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.

Wedding Dress updates!

I've just had the first round of fittings with both of my brides in their final fabrics! It is really exciting to see the designs coming together and all of the color depth. Here are some pictures:


Sarah and her Techno wedding dress (with details obscured for surprise!):

I have been waiting four years to get into Susan Khalje's "Couture Sewing School" http://www.susankhalje.com/realindex.htm but could never get the time off and the tuition together until just recently and I have to say, this dress would be nothing without what Susan taught me!


Iggy and her Steam Punk wedding:


Here is a shot of the train in development. I crated a huge "blank canvas" from silk taffeta and sparkle tulle and then with Charles James in mind and a handful of safety pins went to sculpting some deep folds and layers to create an "avant-garde Victorian bustle". Iggy told me "Homegirl, I want a shelf back there", and I think we created it!


To back view of the corset and blouse, the pants here are still in muslin. The corset is being remade with new skills I just learned in Susan Khalje's "Couture Sewing School" at Apparel Arts in San Francisco and will lace up the back with large gold grommets!


The front shot: we went back to the drawing board and decided to go with a more Victorian style blouse rather than the camisol I had originally designed. It was the best decision we made and we both feel like the new blouse really ties the entire outfit together!

I'm really thrilled with the way these dresses are turning out! I couldn't be happier with the designs, fabrics and entire process. These are the most challenging garments I've ever made and the years of practice and education I put in are really paying off!

Lee Family Association Lion Dance Team

I have always LOVED the lion dancers and I am thrilled to announce that the Lee Family Association has asked me to make new feet for the lions to be worn in this years Grand Floral Parade. If you notice in the picture above the lions are wearing white sneakers, which seems to be common if you do a Google image search. What I'm making is a shoe cover that attaches with velcro on over top of the shoe, each foot has four golden claws (96 claws for the whole team!) with fur and will really make the costumes complete! I'm photographing the whole process, so check back for more details.

I was fortunate enough to be given a tour of the inside of the lion heads and costumes and I have to tell you that it really is a phenomenally intricate bamboo structure lashed together and then hand covered in paper mache and elaborately painted, again by hand. Even the pants, which seem simple are still fringed satin, and the fringe generally zigzags up and down around the legs. Look for these amazing costumes around town, they team is always performing!

Sarah's techno wedding dress

Another wedding dress for a dear friend from back in the day! I met Sarah and Jeff their freshman year of college when living in the dorms at Webster University in St Louis MO and they have since moved to Seattle. After about a year of looking for wedding dresses Sarah was confident that she couldn't find the dress she wanted within her budget. Her ideal dress was modern, sexy and sparkly without being clingy, shiny or traditional AND it has to look good on her very petite frame.

Sarah and I met up and went over her collection of pictures, both from magazines and designers and of her in the dresses she had tried in stores. First I focused on finding the right bridal fabrics but found them all to be too traditional and a little expensive for the budget. A trip to Britex in San Francisco gave me some phenomenal cotton and synthetic blends with a subtle tone on tone sparkle that gives a very modern techno feel in a bridal color palate at a price point we could work with. It was the first time I had ever bought the fabric without the client seeing it but I was SO sure this was it I took the risk after emailing photos. Fortunately Sarah loved the fabrics I found and we nailed down a design. Here are the fabrics:

NW Textile show

Last week in Portland we had the NW Textile Show at the Portland convention center. I have to say that I was totally amazed! Most of it was way over our heads bling crazy Addidas and Nike oriented stuff, but the materials were amazing and some of the vendors had low or no minimums on their stock materials. There were crazy hologram materials for shoe insets, amazing webbings and laces, 3D laminated printing technology AND the whole reason we went, Schoeller Fabrics.

Schoeller Fabrics is the cutting edge in fabric technology, making textiles for gear, shoes, equestrian and what we're particularly interested in, stylish rain gear. I dream of a day when I can wear a cure retro looking jacket in a bitter winter rain and keep warm and dry. The samples are on their way to us and the designs are flying for the "Cycling Jacket" that all my guy friends keep requesting. What we've found is a wool stretch blend, laminated with a waterproof layer that stretches too! Drop in a cozy bamboo, wool, silk knit or fleece lining and oohhhh boy! Men's, Women's and Children's lightweight waterproof wool with classic styling.

Drop me a line with thoughts and ideas on what you like most in your favorite clothes!

EM