reading The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter... out loud... in a British accent

Almost four years later...

and I am back.

the wendywears journal has moved!

*EDIT 7/8/2023* wendy wears . com is no longer owned or maintained by me. please do not visit the website.

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Since my old host called it quits, I have made a new website and journal at wendywears . com.

The previous journal entries here may be displayed incorrectly or reference the old website. 

To keep up on the new happenings, go to the new wendy wears .  com

Greetings, Atomic Holiday Bazaar visitors

To all the Atomic Holiday Bazaar visitors I met, thanks for stopping by! I'm currently designing new products which will be available soon. If you remember something from my booth that you'd like or just want to say hello, e-mail me at wendywears@gmail.com

To all the AHB vendors I met, thank you for your kindness and support :) I'll soon be adding your links to my links page.

website must wait a moment.

I'm toiling away here in the sewing room. I have orders to fill and stock to create for everything but the girl boutique in Sarasota, FL, and Atomic Holiday Bazaar @ Sarasota Municipal Auditorium on Sunday, December 10.

I'll be cleaning up the site a bit in the coming days/weeks. So do check back. There just won't be as many posts until I can breathe again! Rob manages to update Air Oeuvre frequently, so you should check that out :)

Autumn brings vintage dresses.

Click photo for more views.

A lovely lady from California sent me two of her Grandmother's dresses from the 50s. I'll take care of them of course!

This first dress features touches of embroidery all over: lining the edge of the cuffed sleeves and collar, scattered over the pleated skirt, and most prominent on the button-up bodice. The amazing thing is it fits me! And we all know how wonderful it is when that happens. 

Here, I wore it with a turquoise scarf from my own grandmother, a thrifted wide brown belt, a pair of faux leather woven tan heels, and a maroon/white shoulderbag crocheted by my grandmother.

I spent the first part of the day in Clearwater with Michele. We shopped until we literally dropped. No second-hand stores, though. Highlights:
- falling in love with Audrey Hepburn pants at the Gap
- bringing home great-fitting clothing: four plain tshirts, pair of leggings, pair of jeans (my first brand new pair since I was fourteen)
- eating a Garden Po'Boy at Jason's Deli
- bring home edible goodies from The Fresh Market
- bonding with the mother-in-law (thanks for everything Mikie)

OBSKC

Robert, Steven, and I drove with Robbie Boerth to Nags Head, NC, this past weekend for the 20th Annual Outer Banks Sport Kite Competition. I relaxed and took photos most of the time. Rob selected a few for his photo album. 

wendywears portfolio

Here is a partial portfolio of past wendywears goods. Use this as a reference when ordering custom items. Click below for the portfolio.

The Elephant Hawk Moth Clutch was given to Jill Bliss as part of a trade earlier this year, but I still have a tiny bit of this fabric if you like it.

Air Oeuvre's Mohawk Preview Video

Rob and I went to Pass-A-Grille beach a few days ago. He flew the Mohawk; I took video and photos. The Decemberists' The Legionnaire's Lament is featured on the video. Go check it out at airoeuvre.com or here.

Wella.

My father's mother was born in 1925 in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico to Jacinto Ponce Villanueva and Casilda Medina.

Her name was Emma.

She was a small woman with bright eyes and interesting hands, both of which she passed on to me.

She had a knock-out smile.

She was a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a seamstress, a crocheter, a cook, a jewelry-maker, a gardener, a strong-willed woman.

From Aguadilla, to NYC, to Ybor City, to Ocoee, she touched many hearts with her sweetness and light.

My brother and I called her "Wella," short for "abuela."

She passed away Friday night with my dad, his wife, my brother, and myself at her side.

We take comfort in knowing she's in a much better place, and we will remember her always.

Good news - Bad news

The Good News!

wendywears one-of-a-kind handbags are now available at everything but the girl, a unique boutique and gallery, located at 430 Central Avenue in Sarasota, Florida. I'm very excited! This bag, among others, is for sale there.



What other exclusive wendywears items will be offered in this boutique? You'll have to check back here or visit everything but the girl to find out :)

and now for...

The Bad News

We've experienced a good amount of water damage to the inside of our house and possessions recently. It has occured mostly in the rooms which house most of our stuff. On top of that, a large piece of glass shattered into a million pieces in our workspace - cutting my husband, ruining the LCD display of our MacBook Pro, covering the room in varying pieces of glass, creating just a huge mess. The glass is 75% cleaned up. The next task will be figuring out how to salvage our laptop (if possible - repairs are expensive!) and our other property that was damaged by water.

The Sky Lark

New kite from Robert at Air Oeuvre. Check out the website for specifics.

Lesley's shoulder bag and today's outfit

The "Lesley" Bag
Materials:
+ powder blue men's corduroy pants
+ thrifted crazy floral print curtains
+ vintage powder blue cotton curtains
+ white sheets from Wella's
+ thread

Yes, I'm still enjoying making fabric yo-yos as you can see. Tip: save the flat-felled seams from your discarded, dismantled jeans/pants; they make great purse handles and headbands when braided together.


I'm wearing...
+ black blouse and white linen eyelet tank (from Paris from my dad & stepmom) - and the black top is too tiny! darnit.
+ vintage "Glance Bond LONDON" all cotton skirt with thin self-fabric belt, recently found at CASA Thrift Store
+ tan airwalk flipflops
+ hair in need of a cut, badly.

My personal carry-all.

This is a design I created, inspired by a project idea from a 70s publication of Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, which I HIGHLY recommend. I think this is my first completed project using fabric yo-yos! How I love them!

This bag perfectly accomodates a 1" binder packed with ideas and sketches, a thick fashion magazine, wallet, keys, and a whole lot more.

Materials:
+ vintage grey/yellow textured curtains
+ crazy floral print curtains
+ powder blue cotton curtains
+ powder blue corduroy pants
+ brown corduroy pants
+ red eqyptian cotton sheets
+ black lacey trim
+ black bias binding

This took me weeks to complete because I'm so picky. I'm quite pleased with the results, though. You may see more of these in the future. And of course, if you want one, contact me and we'll work out the details :)

thrifted ethnic shift dress

After a trip to the CASA Thrift Store - which is my new favorite - I found this bold print shift/thing in the underwear section. After seaming-ripping everything, I discovered the name Comatex S.A. along one selvedge and that it's 100% cotton.

I'm going to remake this into a more flattering dress for myself. I need a simple all cotton dress! I'm using Butterick 6341 for the neckline and sleeves and McCall's 2094 for the dart placement.

I drew up a new pattern on white paper and started a muslin. I have a feeling that it is going to be too big, and if that's the case, I'll re-draft and re-cut everything. Stay tuned for the final product. I promise it will be modelled in a prettier place.

I'm officially a cake decorator.

After training for more than six months, my title has officially changed to "cake decorator." I've been learning how to create individual and large desserts and how to ice/decorate cakes, cookies, cupcakes, etc. I'm enjoying myself because I can express my creativity through the designs and color schemes I encorporate into these goodies!

relaxed to skinny

My mother bought these Gap jeans for me about 3 years ago at a thrift store. After shrinking them, it became apparent that I needed to lower the waistline. I removed the waistband, replaced the zipper-fly with velcro, and tapered the legs (and added some length to the legs, with slits on the sides). The skinnyfication was not as hard as I thought it would be. Overall satisfaction with reconstruction: 7 out of 10

new bag for April and Peter

click on the photo to view more photos


April and Peter are about to have a baby. This is the bag I made for them to carry around their baby items + personal stuff like wallet, cell phone, keys, etc. It took a long while to complete because I was making it up as I went along.

materials:
floral curtains
blue table runner with neat raised pattern
striped bedsheets
vintage button from grandma's button tin
blue satin ribbon
batting
blue bias tape
acrylic felt

textile art, thrift, and gift

This is my first attempt at this "photo to textile" representation - I sewed a bunch of fabric scraps to a piece of muslin then stretched it all over a wooden frame. The photograph I interpreted is one of a golf course by Christop. This is a present for my boss who loves to play golf.


Recent offerings from Salvation Army Family Thrift Store:
>>> "Xhileration" red denim shorts that fit great
>>> "Lux" turquoise cotton tiered peasant skirt with tulle trim
>>> "Symphony Classics" vintage shirt dress (shown below, click for full view)


Recent gifts include:
>>> "Predictions" light brown mary jane/ballet hybrid (shown above)
>>> vintage leather purse (shown below, in midst of workspace)

dress #1 prototype

(Check out all the full-size photos, and please e-mail me with any feedback :) I don't have many people around here for second-opinions.)

I want to make a dress! I have a beautiful blue patterned pillowcase I'd like to use for the body and a large rose/pink fabric napkin I want for the upper portion.

Inspired by suzdeth's tutorial for a smock top, I started working on this mock-up made of bed sheets a few days ago. Of course with a pillowcase there's only so much fabric to work with, so to get used to this, I cut out 2 pieces from the sheets that are the same height as the pillowcase and half the width of the pillowcase when seam-ripped and laid flat.

I think this design would look at lot better if the main part flared out from the top band instead of going straight down. Does that make sense? Right now, it's just a straight tube that's gathered at front and back to fit the top band. The pillowcase I plan to use is patterned so perhaps that will distract the eye from unslightly bunchiness? I don't want to put a contrasting belt all the way around because that would take away from the pattern on the front of my pillowcase for final version.

Questions:
1) Have fabric ties in the back?
2) Make flared instead of straight?

If I make it flare out, I will have to add fabric panels of some sort to extend the sides of my pillowcase pieces - but I rather not :-p

Changes that will be implemented for my final version:
>> longer shoulder straps by an inch or so
>> add a lining (these white linens will be the lining)
>> might add another panel to the bottom and tack on a few horizontal layers of black lace