Weddings To Remember

I was up quite early this morning, just couldn't sleep. Too much in my mind. Another story for another day. So rather than just stay in the bed, I (and the dogs!) went down for a cup of hot tea and a bit of dog food. From there I made my way down to my studio to do a little cleaning(I need to do a LOT of cleaning) and I came across photos of some of the work I did when I was doing wedding gowns.What a treat, a little walk down Memory Lane. Such a nice lane to take a stroll down on an early morning. Amongst all the pictures were lovely cards that had been sent to me thanking me for the work I did and expressing just how lovely they felt on their special day. Funny, I remembered the dresses but not the cards. Each bride was so much more than a client to me, I felt that they belonged to me for that very special period of time while we worked on their gown. As it turned out, most of my brides insisted that I attend their wedding. For the most part, I loved every minute although there were a few bridesmaids that I would have loved to crown and not in a good way. 

I thought I would share a bit of my early morning walk with you today. 

This is a bustier in progress. The bride had the train from her mother's gown. The rest of the dress had been ruined by a friend who had borrowed it.  The bustier was cut from the train and all of the lace that was on the train was removed and then appliqued back on the bustier. All of the beads that you see were pieces that the bride had saved from her grandmothers. There were crystal buttons, pearl necklaces, crystal necklaces, just a bag full of things. She wanted the piece to be encrusted with all that was in the bag.

 She had wanted the boning to show. I usually would do what the bride wanted unless I felt that it just wouldn't work or that it just wouldn't look good. In this instance, I knew that the lace would pretty much cover up the boning.

 A view of the back.

 Me helping her dress on her wedding day.

This was a  very special bride. The dress that she is wearing was her mother's gown. The problem with the dress was that it was about four sizes smaller than the bride. She wanted so badly to wear the gown. So what I did was take off the original sleeves. They were the very tight early 1950's sleeves. The sleeves were lace. I was able to buy satin that matched the dress fairly well. I lifted the lace on the front of the dress, made new side panels and then took lace from the sleeves and appliqued it over the new side panels which camouflaged the new satin. For the sleeves, I bought English net, combined it with silk organza and then took the rest of the lace and did appliques on the sleeves. The bottom of the skirt had some issues. It had been stained along the hem. I bought new lace that I dyed with tea to match the original lace. I became an expert at knowing the different shades that different teas would give me. The lace was sewn on and beaded. When her mother saw the dress, she cried. She was so happy. Nice.   

I've included this picture because of the funny story that goes along with it. You see the young girl on the left. She was twelve at the time. The bride did not think that it was appropriate for her to wear a strapless dress, but the child had her heart set on looking like the rest of the girls. So I told her that we could add straps. She still wasn't very happy so I told her that we would add the straps now and then later, I meant when she was older, she could take the straps out of the dress. The bride told me that later that night at the reception she looked at the child and thought something did not look the same. She had taken the straps out of her dress!! The bride asked her where the straps were and the child replied, "Rhonda said that I could take the straps out later." At that point it didn't matter. I learned to be a little more careful with what I said.

 This was such a sweet story. The bride did not have a wedding the first time around, so for their twenty-fifth anniversary, they had a wedding. The fabric for her dress came from Ghana. There was enough for her gown, her daughter's dress and the vest, bow tie and hat for her husband. She said that having a wedding where her son and daughter were able to participate made it all the sweeter.

This was such a wonderful dress to create. The bodice is made from a silk that was embroidered with a silk cord and a very fine gold wire. Thankfully the bodice was small because there was a lot of re-applique that had to be done along the seams. The skirt is a matching silk with two layers of silk chiffon overlays.

 I loved the choice of fabric for her wedding party. With such varying ages, it worked so well.

On her way to the church. We did a velvet cape that was edged in a gold cord with a matching bag. She looked like a fairy princess. The church is on Michigan Ave. across from Water Tower Place. She told me that people were running across the street to tell her how lovely she looked.
So a few of my brides. Believe it or not, I do hear from them every once in a while. A few of my brides have become good friends. I'm having dinner with one of my brides and her husband later this week. They will celebrate their 19th anniversary this year. Incredible.
Hopefully I haven't bored you with my little trip down Memory Lane.
Have a wonderful day.
Rhonda 

It's All About The Fit, Part Two

Just to refresh your memory, I began with this vintage pattern.  

 The muslin made straight off the pattern, a horrible sack that I would not want to wear.

 In yesterday's post, I took it to this point, but there were still issues in the bust area.

In order to get rid of the gap in the center front of my dress, I moved the shoulders over. On the right side of the above picture you see the neckline. Typically, I would add to the front neckline, but in this case I would like my neckline to be a little more open so I will not add to the front  and just cut the extra away from the back neckline.

In this picture I have marked in my back neckline and I have transferred the marks I made for the small back neckline dart that I would like to add.

 I transferred the marks for where I would like to take up the side seams, 

 as well as the front darts.

 You can see the underarm dart that I would like to move to the princess line that I have drawn in.

I cut my dart open.

Then I closed the underarm dart. You can see that the fabric does not want to lay flat.

 Slash to the apex of the dart.

 Now the fabric lays nice and flat and the fullness of the dart has been rotated to the princess line dart.

In order to make sure that my side seams will match, I laid my front pattern piece on top of my back pieces and cut them all together at once.

You can see the layers in this picture.The back of my dress had minimal alterations so I was able to reuse those pieces for my next muslin, but I did cut a new front muslin.

 In the above picture you can see that I have made further alterations to the left side and on the right you can see the fullness in the side panel that needs to be adjusted.

 In order to fix this issue, open up the seam and move the fullness into the seam.

 Now pin the seams back together.

 Now the front of my dress lays nice and flat.

 As you can see, the armhole needed to be remarked.

 So I began with a sack,

 and now I have a dress that fits nicely over my bust. You do see some puckering in the seams. This will disappear once I clip my seams.

 After I took the dress off, I marked in the lines of my new seams.

And now I have my final pattern. I will make the dress in the fabric below before I cut the dress out of the fabric I have intended for the embroidery. The embroidery is done before the dress is put together so just in case there are any other issues, I would like to fix them before the embroidery is completed.

Yesterday a comment was made about a book on fitting by Sarah Veblan and that she moves the shoulders just as I did in order to remove the gap in the front. I have not read her book, but I do know someone who took her class and seemed to be quite happy. For further fitting help, this may be a book that you would like to look into. 

I hope my little fitting guide has been of some help. As soon as I get the test dress finished, I'll do a final post.   

The Wednesday Showcase

Good Morning.....It's Wednesday once again!
I have two very interesting and very diverse ladies to introduce you to today.

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The first is the lovely Dixie from http://withneedleandbrush.blogspot.com/. She is very talented, as you will soon see. 

 The details of the jacket that she is wearing in the above picture.

The corner is absolute perfection.
Dixie has many interests, here is how she describes herself,
"My grandmother taught me to sew when I was 12, and creating clothing has been a passion ever since. She also taught me to knit, but I was impatient and quickly gave it up. It wasn't until mid-life that I re-learned to knit, and my yarn stash now contains more fiber than I will be able to knit in my lifetime. Color, embellishment and design are key elements in my creative endeavors. I learned to paint fabric with silk screens a couple of years ago, and I enjoy playing with paint on some of my garments. There is always a new project design in my head, even if I never get around to creating it in the physical realm!"

This jacket is a wonderful example of her painting.

 Who would believe that this was done by hand?!

 Another incredible jacket.

 The pocket detail really makes the jacket pop.

 The back detail, again, perfection.

As she said in her description, Dixie enjoys screen printing.

I love how she was able to take a very basic T-shirt and make it really special.

In this post she said that she needs to work on her screen printing abilities. Looks great to me!

I just had to include this picture. It's a table that Dixie's mother made. Now I know where she got all of her talent. 

She loves to knit. This is a little jacket for a niece. Lucky little girl. 

 The sweetest of buttons.

And of course, being one who loves dogs, I had to include this picture of her sweet little Poco,

and the lovely little sweater that she made for him. Again, a lucky little recipient.

Do check out Dixie's blog. I think you will be quite inspired.

Our second lovely blogger is Jennilee of http://steamysewing.blogspot.com.

"By training, I'm an attorney with an interest in constitutional law, immigration law and international law. My hobbies include sewing (I'm a seamstress and can usually be found sewing costumes for myself or my friends.), genealogy research (I love researching my family and can do it for hours online.), reading (usually trash but recently some non fiction legal books). And I'm a Christian, well my own version of one." How fascinating! A Lawyer by day and a costume seamstress by night.

This is a costume that was recently completed. A true labor of love. 

The skirt.

Her attention to detail is incredible.

 Another closeup of the stitching detail.

Her bustier.

 Another costume,

with this wonderful bustle.

 In the picture below she is giving a talk on bustles.

 One last costume. So interesting.

As I have shared before, I have a background in costume design. I understand the work that goes into all of these incredible pieces. Costuming is a lot about thinking outside of the box in order to bring your creation to life. Jennilee's blog is not the typical sewing blog, but her work is extremely inspiring. Have a look, I think you'll agree.

So there you have it, two incredible ladies who are using their sewing skills to live life to its fullest.

Have a wonderful day!

Rhonda