Entry #1

One of my absolute favorite things to do is blog surf. A while back I came across a blog called Lil Blue Boo. It has quickly become one of my favorite blogs to read. Probably because Ashley (the creator of Lil Blue Boo) is an absolute genius when it comes to sewing. I love her patterns... better yet, Savannah LOVES the dresses I create for her using Ashley's patterns. So when I saw that Lil Blue Boo was teaming up with Dharma Trading to host a design challenge I was very excited. I won't go in to all the challenge rules... if you are interested in entering or just want to see for yourself what exactly I am up to click on the following link... Lil Blue Boo/Dharma Trading Design Challenge. In a nutshell, Ashley is asking her readers to use one of her original patterns and embellishment techniques to create an outfit. To enter I have to write about my creation here and then link Ashley of Lil Blue Boo back to this post. So here I go... wish me luck!

My "WHO DAT Nation" creation:

For this dress I used Lil Blue Boo's Sienna dress pattern. The possibilities when creating with this pattern are endless. My inspiration came from, of course, the Saints making their first trip to the super bowl and the fact that one of my hubby's best friends is a huge Saints fan. Since we were going to be watching the game with that friend I thought it would be fun to show our support by letting Savannah be his little cheerleader. So thus began the process to create the perfect dress. To me that meant a tad bit gaudy but still super cute. When Saints fans are shown on tv they are always slightly over the top... very flashy... at least the women are. I used a Saints championship shirt for the top portion and a plain black tee for the rest. I decided to use Lil Blue Boo's freezer paper stencil tutorial to embellish the black portion of the dress. I cut two fleur-de-lis stencils out of freezer paper and ironed one on the front of the skirt and one on the back side. I used metallic gold fabric paint to brush around the stencil. I love the way it turned out. I was so excited when I pulled the freezer paper off and saw the finished product. Still though, it wasn't enough. The dress still needed some more New Orleans pizazz. So I added the gold sequins around the bottom and arm bands. The sequins was the icing on the cake... it really pulled the entire outfit together. Savannah banana loves this dress. She thinks it is so "pretty". So do I... makes me wish I was a Saints fan.