The Twinkie Cup

Autumn Admires the Trophy

This Saturday, in celebration of our friend John's ( Johnny Rocketpants in the derby world) 30th birthday we joined him at an indoor race track for a very fun party.

This is how Rocketpants explained the event:
To celebrate my 30 years of greatness, I require a competition of epic proportions. Hence I must insist on reviving one of the greatest challenges ever conceived -- The Twinkie Cup. A battle pitting friends against friends in tiny cars, hurling down the concrete at moderately quick speeds with the victor given the most glorious trophy in all of motorsports -- an oversized Margarita glass full of golden sponge cake with creamy filling.

We will race from 8 - 10 pm, with the winner determined by their top 3 lap speeds. As well, a twist will be implemented to spice up the competition. Those participating may dress in Smokey & the Bandit attire with their ensemble deducting their total time.

In this competition, you can deduct time in the following ways:
1. Having mustache: -3 sec
2. Wearing Bandit attire (pearl-snap shirt & boots): -6 sec
3. Wearing Smokey attire (police uniform): -12 sec
4. Wearing Sally Field attire (wedding dress): -24 sec


Adam and I Prepared for the party by making fake mustaches

We had a great time on Saturday night! I did not race this time because I was watching Autumn. I didn't race last time either... I don't know why...

Adam and I wearing our fake mustaches. Mine is pink :)

Adam Raced and got about 4th place.

Bill won the Twinkie Cup this year, Thanks to his beautiful wedding dress.

I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of Rocketpants! He looked awesome in his fake stache, cowboy hat, mother of pearl snap shirt and boots.

In other news I have been very sick for the past week. I have had really awful stomach pain and throwing up daily. Last week I had a cold on top of that. When I Was going to FIDM I had some really bad ulcer attacks, and they acted exactly like this, so I am assuming that is the problem. I am taking some medication that should make it feel better soon and I am also eating really mild foods like oatmeal... but I really want a pickle, damnit! I would also love to eat pasta with tomato sauce or even an orange.


Also, I have created the inner ties in the wedding dress I am finnishing up so it looks MUCH better now. All I have left is the viel, which I plan to make this afternoon. Sorry if you are tired of looking at this silly dress, expect to see it one more time after the final pictures are taken :)

Updates on a dress I am working on...

Well, first of all, I am giving away a pair of cute hand warmers! You can enter my giveaway HERE .


I have been doing a custom order for a wedding dress and I have reached a point where I am finally willing to share the progress. This has been an extremely fun project, and I liked having an excuse to spend $70 a yard on lace (even if the laces I wanted the most were all over $100 a yard) . I am only getting about $100 for this dress after materials, But I am so glad to have the opportunity just to MAKE it. I couldn't afford to make it if someone were not paying for the materials.


Just as a reminder, here is the Fashion Sketch of the dress.


This is the top and the underskirt. The top is not pinned on tight to the form. The form is only about a size 2 so the dress is a little bigger than that. The lace is all hand sewn on. I still need to hem the skirt, put the zipper in and cut off the extra netting on the lace.


This is the dress with the top sewn pinned on tighter and the over skirt on as well. The over skirt still needs all of the pleating done and I need to put the zipper in.



The top is fully boned and lined and has these buttons all the way up the back. I need to put some pleats at the top of the corset and then it will be finished.


This is the dress with the over skirt pinned up as it is intended to be. It looks pretty good to me so far!

I also still need to make the veil and the bolero. There is still a lot of work to do, but I am very pleased with the progress I have made.



Also... speaking of weddings.... Adam and I got our wedding rings finally, after being married tor almost 2 years. We got them from http://bendthefish.etsy.com . Mine is very elegant and has a tiny little diamond !I love it!

Costumes and preview for CAUSTIC THREADS !

Halloween was fun, and stressful. We had two parties to go to, and relatively little time... and after a while the costumes can get a little uncomfortable.



Adam was the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland


I was Little Bo Peep... and am very happy with how my costume turned out. I started it at about 1:00 on Halloween and had it completed in time to go out- that required making 5 pieces from scratch! ( I also make my own patterns) I DID get a new sewing machine. More on that later.


and Autumn was my adorable little lamb!


also, I am going to start another etsy store called Caustic Threads. I already have the shop, but it is empty and there has been no activity in it yet. This is going to be one of my first items. This picture kinda sucks but it is a t-shirt that has been altered into a small halter top and it has a crow and heart fabric applique.

I have a lot more work to do before I get it up and running, but here is a little sneak peak :)

I am also going to start moving some of my Acrylic and Steel merchandise over there, things like purses.

I am going to be making this dress! YAY

After a few convo's and a little tweaking I got the bid to do this wedding dress. I am spending over half of the price that I bid on supplies and am going to get paid much less than minimum wage for my time- but I am madly in love with this dress and am SO excited to get to make it. I guess that is how I know I am a designer. I do it because I love it, and it is more important for me to have the opportunity to make something breathtaking than it is for me to make money off of it.

Monday RANT: Couture? Oui or Non...

SO, I have always been amazed by what is called couture. I decided to punish myself one day and look up what people tagged as couture. As expected I was annoyed, surprised and amazed by what was tagged as couture.



When I was in school I was taught that only if you are an approved couturier are your dresses couture, and anything that was not approved by the french government but applied couture techniques should be refereed to as "couture style" or something that made it clear that you are not an approved couturier. No wonder I am so annoyed when people throw it around.




I just looked up the definition of couture and I actually am more understanding of how it could be misused. The web definitions are very vague, running the gammot from simply "High fashion" to "all fashionable dresses" (WHAT?!? that is just inaccurate) To the definition that I was taught which is available on wikipedia .













(Couture Christian Dior Spring '07...which I believe was still John Galliano)





There are many lovely items on etsy that I totally take no offense to being tagged as couture, but I expect a few things of the items tagged as such.


1-I am very disappointed when something tagged as "couture" is not made out of very fine materials (you know, it shouldn't be made out of $1 a yard poly)


2-If something is a mass produced item with embellishments i do not think it should be tagged couture, especially if those embellishments are made with a bead dazzler or an embroidery machine.


3-I expect to see hand sewn details...beading, draping, pleating...something


These are Totally Acceptably Tagged as couture, and are really stunning pieces!

This is from Toolgrrl

Those are gloves. amazing!

This is from atilladesign

The had detail at the hem is lovely!

So I guess here are a few hints, if it can be easily mass produced, you can charge less than $200 for it(and pay yourself for your time- once I made a dress that would have cost about $2000 if I were paying myself for my time but I only charged $200 for the dress) , or it is made with cheap materials... it is NOT couture.

IT's FINISHED

SO, the wedding dress I made is FINALLY finished. It took longer than I expected, but I am generally happy with it. It has tons of intricate details. Check it out.