Check For Me On the Corner..And I Don't Mean Hookin'

Today I'm just sorta chillin' out, not really working on anything new. However, I am in the process of creating a new dress for the sewfly shop. Thus far I've only painted two bars/lines and have 4 more to go. I need to go get more paint tonight.

You may have noticed a new dress added to my shop the other day.





My manfriend and I made a trip to the salvation army which is where I found this "scrap" material (as it was called by the lady who works there. she just don't know! ha ha!) I won't even mention how much it cost. :-D On the way home I was going over in my mind what I'd make out of it. Initially I'd decided on a skirt, but then realized that there was enough to make a dress. A teeny, weeny dress, but a dress nonetheless. ;-)

On another note I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with some garments that I picked up from the boutique where I sell. Last weekend I was *supposed* to particiapte in a fashion show, but it didn't happen. Models didn't show up, etc. etc. :-/ I'd gone and picked up some pieces from the boutique to put in the show, and now I'm not sure whether I want to take them back or put them on etsy. Included are a few that I made for that trunk show last month as well as this one which I just adore:








I'm having this debate with myself cause I'm pretty much over having my items just sitting around...in the boutique, in my closet, hanging up in my sewing room. I'm 'bout to go post up on the corner somewhere and sell clothes. You know, like the people who sell stolen goods or fake gucci purses or mix tapes out the trunk of their cars on the block? Yeah, that'll be me. For real. lol! More and more I'm thinking of opening my own little (and I do mean little) shop. I'm not really sure if that's what I want to do, though. It would mean more responsibility than I want right now. However, another option that would work just as well is setting up shop in my place. That's sounding more and more appealing each day as well. An in house boutique. I love it. :-)

This whole thing of selling handmade garments shouldn't be as difficult as it's seeming to be. I need a new plan...

Ah Ha!!!!!!

Dontcha just love it when when you figure something out that's been buggin' you for the longest? Or when you finally have physical proof of something that you were sure of but couldn't quite substantiate? Twice today this happened to me.

For the past week and a half while in my bedroom or sewing room I'd been hearing constant wimpering coming from what sounded like a small animal. Everyday I'd hear this and couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from or what was making the noise. Eventually I concluded that there must be kittens or puppies somewhere around. There are a few stray cats that walk around here, but none ever looked with child (or with kitten) to me. Yet, I just concluded that that's what it had to be.

Well, today as I was in my room doing a photo shoot, I just happened to glance out the window, and whatdoyaknow??



There they were making their way from on the side of my house for what must have been their first venture out into the world.

And here's mama cat making her way back across the street after ushering the lil ones back to their shelter.



Now, I see this cat everyday and not once did she appear to be pregnant to me. She was about to let me have it, though, when I let up the window trying to get a shot of the kittens. I got a growl and a look like, "Aye, don't be messing with my babies." So I backed off and took the pic. through the window. Yeah, I got punked by a cat.

My other "Ah ha!" moment involved my printer. For the past week, one of the lights on the thing has been blinking non stop, driving me crazy, and I couldn't get it to print for anything. The blinking light is the indicator that it's out of paper or that there's a paper jam. Well, I keep paper in it, and I'd cleared the only paper jam a week before. Or so I thought. After lallygagging around on hp.com, I figured I'd check it once more for a jam. I mean, I just knew there wasn't one, cause I'd flipped the thing over and inspected it every which way I could. There was no stuck paper. But, after being on the site, I figured I'd inspect it one more time.

Well. Guess what I found stuck waaaaaaaaay back off in there?



Yep. That big ol' piece of paper was the cause of it all. It took a bright light, a butter knife, and me nearly breaking the printer and getting ink all over myself, but I was finally able to get my printer back in functioning order.


So this have been a day of revelation for me. To accompany the gray kittens and the gray printer, I've got a new grayish-greenish (chiffon) circle skirt to show you.




A little risqué. :-) I was gonna line it but then decided to let transparent fabric be transparent fabric. It works great with boy shorts. Also, the waistband stretches out to 48 inches, so it's best for larger sizes. I know some of the more curvaceous ladies can work it out and, with this skirt, show us how those shorts are really supposed to be worn, ha ha! :-) This piece reminds me somewhat of one of my most favorite designs in the whole world. Now those pants--both pieces actually--are off the hook.

This'll be added to my shop later, once I can figure out a name for it.

peace

Can't Get Enough

Even more chiffon.

koa wrap skirt
$28

This is some material that's been in my stach for over a year. I just wasn't sure what to do with it. There's a lot going on in the print, so a dress seemed like it'd be too much. I think this works. There was supposed to be a matching wrap around top to go with it, but I ditched it. A single skirt will do.


I really like this fabric. The bold colors , while not necessarily ones that I'd wear, really appeal to me. Very striking. :-)

So, yep. That's that. Just wanted to give a quick update.

peace

Completion

So I finally got around to finishing that chiffon dress that I ranted about this past Tuesday.

camille dress

$48

The funny thing about it is that the hem didn't give me nearly as much drama as it did last time. See, sometimes ya gotta just take a break from things and return at a later time.

I think I'm gonna go make a circle skirt. Or maybe a dress with a circle skirt. I've been in the mood for creating one of those lately and just found the appropriate material to do it with buried under a pile of some other fabrics. I'd completely forgotten about that material. Only thing is is that it's.....chiffon!! I know I said I wouldn't work with it for a while after that orange dress was done. I was just caught up in a moment of frustration though. I love chiffon. :-D

At least that's what I say now. We'll see what happens with this.

peace

Good Old Cotton

So following Tuesday's rant, I decided that I'd work with a less antagonistic material in order to regain my sanity and not give up the sewing thing all together. I love working with basic cotton cause it's just to the point and doesn't get all out of shape when I go to hem it. For the sewfly shop I made this...

viola babydoll top
$46

I love making these. Right now I've got a vision for one which I think is gonna be pretty neat, so be on the look put for that.

Oh! last night I decided to put a lot of tops in my sewfly shop on clearance. Basically, I just need to get them out of here. I'm pretty much over that phase of creation unless someone decides they want one custom made. They're really cute...very artful, so check 'em out!

peace

No More Dawanda...

For now anyway. The one item I had listed there really wasn't the style I want portrayed on that particular site, so I removed it and took the outfit to the local boutique where my items are sold. I'll work new items for Dawanda later....just not feelin' it right now.

In other news, I'm so irritable today, and it's all because of some orange chiffon fabric. Everyone who's called me today can hear it in my voice. ( Compare this to Sunday when I was all cheerful. :-/)


I've been working on a chiffon dress aaaallllllllllllll day and the thing is driving me crazy. No let me correct that, I've been working on the hem of the dress all day. The rest of the dress was finished yesterday, but for some reason this hem is not cooperating. And to make things worse, I've used up all the matching thread, so now I can't finish it til I go get more. It's too hot outside, I don't feel like driving in this lunatic traffic waaaay to Joann's, and right now my car is probably on "E". I'm not in the mood (now or never) to give any of these petroleum corporations any more of my money so they can do whatever it is they gotta do to get the resource they need to generate more funds and live it up while I just try to make it by employing my skills and creative capacity.

See how everything is related?

All that said, Whenever I get done with this dress, I don't want to work with chiffon again for a long time. Hate to say that, cause it's such a beautiful fabric, and I'd love to make a lot more summer dresses from it. But sometimes I swear those little fibers must conspire and say, "Ok, y'all. The goal for today it to drive Tiesha up the wall, mwwaaaaa ha ha ha haaaaaaa!!!" as a payback for me cutting them up and sewing them back together. :-/


Well, since I don't have a garment picture for today, I'll post these that I took yesterday. This is the view behind my place which I'm gonna work on cleaning up and turning into some form of organic garden. I'm all about self-sustainability and growing my own food! (Don't ask about my tomato plants that ended up dying due to neglect.)







And here's the kumquat tree the I need to go pluck the remainder of the fruit from.



I think I'll go do that now. Nature can always brighten my spirits. Plus, today is what would have been my beloved grandmother's 79th b-day so while out there I'm gonna honor her legacy among the lovely naturalness. I feel better already. :-D


Have a wonderful day/week.

Color me HAPPY! :-D

So in last Sunday's post ,I mentioned that by this weekend I was gonna finish up a dress I'd been working on for my sewfly shop. Well, guess what?? I actually did (although it wasn't til yesterday)! :-D











I'm so very pleased with this dress that I don't know what to do. It just makes me happy. Yes, it's true that I've done one similar to this before, but for some reason I was just overcome with joy when this one was finished.

Also, I whipped up a sexy lil number from some pink knit material I found at a thrift shop.






At first there was no elastic around the bust, but I decided to go back and add some. It's so annoying (to me) to be wearing a tube top and have to keep pulling it up every few minutes. After finishing this garment and testing it out (by walking around the house in it for a few minutes), I realized that it was prone to that malfunction since it's a pull over and has no zipper. So now with the elastic, the dress stays up with no problem. You can dance, turn flips, run, a whatever else you wanna do without worrying whether or not your "goods" will be exposed.

You may have heard (read) me say that I've never been big on pink. But this is some good fabric, and I won't even mention how much I got it for ;-). I've never been one to pass up nice material at a low price solely based on its color. Although I'm an earth tone kinda girl myself (but I have been wearing a bit more color these days...still no pink though, ha!), I know others like a bright wardrobe.

Oh! I'm on my way to add these to the shop right now. The turquoise one might take longer, cause I can't think of a name for it. Hmmm...

Spontaneous Creation

My latest creation made on a whim yesterday from some vibrant blue, medium weight, polyester, ribbed material that I found at a thrift store a while back.

Both of my cameras are trippin', otherwise I would have added more photos so you can see all angles. There's an invisible zipper at the side along with a long belt that extends from the waist band and ties at the side. Seams down the front and back, ankle length, etc. Of course when I add it to my shop more photos will be included.

I've been in one of my "dead zones" lately considering that I've been so overwhelmed with other non-deisgn related things. I haven't been blogging as much, creating as much, tending to my shops as much, promoting as much, and basically just not feeling it as much. Well, all the other madness is done, so hopefully I can pull myself together and be more active with the creating. That's a big hopefully considering that I may be about to have to reenter the world of retail for the next two months (*screams*) to make and save money for an expensive 7 day trip to ATL for the commitment ceremony (ie: wedding) of some of my good friends. Only for them would I subject myself to the torture, but hopefully I won't have to.

*fingers crossed*

:-/

Where is the Love?

My recent super busy-ness with other things has caused me to neglect my flytie etsy shop, and it makes absolutely no sense. So this morning I went in the "studio," and four hours later I'd made a new dress.

markita chiffon dress

$44

Pretty simple. Classic me. :-)


I'm working on another chiffon dress but can't complete it cause I keep putting off going to the store to get an invisible zipper. I'm gonna make it a point to do that today, though. I use to keep stashes of basic stuff like zippers and thread, but lately things are looking pretty skimpy as far as those stashes are concerned.

Something else I need to do is update my other shop. It's been forever and a day since I've made anything new for that shop, but, believe it or not, over a month ago I began working on a dress similar to this one for 'sewfly.' I mean, I haven't done anything more than cut out the pieces and add elastic to the top, but it's a start! By next weekend it'll be done. I'm putting it out there, so y'all can hold me accountable.


Ok. I'm going to soak up some sun.

peace!

Fly tie on Dawanda

I've been *intending* to do it for the longest, but today I finally started selling on a site other than etsy. You can now find my garments on dawanda.



And I'll also be adding items to one or two other online shops this summer.

I got somewhat frustrated while navigating through the dawanda site trying to get done what needed to get done. Hopefully that's just cause I'm new there and am not too familiar with everything and not cause it actually is frustrating. I went ahead and listed the two piece outfit mentioned in the last post to keep from having too much of the purple striped fabric in my etsy shop. My sewing has slowed down a lot lately, but I'm gonna try to go at it strongly within the next week so I can add new items to etsy as well as dawanda.

Oh, and my dawanda url is flytie.dawanda.com. For those of you unfamiliar, you'll find that it's a Germany based shop and all currencies are in euros. There's a German Dawanda site, a
French one, and the English one. Let me brush up on (i.e. learn, ha!) my French and German and I'll be writing be descriptions in those languages as well. If there were a Spanish Dawanda site, I'd be all over it, man! But good thing many people outside the US know various languages--including English--so they can understand the descriptions. I'm not pleased with the fact that I only know 2 myself, but that'll change in the near future.

So, yep. That's my quick update for the day. Y'all have a great weekend!

later.

Duo

The adjective of the week is busy. Whew! But between last night and this morning I was able to finish a 2-piece outfit I'd started on Sunday. I think this is just the second matching set that I've ever done. It seemed so appropriate.

More of the purple striped material...


(Excuse the wrinkles.)

I really love how lightweight the fabric is....very comfy. I think I've got 2 1/2 to 3 yrds. of it left that I'm not sure what I'll do with. If anyone is interested in something custom made from this material just let me know. Otherwise, I probably won't work with it again for another couple weeks or more, since there are other fabrics in there that I'm itching to cut and sew. So if you've got any ideas for a summer dress/top/skirt made from this just for you, it can be arranged.

peace

Multiple Tings A Gwan

(For those of you who need an idea of what the title's about )

Well, this past week has been pretty slow as far as creating new garments goes, but I did work on quite a few things. First, you may recall from a previous post that I did some custom work for someone on etsy. After receiving the skirt and trying it out, she was pleased but wished the waistband had little more stretch to it in case she grows. Instead of having her just "deal with it" (which she suggested..she's a sweetie), I just made another one, cause that's just how i do :-)...






(sorry for the blurry photos.)

This one is made of knit rather than woven fabric and has a bit more flow to it. Plus the waistband stretches much wider.

Next thing...you may also recall from a previous post that a couple weeks ago I was in the process of creating an outfit for myself to wear to the local international festival
which was to include a lime green mini halter top. Well, I did finally finish the top...






but decided not to wear it.

Instead I sported this...





Hand stenciled "Burning Spear" tank top and rasta sarong (which serves as a covering for my bedroom windows by night.) And no I'm not a rasta for those who are wondering, but I really dig many of the principles of the culture.

Now this was specifically for the Burning Spear concert which took place last Sunday. (I loooooooooove me some Spear, and roots reggae and general.) I figured this was a better choice considering that I normally get really hype at concerts...*especially* at a Burning Spear concert...and that green chiffon might not have faired too well with all the dancing, sweating, and carrying on. Oooh! and you know I had a fantastic time. :-D (Anyone reading this who was near me at the front can testify to that, ha!)

In other festival news, that Saturday myyyyyyy.....manfriend's mother--or my "mother-in-law" or "future mother-and-law" as some humorously call her--and I went out there during the day so she could look around. Although she's lived here for years (originally from Mississippi), she'd never gone to the festival. Well, that day she really wanted to go but didn't want to go alone. Her husband was out of town and her other son who's local and his girlfriend just weren't into it. The son of hers who's my main squeeze had to work and probably wouldn't have gone with her if he didn't have to. (Apparently even at 28, almost 29 yrs. of age, it's not cool to be seen with your mother out and about, lol!)

So we went, and she ended up buying a nice dashiki dress...



Considering that she's only about 5 feet tall, it was way too long. She was worried that it couldn't be adjusted without losing the decorative banding at the bottom. Of course I had to remind her that she was standing next to the number one garment re-constructor in the land..or at least in Lafayette....well, at least on my block, ha ha! So after a little cutting and readjusting, the above is now...





We'll, make that drive out to their home in the country today to give it to her. Hopefully she'll be pleased.

And lastly, I finally decided one what type of closure I'd use on the custom gray shrug that I previously wrote about. I ended up sewing a snap closure to the inside. I was trying to avoid anything on the outside that'd be too showy and possibly clash with whatever accessories she's decide to wear with the shrug on any given day.



You can see part of the silver snaps showing through which I think looks pretty spiffy.

That's pretty much it. Currently I'm working on a t-shirt design for a spoken word artist friend of mine who has an event coming up that she needs some fly gear for. I'll be sure to post the outcome.

peace