Week in Review {4.20.12}

Well, it's been a doozy of a week. The idea of blogging has confounded me because, well, there's just too much muchness. How would I pick a topic? I think the remedy is to write a post all about me me me and just get it out of my system. Okay, here's what's been going on.

• Let's start with the good news. My sewing room is finally ready to move into! I ripped up the carpet, smoothed the subfloor with wood filler, sanded the whole thing with an industrial sander I rented (that was an interesting day), painted three base coats, and then stenciled on top. Whew! If I do say so myself, it looks beautiful. 

 

• I want to start offering private lessons in my home studio, so if you're around the Dutchess County area and might be interested, please let me know!
• Okay, now for the not-so-good stuff. Jeff and I adopted a dog last weekend: a big, goofy, adorable lab/boxer mix named Phillip. We had him home for four days, and he started having behavioral problems during the afternoons: barking, whining, storming through the house like a hurricane, biting, etc. I called his former foster mom to discuss what was going on and ask for advice. It turned out that the time that Phillip was freaking out was the time of day that her two sons would come home from school, take Phillip (and his best doggy friend Gage) down to the creek, where they would play for hours with about 10-20 other kids and dogs. Obviously, this made him very happy. The foster family missed him sorely and told me that if we wanted to bring him back, they would adopt him permanently. Readers, it was obvious what we had to do. We tearfully drove Phillip back to his new forever home and said our goodbyes. Jeff and I adore animals and we never thought we'd be returning a dog we adopted. But it was obviously the right choice and Phillip is happy, so that's what's important. We miss you, Philly!

• The cats are happy again, too. (OMG, how handsome does Henry look on that floor?!)

 

• My dad is having his third brain surgery on Monday. They're going to remove his latest tumor and implant some sort of radiated seeds in his brain, which sounds very sci-fi to me. He's very resilient--stubbornly so, actually. So I can't worry about him too much. But if you think to send him some good thoughts in Arizona, please do. Feel better, Dad! 
• Wow, sewing stuff seems so minor after that last one, but let's get back to some fluffier content. I finished Simplicity 1803 last night. That's the Kate Spade-inspired LBD I wrote about last week. I'm going to wear it today and get some pictures taken that I can share with you!
• I ordered a cotton-candy pink necklace to wear with it from this etsy shop. I can't wait for it to arrive. 

• I made cheery new pillow covers.

 

•  I've been making napkins too. 

• There's a lot more home dec stuff I could show you. A pink coffee table! Skull stencils! A treadle sewing machine table! But I actually have to run and grab a train into the city. I'm teaching a private lesson and then I have my millinery class at FIT. Thanks for listening, readers.

Have a great weekend!

All the News from St. Paul!

Hello, dear readers! Sorry I've been an absentee blogger this week. I'm afraid I may have given the impression that my book is done. Alas, while the photography is complete (hurrah!), there's still a lot of writing and revising work for me to do. And in addition to scrambling to get that work done, I'm a jet-setting lady too. I'm here at The Creative Connection as a BurdaStyle ambassador. I salute you, my subjects! As promised, here's all the news:

• OMG, it's freezing here. I'm in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, and we're experiencing an early frost. Carol from BurdaStyle and I made a trip to the Mall of America (how novel!) and bought tights. I got these cute lace ones in nude. I'm in love.
• We also stopped by the Bettie Page store where I bought the new book Retro Makeup by Lauren Rennells. I started it (in the bathtub!) last night and it's incredibly well done.
• Last night we had dinner with some gals from Etsy as well as Gussy, who's a peach. We've decided we should go on the road together as The Gussy & Gertie Show. 
• We set up the booth this morning. That pic above is me posing with my new friend for the weekend (we'll just call her "Singer"). We're in the "lounge," where we'll be making cute little bags. 
• The shirt dress I'm wearing was made recently from a pattern of my own design. Let me be coy and say perhaps you shall have the opportunity to make the pattern yourself someday! So I dearly hope you like it. It has shirring in the back so it's super comfy.
• I'm also wearing my "conversation clogs." People love to stop me to talk about them so I make lots of new friends!

• My editor, Melanie Falick, is coming in soon and we're bunking together tonight. She'll probably chain me to my laptop until I finish the book.
• I'm teaching a hand stitches class tomorrow at 8 a.m. (yikes) and a blogging class on Saturday afternoon. Hope to see you there!

What's going on in your world, readers? What's in your sewing machine?

Gertie's Week in review {8.13.11}

Hi everyone! I'm back from Cleveland and trying to readjust to my crazy life. Here's a picture of me on-set, filming a segment for It's Sew Easy, season 2. Thank god for makeup artists. My skin has been going crazy lately! I have an oh-so-lovely patch of blemishes on my right cheek that seems to be here to stay. Stress is terrible on a girl's complexion. The makeup lady suggested I drink lots of water, exfoliate once a week, and see a dermatologist for cortizone shots. I'll do the first two and see if it helps before I do anything involving expensive appointments and needles. Any skincare tips, ladies? Do any of you use Bare Minerals foundation? I hear that's better for problem skin than liquid foundation.

Anyway. I did one segment on making a simple retro pattern modification and one on making machine buttonholes. The second was completely unexpected; the producer just asked if I could stay and do one more. Sure, why not?

I had a meeting with the creative team on my book project on Tuesday, and they are an awesome group of ladies. We're prepping for the photoshoot which will take place later this month. Eight days of shooting! First we'll do all the technique stills, which I have about a week to prep. Um, anyone want an internship with a sewing author??? (Seriously, anyone? I could really use some help this week prepping the sewing shots. I'll be working out of Chelsea. I will buy you chocolate and wine!)

The latter part of the shoot will be the fashion shots. And then this madness will be partially over. 

Posting will continue to be light for the next few weeks (insert sad face), but I have some great guests posts planned for you!

Okay, it's back to the sewing room I go. How are you all doing, readers?

Week in Review {7.4.11}

Happy Fourth of July, readers! It's a long weekend here, so I'm just catching up on things in blogland.

One of the most surprising things about quitting my full-time job is how it's kept me away from the internet. When you have a desk job, you're constantly connected. You know, you check your e-mail between meetings, write a blog post on your lunch break, refresh Google Reader constantly. But now that I'm a free agent, I don't spend nearly as much time on the computer. I can't even remember the last time I checked my RSS feed--the horror! So forgive me if I've been spotty on keeping up with your blogs (and mine for that matter).

The days have been filled with teaching, writing, editing, and sewing. And like a lot of freelancers say, I've never worked this much in my life. I never thought I would love working 12-14 hour days, but I do.

I've recently picked up a few students for private lessons, and I love teaching that way. I've also been working some late nights out of the studio with a couple fellow teachers, and it's amazingly fun. This is the first time I've had sewing buddies--you know, people who will mark your hem while discussing the merits of various types of interfacing. It's delightful.

I also went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at The Met on Friday and it was stunning: beautiful, haunting, and impressive. When I went to see it, I was in the middle of trying to draft a shirt dress pattern for my book and it was giving me the hardest time. Looking at the work of McQueen was pretty humbling; it's amazing what he achieved in his short life.

One of my favorite pieces was this corset, from his Dante collection (1996-1997):

McQueen was inspired by death and mourning in this collection, and he chose lilac for the corset because it's a color required by one of the stages of mourning in Victorian England.

The exhibit was beautifully presented, with tons of garments, accessories, and multi-media elements.

I've been doing a ton of sewing, but unfortunately it isn't anything I can share here yet. The shirt dress I mentioned earlier came out wonderfully after a bit of frustration. It's one of my favorite patterns I've made so far: comfy, form-fitting, chic, and practical all at the same time. The pattern just needs a few more tweaks (moving notches and other exciting things like that) and then it will be ready to send to the grader. Hurrah!

What's going on with you, readers?

Pictorial Week in Review {6.11.11}

What a week! I knew it was going to be a busy one, but I'm not sure I was really prepared for exactly how busy. You see, I had two deadlines on Monday: samples due for a magazine article I'm writing on party skirts and all the prep work completed for the filming of my "Perfect Fit Bombshell Dress" class.

Here's a sneak peek of a skirt inside. I've become totally obsessed with finishing my seams by turning and stitching them.

In the midst of the craziness, I caught some cute Henry pics. Life's too short not to play with your kitteh--even when you're on a deadline!

 

I started filming for Craftsy.com Sunday evening, but we did the majority of the work Monday through Wednesday. We filmed at The Sewing Studio, where I teach. The space was perfect, but unfortunately the a/c hadn't been installed yet! I'd have my makeup done every morning at 8:00 and it would be melted off within an hour. I don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life.

Cutting some beautiful teal shantung:

The crew was super fun and awesome, and even helped me hand-baste some underlining! How's that for impressive?

We put the fan on between takes, which resulted in this "Pantene Pro-V" picture.

I had a bad run-in with the iron. It fell on my left arm (see below) and I decided to catch it by the hot plate with my right hand. HOLY CRAP IT HURT. Filming was called to a brief halt while I ran my wounds under cold water and very nice people ran about getting me burn cream and ice.

The filming ended and was a success! I've spent the last couple days recovering and catching up on e-mails and other work. I thought I wouldn't even want to look at a sewing machine for a few days, but I suddenly started a dress for fun in my scheduled relaxation time. I have this beautiful rose print pique that I'm making a dress with a few new-to-me techniques: elastic shirring on the back panels and a coutil lining on the front bodice for support. More to come on all that!

And now it's Saturday afternoon and I'm going to meet the lovely Sal for coffee and cupcakes!

How's everything with you, dear readers?

Gertie's Week in Review {5.28.11}

Welcome to the weekend, dear readers!

What a week it's been. My last day at my old job was Wednesday, so there was a lot of packing and tying up loose ends. And then Thursday I was a brand new woman! But no rest for the wicked—I spent the early part of the day on several phone calls, while getting short bursts of book sewing done in between. It was also the first day of the new session at The Sewing Studio, and I taught two beginner classes that evening. I do love my beginning seamstresses; it's so satisfying to see the progress they can make in just a two-hour class.

Friday I got up and ran errands right away. I even did the grocery shopping and made dinner last night! I can see this is the beginning of my life as a domestic goddess. Maybe. Probably not.

Readers, I have so much to do in the next week or so. I'm prepping for the filming of my online class, which is in a mere week and a half. I also have samples to sew for an article I'm writing. Oh, and there's that whole book thing. Good thing I don't have that pesky job to get in the way anymore!

In closing, have you all seen this video? If not, you must watch it RIGHT NOW. You won't regret it.



There. Aren't you glad you did that?

What are you up to this weekend, peeps?

Gertie's Week in Review {5.21.11}

Hey, it's the Judgment Day edition! Have you all been following all this stuff? It came to my attention about a week ago, when suddenly 6th Avenue was swarming with folks with their "Doomsday" signs. I have to tell you, it freaked me out. There's something very creepy about their whole "the end is near" vibe. Since then, I started reading up on it, which made me feel A LOT better. The numbers put into Harold Camping's calculations are so arbitrary. It's actually quite fascinating. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend this New York Times article on the strain this sort of prophecy can bring to families with mixed beliefs. It brings a human side to the story, which is much needed as a counterpoint to the extremes of fervor and mocking.

Anyway! I suppose I should tell you the news I hinted at last Saturday. I quit my job! Enough other opportunities have been coming my way that I decided it was time to take the leap and focus my energies on all this sewing stuff. I'll be living the freelance life. Going forward, my days will be a mix of a multi-prong plan, which I will helpfully outline for you in handy bullet points:

• Writing. First things first, I need to finish my book. My deadline to have everything done (text, patterns, and sample garments) is July 1. For the next several weeks, I'll have a lot more time to focus on that. Additionally, I've gotten a couple writing assignments for sewing magazines, which I'll be telling you more about as my articles become available.
• Blogging. More time to focus here, yay! I'm working with a designer who will help me turn this site into my multi-platform internet dream home. Don't worry, I'll ask for your feedback as we get further into it. In the meantime, I want to do more tutorials, more open threads (yesterday's was a rousing success), refine the direction for The Daily Dress, and re-introduce Gertie, Girl Reporter on Fridays. I also want to do some daily outfit posts, just for the fun of it.
• Teaching. I've upped my course load at The Sewing Studio. If you want to take an Intro class with me, there's still room in my Thursday afternoon class, starting on the 26th! (Register here.) Update: Sorry, it looks like they've cancelled that class due to low registration. Hey, I also do private lessons! And if that weren't enough, I'll be filming an online course on dressmaking that you can sign up for starting sometime in July. More to come on that front.
• Freelance editing. Starting in late June, I'll be freelance editing for the best publisher of craft books around. (Hint.) 

So yeah. I think that should keep me pretty busy. It's a big leap to leave a full-time job, but I've put a lot of thought into it, and it's time.  Working as a children's book editor for the past 7 years has been a fun adventure, but I'm ready to let it go. Here's to following our dreams!

Gertie's Week in Review {5.14.11}

I'm back! The Great Blogger Outage of '11 (as it shall henceforth be known) threw a wrench into my weekly posting schedule. For those who don't know, the outage put Blogger into a read-only mode (no posting or commenting) and temporarily removed anything posted since Wednesday. Those posts are now back, but the comments are not. I hear that they'll be restored shortly.

The Great Blogger Outage of '11 really got me thinking. First, I was frustrated. I took to Twitter to talk about migrating to Wordpress. After some thinking, I realized that I needed to put things into perspective. The outage lasted 20.5 hours, which is a long time in internet time, but a short time in the real world. Mostly I was just thrown off guard, and this resulted in me skipping 3 posts that I would have normally done. It also messed with some of my sponsors' ads, which I take seriously. But other than that . . . it really isn't a big deal. So, a reality check was taken.

Which all brings me to the topic of frequency of posting and basically, the future of this blog. As you've noticed, the introduction of The Daily Dress has me now posting twice a day during the week, and the feature you're reading now is my one weekend post. A commenter recently said she thought I was posting too much, and that she would probably unsubscribe. I guess I understand that. But the truth is, I take my future as a blogger and writer quite seriously, and I've always hoped to grow this site into something bigger: a daily blog with more interactive components. I love to write about sewing, but I also love to write about fashion, pop culture, feminism, and body image—all filtered through the lens of someone who makes her own clothes. I guess I will have to accept that I will lose some readers who bemoan that my writing isn't strictly focused on sewing technique all the time. (Sniff.) I am quite sensitive by nature, so this acceptance is a bit difficult at times!

How does this all relate to the Week in Review? Well, this week I was able to put into motion some major life changes that will allow me to focus much more time on my "online presence," as they say. I can't really go into specifics yet, but I will spill all the details in time. This will result in some changes to the blog (and yes, probably the Wordpress migration that I threatened earlier) that will bring you all more sewing tutorials, content, and community.

So it was an exciting week at Chez Gertie. I'm looking forward to the changes that the future holds, since they will allow me to follow my passion more fully. And I'm looking forward to having you all along for the ride. As always, thanks for reading!

Gertie's Week in Review {5.7.11}

Happy Saturday, friends! Are you enjoying your weekend so far? Well, let's get right into the weekly review.

On Tuesday, I met with my editor and talked deadlines for finishing up my book. While this was terrifying in a way, it was also really good to get everything out in the open. Today I'm finalizing the list of illustrations and photos needed, which is IMMENSE. We found an amazing illustrator, and we'll get her drawing soon. We're also looking at photographers. Have I mentioned that I'm modeling all the garments for the book? I need modeling advice. Has Tyra Banks written a book, with "smizing" advice and stuff like that? Because I'm gonna need that. Otherwise, I might start taking all my modeling cues from LOLVogue.

Hey, I did something really fun and spontaneous this week! So, I teach my intro to sewing class on Thursday nights at 7:00. Because I have a little time between work and my class, I usually bring some sewing to get done for the book. But I forgot to do that this past Thursday. And friends, I suddenly got the urge to sew something just for fun. No muslins, no fussing, just spontaneous sewing. I had just gotten this McCalls pattern in the mail from eBay.

{source}

 

A couple of you suggested this pattern as the perfect thing to help recreate the Nanette Lepore we talked about a couple weeks ago. And you were so right!

So between work and class, I made a mad dash to Mood and bought a couple yards of black eyelet, some bias binding, some super wide grosgrain ribbon, and a zipper. And before class, I had the dress cut out! And last night I sewed the whole darn thing. Readers, it was liberating. And I love the dress. I'll take some pictures this weekend.

Okay, back to that illustration list now. Have a great weekend!

Gertie's Week in Review {4.30.11}

Good morning, friends! Yes, it's past noon. But I only just recently woke up; I think I needed the extra sleep after this crazy week.

Sewing-wise, all I accomplished was finishing my Elizabeth Taylor-inspired slip to go on The Sew Weekly. I love it, but it sucked up a lot of time.

So today will be a mad dash trying to catch up on patternmaking for my book. I think I'm about three patterns behind where I'm supposed to be. Yikes! I need some little patternmaking elves to come help me. Have any of those you can spare?

Are you all recovered from the excitement of the royal wedding? I got much more caught up in it all than I expected to. I had a lot going on yesterday. My dad was having surgery to remove a brain tumor (it's his second), so I was waiting to hear how it went. I suppose the wedding was a bit of a distraction. Anyway, my dad is doing much better than expected and was even chatting the nurse's ear off last night. Mom said he's being perfectly himself, by which she means a nuisance. Apparently he wanted to regale the nurse with all sorts of stories. Yep, that does sound just like him!

And to top off the week, today is Jeff's birthday! I love birthdays. We're going out to a tapas restaurant with a big group of friends and I know it will be a blast. I just have to decide what to wear.

Also, breaking news: I bought a new curling iron yesterday! And I'm obsessed with it. It's called The Bombshell by Sultra, and it doesn't have a clamp. Instead, you wear a heatproof glove and wrap your hair around the iron, hold it there for a few seconds, and then pull the iron out while holding onto the curl. You let the curl cool a bit in your fingers and then release it. (Sultra has a bunch of tutorials and videos here if you want to see it in action.) It makes the most gorgeous curls. Also, I discovered that it's the perfect tool for making victory rolls. I think I'll do a video tutorial on that soon; I think this curling iron will be a godsend to retro-loving ladies. Also, it's weirdly fun to use. I was loathe to spend this much on a curling iron, but I'm glad I did. You can buy it at Sephora, if you're interested. (Plus, they have a great return policy if you decide you don't like it.)

Hey, I passed 3,000 blog followers yesterday! That was an amazing number to see. I'm thinking about a fun giveaway to celebrate and thank you all.

Well, I think that's enough excitement for one post. I'm going to go rustle up my patternmaking elves and get to work! Have a great weekend, everyone.

Gertie's Week in Review {4.23.11}

Readers, as I've become more consumed with working on my book, I feel like there's a little less of my daily doings on my blog. As you may have noticed, I've had to switch the focus here to more general information-based posts rather than updates on current projects. And this has all resulted in me feeling like there's a little less of me on the blog. Now, for some of you, this may be a plus! But for me, it feels like I miss chatting with my best sewing buddies. Hence, the idea for "Gertie's Week in Review" was born. Here I'll give you some Doogie Howser-style reflections on daily life. Here we go!

The sewing machine has been quite busy this week. I spent several days working on the pencil skirt that will be in my book. My time at Susan Khalje's couture sewing school really inspired me to make each piece very special, so this one has a silk organza underlining, a hand-picked lapped zipper, and a high waistband with boning. However, the book instructions give you the basics of construction and then there are sidebars on how to up your game if you're ready for the next level.

Mid-week, I had to switch my focus. Have you all seen the Common Thread project that's going on at The Sew Weekly? Mena had many yards of a delicate ivory vintage lace that she sent out to seven sewing bloggers to make a creation in which the lace is used. I'm honored to be finishing up the series next week. There have been many amazing creations from this lace, which you should definitely check out. I spent a lot of time agonizing over what to make, and then it suddenly came to me mid-week. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I can tell you that I draped the pattern myself and it's inspired by a costume worn by one of Hollywood's most beloved starlets—of all time.

Today is a rainy day here in Queens and I'm finishing up that project, and later going to get my hair done. I've decided I want my bangs to be a little more dramatic, in the u-shape that was popularized by non other than Bettie Page. I'm bringing along this picture of Gretchen Mol playing Bettie.

Later on, Jeff and I have a date at a new restaurant in the neighborhood that has a very old-school vibe. Perfect for showing off a new 'do!

In terms of blogging, this week has been a good one. I am really enjoying writing The Daily Dress, perhaps more than any other feature. Which is ironic, because some of you have been quite vocal in hating it! I hope you'll continue to give it a chance. Like anything else, it's a process. I'm working on the voice and style of it, and trying to make it as sewing-focused as possible by adding patterns and pondering construction techniques used on the dresses.

The granny panty discussion was quite spirited and fun, wasn't it? I was pleased that the post got picked up by Jezebel, my favorite ladyblog of all time. I joked to Jeff that I'm going to become known as that granny panties lady from now on. (Kind of like Elizabeth Banks in Zac and Miri Make a Porno. Anyone else see that?)

Well, I suppose that's it for now. I feel much better now that we've had a good chat. What's been going on with you, readers?