Project Wedding - Post 6

Yesterday I got some sewing done. I started Esther's dress and sewed Eta's bodice and lining together and attached the skirt. So now I have all three of the girl's dresses up to the same point. Now I need to draft sleeves, make and attach the trim, hem and install the zippers on all of them. Last week I bought material to make crinolines for all of them because of course these have to be super poofy :) 

I decided to nix sewing my gown and buy something for myself to wear to the wedding.  There isn't much time left and whatever I put out has to look amazing. Technically I could probably pull it off but I'll be a wreck by the time the wedding gets here and that is so unnecessary. I would rather finish up the girl's gowns this week and then have the rest of the time to focus on the bridal gown without getting down to the wire.  

TTFN

Project wedding - Post 5

Quick update before I turn in.


This is what I got done today, the skirt and bodice are not sewn to each other yet. I still need to do the lining and draft sleeves and hem. A big poofy crinoline is going under here thats why the skirt is so gathered and long.





I also cut out the lining for my 8 year old's dress to make sure it fit her before cutting into her fabric. All good to go now :)




TTFN - Goodnight

Early morning rush!

I usually wake up at about 6:30 every morning. No alarm clock needed. You know what they say.... alarm clocks are for people without kids. 


Well..... this morning I woke up to the sound of the kid's school van beeping in my driveway at 7:25!!


There is a no waiting policy but since my kids are always waiting for him and have never been late I called and begged. I asked him for three minutes, I mean, who can't wait for three minutes right?! Get this.... I got the three kids out of bed and into the van in four!!!! four minutes! That's gotta be a world record or something. My heart is still pounding. 

(Keep in mind my kid's schools are a 45 minute drive away. Although I've never missed the van since we organized it, I used to drive carpool until last year so it wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world to drive them. Small thing is I have an appointment at 9:30 and wouldn't be back in time if I drove)

So lucky it's a warm morning because my son was still buttoning up his shirt on the way to the van. I'm so proud of everyone for getting their act together so quickly this morning. 


In case you're wondering......... did I get the girl's measurements for their dresses? As my 5 year old was about to run out I told her to wait, tore downstairs for my tape measure and measured her as she ran out the door. So I can start her dress :) AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I was not thwarted by the morning!
TTYL <3

Project Wedding - Post 4 - Cousin's Dresses

Ok. This is what I got done with today and I'm kicking myself because I FORGOT AGAIN to measure the girls before they left for school. I still have a bunch of workable hours today and I wish I could have cut out their patterns and fabrics today at least so I could sew them together tomorrow.... oh well.

So.....I tried gathering with dental floss for the first time. Too bad this was the only floss I had in the house because a regular thinner floss would have been easier but all's well that ends well right?

I had a lot of length to zig zag the floss to and knew I could only mess up and sew on the floss once (since I still would be able to gather from both sides of that mess up point.) It was a real pain to make sure I didn't sew on it but once I got done I realized how that totally made up for the amount of time I would have spent gathering with regular gathering stitches. Another benefit was no worry about thread breakage.

Yes the dress smells a little minty fresh, but thats not a bad thing :)




So, here is what I have so far. I sewed the dress together and lined the bodice. I will draft the sleeves after I try it on my niece. I just want to make sure this is not too big for her and make any adjustments before putting in the sleeves, zipper, hemming and trimming.
Oh, and I'm totally in love with this teal. It looks like I may have extra fabric and I'm thinking about doing my dress in it as well. I'll probably still need more yardage but I'm probably going back into the city on Sunday and if I'm not I'll mail them a swatch and they'll mail me what I need.

TTFN

Project Wedding - Post 3 - Cousin's Dresses

Before I start just an update on the bridal gown - I sewed the silk skirt under layer yesterday but no pic because it's not much to look at. I'll wait for the bride to come back into town before I actually cut the lace for the skirt.


Now that I can put that to the side for a couple of days I started on the girl's dresses. I'm making matching dresses for my two girls and for one of my baby nieces. (the one wearing the pink velour outfit in one of my previous posts) Since my niece is the youngest, I decided to start with her's first. This is the base pattern I'm using for the dress. I will be drafting a 3/4 sleeve for it.

Here are the fabrics. I don't know how well the colors will translate one everyone's computer screens but in person they are gorgeous!
The dresses for the two younger girls will be the teal blue with taupe trim. My 8 year old does NOT want a matching dress but graciously "allowed" me to coordinate them. So her dress will be taupe with teal blue trim.

I'm making basic pattern changes and drafting the trim myself. We'll see how it goes. I don't even have a complete picture in my head yet of what these will look like but this was my inspiration dress. I just love the pleated detail on the waist. It's so modern and elegant, doncha think?
I did cut out the fabrics and lining yesterday for the dress but my phone was upstairs charging so no progress pics of it yet. Hopefully I'll at least get to finishing the body and lining of the dress today and will post pics later. I MUST remember to measure my 5 year old before she leaves for school so I can cut her pattern.........OMG..................... ITS LATE, I'll have her home all day unless I go run to get the kiddies dressed and get them on the school van. TTFN....

update - Ok got the kiddies off to school just in the nick of time. Gotta remember, no early morning blogging :) After they left I ran down to my studio for a couple of pics of what I did yesterday. I don't know if anyone really cares that much to see all the progress photos, but if you do, here they are....

Bodice and lining sewn and pressed

Skirt and lining pieces waiting to be sewn. I cut the skirt pieces 10" inches wider (and 2" longer) than the pattern because we want these dresses super poofy. (still deciding if I'll make the crinoline for underneath or just buy it, I guess it just depends on timing)

Project wedding - Post 2

Okee dokee,

I've got something to show for yesterday. Also yesterday I took a look at the calendar and tried to figure out a good sewing schedule so I can pace myself and realized I have a LOT less time to sew this gown than I had thought. One thing you didn't know yet is that my niece and I live about a 7 hour drive from each other. She came in last week for a couple of days so i could make her a muslin and is coming in again this Sunday for a few more days so I can start fitting her into this. Get this - the wedding is March 5th! After this coming week's fitting the next time she'll be in is Febuary 17th and I really want to be able to send the gown back with her on that trip. So from yesterday I had 28 days! I know it will get done but it was certainly an eye opener.

Keep in mind that the neckline is super high here, I had run out of time when making the muslin so I left myself much more fabric than what I needed to work with and I'll cut down the neckline when she comes in next week. What will it be? a round? a square? a V? We shall see......

'til next time....

Farbenmix Roxy Owl Dress

This is a long overdue update on a dress that I started a long time ago.

I did finally finish it probably about a month and a half ago but neglected to post about it. I knew as soon as I saw these fabrics from the "It's a hoot" collection that I had to do the Roxy in them.

The front and back of the dress are a twill and the sleeves and ruffles a regular cotton. What took me the longest was figuring out where exactly I wanted to put all the different prints. This is the most Farbenmix"y" I've ever gotten and it's not easy to get it right.

I am in love with this dress! It came out better than I had even dared to hope. In retrospect I would have had the same ruffle on the hem of the skirt and sleeves but by the time I finished the ruffled hem of the dress just wanted to finish it already and the red polka had been on for a while. I felt like I wanted to see my daughter wear it before before she grew out of it and if I ripped out the ruffle to make a new one it could just sit another long while before it got done.

Here are the pictures. Sorry none on my daughter but she is hating posing for pictures lately.

Project wedding......Post 1

This is definitely my most ambitious project yet. My niece is getting married in 7 weeks and I was hoping to sew my gown and gowns for my girls and one of my baby nieces. Now guess what..... drum roll........ I'm sewing the bride's wedding gown. My first priority is getting her gown done, then my gown and then the kids. I shopped fabrics on Monday and picked up everything I needed. I already had the fabric for my gown and already have cut out part of the pattern. Yesterday I got started cutting out the silk and lace for the bridal gown.

Here are pics so far. I hope you enjoy watching the progress. BTW this is an ultra modest gown with sleeves and a high neckline.

Monday I went to the fashion district for fabrics and found this exquisite white lace with attached extra trim and ivory fabric for the lining of the lace. The bodice fabric is a stiffer silk/wool blend and the skirt under layer a satiny silk. The bodice fabric was really expensive, surprisingly more than the lace per yard. All in all I think I got a reasonable price for all the fabrics. The total had come out to over $550 and I told him I couldn't pay him a penny over $450. He hemmed and hawed about it and tried to pick out some cheaper lining fabrics for me but I stuck to my guns and he ended up accepting my offer for the fabrics I chose.

Here is a wide shot of the lace over the ivory.

closeup of the edge with the extra trim.

Here are all the fabrics together including the ivory tulle for the veil.

Now getting to work!

Laying out the lace pattern

sewing each pattern piece of the lace to the underlining for the bodice. I'm not going to do this for the skirt. The skirt will be separate layers so it will have more flow. The areas with the design were a breeze to sew through but it was a real pain in the neck to sew in between the designs as the tulle likes to shift.

This is as far as I got last night front bodice sewn to side princess piece and ironed. It looks fantabulous so far!