get in the limo: sown brooklyn!

you know i had to stick my mug up in here eventually!  i'm practicing my prom photo smile, thought i'd say hiya. 

do you remember the days when wanett of sown brooklyn was headless?  hey, it happens to the best of us. those days are GONE!  i do believe she could be recognized now not only by that beautiful face, but by that perky booty.  i can say that because she has outright challenged me to a booty battle.  (oh yes, it's on.)  

apparently there were also days when our vivacious wanett was not only headless, but a bit teary...

Be The Heroine

Oh, prom. That time that each girl looks forward to. That blissful, pre-wedding dress shopping experience of dropping fuckloads of cash on a one-time-wear garment. The makeup. The manicures. The salon appointments. Those were the days......just not for this girl.

Like most things in my life, my prom going experience was not at all what I hoped it would be. I was generally unpopular with boys in that boyfriend/girlfriend way (due to my extremely overprotective family's desire for me to spend ALL of my time at home) so I didn't have a date. Dress shopping was a nightmare. Doubly so because, as the older sister, I had no one to swoop in and save me from shopping with my mother. I was allowed to get acrylic nails for the first time. Though, I was such a novice, I couldn't unbutton my pants and needed help to go pee. I was comically late for my hair "appointment". I'm misusing quotation marks to emphasize the ludicrous use of the word appointment when talking about a black hair salon. My hair was in a boring bob, anyway, thanks to the bad trim (that was really a haircut) I received at a previous salon visit.

By the time my mother and I were hurrying back home so I could make my limo on time I was a nervous, nauseous, crying mess.

Don't I look THRILLED!?!!?

I put on my boring (but quite risque for me, back then), black, spandex, one shoulder cliche of a dress, a pair of shoes I hated and a sheer button-up top because I suddenly felt shy with my one shoulder exposed. I topped it off with no makeup. At all. And dashed outside to meet the limo. Only it wasn't there.

Near tears (again) and feeling uncomfortable with everyone in my neighborhood eying me in my dress, we went looking around for where the limo might be. Remember, this is in an age before cell phones were prevalent. Just as I began to feel certain that it left me, I looked around and ALL of my friends had gotten out to come look for me! This act alone saved my mood and led me to have as fun a night as I could have with two left feet and no date, lol.

For this prom, Promaballoona 2012, things started off nearly as bad as my high school one. Due to a broken machine, new machine delivery madness, scheduling and lack of sewing mojo this prom was off the rails before it was on them. After it was all said and done I had no time to take fancy prom date like photos with my hubby. Which made me sad.

In an a massive push against that sadness and my innate tendency to procrastinate, I was up until all hours last night (July 28th) sewing not one but two PERFECT prom frocks!! As a reward for my efforts, I beat the rain as my daughter helped me with two separate photo shoots to capture my Barbie Pink and Sweet Cream frocks!

Barbie Pink
The Facts
Fabric | Sumptuous hot pink cotton sateen courtesy of Kollabora
Patterns | Vintage (1940s) Simplicity 2693 and my TNT skirt pattern, Simplicity 9823
Year | 1940s and current
Notions | Thread, a zipper and elastic. I did not interface the bodice, but it is doubled.
Time to complete | Made during an all night sewing marathon, so I'm not sure. It went together pretty effortlessly, I must say.
First worn | On a two part photo shoot with my big girl aka kick ass photographer!
Wear again? | HELL YEAH!! Try and stop me ;P
Total price | Nearly FREE!! I won the fabric, was given the elastic by my sister, the zipper from my granny, the bodice pattern is from a swap and the skirt pattern was probably .99 cents.

Sweet Cream
The Facts
Fabric | 100% cotton paisley embroidered fabric from fabric.com
Patterns | Vintage (1940s) Simplicity 2693 and Vivat Veritas' scalloped waist skirt pattern
Year | 1940s and current
Notions | Thread and a zipper.
Time to complete | Made during an all night sewing marathon, so I'm not sure. It went together pretty effortlessly, I must say. The entire dress is doubled. The fabric was slightly sheer and very lightweight. I sewed the two skirt sections together at the bottom edge, turned it right side out and pressed it. Worked like a charm!
First worn | On a two part photo shoot with my big girl aka kick ass photographer!
Wear again? | HELL YEAH!!
Total price | I don't remember what I paid for this fabric, but I can assure you it wasn't much. The bodice pattern is from a swap and the scalloped skirt pattern is free online.

I took some advice from the recently departed Nora Ephron. She said:

"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim."

I saved my prom experience this time around. Snaps for me!

look out ruggy!  THE LIMO IS FULL OF HEROINES!!! and we're off to grab our next one.  what about you, peeps? are you sewing up your super princess heroine dress? turn that prom UPSIDE DOWN! 

whoah, okay, lemme calm down.  color explosion, man, it gets me amped up.  i think, for our next stop, we'll let our imaginations paint the picture... see you later for cocktail hour!

ny meetup

we began the day as any good day should begin, with carafes of sangria and festive flowers to frolick with.  el centro played host to lunch, and they were fabulous (picture by our man jonathan, standing on top of table). from bottom left corner to bottom right, we have:  vicki, daughter fish, cindy, mena, moi, debi, meg, lisette, and nettie.  it was a school day, so many rsvps sadly did get tied up at work... don't worry, we drank extra sangria for you!

the extremely confusing sew weekly theme (MY BAD) lead to floral frocks and technicolor hues.  oh so much pattern.  i was in heaven.  i wanted to put these gals in my bag.  the details on the neckline of cindy's dress!  miss fish's silk poppies!  mena's... erm... staples!

que beautiful, no?  like they have their own inner miniature sun.

we snagged marina on the tail end of lunch, and per lisette's idea, we had a pattern swap, with the impromptu locale of worldwide plaza's cement park.  marina was a BIG contributor.  puu joined in and brought a hefty bag of envelopes as well (her red cigarette pants were also an object of desire)...

(photo by debi-- her absolutely musical giggle lit up the day.  girl, did you snag any?  vintage goddess, i don't even KNOW!)  i ran into an old friend and completely missed the swap... fitting, as i forgot and brought nothing to the party.  yet i still managed to walk away with these beauties.  BRAT.

(the notions are from SIL threads, another stop along the way.  i was challenged several times for ODIs and was therefore forced to shop.  some of the challenges are malicious.  i'm not naming any names mena.) 

bags bulging with pattern goodness, we then headed to paron fabrics, my favorite, where peter joined up.  i decided i should abstain from fabric purchases as i'd have my hands full co-hosting... and then bought 12 yards of fabric at the very first stop.

check out marina and nettie.  put them together: effortless chic.  

speaking of chic, at our second stop, chic fabrics, the sangria caught up.  miss fish had to jet in order to Sew For Other Peeps (the horror).  i discovered nettie and i have the same affinity for swearing (brilliant!).  marina raised her eyebrows at several questionable fabrics.  it quickly became clear we needed caffeine.  my first clue was finding mena laying on the bolts of fabric in the back.  i believe cindy saw her flailing, then spied the hidden alley of fabrics behind her, and made a beeline over her exhausted body.  was that you, cindy?   was i still drunk? 

so, after a tete a tete with peter on the best place to go, we headed to dean and deluca's.

at this point, i had had enough of peter, and i told him so.  i believe he's reaching for a sharp implement. (photo by marina.  i should have taken peter down a dark alley where there would be no evidence.)

coffee refreshed, and mysteriously sans peter, we took to the streets again...  THESE DRESSES.  the straps on meg's dress are exactly what i wanted, and failed to produce, on my own dress.  and do you mark debi and lisette in two of my all time favorite creations? do you know how hard it was to keep my jealous hands away?  i think they did it on purpose to tempt me.  pink and purple.  and peacock.  yes please.  (photo by vicki, also in pink print... pillowcases.   a perfect pendrell. preposterous.  peruse the next pic.)

we came close to making good on meg's bag's promise when the proprietress at 21 century fabrics decided to waffle on previously quoted prices.  we won.  as meg would say:  OMG.  we are TOTALLY not j/k.  (picture by debi.  i had no idea this joint had a balcony.)

after 4 more stops (map here) and 5 hours of shopping, several ladies went home happy... we saw lisette off at port authority with a bag bigger than she.  thank god, somebody had to beat me and my self imposed and very much broken No Frigging Fabric rule.

we ended the night at room service, where the waitress was hell bent on wasting as much prosecco as possible. elisabeth and sandy joined up, and we did our best to get them drunk.  did we succeed? i don't know, elisabeth looks properly toasty in her self stitched goodness (doesn't it go so well with debi's?), but sandy's eyeing meg's fizzy drink. (pictures by marina.  there was another half to this table, including le photographer, cindy & mena, but did this co-host pull her camera out?  no.  i was too busy holding my drink. )

[edit:  you gals will be interested to know, the bill was NOT short.  my drunk ass dropped 25 bucks out of the loot and, after fisticuffs with meg over who would chip in more (she won, she has like two feet on me), sandy noticed the missing dough on the floor.  i had to convince meg i wasn't trying to pull a fast one when i gave her back the extra chip in.  of course sewing peeps don't short.  we do math all the time.] 

we parted ways on ninth avenue, the co-hosts headed to a top secret mission, and new found friends headed to more drinks.  

the saddest thing in life is not pear shaped hips.  it is ending a meetup with these fantastic peeps and heading into a work filled weekend.  but, after the plaster fiasco of saturday morning, i did manage to snag a little extra sunday morning pre-bus coffee time with the awesome sewing scientist...

note my heroin-chic undereyes.  credit goes to plaster covered floors, baby shower and bridal party duties.  credit for the pose goes to tanit-isis, vicki decided it should be in your honor.  would that you were here...

would that alla y'all were here... next time!!!