Goodbye Valentino

30 May S H I B U I – Vogue 8648

Posted at 17:38h in Craftsy, Uncategorized, Vogue Sewing Patterns by goodbyevalentino 0 Comments

“When the student is ready, the master appears.” Buddhist Proverb I was ready to learn how to make a good dress, and boy did I learn. My dedicated efforts in dressmaking were often flawed by random mediocre details leaving me discouraged and insecure. Enter the Online Couture Dress Class with Susan Khalje. I’m wondering if I even knew what C O U T U R E meant. Very nice, good fitting, custom-made clothes with special hand-sewn techniques – right? My naivety proved me nearly clueless. While Susan suggests several dress patterns to use, the Craftsy course includes this free Vogue 8648 dress pattern which she illustrates in...

25 May IN THE NAME OF COUTURE

Posted at 08:53h in Craftsy by goodbyevalentino 38 Comments

I’ve been about to bust to write a post but sadly I have nothing to show. I’m in the midst of The Couture Dress Craftsy course with Susan Khalje for whom I have great admiration and respect. Composing a symphony, climbing Mt. Everest and making a couture dress must have similarities, although I bet climbing Mt. Everest takes less time than making this dress. I have been working for days making a muslin, cutting the underlining, and now, I am f i n a l l y assembling the dress. Susan recommends using large (huge) sheets of waxed tracing paper...

20 May The Ultimate Compliment

Posted at 20:53h in Kate Spade, Simplicity Patterns by goodbyevalentino 46 Comments

Many years ago my daughters and I colored and framed a poster entitled “The A,B,Cs of Manners & Etiquette” featuring a little penguin illustrating all 26 rules. A “Accept a compliment graciously.” it begins. Today I received the ultimate compliment. I wish I had accepted the compliment with less modesty and more vigor. I really feel like tearing up this poster. The story goes like this: I was in North Carolina over the weekend visiting my parents. On the way home today, I stopped in Charlotte to have Sunday lunch with my daughter. In my life all roads lead to Neiman Marcus, and so there I was in...