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#HolidayPhotoHop2020 Day 9: Nostalgic
(part 1)

Back in the summer of 2013, I worked as part of a small team of costumers to build all the interior sets of Victorian style gazebos for the Dallas Arboretum's 12 Days of Christmas display. There's something rather nostalgic about gazebos and Victorian styling for Christmas!

There were some delays with the gazebo builds themselves, so the entire thing was put off until November of 2014, but the Arboretum has used this as their annual holiday event ever since. I've heard that many people have made it an annual tradition to go see it.

The Nine Ladies Dancing gazebo was the most involved sewing of the twelve. We built all 9 dresses for the mannequins according to the designer's sketches. I personally stitched the purple dress and the green dress just before it in the display rotation. Two other stitchers assembled two dresses each, and then we each made different parts of the other three together.

I ended up losing all my good photos from the actual build in the costume shop (my phone was stolen about a month after we completed everything), but I got photos when we went to see the entire installation the next year.

First photo was one of the professionally taken pictures used for publicity. The rest are from the night I went to see the completed display with my husband.

I'll post a 4 minute video I took in a separate post so you can see it all in motion and how everything glitters & shines.

#arboretum12days

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Videos
Posts
Studio video tour!

I spent the day priming things for paint and then I remembered to shoot a quick video. #SewingStudioBuild

00:03:06
Paint!

I started cutting all the edges while Janet was away yesterday morning. When she got back after lunch, she pulled out a roller and started filling in. I'll put a pic below in the comments. #SewingStudioBuild

00:02:15
Time-lapse floor install (part 2)

We broke for lunch and then came back with a portal ac unit plugged in to an extention cord from the house. Can't wait until they finished hooking up all the electrical and we have the mini split cooling the room for us - it was stupid humid today! #SewingStudioBuild

00:03:11
It's a puppy!

Tonight I learned how to do foundation paper piecing (fpp) without sewing through the paper. I've never had any desire to sew through the paper and then have to rip it all off. This was much faster with no ripping required in the end!

I plan to make this Jack Russell Terrier block into a decorative pillow.

#FoundationPaperPiecing #fpp

Beginnings of a Derby Dress

A client I made a cosplay for a few years ago won tickets to The Kentucky Derby in May and commissioned me to make her outfit! This is going to be a fun build!

Her inspiration is from a dress in Singin' in the Rain, and I found a good starting point pattern to use from Mrs. Depew Patterns that has a similar vibe. It's a repo of a 1920s evening gown.

I printed her size and taped it together this afternoon. It isn't the cleanest draft (lots of pointy curves), but it seems decent enough and I can clean it up. I'll start on a mockup in a few days.

#derbydress

February 14, 2026

Making lingerie out of scraps again. This is a scrap of Liberty of London lawn (left over from a blouse) and some lingerie lace I bought on Etsy (where it is extremely affordable and available in an nearly-infinite variety of styles/colors). I went with a band of sheer ribbon and matching straps.

This is a pattern I rubbed off a bought nightgown.

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