Good news!

The realtor finally called back and we got the apartment!!! Yay, I am really excited. Andrew is signing the lease on the 6th, and we are driving up a moving truck the weekend of the 8th!! Moving to Chicago finally feels real!

 Uno, the one eyed cat, and his owner have moved. Snickers (above) was recently spayed by someone. She is always hanging around for cat food and petting. I hope she gets fed after we leave! The same for Blacky-Whitey, a real feral cat that likes to eat the food I put out, but has never once let me get close to it.

I have been packing more boxes, as well as cleaning up the Oldsmobile to sell it. It makes me sad, because I love my car, but having two cars and living in the city makes no sense. I posted an ad on craigslist, and I have gotten some calls and a few people to come and look at it.

I received some lovely emails from either incredibly stupid or semi-illiterate people.
Dwayne wrote: hello,please tell more about this car.thanks.


in response to my five paragraph ad that included pictures? Huh?


Shannon wrote: Hey I wanted to kno what's the lowest u would take for it


OH craigslist! You can be so awesome and helpful, yet there are some drawbacks. In human form. :)


Wish me luck with the car sale. I am trying to get all my errands done, so that when I sell the car I don't need to ride my bike anywhere in the heat. 


Yay! The Chicago phase of my life begins shortly!

Garage Sale Loot!!!

My friend Stephanie and her bf were kind enough to watch T-Rex while I was in Chicago. I believe he convinced them that they do not want a dog after all. He chased their cat endlessly, slept in their bed because he's a crybaby and was just generally a pain in the azz. Thanks Steph!!!

On Saturday morning, I went to pick him up and Steph and I went to some garage sales in the LGD and Irish Channel. Now, I am aware that I am moving 940 miles in a week or so, so I only bought lightweight things. Compromise! I bought this delightful coozie for 25 cents. 

 At another sale, they were cleaning out a warehouse of a printing company and all these old prints were 5 bucks each. I really love all of them. They are pretty big, and I plan on framing them and hanging them up.

Awesome.

 This is the French Quarter.

 Bizarre, but cool.

 I don't know if this will go in my house or my classroom, but it's cool either way.

Any good finds for you lately?

Fun 50s ads

Some of these are worth clicking on to look at in a bigger size. 

I love old, giant cars. I wish I had one. 

This one is hilarious- you can supposedly fit 52 items into this train case for a trip? 

I LOVE this one, I think I might frame it. 

Did you hear? Not one single case!

This ad is just encouraging you to buy beer, not a brand, just beer. Don't worry sir, I've got it covered!

A real Christmas Coke ad!

Just a little sexist ad about tools for your husband...

With a modern, blond wood table!

I am alive, just moving...

Hello! I dropped off the earth for a bit there. I have been working on boxing up all of our possessions. Andrew is already in Chicago working at his new job. I went up this past week and spent so much time exploring the city, and walking, and taking the el, and taking buses, and looking at at least 10 apartments in person and about ten billion more online. We finally found a beautiful place close to the the train for Andrew, but there are two other applicants  One wants to move in August 1st, so they're probably off the list, so let's hope the other people have terrible credit or something. We will both be soooo SAD if we don't get this place. Cross your fingers for us!

The house is a pit right now- there are boxes everywhere and all the dust is coming out from behind furniture as I pack. I got rid of my crappy dresser yesterday on craigslist's free section, and someone is coming to get Andrew's on Monday night. Not a whole lot of response for the ugly old sofa. Shocking, right?

I did sort through more of these 50s ads last night. These were the :fashion" one I liked. Forgive me if some are not 50s, not all of them are dated. I made my best guess.

I am starting to feel like I would rather wear one of these than do crunches/exercise. 

Slips

I thought this was hilarious. "I'll show you, rich girl!"

This dress is beautiful, but could imagine matching all those stripes? Intimidating

I like the pockets on this jacket, sorry its upside down.

More 50s ads later, and maybe I'll finish this white dress that has been malingering in my sewing room for about 2-3 weeks....

Chosen fabric

I really appreciate all of your thoughtful suggestions on what to pick. I became very set on the idea of a suiting fabric in navy blue with a white pinstripe, but then I went to Jo-Ann and they had nothing remotely like it. I thought this was the best of the worst, so to speak. It's a light grey with white and black pinstripes.

I went to Hancock to make sure there were no better ones, and they had no suiting fabrics at all, only summer stuff. I went back and bought the grey which was 50% off. I might go online and look for navy and white pinstripes, but I need this done by Saturday. It should look nice, hopefully.

Thanks for the advice!

Ladies, help me out!

This my "lucky interview jacket." I am finishing up my cover letter today and completing all of my applications and submitting them tomorrow. Then I will be in Chicago from the 20-24th looking for an apartment and hopefully doing some interviews, cross your fingers. Back to the jacket. I wore it on my interview to get the job I have now, and it was expensive and fits like a dream... thanks Banana Republic!

 Now, I plan on making this dress to go with it, probably the one on the right if the collar looks nice.

I guess my real question is what color should it be? I don't want to look too Easter-y, so no pastels. What about a neutral? Navy blue? Beige? Brown? Black?

What's a good serious job candidate color dress. Help, please!!!

Derek Lam Knock-off in red linen

This dress was my inspiration and I cut it out of Lucky Magazine. It is Derek Lam + ebay, though I don't know who that is. The partial heading next to it says "designer outfits with money left over in your purse!" But the dress, made of denim, costs.....

wait for it.....

195 bucks!!! Oh my lord! So I went to Jo-Ann to look at denim, and then I realized that was stupid. Denim is heavy and hot. The air in New Orleans is heavy and hot. That is not a smart combo. So I looked around and bought some red linen instead. It's a nice blue-red, not an orange-red. 

This really was an adventure of the dress, as Stephanie calls it. We went to take picture with some flowers, but then I looked at them and the straps were too long, so I re-tied them. Then the light on the balcony was dark, and then we went to NOMA, the art museum. It's kind of a mixed bag. I need to not slouch like a sloth all the time. 

It has self-lined tie for the front and back, the front have one dart each. It has a waist band and an 8 gore skirt. Hemmed on the machine, handpicked zipper. 

 Pretending to study ceramics.

 Out in the sculpture garden, by a giant spider!

 Andrew made me do this!

 The sides also meet in a point, but don't go down as far.

Molly's Ews:

The skirt started as a 4 gore, but was snug and sausagey instead of full. I went back and bought another 3/4 of a yard and then made eight pieces that tapered to a narrower top.

Overall:

This was a piece of cake to make. It's slightly boob-tacular, so I wouldn't wear it everywhere. However, it is  a nice summery, cool dress and it looks very much like what I tried to copy. Success!

1940s Magazine Ads

Here are the magazine ads from the 1940s that I thought were either interesting or funny. The first three are wartime ads and the rest are just random.

 Girls, it's a man trap! lol

 Hmm, no nicotine without giving up smoking?

 50s swimwear!

 Here's your sexy ad for men

 I'm not sure how a whiskey can be cheerful...

 It's styling did stay smart. I bet if you were driving this around today, people would still think it looks good.

I made a red dress, and I will have picture of it today or tomorrow!

Butterick 5599 complete!!

I finally finished this dress! I cut a size eight and only made a few changes. I would say this is an intermediate pattern. It has a ton of pieces, but is mostly easy to put together. I only had trouble with the top band connecting to that center black part because it makes an arrow shape. 

Andrew always calls my blog Molly's Ews as a joke. You know, since it's supposed to say Molly Sews. I thought I would add a Molly's Ews section for each garment I complete, if only to show that everybody makes mistakes. 

Molly's Ews:

1. Attached top band incorrectly. Had to stare at it for several days, decide it was too goofy to live with and tear it out and re-do it.

2. Rushed before we went to the beach and decided to just sew the bodice to the skirt with no basting! So I got the job of picking out 12 stitches to an inch size stitches and then reattaching it correctly.

3. Spent a long time trying to add bra pads into it and just couldn't get it to look right. I guess this dress wants me to be flat as a board; so be it!

On to the dress. We took these pictures around Tchoupitoulas Street near an electrical substation and some abandoned warehouses. 

Excellent graffiti.

Banksy style graffiti depicting our former mayor, the idiot Ray Nagin, wearing S&M gear. 

I look dumb, but how can you pass up the triple weenie graffiti?

Sorry, I was convince Andrew was cutting my head out of this one. He said "just the dress"

Overall, I am happy with this dress. I can either wear my strapless bra, or just be 10 yr old boy chested. Oh well, go with the flow! It's nice for the summer and pretty unique. I even did a decent job lining up all the black segments. I hand-picked the zipper and did the hem by hand as well. Oh, I also did not waste the time and effort lining it, too hot! Our New Orleans "spring" is already hitting the high 90s every day and the 80s at night.

Happy Monday! Feel free to share any thoughts or comments, I love comments!