Dreaming of Summer in the Dead of Winter - Vogue 8727 and 8998 Mashup

Hola!  Yesterday we got 28" of snow here in NYC.  It's beautiful, but I'm dreaming of summer and warmer temps.  This past July, Sew Chica Mamma and one of the Sew Chica sisters came to NYC for a visit.  Three Latinas in our 1 bedroom apartment!  Professor R. is such a good sport.

One of our activities was a visit to the Botanical Gardens to view the Frida exhibit.  Of course, I needed something special for this event.  Enter Vogue 8727 halter sewn onto Vogue 8998.

I had originally set out to make Vogue 8727, both top and bottom; but it's quite a fabric hog - 7 7/8 yards for the halter view C!  After much wrangling with several other pattern choices, I settled on the halter top from 8727 and paired it with the skirt from Vogue 8998.  The halter is pretty straight forward, but the skirt is really a scene stealer.  It's full without being overly so, but the real highlight is the horsehair trim which gives the skirt some real bounce.

This was my first time applying horsehair, and I found it to be fairly simple.  I read/viewed lots of online tutorials beforehand but settled on following the pattern instructions.  They differed from what I was seeing online but in the end were easy and effective.  You sew the horsehair to the bottom of the lining, them sew the fashion fabric with right sides together to the lining, enclosing the horsehair.  Done!

The Gardens were really enjoyable.  We went on a Sunday when they had special events in conjunction with the exhibit, including a female mariachi band and Mexican dancers.  

In the greenhouse, they displayed facsimiles of plants and objects that Diego and Frida collected and displayed in their house in Mexico City.

The hat is Vogue 7600 view B, which I've made before.  This time I used stiffer interfacing and followed SavageCoco's extremely helpful Flickr tutorial.  I sewed the exterior of the hat with white linen and for contrast, I used the floral fabric inside.  I also made fabric roses from scraps to decorate the outside.  I like this version of the hat much better than my previous version, with one exception.  Should I make this hat again, I'll trim the stiff interfacing from the seam allowances.  It was really difficult to sew through the heavy interfacing, and I think trimming would eliminate that issue.

The fabric is Gertie's Swiss Dot Rose.  I'm so happy with this fabric.  It was super easy to sew, and it's just really beautiful.  Sew Chica Mamma was impressed that it was dotted swiss.  She said she hadn't seen dotted swiss for some time, so it definitely has a vintage flavor.

I'm off to make hot chocolate and stare at the beautiful snow.

Hasta pronto!