The only thing worth saving

I did some cleaning (and minimizing) not long ago, and among my collection of books I had two fashion magazines. One Vogue of some month of some recent year. The other one, having already tossed it. . . I can't remember, I think it was Vanity Fair. There had to be a reason that I bought them (some cut-out project for school, perhaps?) because I don't care to have a magazine full of shitty clothing ads that suck bad. Well, Vanity Fair did had some cool pictures of Kate Moss made up like Marlene Dietrich, but I have a vintage magazine with the real Marlene. Sorry, Kate. So I leafed through Vogue, and found this:


The only thing in the entire magazine that I ripped out and saved. Ralph did a good job: double breasted, the peak lapels, the plaid, even the scarf and broach. It reminds me of my old lost love: the suit, and my even older lost love: yards of brown and tan wool houndstooth neatly folded in a bin under my bed.

This wool will be something someday, I just need a little more time. I have a few dress ideas I need to get out of my head first. I do have a rough idea of the suit I want, though. It will be a three piece pants suit, with peak lapels, covered buttons, bound buttonholes, functional vents, a breast pocket, (that will hold a red silk pocket square, that will match a red silk tie--both of which I will make myself) cream silk lining with red trim, and the whole thing will be custom tailored. So, I am looking at easily over 100 hours of work, and that's just the jacket. Oh and I want to make a crisp, white, high-collared shirt with French cuffs.

Basically, this will be the suit of a lifetime. And if I do a perfect job, it should last a lifetime.

In the meantime, however, be expecting more dresses from me. Soon.

A new favorite?

I just finished this one yesterday, and I think it might be my new favorite.

This dress, like all my other poufs, features an invisible side seam pocket, gathered waist, covered belt, and 100% cotton (my specialty). These cute cotton dots were bought online at J&O Fabrics.

(I like the desaturated look of these photos.)

And in true-color:

Matching up all the dots was easier than I had expected. It just required a bit more time; I had to actually pencil in a few dots on the pattern and then line them up with the fabric.

Man, its pretty cute! And I finished it just in time for the Leon Redbone show next weekend.