pretty pink suit stuff

I've been working on posing suits, and I have pictures!

This first one is Stephaney's two-piece. It's a slinky glittery fabric with a gross of crystals added...although it's pretty blingy without the extra stones. I was nervous about this fabric, but it worked great and looks AWESOME on Steph!This is a hot pink that we are going to use for Stephaney's one piece. It's a little on the neon side, but the alternatives were cotton candy or plum...which I have all together on Phyllis there, below:

This is a partially blinged suit for another client, Laura: I'm only about a fourth of the way done with this one, but since I had the camera out, I thought I'd let her have an update!

And the following suits are currently homeless! I made them for a couple of people who changed their minds... so if anyone needs suits...

for a client in the #120 range:

for a client about 5'4" and #120-130?for a client about 5'2" and #110...so many of these suits are flexible depending on torso length and stuff. I don't know how those internet vendors can nail a suit without a couple of fittings...but maybe one of these days I'll figure it out...or I'll get an adjustable Phyllis!

On to the Next Disaster!

Okay! I have been through the "hell week" of bodybuilding suit designer business initiation. I have made and remade enough bikinis and one-piece suits to qualify for the lycra hall of fame this week. I've glued on enough Swarovski Crystals to require the boiling of a herd of hooves (do they still make glue from horses?). I have missed hours and hours of quality sleep, stuck myself in all kinds of interesting places with various instruments of sewing torture, and managed to grow spiritually along the way.

I now know that I have more things to clarify with clients BEFORE the job starts...hopefully there WILL be more clients! I don't think I totally scared off the women I was working for, but we certainly had some educational moments!

1) do not EVER EVER EVER use pepto-bismol pink wet-look spandex for ANYTHING, especially not a swimsuit. It sucks. I remade the suit about 5 times before we tried it out of a different fabric and hit it on the first try. I was sure her butt was changing shape on a daily basis. I even tried boning in the suit (the stuff used to stiffen corsets).

2) boning doesn't help swimsuits.

3) Go for the thicker elastic...1/4 inch elastic is too wussy to hold a suit on to the buttock area appropriately

4) Poor Phyllis needs a brazillian butt lift. I have to stuff the bottoms of my suits with socks and stuff to fill them out for putting on stones.

but I finished and delivered six suits this week--four of them with 48 hours to spare before the show! Here is the biggest thing I learned:

5) It takes more than six weeks to make a good suit, even though I can make a suit in a day...sometimes it takes five or six fittings to get it right.

although hopefully I'll be better at this and not need QUITE so many fittings next time.

playing catch up

Oh, boy--I am in arrears here I fear! I had those suits to finish for the competion on the 22nd of March, and I have several more due in a few more days, I had the flu, the kids had spring break, and so on!

Here are some pics from the Northern Kentucky NPC competition on March 22. Abbie is front and center wearing the tan one-piece:

We love the suit, but it seems the color didn't quite work for her, it's almost the same color as she is! My solution was to add about six hundred million more stones, but we're holding off on that one for a while...I'm in the middle of making a poppin' red suit for the next show, on April 12. Here is the back view:

Abbie placed sixth in her class out of about...alot of women...maybe 25 or so, so I think she did great! Of course, we all want first....

And here is Maja--she placed second in her height class! I'm so psyched for her! I would like to think the suit has alot to do with this, but I'm pretty sure I still have alot of design work to do before I can call myself accomplished in this market...

I have two more women I am working with right now and just when I think I have things worked out, I am pretty sure I am clueless. Hopefully we'll get it straightened out with this next go-round, because I am running out of not only time, but fabric!

My next learning experience here will be working with underwires! I found a website where I can buy them, which is huge--not too many people sell that sort of thing, because honestly...how many people make their own bras, and how many people put wires in swim suits? Well, I'm about to be one!

Stay posted...

More suits, carbon footprints, and it's Friday!

what a week! I have been in a total fog the past few days, but I think I'm coming out of it. My diseased mind tells me that I probably have a vitamin deficiency as a result of my protein/fruit and vegetable only diet, and I should probably eat a loaf of bread. On the other hand, I have been eating this way for 18 months and haven't really suffered as a result of it up to now, so it's maybe some sort of temporary (but very serious and requiring lots of sympathy) 24-hour cancer or something. Or it could just be PMS, winter and stress combining to get my attention: HEY! Get some sleep!

but Hey...I'm having the time of my life making these posing suits and getting the embroidery thing going, working all that.

We had a girl scout meeting last night and talked about our Bronze Award Service project. I presented my idea to the girls and they loved it (a minor miracle). Now I just have to suck up the energy to get things rolling. Here is my idea: We are going to have a Carbon Footprint Education Station: We will set up a Kroger or somewhere like that and offer free tire pressure testing and filling ( to increase fuel efficiency), and provide starter plants for home-grown produce (to promote sustainable, locally grown agriculture) and maybe even make recycled recipe books...recipes taken from other sources, printed on recycled paper and bound with handmade/recycled paper. We'll also pass out footprint shaped fliers with information about reducing the Carbon Footprint. I'm so excited (in my mind)...getting this off the ground might take a little more than I can do.

More Bling for Phyllis

Poor Phyllis. It's snowed about six inches since 9am today and she's lucky to be wearing a one piece suit right now. At least we aren't making her go out and shovel snow. After Abbie and Maja looked at the suit, it was decided that we needed more stones. The photos really don't do it justice...I think that we need motion to really see the shine of these stones, but at least the pics give us an idea of layout. I put about twice the stones on there since yesterday's pic.

I also did Abbie's two piece. The stones are amethyst and crystal. There are about...5 gross amethyst and four gross crystal stones! Again, it looks better in motion, but I think this pattern is pretty cool.

Okay, everyone: Keep warm and dry. Here in the greater Cincinnati area it's supposed to snow another six or eight inches in the next 24 hours. The weather guys are so excited! I'm happy for the weather guys, and also glad that we get to listen to something other than primary election crap!

One suit down, seven to go

Okay, I have been lax in posting here, haven't I? I've been very busy elsewhere. The posing suit thing is taking off, which is cool, because it means---income! At least it might mean income somewhere down the line. Right now I'm doing well to cover my costs!

Here is Daniel modeling Abbie's one piece for the NKY NPC which will take place March 22 at the Northern Kentucky convention Center. Doesn't it look good on him? He needs some tanning, but other wise I think it will work. He's leaning out nicely (that's body building jargon...).

This is a one-piece that I made as a trial for Maja, but it was way too short in the torso, so I jeweled it up last night as a sample. This is basically what you get for $150 right now...a suit and 144 20ss crystals. The ones on here are not Swarovski, I was experimenting with a cheaper glass kind...and they look cheaper...not near as much pop as the Swarovski (see Abbie's suit above!)

It's kind of amazing how little coverage you get with 144 crystals! Not much bling at all. Abbies suit has about 4 gross applied right now, and I think I need to add another 2. My pictures don't do it justice, but it really shines in person!

Phyllis's new bikini

I finished this suit for Maja this weekend. I hope it works for her, it's kind of saggy on Phyllis! The fabric is an orange with little silver dots...it's going to look great on Maja's brown skin.
I also ordered a white/silver hologram fabric to make a suit for Abbie...and a couple of other fabrics for one-piece suits. Oh, and I ordered some rhinestones, too. It's hard to tell what the new kind of stones will be, I ordered less expensive glass stones instead of crystal to see if they look okay. If not, I'll have to spend a bit more for crystal, but the bling is important!

I spent alot of time this weekend working on samples of embroideries for shirts for my brother Tony's business. He's an accountant, and he's getting a bunch of golf shirts with his logo to give to his clients. I'm also pulling together samples to show the Mothers of Twins Club in the Kenwood area...those are really cute, I'll shoot them next to show off.

My old Kenmore is acting stupid right now and I have fear about taking it back to the sewing shop yet again, but I do need to have it available, so I'll suck it up and take it in tomorrow night, I guess. I just hate to be like, "uh, yeah, you fixed the first thing, but I think you broke something else on it..." But I guess that's all part of that whole boundary thing I am supposed to be learning to do.