Halloween!

This holiday brings out the creative in those of us who still like to "dress up"! I'm always amazed at how creative we can be when we want to have fun and sometimes throw caution to the wind.

One of my Grove students, Lee, decided after seeing the Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland movie that Alice's dresses were a must have! And as soon as the opportunity presented itself...she got creatively inspired by the colors and grandeur and decided this would be her Halloween outfit!

After lots of fabric shopping for just the right colors, prints, tulle, hearts and bustier, she started cutting. On a "Drop in Sew" day at The Grove, I had fun helping her puzzle out the pattern and how to overlay and ruffle the fabric to get the right "look".


Here's a shot of it almost done on the sewing table and then Lee, complete with Alice curls, modeling the finished dress! Job well done Lee, it looks amazing on you!


As many of you know, when I'm not creating, I'm President of Fashion Careers College, and Halloween brings out the "creative spirit" in all our administrative staff! This year the looks were all very fun! We had a kitty, King, pixie, inmate, Wilma, and a witch to name a few. I had to attend a meeting off campus that day, so I threw on a quick outfit (when I returned)- Little Red Riding Hood, the 2nd from the right. The easiest outfit belonged to our CEO, who dressed in regular clothes with a sign "Nudist on Strike"!


Hope you Halloween was fun and you saw
lots of little "creatives" at your
door!

4 Days in the Candy Store!

Well, it was a whirlwind 4 days in Houston! Weather was identical to San Diego...and the theater district surrounding my hotel offered up a delightful fusion of restaurants! Loved it! And even better was the time spent walking up and down and crisscrossing (many, many times) the floor of the convention center wanting to buy every fabric and pattern in sight!

The booths were amazing...many vendors try to out do each other for the best booth and here's a few photos of some of the best!

Michael Miller Runway!

Michael Miller Fabrics staged a 50's Prom night complete with runway, big white vinyl-tufted "diner" booths for us to sit at and order. But the most fun...the reps all wore 50's vintage inspired clothes or the "real" thing, complete with 50's style "hairdos" and Princess/Prom tiaras.

While their booth took up at least 1000 square feet (almost as big as my house), many designers had small booths to showcase their new collections.




Here's Amy Butler's booth - loved the way the fabrics were displayed. Notice in the background, behind the poof pillows is her raincoat pattern in laminated cotton. I'm currently sewing it up as a sample for The Grove. It's adorable and comes in adult and children's sizes! Amy won a prize for best small booth! It's not hard to see why!
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Tina Givens also won a Best Booth prize! Here's some photos and one with Tina and I. She's a delight and extremely talented - many of her new fabrics and her new book "Tina Sews!" will soon be joining my judipatuti line at The Grove.


Now begins the wait.... expect some fabrics to arrive in the next few weeks and others over the next few months. It's like seeing all the wrapped packages under the Christmas Tree and having to delay gratification for weeks! I said it then and I"ll say it now...

No Fair!