Grandmother GG's Karakul Coat --Remodeled!

One of my favorite customers brought her GG's Karakul Coat in to my studio.  Could I make it 8 inches shorter?  Could I re-shape and shorten the sleeves?

Working on this beautiful coat, I was amazed by the lovely lining and the labor-intensive hand-stitching throughout.That gorgeous lining is completely underlined with soft cotton flannel.

The skins, even tiny pieces as they are, are all perfectly pieced.

My mid-1950s friend loves this project.  "MOR", she says, "mor".

And most amazing of all, I found an imprint inside the sleeve.  I can't read it too well, but besides HOLLAND, it says "FOR LASTING LOVE".  You might not even believe me, but for this photo.

Thank you, Cheri, for letting me work on your dear GG's coat.  May she rest in perfect peace.  

'For lasting love', love to you and yours in this wonderful holiday season....   Kathleen

Ready for some wedding pictures? Don't miss these!

You want to subscribe to my blog, to get an email whenever I post pictures of things I am making.  And I figured out how to make it easy to follow the blog!  Just enter your email address in the space above....

For one thing, more pictures of this chantilly lace dress are coming soon.    

WE DANCED

Princess

 Have I ever been having fun lately, creating a DRESS.

Purple tone-on-tone printed cotton, shaped into a marvelous Princess Dress.....   My first photos show how the dress was shaping up, before I added the sunshine yellow lining.

I finished the dress; its Princess came by my studio to model it and to pick it up for the party.

Sarah Elizabeth.

Yay, bravo, and hooray!

I am so proud to introduce Sarah Elizabeth to everyone.  She celebrates life and beauty over at www.loveinfinitysquared.org, where you can become better acquainted with her and her story of living with cancer.

Never doubt the power of LOVE.

What I haven't shown you yet......

The KathleenTemple, Tailor Studio has been open for one year now, and there are many dozens (maybe hundreds!) of custom garments I haven't shown you yet.

I want to trot out a few of the custom dresses and such to give you a taste of what I have been doing.

This little black dress is a simple tank style dress with a contoured hem.  It is of a luscious soft bamboo interlock knit.  I created the silk sash after I shortened a silk dress-- the customer for whom I shortened the dress allowed me to recycle her excess hem fabric!

I created this terrific hooded wool coat for a customer and liked it so much myself that I ended up making a wool lace vest for myself with the same type of hood on it.

I have made many custom wedding gowns over the past year.  This vintage style gown is stunning in person!  I will share photos of the beautiful bride wearing it once I receive them.

Am I lucky or what?? I get to make very fun costumes for a young woman who wears them to Japanese animation conferences!  This dress transforms my customer into a human version of a certain Anima character.

It has been so long since I shared my own dress creations here on the blog that my own summer dress never got included in a post.  Don't worry, I don't wear it this time of the year. (it's all of 19 degrees farenheit outside right now)

 This stretch satin wedding gown is one of the prettiest gowns I have ever made, in my opinion.  It is so elegantly simple.  It sure sets off the bride's elegant and striking beauty....

I will post many pictures of this beautiful customer before too long....  This photo is just to entice you to subscribe to the blog.  You will NOT want to miss the professional photos soon to be published here on KathleenTemple, Tailor that will show you this black lace (honeymoon!) dress with side pockets, her flame-orange chantilly lace wedding gown, and her awesome wedding.  Jimmy Choo heels....

A whole troop of bubble-skirted bridesmaids' dresses in hot pink taffeta!

I made this dress about a zillion years ago, but I love it so much I couldn't leave it out here....  Of course I matched the stripes perfectly (I LOVE to match stripes).

Enough of the photos I took myself, eh?  The last few photos I will show today were created by the talented photog Chelsea Weaver.

Chelsea herself is modeling here.

Kelsey Landes is modeling my blue stripe number.

Chelsea models again.  lovely.

Do subscribe to KathleenTemple, Tailor, will you?  There will be more photos coming soon.  Thanks!

Studio is decorated...

Holiday Decor!

And on the inside of my little woodland studio, I am getting to create all sorts of lovely things, including this:

felted wool/cashmere pinafore

felted wool cape

princess dress

Salsa Dress

Salsa, anyone? 

One of my original design, one of a kind creations.

 THANKS, Jenny for modeling the dress so beautifully!  And thanks to Graham for the photography.

More about that One Dress

Last time, I crowed about getting to participate in an awesome woman's One Dress Protest.  I made her black dress!  She is on a fashion fast, wearing her One Dress every day for an entire year.

Lacey, I am so impressed with you and with your reflections as you continue this journey of self knowledge.  You are inspiring and I feel proud of that terrific dress on lovely YOU!


I am soon to be making a couple more of the very wearable and attractive shift dresses.  I am being commissioned to make the custom dresses by a woman in the UK.  Here are some of the fabric choices:

wools

rayons

cotton tweed!

rayon twill with lycra

hand-dyed silk herringbone

One Dress Protest

I get to be part of One Dress Protest!

I just created a black dress from some fabulous hemp and tencel twill fabric from NearSeaNaturals.  I created the dress for a wonderful graduate student in Texas who is studying marriage and family therapy.  For one whole year, she is going to wear the One Dress every day as a way of becoming ever more intentional about how she experiences and presents herself in the world.

I may not be describing her project quite right...  But I am impressed with the idea of doing a sort of "fashion fast" in order to take some time to reflect and deliberate about clothing, fashion, style, and dress.

Thank you, Lacey, for inviting me to help you to prepare in my small way for your coming year of One Dress Protest!  Both my dress creation and my very self are honored to get to be part of your reflection and meditation.

The dress is a shift style frock, very elegant yet utilitarian.  The black twill is fashioned into a short sleeve, raglan sleeved style with a wide scooped neckline.  At center front and center back, there are small inverted box pleats.  The skirt portion of the dress is slightly A-lined and its wide hem ends a couple of inches above the knee.

If I were going to wear one dress for a whole year, this dress would be IT for me as well.  Beautiful and functional and sophisticated and comfortable, all in one dress.

Little Black Skirt becomes a dress once she is wrapped up....

The little skirt grows up to become a fantastic Little Black Dress.

To don this baby, you step into the narrow skirt (the fabric is stretchy yet substantial cotton/lycra knit), then draw the fabric up and over your shoulders.  To cinch the waist, you wrap the long ties around and around.  The black knit works well for the dress, but I can make this design in any light to medium weight fabric.  If it were made of a non-stretch fabric, I would simply insert a zipper into the side seam.

Here's the back:

To achieve this look, I pulled the back of the bodice up and over the shoulders first, then pulled the front bodice up and over the shoulders toward the back.  Those shoulder pieces create sleeves because I made them extra wide, wide enough to come down past the elbow.

Sure, I DO want to make one of these comfortable and flattering dresses for you!  How about royal blue cotton or wool jersey, worn with apricot and gold accessories?  Or short and WINTER WHITE, worn over skinny black pleather slacks?

Like a sari

As soon as I find just the right piece of silk, I want to create such a dress.  Ooooo!

The incredibly beautiful photo is by The Sartorialist (http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/).  Thank you to Scott Shuman.