Today I drug out my mourning dress from two years ago to wear later this month to a "Mourning Tea"with the DFW costume guild. Here is what I have to work with.
My plan is to add purple and some black lace from the lace hoard to make this a half mourning gown. I mean, it has been two years, it's time to leave deep mourning and mix in society a bit.
Here is the purple I will be adding. 
It's a beautiful deep rich purple with a cross weave of black. Perfect!
It was at about this point that I got disturbed by all the stuff in the background, I really don't work well with clutter or too much busy visual distraction. There was nothing for it. Time for a tidy and a good floor sweep.
See that hanging rack on the right? Yes that one! It's been better than nothing for several years. It is cheap (read falls over) short (read things hang on the ground) and narrow (read not enough room for all the things.) I decided today was the day to retire and replace it.
Google search and Pinterest powers activate!
I found this lovely idea. There was no info attached to this image just a "user upload"
I love iron pipe structures and if you check out my big cutting table you will see the base is iron pipe. I also had enough pipe left from the coolest gift of pipe ever ( thank you again and again Kathryn!) even after my table and hubbie's cool tire rack to make this. I needed just a couple fittings and some wood. I spent $47 on this project.
Here is the best handyman ever installing it for me! Look how tall it is!! Squeeee!
Yes he actually started doing pull ups on it! Note to self - fill it up quickly before my studio becomes the gym. Anyway... It's super strong and will hold "all the things!"
Then he had to make the "crazy grin so my crazy wife can blog about it" face. Yes ladies this is exactly what it's like around here. (I'm am sooooo all about this guy!!)
But wait! There's more! Remember the wood I mentioned? I want to add a shelf to the top to hold my hat boxes.
And here it is all done and loaded. I'd like this area to be for projects in the works so I can clear off my table at the end of a day. Clean horizontal surfaces make me happy!! This is also a great place to load costumes before an event and make sure nothing gets left out.
Goodbye small, short, and inadequate. Deep cleansing breath of happiness.... Exhale. Now! Back to the dress. I played around with things for a bit and came up with this.
I like the combination of color and texture. Here you can see a close up of the lace over the purple.
Everything is just pinned at this point. Pins are so much easier to remove than stitches. I like to step back snap a couple photos and just let a look sink in. Is it balanced? Does it need more? Or less? It's a good step in the design process.
Then it was time to stop for pizza night with my crew and return to the rabbit hole which is Pinterest for inspiration for the overskirt...
Ideas ideas...
So how was your Friday?
