Rose Festival Wrap-up, Lion booties on parade

I don't think that I had been to a Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade since the dawn of the 1990's! I'm always a sucker for a Marching Band or a Rodeo Queen on a fantastic horse, mostly for the costumes I'm sure. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had the opportunity to make foot covers for the Lee Family Association Lion Dance Team (http://leeondong.org) and I wanted to be there to see them in action.

We woke early in the morning, first to catch the Dragon Boat Races (another long time obsession of mine) and then made our way over to the parade route. The booties were fantastic, as you can tell the foot covers really completed the lion costumes. Later in the day we found the Lion Dance Team performing outside the Portland Classical Chinese Garden on 3rd St. where we were able to snap some close ups of the dancers after the performance. I'm really happy with the way the feet turned out!





Also, as promised, the photo of SuperAlisa, the mastermind behind Snarky Cards (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5233435), in her fantastic re-newed skirt. Alisa brought me the skirt fabric and a fur vest one morning when we were vending together at the Handmade NW pavilion at the Rose Festival Waterfront Marketplace and by the end of the day, voila, this fantastic fur trimmed skirt:



What a great festival! Thank you to The Lee Association, Handmade Northwest and Jim, for helping me pull it all off and learning how to sew to boot!

Real-Time Rad-ical Re-Fashioning at the Portland Rose Festival

What a fantastic time we had with HandmadeNW.com at the 102nd annual Portland Rose Festival Waterfront! The sun, the people, the sewing barefoot in the grass, the total creativity as we recycled clothing and textiles into their next life! Here are some shots from the last two weeks, to be updated as more pictures are found in the chaotic mess that is out "post festival" lives.


We got some great local news time with "On The Go With Joe" at Fox KPTV 12 here in Portland. He was super-fantastic high energy fun at 8:30am! Really, what a nice and fun guy! The video is up at the local FOX station here: http://www.kptv.com/video/19601229/index.html We also had some media time with KOIN on their morning show, but I couldn't find the video on their website.


The ladies at "Sparrow Tracks, Up-Cycled book binding" commissioned me for a couple of pieces: This is the 'lingerie apron', a wedding shower gift for her sister, a vintage apron collector here in Portland. It was an excellent impromptu project and a ton of fun using scraps from current custom projects.


Also in the news, our new website and mascot! Jim and I have decided to give the sewing lessons their own home over on PDXseamsters.com, check it out! This adorable bear is Jim's first machine sewing project and our new mascot, the "learn to sew" bear. This all coincides with our move into a new workspace/warehouse on 9th and Washington in SE Portland, we will be moving in with Guildworks, an architectural soft goods installation artist here in Portland. We are dedicating 1000 SQFT to sewing and fitting rooms and opening up the Portland Metro areas FIRST drop in sewing studio where you can make what you what! With this move we are also expanding our private lessons and class schedule. More info on the new space to come!

American Buffalo at Third Rail Rep

I'm thrilled to announce that I will be designing costumes for the production of David Mamet's American Buffalo at Third Rail Rep in Portland, OR! The show opens February 12 and runs until March 7th. I'm really looking forward to this project, I really like the work the Company does. I'll post pictures and drawings as they happen.