This is what I wore Saturday night to the finale of Birmingham Fashion Week.  Let me just tell you how awesome that show was!  Simply amazing!  More on that later...

This is an "Inspired by Pinterest" look.  I grabbed my inspiration from all over the place.  I'll share a few images to show you my thought process:

The red, black and white was inspired by these two looks.  Isn't that glenplaid trench coat everything?  I'll have to find similar fabric and add this to my Fall 2013 plan.  

And fur collars are all over the place.  I love "Street Style" blogs, and I'd been looking at a lot of images from fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris.  And I saw so many coats and jackets with fur collars.

Photos from Pinterest.

A fur collar on a coat looks so elegant and dresses up any outfit.  Notice the jeans.

Wearing:  Coat: McCall's 5766; top: Vogue 8815; trousers: Vogue 1143; purse: vintage Chanel bucket bag and shoes: Shoemint.com.

I was nice and warm AND fashionable!

Wearing: Cape:  Vogue 8776; blouse: Prabal Gurung for Target; pants:  Simplicity 2315; belt: Anne Klein; shoes: Sam Edelman.

Here are my favorite looks of the night:

SOCA

Voted “Best Boutique” two years in a row by Birmingham Magazine readers.

THEADORA

Just voted by Harpers Bazaar for the sixth year in a row as a style leader for the Top 100 boutiques in the USA.

ANNIE GRIFFIN

JOSHUA McKINLEY, from Project Runway

And headlining designer, ANTHONY RYAN winner of Project Runway All-Stars Season 2

I got to briefly chat with Anthony Ryan about Project Runway.  He complimented me on my outfit.  I told him I made the cape and the pants.  He suggested that I audition for Project Runway.  I told him that I don't sew "like that".  I'm like the world's slowest sewer.  And he confirmed that when they're told they have only 10 hours to complete their design, it means they ONLY have 10 hours.  I told him I'd be the only contestant in Project Runway history to not have ANYTHING to walk down the runway! LOL

Thanks to Birmingham Fashion Week for another fabulous night!

So... how was that Super Bowl?  Go RAVENS!

And speaking of the World Champion Baltimore Ravens... Remember that movie, "The Coalition" that I worked on?  Well... it's being released on DVD and Blu-Ray today!  

I couldn't be more excited and proud of my friend Monica Mingo, who wrote her dream down and made it happen!  And you have to know that Terrell Suggs is on cloud 9, after winning the Vince Lombardi trophy on Sunday night and today his first feature film is being released.  Sounds like a great week to me!

Here is the movie site -- The Coalition.  So if you're interested in seeing it, it's available at Wal-Mart and Target, in-store and online.  And also Amazon.com.  If you see, let me know what you think about the wardrobe!  Oh... and the movie! ;-)

Wearing:  Pea coat:  Vogue 2873; striped top:  McCall's 6355; brocade moto jeans:  Vogue 2973;  sunnies:  Karen Walker; pumps:  Sam Edelman.

This is OOP Vogue 1762 - Yves Saint Laurent (that's a designer label that makes me sit up and pay attention) from 1996.  It's from the YSL 1995 Fall RTW Collection.  Why did Vogue Patterns stop providing offerings from YSL?!  Those collections are always amazing!

YSL Fall 1995 Collection

I don't know if this pattern is quite old enough to be considered "vintage", even if it is almost 20 years old.  But just as I said when I made my Byron Lars pattern, it's about as much vintage as I can take without feeling all "costumey" or like I'm attending a theme party.  Peter wrote a great blog post on this very subject.  

The description of this pattern is:  Very loose-fitting, A-line, lined, below hip jacket has dropped shoulders, flap, pockets, back pleat, side slits, carriers, belt and long sleeves with pleat and shaped cuffs.

In my last post, I mentioned that I'd misplaced a sheet of instructions.  Well, it was for this pattern.  So I completely winged it.  Right or wrong, this is how it turned out.  Pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  It looks pretty close to the runway version.

Being that this is an A-line/dropped shoulder fitting jacket, I sewed it straight out of the envelope.  No alterations/modifications needed. I did however omit the carriers.  I wanted the option of using different belts or no belt at all. 

And even though the from the picture, I don't believe the pattern suggested... but I decided to edge stitch and top stitch.  It gave the jacket a more casual feel and the surplus style that I wanted.  And I really, really adore the French cuffs.

My fabric is a cotton twill and buttons are both from Mood Fabrics.

Wearing: faux leather leggings, Enzo Angiolini boots, Nine West clutch, BCBG necklace.

After a day of terrible weather that swept through the state, today is absolutely gorgeous!  A perfect January day... not unseasonably warm and not bitterly cold... just perfect!

Perfect weather to toss on my Vogue 8776 cape...

thrown over my J. Crew cableknit sweater, my yellow gingham shirt and my Gap Vintage Flare jeans (with my DIY distressing). 

This has been a pretty slow sewing week.  Have you ever lost the instruction sheet for a pattern?  Well, I did and it's an OOP pattern... sigh.  But that's okay, I'm winging my way through it.  The project should be finished and posted by early next week.

For my Saturday look, I pulled inspiration from my favorite place -- Pinterest.

Inspired by Pinterest

From my Fashion board.

White, in the middle of January?  Hmmm...

It was sunny and the temps were mild, so this equals a fun fashion day and I took full advantage.

I'm wearing my "most worn garment of 2012", Simplicity 2250.

Worn with a DKNY chambray shirt, Gap jeans and cobalt blue wedges..

I hope the rest of your weekend is great!

Brazen... optical... geometric... graphic!

Bold black and white prints are popping up everywhere as we start thinking about Spring clothes.  Oh, you're not thinking about Spring clothes yet?  Well, you better get a move on it!

Inspiration:

Asos.com

My self-drafted dress (yes, I do do that sometimes), was inspired by this great geo-patterned body-con dress from Asos.com.  Amazingly so, I've been in possession of a similar print for years now.  But I never knew how I wanted to use it... until now.

Being that I wanted a very simple design that would highlight and not disturb the print, I went with a fitted, straight-style body-concious dress.  

And I off-centered the print to give the dress more of an abstract look, similar to my inspiration dress.

And I accessorized with black.  And as the weather warms, I'll be adding colors like yellow, fuchsia, probably cobalt as a contrast.

I really like this style of dress and I can't wait to run across great prints so that I can make a few more.

This is Vogue 1317 - Chado Ralph Rucci.  When I was getting ready to cut this pattern out, I came to the realization that even though I've collected almost every Rucci pattern that VP has released, I've never made one.  That was really surprising, downright shocking considering how much I admire his designs and skill.  If you ever run across his documentary "Ralph Rucci:  A Designer and His House" on Sundance channel, it's a must see!  He's a serious haute couturier! 

Here is the runway version from Chado Ralph Rucci Fall 2011.

And just to give you an idea of how his looks trickle down from the runway to the realway, here are a few of his recent design offerings at Neiman Marcus.

Description: Dress has low neckline slit, close-fitting bodice cut-in-one with sleeves (slit), side back bodice extending into uderarm gusset, lined midriff, single-layer tie ends (wrongside shows), skirt with side front/side back seams, side front pockets/vents, invisible back zipper, stitched hems, and self-bias binding. Topstitching and edgestitching. 

Now the fabric suggestions are faux suede and a lightweight double knit.  Things that make you go "hmmmm..."  As long as I've been sewing, that should've given me pause.  Those two fabrics move, drape, wear and behave completely differently.  Either a garment made in the woven fabric is going to be too tight (not enough wearing ease) or the knit garment is going to be too loose (too much ease for a knit garment).  I'm always perplexed when such opposite fabric suggestions are offered.  But oh well, I decided to go with the fabric similar to the runway version of the dress, because it's all I could envision when I pictured the outcome of this pattern.  I'll learn one day...

I checked the flat pattern/finished measurements as I always do and cut my normal size for VP patterns.  I'm going to tell you right now, this pattern did not offer ANY altering lines.  So if you need to add or subtract, you're on your own with this one.  Most patterns are almost always at least an inch too short in the waist for me, so I added an inch to the bodice.  I should've done an FBA.  Even though the neck slit isn't gaping, it would've probably laid closer together.  And I added 3 inches to the skirt because this dress was pretty short.  As you see, it still stops above the knee.  How I made this alteration was to find a good place in the middle of each pattern piece and cut there to add my additional length.  I choose to do it this way instead of going to the bottom as not add additional width.

Do you ever find yourself making nonsensical mistakes while sewing?  I do all of the time, just like I did on this pattern.  When I added length to the bodice, I didn't really take into account that this would affect my zipper... and maybe I should go a little longer.  So my zipper ended up being a little too short.  And remember that thing I just said about the way different fabrics react?  Yeah... the dress ended up being too tight.  But with all of the work of topstitching and edgestitching I had invested, no way was this going to be a wader.  I added 1" panels to each side of the center back and repeated the same type of stitching and made it work.

Here is a close up of the arm slit and the gorgeous faux suede from Mood Fabrics.  The color is "cinnabar", but it fits right in with the Fall/Winter 2012-13 oxblood trend.  This fabric feels so luxurious.  It feels and behaves like a real suede.  I found that while sewing this, I needed to use a teflon foot (or a walking foot would work too). 

Notice my "sensible" heels!  Boots by Circa Joan & David.  Similar to these.

All and all, I really like this dress. I don't think I'll sew this pattern again, but if I did here are things I'd do different:  use a double knit; eliminate the tie ends so that I could do a belt if I like; and eliminate the useless pockets.