Muppet dress and you have perfection. I don't know how you come up with these amazing things out of different fabrics - it's awesome! I don't think I could get away with wearing this dress - I'm a tactile person so whenever I wore it I'd be patting myself like a cat. That wouldn't freak out the general public at all. And I also have a scraps guilt/anger complex. It's the worst - I currently have a shame draw of scraps that I'm pretending doesn't exist so I don't have to deal with it. I'm mentally and emotionally well balanced like that.

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  31. Chartreuse muppet fluff - is there a happier phrase on this planet?! I've really been wanting to try out sweater knit. I don't like the winter and am trying to find reasons to get excited about the cold. I'm banking on sweater knit being the answer! Must make a trip to Mood this weekend... Great work on this monument to muppet fluff!

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  32. @ EVERYONE:

    thank you!!! i wore this muppet on a flight last week, and she kept me comfy :)

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i thankya truly for taking the time to comment, i love a good conversation-- and hope you know my thanks are always implied, if not always written!