creation

Left: Gray stripes mini poncho dress, Right: Pale pink and lace poncho tunic

I haven’t forgotten about the scrap heap project! I completed two poncho tunics today. The last two tunics sold out, and I received some inquiries about them by some etsians, so I decided to make more of them, using my fabric stash. Plus, I think these breezy tunics are great as beach cover-ups! We live half an hour away from the beach, and I can’t wait to take a trip there soon. Sadly we are now in the middle of the rainy season and it’s been raining every day for the past week. I miss dry, crisp weather!

For those who sew, I made a tutorial for the poncho top here. I was happy to see Wendy from The Butterfly Balcony used my tutorial to make her own poncho dress. Instead of inserting elastic bands at waist, she made a button hole on the side to use it as a belt loop. See her version here🙂

Have a great weekend everyone!

I posted last Thursday about my new JJ blouse. I wore it on Friday for some business meetings I had scheduled.  I paired it with my beige suit, and I loved it. I loved the fit, and the gold trimmed buttons, everything was to my liking. After wearing, I did what I normally do and washed it over the weekend.  I am sure you can see what is coming next….I killed it, it shrunk.  Now it is a perfect fit  for a 10 year old girl! I usually pre-wash fabric before sewing unless the fabric is un-washable, but this time I got lazy as I tend to do  when I sew for myself.  I skipped the pre-washing stage thinking that it will probably be okay. I was so wrong. Now my blouse is in the pile waiting to be taken to the local thrift shop. Unfortunately, the only way I can wear this blouse again is if  I lose 40 pounds. Sad…

Here are some updates on sewing projects I’ve been working on: Eight bridesmaid dresses in different colors – the customer sent me the fabrics of her choice, and I’m sewing bridesmaid dresses in three different designs, and eight different colors and patterns. I’m so excited to see how all the dresses will turn out!

Also, I made these new skirts for the shop. Watercolor waist elastic skirt on the left, and Gray velvet scalloped waist skirt on the right. I fell in love with the watercolor fabric I found in Nippori the other day. The fabric looks like something you’d find at Zara or something. I’m planning on making a dress with the same fabric, since I have a good amount left after making the skirt:)

Lastly, I finished the last dress for the After the Carnival photo shoot. Apple dress! I know I wrote that I avoided prints (especially floral prints) this time, because I wanted to go for bright and solid colors, but I could not resist the apple print. I bought the fabric online a while ago, and it was waiting to be used. I am having two models for the shoot, so I think it will be cute to have one model wear the apple dress, and the other wear this dress with red piping details, to show the pop of red color.

Andy just asked me what happened to my scrap heap project, the one where I complete one garment per day using my fabric scraps from the scrap heap… I totally forgot about it:p Perhaps I’ll start it back again once I’m done with all the business meetings that I will have to attend this week!

What sewing projects did you work on weekend?

Credit:
Photographer: Takura Yanagi
Model: Maya Murofushi
Make up and Hair: Takashi Ashizawa
Clothes: Vivat Veritas (1. Cream lace two tone dress, 2. Tiger cut out dress 3. Choker Dress, 4. Eggplant back V party dress, 5. Front cross bandage dress)

Here is the finished photos from last Wednesday’s photo shoot! The photographer, Takura was amazingly fast with his work, and I had the finished photos in hand within 4 days of  the shoot (thank you Takura!).

The initial theme of this shoot was to be that of an old film, an Audrey Hepburnish feel, but I think the final product turned out much different. Andy named this lookbook “Flickers”, because they seem to show “flickers” of the same girl. He said that these shots show Maya, in different settings and moods. You see flickers of her varied personality and style.  It is the same girl but she is constantly changing.  This reminds me of the flickering light of a candle.   Andy is usually good at coming up with titles and themes of lookbooks but I am not sold on this one yet:)  What do you think?

The shoot took place in Sakuragicho, Yokohama. It was sunny, beautiful, and best of all, we managed to dodge the suspicious glances of various security guards.

So what do you think? I know it’s much different from my most recent lookbook, Secret Garden. I myself was surprised to see how different clothes can look, depending on the styling, make up and hair and model. I like the edgy, vogue magazine feel to these photos, and am happy to add some new flavors to VV.