i easily forsake pearls & lace

If it were 10 years ago from this very night and you came to me and said, "Jessi, what do you want to be when you grow up?",

my eyes would have widened, I would have started jumping/dancing slightly (the way excited girls do), my blonde curls would have bounced as an old mattress's springs', and my toothless-grinned-response would be something like this; "I want to be a wedding dress designer and make poofy cinderella dresses for princesses!"

Isn't it amazing how we take our childhood dreams and brush them off our bony shoulders and let them remain our "fantasy" while we, complacently, grow up?

I think we had those certain dreams and passions instilled in us and were born with us for a purpose... a purpose that we've flippantly ventured away from and have tried and succeeded in fixing our eyes on something more exciting... something new, something mysterious - something that requires stepping upon new ground.

Had I remained in my number one goal, I might be in some prestigious fashion institute.. in New York maybe. Designing, sewing, designing, sewing, designing and sewing. I would probably have much more fabulous and elaborate clothing, and I would, hands down, be much more creative in the way I would wear it. In any case.... I want to get back into this. I want to design and sew again.

Here was my first "project"... that took time, money, attention, thought, neglect; then thought and attention again...

This was my highschool senior prom dress. I spent 17 dollars on it overall. : ) 14 layers of thule, chiffon underneath the thule... and random yellow flowers everywhere. : ) What a fun dress to work on. I rouched the inside (which you cant see), by gathering many random pieces, scrunching them closely together, and then sewing them together... in comparison to what a flower might be sewn like, into the skirt.

This dress I found online and is called "Gray Sparrow Dress". The price is in the mid 700 dollar range - It is made of 3 layers of chiffon and silk. Gray... with a beige strap and a plum colored strap... and just for comfort, it has a soft cotton jersey liner on the inside... just because it is that 720 dollars presh.

This piece of art is running at $1,800... It is evidently inspired by the rebellions, independent women roaring right outa the '20's. The slip is bias cut creme silk charmeuse, with ivory hand painting, and lace on it's hem. The dress is a collage of new and antique laces. There are vintage glass buttons, also.

This next dress is just simple, cute, and if you know me - you know I would wear this every day if I could!

If you were coming in the fall,
I ’d brush the summer by
With half a smile and half a spurn,
As housewives do a fly.

If I could see you in a year,   
I ’d wind the months in balls,
And put them each in separate drawers,
Until their time befalls.

If only centuries delayed,
I ’d count them on my hand,  
Subtracting till my fingers dropped
Into Van Diemen’s land.

If certain, when this life was out,
That yours and mine should be,
I ’d toss it yonder like a rind,  
And taste eternity.

But now, all ignorant of the length
Of time’s uncertain wing,
It goads me, like the goblin bee,
That will not state its sting.   

-Emily Dickinson's "If you were coming in the fall"