There is nothing that can't be fixed.

As you can imagine, being wedding season, I am immersed in wedding gowns.  I haven't had much time to even do normal stuff like laundry.  Thankfully two of my dear daughters are helping me this summer.  Jami is sewing with me doing bustles and such.   Traci is cooking and grocery shopping.  I don't  know what I would do without them.  

Blogging has been relegated to the back burned in the meantime, but I thought I would post a couple of photos of a recent dress.  The brides mom called very upset and said that they had taken the dress to another seamstress and it had been hemmed to short.  Could I help them?  My comment was, "There is nothing that can't be fixed".  

Here is the dress.

Cute ruffle on the back.  

Here is the solution we came up with.  

The ruffle fabric matches the back.

She was very happy.  In fact I think she like it better than before.  

See you in the fall!  :)

Before and After

Since this is my busy season, I have not had much time to do anything but sew, so I won't write much, but I can post photos.  This is a dress I completed yesterday.  

Before

 Dress was purchased at Adorned in Grace, the bridal shop that exists to help fight human traffiking in the Portland area.  

AFTER:  

Congratulations Katie!!

An ADORNED IN GRACE dress.

I often volunteer at a bridal shop in Beaverton area called ADORNED IN GRACE.  It is shop that is run by volunteers and the proceeds go to help educate and fight human trafficking in the Portland area.  The space that it is in is donated space, and all the wedding/formal gowns are new or used and donated.  Their website is www.adornedingrace.org.  Abolition Now is the non-profit that the shop is affiliated with and they have a website with more information on the mission.  

Anyway, this week I had a lovely bride that purchased her dress at the shop and needed alterations.  I thought I would share with you before and after photos.  

BEFORE:

The dress fit pretty well, but she wanted a lace up/corset back put in.  She also wanted a sweetheart neckline and a bustle.  We decided on a French bustle.

Here are the AFTER photos.  (shared with permission)

Today's project

Here is a photo of today's project.  This bride was a little uncomfortable with a strapless dress and wanted a little something to cover the top.  She brought me a photo of something she liked so I had an idea of what she wanted.  The only problem was she didn't have any lace to match the dress.  During the first fitting at some point she mentioned that she might want the train to be removed.  Problem solved!  I was able to cut off the train and use the fabric for the top.  I even used the buttons on the train for the top.  It turned out fabulous and matched perfectly!

Grandmother's gown part 2

I spent a good part of a day working on the vintage gown that will be worn by a granddaughter.  It is a classic ballgown style with a tulle skirt and lace top (see photos on previous post).  In order to replace the lace, the gown had to be taken apart.  

First I removed the bodice from the skirt.  Fortunately in those days gowns were more simply made.  Meaning that they did not have boning, several layers inside with lining etc.  There is the lace and then the fabric which is a lightweight satin. 

This is the bodice fabric.  The lace was stitched into the darts, so those had to be removed also.  

The lace pieces. It was lined with some tulle, with lace over it.  The tulle was in better shape than the lace, so it held it together where the tears were.

I removed the buttons on the sleeve and will plan to reuse the loops on the sleeve and the back.  It was in pretty good shape.

 This is the new lace cut out and put together front and back.  I plan to put an edge around the upper edge, and the sleeves will also have an edging.  

With the sleeves.

Fitting with the bride.  The edging was just tacked around.  We needed to mostly check for the fit. 

The back.  It will have the buttons and loops down the back.  The fit was nice.  Need to make a few nips and tucks, then reattach the skirt.  Stay tuned....

Grandmother's Gown

I have a bride that I am working with that is wearing her Grandmother's wedding gown.  The wonderful thing is that her mother also wore this gown.  It is truly a treasure.  The only problem is that by now the lace on the top of the gown was ragged in a few places and had some holes, so my job is to replace the lace on the gown.  Other than that we are not changing anything about the dress.

Here is the dress:

The dress fits perfectly, so it will just be a matter of carefully removing the lace and using it as a pattern to cut out the new lace, then putting it all back together.  Easy Peasy.  Well maybe not.

This is the lace we are using to replace the original lace:

It is an Alencon lace with a nice wide edging on both edges.  We will be able to use the edge on the sleeves and around the neckline.  

More to come......

Coat finished

Back from Rwanda, and it turned out I didn't get to see Jami after all.  I did finish her coat however.  Unfortunately I got so busy finishing it - I forgot to take photos.  I am not the best blogger  ha ha. Here is the finished coat however.  

I am on to another project now - so stay tuned.....

Next steps

I am leaving for Rwanda next week and on my return trip it turns out that I will be able to visit with Jami for a few hours.  I have a stop over in Amsterdam, so she is planning on taking the train to Amsterdam from Paris and visit with me on my layover.  So that means I have to get her coat done before I leave.  I guess it is good that I work pretty well under deadlines!  I have been working fast and furious over the past couple of days - with trips to the thrift store with Traci, dinner out with my girls, and a few other things in between.  I still learning about this blogging thing, so I forget to take photos sometimes, but here is what I have for next steps with this coat.  

After I cut it out I cut out the lining and the thinsolate.  Thinsolate is a very thin layer of insulation that looks like batting, although it is a different material than batting I believe.  It is great to add a little warmth coats and jackets.  

The next thing was to iron on the interfacing on the body of the coat.  As you might imagine I like to look at the inside of garments.  When I have examined the inside of wool coats, there is often a layer of a knit looking interfacing, so I thought it would be good to add that to this coat.  It gives the fabric even more stability and makes the wool smooth.  The only problem was that there are small holes in this interfacing and when it melted it got all over my iron.  

You can see it in photo - it is kind of see through and with small holes.  So just a warning.  If you use this kind of interfacing be sure and use a pressing cloth.  It takes much longer, but saves cleaning the iron later.  

I added more interfacing to the front lapel area and did what is called a "pad stitch".  You are supposed to stitch with it already rolled the way that it will eventually lay so that all the layers will lay correctly.  

I rolled the collar around my pressing ham and pinned it before I did the pad stitching.  

Sorry,  I thought this photo showed it with stitching and I don't know how to delete a photo on this app.  Anyone??

Pockets were made next.  I think I will sew them on by hand.  This is a technique that I learned at a sewing class I took in January.  Most of this I did by machine, but the flaps will be done by hand.  

Front sewn together at shoulders and side seams.

Back.   This is about as far as I got yesterday.  What fun.  It is not often that I get to create something from scratch.  Most of what I do is alterations.  So this is a fun project especially since it is for my sweet daughter.

A Coat for Jami

In our family we draw names with our adult kids for Christmas.  This year I got Jami's name.  After much discussion she decided that she wanted me to make her a coat.  She got online and found one that she liked.  Here are a couple of photos of the one I am attempting to make:

The front is a boxy, double breasted style. 

The back has a gray panel at the shoulders. 

Sewing I do well, pattern making - not so much (that will probably be the next classes I will take) so I needed to find a pattern that was similar to the coat she wants.  I found a vintage pattern (Vogue which are not my favorite) on ebay and ordered it.  

This is not double breasted, but I think I can modify the pattern to accomodate that.  I ordered black wool, with charcoal gray for the back.  Jami decided she wants the upper collar to be gray too - like the view in the middle of the pattern envelope.  Here is the fabric:

Melton coating wool.

Before I started cutting I had to get some measurements from Jami.  Jami, my dear daughter, currently lives in Paris, so I can't measure her for this coat.  For some projects, especially ones that use expensive fabrics, or will have fitting challenges making what is called a "muslin" is a good idea  Basically this is just a mock up of the garment made with inexpensive "muslin" fabric, hense the term "muslin".   But since Jami is out of the country it wouldn't help to make a muslin since she can't try it on.  So I got on facetime with her and she put on a coat on that she likes and measured (in centimenters since that is the only tape measures they have in France) around the coat with the fit that she wants.  Hopefully that will work.  If not - I will have to alter it this summer when she is home.   I then modified the pattern the best I knew how.  The pattern was too big, so I had to adjust for that too.  

Bringing in the shoulders and sides. 

This Vogue coat had a two piece sleeve with a seam down the middle.  I wanted a two piece sleeve that is a normal coat sleeve with the seam at the elbow area.  I found an old article in Threads magazine on how to make a one piece sleeve into a two piece sleeve.  Here is a link:  

http://coatsewalong.blogspot.com/2008/07/drafting-2-piece-sleeve-using-one-piece.html.

Gotta love the internet.  Pattern was drafted and I was on my way.  

I plan to use interfacing to give the wool more body, and Jami wants me to put Thinsulate in the lining - so this should be a VERY warm coat.    That is as far as I got today.  Sewing to come.....

Learning to Make Kanzashi Flowers.

I love to read blogs.  All kinds.  I subscribe to a couple of blogs and pop in on a few more once in awhile.  I follow one from a fellow sewer that I enjoy.  What a great way to share with the world your opinions, your talents and whatever else is on your mind.  It is also a great way to learn things.

So the question is - should I start a blog?  Would anyone be interested?  Who knows - but if nothing else it will be a good place to archive things that interest me,  events that happen in my sewing adventures, photos of things that I have done.  Maybe my great, great grandchildren will be interested someday.  In fact I would be very interested in what my great great grandparents were thinking and doing with their lives, so here goes.

Yesterday was a fun day of creating.  I have been making wedding belts and sashes as well as hair pieces all winter since that is my "not so busy" season.  I have been selling them on Etsy and in the bridal shop that I work for.  So I am constantly looking for ideas on different flowers, and arrangements.  I was looking at etsy and found this Japanese flower art called Kanzashi.  They are folded fabric flowers that are absolutely beautiful.  So I decided to see if I could figure out how to make them.  Off to youtube I went.  There were lots of videos to choose from - many were in another language, but I could follow along just fine.  So here are a few of the flowers I learned to make.