And I'm back! Shoe Tuesday Resumes

Hello dear readers!  I'm sure you assumed that I might have fallen off the face of the earth, rather than just move to Kyiv, but here I am in my new apartment safe and sound.  It took us longer that I thought to get internet and to get somewhat settled enough for me to start to put together my sewing room.  Speaking of, here it is, in all of it's empty glory.  Haha, who am I kidding, even with barely any of my sewing stuff, it's still a mess.

The sewing room will also be the guest bedroom, so I hope that means we might have visitors.  The lamps in the background are going away.  The pinky/red carpet is in three out of four bedrooms.  I think it's pretty much the only thing I do not like about our new apartment.  I'm thinking carpet squares or wood foam tiles. 

Something like this, but I'm thinking in grey.  I hate to say it, but I realized as much as I complained about cleaning my all white digs, I really miss all that neutral color.  This apartment is a lot of reds/corals and greens.  Once we get our stuff, I'll do a post showing you around the place.  My guess is that you're wondering what sewing I've been up to.  Well to be honest, it hasn't been much.  I did finish the skirt I started in Kansas. What skirt you ask?  The one that I was messing around with painting poppies.

Here it is in it's wooly-ness.  You'll have to excuse the pictures, my photographer was coerced into taking them, when he clearly didn't want to.  I should get my tri-pod in the next couple of weeks.  Fingers crossed!  You can also see the top part of my shoes, well boots.  They are new, I had them custom made when I visited Bogota, Colombia this past March, and they just arrived.

 

Here is the whole outfit.  I paired the new skirt with a previously made Mannaquim top, and a J.Crew blazer that I have had for at least five years.  Should we take a closer look at the skirt or the boots first?  Let's finish up with the skirt, and then we'll move onto the boots.

 It is of course a variation of Vogue 2514.  I do need to go back and take it in the waist some, as it is slightly loose.  The reason why is somewhat a funny story.  Apparently, I used two different versions of V2514, so the back was about 2" longer than the front.  I had already done all the edge finishing work on the back, the vent, and inserted the zipper, and the front was already painted, so I did what any sewista would do.  I matched the bottom of the skirt, and sewed up the side seams.  I then inserted the waistband, starting at the front middle and going around.  I made sure that it looked reasonably straight, and then sewed.  I cut the excess fabric off on the back, and finished the waistband.  It worked out ok.

A closer look at some of the flowers.  They turned out pretty decent, I think.

This is why I didn't redo the back.  Because my serger is still in transit, I used bias binding to finish most the edges.  I didn't want to have to re-do that.

Moving on.  Let's take a closer look at those boots.  I'm so excited about them, and I think they'll really help in me making my own shoes.  Speaking of, I almost have all of the supplies, so hopefully starting with next shoe Tuesday, I can switch to a weekly wrap-up on making a pair of shoes.  I am just waiting on the ingredients to make the paste.  (Funnily enough, Elmers+cornstarch+water.)

Here is a closer look at the boot.  I love the curved brogue-ing going up the outside.  The curve matches pretty exactly the curve of my calf.  You can see how curvy my calf is.

 

A closer look at the leather.  It is extremely soft and supple.  I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  I am super happy about the non-slip sole, that will be extremely important come winter.

 

 Of course someone else loves the boots too!  Next up, I will finally finish my fall coat, because the temperature is certainly dropping here.  It's usually in the 40s in the morning.  Ack!  Until next time, happy sewing.