Sunday, November 1, 2015

A Portrait of Frida


When I'm in the blues I like watching Frida's paintings. The representation of her pain in her paintings is so powerful that reconnects me with my reality and makes me see how fortunate I am. Despite some of my dreams haven't come true -yet- at least I have everything I need to keep fighting for them: air to breath them, healthy back and legs to chase them and, of course, the love of my family.

I spent almost two weeks deciding my halloween costume this year. I wanted something special, but I wasn't feeling very well inside hence, inspiration and creativity didn't show up for a while.

And then came Frida.

I searched Frida on Pinterest and realized that she was not only an art but also a fashion icon. The color of her dresses, her magnificent braids and her attitude... girl that's the attitude: always self-sufficient, secure and confident, I loved her even more!!. So I decided this year, my costume was going to be a tribute to my heroin. 

I started off looking for the perfect skirt in the thrift store but I couldn't find one... but two: one indigo and the other one was a lace tutú. I had to pay $10 bucks for them... pretty expensive ha? considering that it's a thrifty store! but anyways! being arty ain't cheap lady!


At home, I started to adjust the indigo skirt to my size. Because of the idea was joining both skirts to create the typical colorful Frida skirt with lace at the bottom, I had to take the elastic out of the tutu and add it at the end of the indigo skirt. Then, the pinning began.

Afterwards, I sewed the skirts together following the pins with a straight line. It was a challenge to find a threath with the exact same indigo color, so I decided to go with the opposite one: Fucsia, which happened to be the same color of the pashmina I was planning to use to complete the Frida outfit.

After I joined the two skirts, I felt it needed more colors, more shapes and patterns, it's Frida! it's Mexico!!. So I thought it was a great opportunity to try the 'embroidery' features of my sewing machine. Bam!

At the end, I finished my decorations with some colored studs.

I put together my costume with a very mexican shirt and the most important things: the braids and the flowers in my head... and obviously, my joint eyebrows! Perfect for the ocassion!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Spring 2015 has sprung!

Finally! It was a harsh winter in the Maritimes this year... as you can see. Shoveling the snow kept me quite busy, no time to show off the pieces I had been preparing during January and February.

But now, snow is melting away with the rising temperatures so... I threw away the shovel and came back to the computer to update the blog, and I'm proud to start with this nice long skirt...

It was originally a dress with an 'empire waist'. I didn't quite like que shape of the top so I decided to cut it off. Then I cut more fabric... and more fabric... because you know, I'm a mini person, hobbit size.... and this dress was soooooo long that I bet it belonged to Galadriel, the Cate Blanchett Elf in The Lord of The Rings.

When I finally got the right measures for me, I made the low hem with the same Cut-Iron-Sew method I talked about in a previous post.

I did the same for the upper portion to shape the waistline but in this case I left a small openning to insert an elastic band previously cut according to my waist measures. I used a pin to get the elastic through the 'tunnel' and once it reached the openning again, I sewed the ends together and sealed the small openning with some more stitches.

I couldn't wait any longer to wear it... It was a really, really long winter!