Dress Form Project #1

For my first project using my new dress form I chose a Betsey dress that I won on eBay. Now, my love for eBay is great (at times even a little too great), but it is always kind of a hit or miss. Sometimes the clothes look totally different in the pictures, or like in this particular case are completely the wrong size. This dress was advertised on the site as a size zero, but then in teeny tiny print in the description was a note that it was bought as a size four and "professionally" altered to a size zero. Of course by this point I was too in love with the dress to part and won it for a whopping $14.95. 

While re-altering this dress I did run into a few issues. The most significant being the fact that whoever altered it originally gave it baby armpits! Seriously, the total distance around has to be like eight inches at the most. So after wearing the dress for eight hours at work, and having my armpits rubbed raw I shall be embarking on a very difficult re-re-altering mission. I'm taking out the top of the sleeve and making them a little longer, the problem with this is that there is very little fabric to work with so I'm going to have to work very carefully and very neatly. But with my OCD, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. 

Ok, fun little tangent that semi relates. Because my arms hurt so bad after work I decided to unzip my dress on my drive home to get a little relief. Leanne and I joked that it was illegal to drive with your clothes only partly on and if I got pulled over I'd be out of luck. However! I was pulled over that night for (kind of, maybe) sliding through a red arrow. But it was the first time I've ever been pulled over and not gotten a ticket, I actually made friends with the officer! Who knows, maybe only having my clothes partly on worked to my advantage... 

Anyway, here are some pictures of my (almost) re-altered dress!

Please excuse my horrible picture quality- I was definitely not born with any sort of photography skills. 

Happy Thursday All!

XOX, 

     MacKenzi

My Daily Grind.

Approximately five days a week I am fortunate enough to call the little pink box on the far north end of Scottsdale Fashion Square my home. What is this magical place where tulle is heavy and moods are light? Well, it's my "Taffetopia" and my place of work, the Betsey Johnson store. 

It may occasionally smell like pizza, and our back room may be the size of a small mouse hole, but over the last 10 months it has become one of my most favorite places to be. Maybe even a sanctuary of sorts. Working at Betsey has made me realize (even more so) that I must work in the fashion industry. I can't exactly describe the feeling that I get when I go to work every day. Ok, maybe there's a day here and there that I'd rather be snuggled up in my bed watching Gilmore Girls, but for the most part I feel a total sense of calm when I walk in those glass doors. To put it simply: I know that it is exactly where I belong at this time in my life.

Please don't misunderstand me, I am by no means saying that being a pink lady is easy. We have goals, and chores, and duties that aren't nearly as glamorous as trying on our newest $500 gown. But we do have a lot of fun, and one of the most fun and exciting things that we get to do are our theme days every Saturday.

Each Saturday one of us Betsey babes chooses a theme and everybody working dresses accordingly, it's very simple but also not. We must wear predominately Betsey merchandise, and we must go all out- but that's what makes it fun anyway! Here are a few of my favorite themes we've had so far. Let me know what you think, and please add us on Facebook so you can see the new themes every week!

Betsey Johnson Scottsdale on Facebook.

XOX, 

     MacKenziPlet

Bandwagon.

I've done it. Hopped right on the bandwagon that is the blogging phenom of today. I haven't exactly decided what this blog will be about, but I heard a word today that I thought might describe it pretty well: "blogorrhea" which essentially means diarrhea of the blog. Which I take to mean as just spilling whatever comes to mind, which (knowing me) is exactly what this is going to turn into. I have so much going on up here that I suppose it should have a place to leak out, and now it does.

Now, on to the fun stuff. 

I'm not exactly sure how this happened, but I've been commissioned to make my co-worker and friend Leanne's wedding dress.  Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly excited and beyond honored to be handed such a project. However, at the same time I am (to put it gracefully) freaking out! I mean, this is a very big day for Leanne. Literally the biggest day of her life! So basically, I've got to make it the best thing I've ever made. 

In exchange for my services Leanne was kind enough to buy me a dress form. Mine isn't quite as fancy as this one, but I love it just the same. I was so excited about the form that I had to use it right away, so I've started altering one of my Betsey dresses that's too big on me (maybe I'll post pictures when I'm done). But I really can't wait to get started the The Dress!

XOX,
     MacKenziPlet