Butterick 5731: Kate Middleton's Wedding Dress

A dress in my Facebook feed caught my eye today. Butterick posted a wedding dress pattern that is clearly inspired by what will arguably end up being 2011's most famous wedding dress.

While the description for Butterick B5731 does not explicity say it's meant to copy K-Mid's Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, there's no denying it. Butterick even styled their model with a tiara and a similar bouquet.

There are some differences; Butterick 5731 has some weird flappy bustle that I'd leave off were I to sew this, and it's absent the long train that the Sarah Burton dress has.

While I don't usually condone plagiarism, I think in this case it puts the royal dress within reach for us commoners. It's not like you're going to the Berresyessa Flea Market and buying an obvious Louis Vuitton pleather knockoff. This is a sewing pattern in which you, or the dress maker you hire, is required to do all the work, and you have the option to buy the most expensive "Peau De Soie" or the cheapest satin. You can make it any color you choose, and there are even cup size options.

The absolute best part in my opinion: it's a Butterick, so you can likely snatch it up during a Jo-Ann sale for .99 to 1.99.

How to display a beer coaster collection?

My sister Ariel is a big traveler and loves collecting beer coasters (like the ones pictured above from BuenaHelena) from places she visits.

Some time ago, we'd discussed her preserving them in resin so she'd have them forever. We brainstormed what she could use as a mold, and figured she'd need something to keep the ink from bleeding and suspending into the medium. That was a while ago.

Now, she has multiple shapes in her collection (making the mold situation more tricky) and has figured she really doesn't need THAT many coasters, if any at all. So she mentioned making a coffee table top. Good idea (I had similar plans for a vintage postcard collection), but, I had some other ones for her, all keeping with the resined-theme:

• If she ever buys her own place, she can make them into a counter top for a breakfast bar.


• If the resin wasn't too heavy, she could frame it and just turn it into wall art. The frame and resin would keep it from looking too frat house. This was her favorite idea.

I also Googled the topic and found this, which starts of good and ends on a facetious note. Still had some good ideas, though, including using them as postcards and luggage tags.

BuenaHelena, the blog the above picture is from, turned them into Christmas ornaments.

Do you have any ideas for an old beer coaster collection? If you've randomly stumbled upon this post, give us your ideas no matter how old this post is.

Knitted Slouch Hat

Slouch hat, no pattern. I think it was size 10 29" circular needles? Maybe they were shorter. I don't remember how many stitches I cast on at the start, either, but I measured my head and multiplied by 4. Lion brand acrylic, after the ribbing it was 8 rows stockinette (brown yarn) and 8 rows garter stitch (teal). Increased every 20 stitches until desired slouchiness and then started a fast decrease every 8 stitches, finished on size 8 dpns (didn't have size 10 dpns).

How could you be so heartless...

This is my rendition of the Heartfelt Gaiter posted on Craftzine, and the last project my beloved Grandmother helped me on before she died on March 12th. I finished it in February, and it's my first ever attempt at cableing. The project calls for size 15 16" to 24" circular needles, but I only had 29" needles. I ended up adding an extra cable repetition to the pattern to accomodate my long needle, good thing I did because otherwise it would not go over my head. Clearly my gauge was off... (I never checked it). I used two strands of Lion Brand acrylic. I also STILL need to weave in those ends!

Giddyup Cake

 

I made this horse head cake for my mom's birthday.

She's a paint horse. You can see I just sort of slathered the frosting on with a spatula and butter knife as opposed to piping it on. She's based on this cake, and I for the most part followed that template when I cut the two cakes up and pieced them together, but when it came time to decorate the cake, I took some liberties. I left out the halter, used pretzels instead of licorice for her mane, and used M&M's for her eyes and notril. I also used used a rectangle pan for parts C & D instead of a square pan, which meant less wasted cake.

As cake decorating goes, I'd probably call it a Fail-- a cake only a mother could love. Both my brother and I though the cake looked more like a mule than a horse. But mom sure liked it and that's what matters!