Tag Archives: custom

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PINK LION COSTUME

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I made this Pink Lion costume last summer for Burning Man 2011. Let’s just say it was quite a hit.

Pink Lion at the Sensatron

There was an entire night when he could only roar.

pink lion

My good buddy Jason Tomaino approached me last summer and declared he wanted to be a lion for Burning Man. We found this amazing wolf-style faux fur, and it was love at first sight!

pink lion with satin lining pink lion d-ring belt pink lion sequin bowtie pink lion ears

The pants and hood are both lined in white poly satin, cause I know how to make luxury. There is plastic boning in the ears so that they always stay perky. The sequin bowtie is sewn onto the zipper pull. The waistband has a D-ring tape on it, to clip little treasures onto. Unfortunately the weight of the fur was too much for the elastic waistband, so it quickly became apparent that gold suspenders would be necessary. And I’m so glad that they were!

Nestor is real!

He’s quite charming with that furry tail of his.

There was some fur left over, so I made him a cuddle puddle blanket, which he put to good use.

cuddle puddle with the Pink Lion

Perhaps the best part is that he’s a Thai massage therapist, and traded me amazing massages for the costume. Uh, yeah, it was awesome. Just wait till y’all see what I’ve made for him this year.

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POCKET SQUARES

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I made some pocket squares for my dad to wear to a Red charity event. He sent a photo of the tie and suit that I needed to match, and left the rest up to me.

pocket squares pocket squares

I think you can all tell that I have a colorful sense of style. My dad, however, tends to be a little more conservative in his dress. I could not trust my own judgment as to which fabrics went with the tie! I agonized over the fabric selection for a while, but then reasoned that if he wanted a boring pocket square he could have gone to JC Penny, but since he asked me to handle it then he knew what he was getting into.

tie and suit to match tie and suit to match

painting polka dots

I picked two printed cottons from Joann, but I wanted a fancier option as well. I went to a few other fabric stores looking for a silky print with no success. I even hit up thrift stores, planning to cut up a men’s dress shirt for the project, but no luck there either. Finally, I just decided to paint my own silk!

I chose two different ABC silks: one is a dull blue, the other is a neutral gray. I didn’t entirely trust the accuracy of the colors in the photos, so I wanted to cover my bases. I used a simple red paint pen, and the 10×10″ square took almost no time to decorate. Hemming was also a breeze of course.

my dad all spruced up

I haven’t seen my dad in over a year! He lives a few miles in from the Atlantic, and I’m a short bike ride to the Pacific. We could hardly be further apart. He and his wife just booked their flight to New Orleans for our wedding reception, so it’ll just be another 6 months.

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DISCO JUMPSUIT

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And I thought it was hard keeping last year’s birthday gift a secret! It was quite a challenge to make this jumpsuit for my boyfriend Jason. We live together and he works from home, so pretty much the only way I was able to get this done in secrecy was by skipping our Sunday game of ultimate frisbee for a month.

Disco Mechanic Elton John ain't got nothing on my man oh the drama

I’d talked about making Jason a fabulous jumpsuit for about a year, and I felt pretty bad that I hadn’t done it in time for Burning Man 2010. The design for this jumpsuit is a cross between 70s gear and mechanics’ coveralls, since throughout the night on the playa Jason has to do some tweaks and repairs on the Sensatron, our art car.

atomic love name tag

I used two similar silver fabrics for the body of the suit–one based on black, the other on white. I ran out of the white silver and wound up using a lame from Joann’s (Lincoln Fabrics had the exact fabric, but I thought $12/yard was too much). Although Jason’s pretty warm-blooded, I lined the suit with some peacock-blue jersey for comfort. Of course all the fabric (except the lame) is from Fabric Planet.

bling! It was a fabulous accident It was a fabulous accident

Since this was to be a surprise, I did the sizing based off of a jumpsuit he already owned (that is way too big for him) paired with pants and a dress shirt, both of which do fit him well. I have trouble sewing for him sometimes because he is so much bigger than I am, but when he put this on for the first time at his party it was perfect! I didn’t need to make any alterations at all, which is pretty rad!

It’s got snaps up the front, which of course is fun to rip open, and snaps on the cuffs. The two chest pockets are embellished with his name and an atomic symbol. I thought about using a nuclear sign, which he uses more often himself, but in this case atomic just felt right.

Speed of light! I make him look good

Fabulous man that he is, he wore his suit when we saw Tron opening weekend at the El Capitan in Hollywood (VIP tickets and a laser show!). We all had a great time and he got lots of positive feedback from everyone.

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