viva las vegas

it’s june! school is out and the dearie daughters are looking forward to summer day camp adventures while i'm looking forward to tackling plenty of new summer sewing projects.
 
this past may mr. dearie and i popped down to las vegas for a 5-day visit. mr. dearie attended a work conference while i delighted in catching up with a bestie and revisiting my former haunts. bestie and i caught up and enjoyed a delicious lunch (that's her below!) at an incubator food cart her friend owned called slo-boy food. i have to say, my pork belly lunch was absolutely heavenly!

i also had great success scooping up the remaining yardage of a special vintage brocade fabric i’d last purchased from williams costume co. some thirteen years ago. (my original fabric had been fashioned into a skirt and bucket hat for our italian honeymoon!)  i swear the fabric was in the exact same spot where i’d left it and i’m still convinced this is one of the most beautiful fabrics i’ve ever laid eyes upon. unfortunately, photographs do not do it justice. however, the remaining 7.5 yards of this 60-inch wide fabric are now gloriously all mine!

throughout my desert visit i received daily comments and compliments on my attire. why? as one kind gentleman, upon learning i lived in the pacific northwest exclaimed, “yes!  you don’t dress like they do around here!!” even my desert bestie, a skilled and longtime seamstress in her own right, swooned over my french market rooster mash-up with its old-school finishing techniques and thoughtful extras. (“i still think about your rooster dress and how gorgeous it is!” she wrote me weeks later.)
 
true to my versatile web page claims, i packed everything listed for my weekend getaways along with an extra mash-up dress and pair of flag pants for good measure. and it still all fit in my soft carry-on duffle bag!
 
back home and getting into the swing of summer, there are two super mash-up dresses, one in each size range, nearly completed. one is being constructed in a beautiful pale aqua version of the french peacocks print dress from spring and incorporates a well-aged cheetah print for one of the contrasts from nearly 25 years ago. 

what was this lovely 100% cotton in its long-lived former life? a much beloved, washed and dried famous american designer flat king bed sheet! i adore recycling and re-purposing old bed linens for new garment design and construction and these special fabrics undeniably lend a lovely history to my slow-fashioned creations. the softness of this fabric can truly only come from authentic aging over time and feels incredibly wonderful against the skin.
 
and dearies, while you know i’m a staunch proponent for wearing half-slips, i’ll completely understand when you intentionally choose to wear this beauty with bare legs!

until my next missive…

xo

darling