My wardrobe is pretty seriously lacking in pieces that I feel are representative of me these days, so I wanted to get a dress for myself for Indy's birthday party as the beginning step in an endeavour to collect and sew some clothing to try and make my wardrobe into something that makes sense to me. Fashion isn't everything, certainly, but it's a mode of self expression that I appreciate, so I'd like to bring it in as a minor element in the blog here and there.

I grabbed this dress from Flour Clothing on etsy. It's a beautiful, handmade traditional mexican pullover dress. I fell for the gorgeous embroidery and the crisp, natural cotton. When I tried it on, I felt like the hem was a little long and I wasn't a huge fan of the flutter sleeves, so I made some minor adjustments. 

I added some ruching to the sleeves with elastic, and I took the hem up several inches. As a rule when working with vintage, I think it's worthwhile to make changes non-destructuve to the garment when possible. Both of these changes are easily undone (the hem I folded up and pressed, and then used the blind hem stitch on my machine to make nearly invisible and easily removable stitches). 

I'm definitely happy with the result, especially when worn. I'll give you a peek at Indy's dress tomorrow!

I finally got the invitations for Indy's birthday done! (I am having so much fun planning this party, we settled on a little afternoon tea time theme!) I had the idea for the invitations in my head, and I asked Alan what he thought the chances were of finding an old Audubon-type book at the thrift store. I was sort of skeptical, but within 30 second of being there on Saturday he was holding a "Birds of North America" book in front of my face, haha. What luck! I grabbed another vintage book so that I could use the pages. Sorry, books. . .

I cut out various birds by hand (the most tedious part) and attached them with quick dry glue.

Indy helped too. . .she played in the corner and patronized Roy (good girl). . .

and tore apart this box. . .and put her foot in it. . .

Meanwhile I finished the invitations off by attaching RSVP/gift info and a bag of tea onto each invite with these adorable tiny wood clothespins I had, and used up the rest of the vellum envelopes I had leftover from our wedding invitations. . .