Moving forward

I was struck down by a cold 10 days ago which hampered my possibilities to DIY somewhat, but not entirely. The pre-cooking is slowly progressing and the coming week the gumbo base will be all ready. I'm halfway through the tortilla making and today I made the first pavlova base, the meringue on which the whipped cream and fruit will be.

I also discovered that I have calculated the fan bunting all wrong so I had to convert them in to long gathered flag buntings instead. Not a big deal and actually less work.

The tin cans that will become lanterns are in the freezer with water/ice. It has turned to ice but I'm going to wait another day just to make sure they're really frozen. Later this week I'll start making patterns on them with a hammer and a nail.

The one big thing left is the clothes. They lie in the storage room watching me every time I go in there. Once I'm dealing with that I'll be done in two days (giving some time for error here) so I shouldn't be bothered but I am, for some reason.

Yesterday I got myself a fake fringe for next to nothing which I'm hopefully will get tomorrow. The 40's roll fringe will happen, so now I'm officially a rockabilly bride! I'm silly exited about that, because the hair have been a huge issue for me. I wanted to do something different but it's a bit difficult with such a fixed hairstyle as dreads, but with the fringe I'll be able to keep my hair in place and have a great look, all going well with the style of the clothes. Now all I need is a bandana, and that may be more difficult than anticipated. I don't want to pay a ridiculous p&p for one bandana, but it may be a bit tricky to get hold of one in my home town since it's not exactly hip to be wearing bandanas right now.

How impossible can it get? Very impossible.

Finding dungarees/bib overalls has turned in to a challenge I didn't foresee. I'll have to abandon that idea unfortunately. They're either ridiculously priced at €315 or too large. I'd drown in loose fit 32', which seems to be the smallest size available.

I'll need to figure out something else obviously. I still don't want a dress. The most offbeat kind of clothing reasonably readily available is rockabilly style clothes, so I've been thinking I could perhaps head that way. I've also decided to go back to sewing again. It takes me about 2 hours to sew a pair of trousers and a peasant blouse takes a lot less. I think I'm going to wear a bandana in classic rockabilly fashion, because I want my hair up and out of the way. Just trying to pin it in to place is difficult because my hair is so heavy. Dreads tend to be. I'll come back to that later.

Jeans in dark indigo with yellow thread seams, higher waist than normal and cowboy style at the back and a gingham peasant blouse (haven't decided whether I should wear navy blue or red), that's what it looks like right now, and considering how close we are, it's got to be the final thing. I'm wearing flip flops or red Converse to this outfit, depending on weather. I have red wellies too if it really gets bad.

It's fairly close to what I had in mind at first. The trousers basically lack the upper part of bib overalls really. Now I only need the patterns and fabrics. Easy peasy.

The final version

I'm going to wink at Star Trek. The yellow dress I found is typical for the late 60's with it's experimental cut. The Star Trek uniforms are equally famous for original cut. Well, not the Star Trek Enterprise then. I don't want people to think "oh, that's a Star Trek dress" so I have decided to not do the two colour thing in the dress. I'm choosing a yellow fabric, but I'll cut the neckline in the asymmetric way Uhura and nurse Chapel's dresses are cut. I think that's the only real detail I need for those who knows their Star Trek to squee. The dress itself has a cut reminding you of a Star Trek uniform tunic from the early The Next Generation era so I really don't have do anything else.

 

I also found the colour scheme for the petticoat. It'll be a strong pink/raspberry red kind of a colour in soft tulle. I think I'm going to nick the idea to tie small strips of aqua tulle to the pink tulle, just like this tutu I spotted on Etsy. Without further ado:

I found the image below as a colour inspiration. I'm also wondering if I should find a polka dot ribbon, a rather wide one, to add to the tulle. I have to be careful though so I don't make it too full, because I'm not making a squaredance dress. I just want some ruffles because it's candy fun.

Sleeves! And a complete design.

I think I have the design now. I only need to decide on the colours. Yellow is wonderful. Do I use it alone or do I add another colour? Navy? Cerise? And that crochet I was thinking about, will I use that idea? I'd rather not think about that now. But having decided on the design is a great step since I can now go ahead and make the pattern and make a dummy.

I'm going to use the sleeve design above. This is a top from Banana Republic which they sold in 2008. Those along with the cut on the vintage 60's dress from this post and some tweaks on width, length, and neckline and adding pockets will be the final design.

Sunshine!

I think I may have found the dress that will make the foundation of my design.

I'm not going to buy this one though it's a lovely dress. It's too short, and the skirt isn't wide enough IMO. But I love the cut and I can see myself adding pockets to it. A girl has got to have pockets! I'm not going to keep the sleeves and the neckline needs to be lower, but not too low though. Not too long, too short, no décolletage, easy to move around in.

The colour is lovely. That navy is getting more and more difficult to justify. I could have the bottom part of the dress in navy, but the problem is that it might look like I'm wearing an apron. Or possibly too Star Trek-ish. I'm NOT doing geek things here. I'm such a sci fi nerd but star Trek just don't belong in this.

Dress from Beautvintage.com.

Colour!

I've been looking a bit on Etsy.com today, mostly because I'm in need of some inspiration. There are many pretty things to look at over there. For a splash of colour (and things to pull inspiration from), have a look at these! Click on images to go to the shop in question.

Dress

So I've been thinking. 50's? 60's? Sort of? Freestyle crochet? Possibly. Sunflower yellow and dark blue. That's a winner though I am hesitant to use blue and yellow since it's our flag's colours. I don't want people to think of our flag when looking at me. Sunflower yellow and cerise? Now that's a glowing combination! And I could make a visible tulle petticoat in yellow with dark blue satin trimming to go with that. Or it could all be too much. Inspiration pictures:

I'm not wearing white. Why? There are several reasons for that.

• I've been married before
• I don't really like white on myself
• I want to have fun in this dress and wearing it on other occasions
• We're offbeat in so many other ways that I don't feel like dressing traditionally

White is really a rather new thing. Just wearing something nice looking was the way to do it for a very long time until European nobility decided white was the thing - and that had a lot to do with the 19^th century screwed up ideas about female sexuality. White has for a very long time been the virgin colour. Well, I'm not a virgin.

Clothes

You've got to wear them. I have been glancing at dresses and pant-suits since we decided we should marry (back in 2007) and it's almost a shock that it's finally the real thing. I need to decide on something!

I decided from the start that I don't want to wear white. I have been married before and done the white wedding/restaurant reception thing (and I learned a lot from being there myself compared to only taking care of the reception, something I have done plenty when I was a restaurant manager). But what colour should I choose? Good question.

Then we come to what it should look like. I'm a practical person when it comes to clothes and even fancy dresses can be comfortable. I don't understand the ceremony dress and reception dress thing. This is just another expense not needed. If you can't have fun in the dress of your choice it's the wrong dress IMO.

I have discarded the idea of a pant suit. It's tricky to get them to fit well so I'll stick to a dress. Knee-length with width because it's fun. Short sleeves and a neckline that aren't too high nor too low. I want a tulle petticoat in a contrasting colour sticking out below the hem. Cute, practical and a dress you can wear all day and have fun in it. No silk, some easy material that can be washed easily. A dress I can wear again. That's the dress I want. Now I only need to design it. Because of course, the DIY queen will make it herself.

My Darling is not as difficult as I am. He refuses fancy clothes point blank, but last year we got him canvas frontier trousers with suspenders for wedding. With a woodcutter shirt the outfit would be perfect.

These are the trousers in question. I love the strap in the back! You can get them here (US) here (UK) and here (Sweden).