The other day came with much longed for sunshine, and for a moment the light opened my inner ears to the truth found growing in pots right there on my window sills. For a day I really loved people, an awesome feeling while it lasted.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Birth Of A Dress Part II
While the bread maker does its job and yet another day passes in the absence of sunlight, the tale of the dress from hell continues.
Front and back pattern pieces pinned to fabric and cut out. Having sewn the back and side seams together, the lack of instructions on how to drape, pleat and fit them became more and more clear while the actual process on how to manage was still hiding in the darkness of a slightly confused mind.
Pondering how to continue, hooks and eyes were sewn to the vest and that took most part of a day to finish. Ta-da!
Also, being I have a lot of this fabric I thought starting a second dress was a splendid way of postponing having to deal with the problems of constructing the first one ;-) Therefor I now have the beginning of a Regency gown in the making as well!
Jane Austen - here I come!
As did my mother one day. After the initial oh's and ah's she said she thought I might have it finished by summer - if ever. To those as weak in faith I say, grant me one more week and you shall be astounded! ;o)
It has been quite some time since practicing my skills in pleating. Knife pleats, box pleats, Watteau pleats and what all was nothing but faint memories, and since I wanted progress I pleated away, found it to look passable and so went on to stitch them and add the strip to the neckline to make it neat looking.
Yes, I did try it on several times but there’s a certain difficulty in seeing quite what things look like from behind, so after attaching the dress to the vest I noticed the fall in the back was completely wrong.
Nothing to do but to undo the past days work.
Here is when my seam ripper having gone AWOL annoyed me to bits. After a day using a pair of small embroidery scissors I went mad and spent £2 buying another.
Commonly known, that is the only way to summon back thing lost, and need I say it worked? That means I now have two seam rippers and they get a long pretty good, if I may say.
After spending an unreasonable amount of hours online researching pleats, I finally have, what I sincerely hope, a backside looking and falling to my likeness.
As I'm sewing this dress for no particular reason other than my own pleasure, I do not intend to make it authentically correct. I might never even wear it so making it with panniers and other period paraphernalia would make certain that I never would. Therefor I will try constructing it so it can be worn without having to use a corset etc.
I have put some boning into the vest and hopefully that will be enough but in case it isn't, I already have period stays to wear that I made years ago :o)
I also made a stomacher to cover the front in between the fronts of the dress (that doesn't sound like it makes sense, but it does - I know it does).
So far I’m undecided if to use it or not. We’ll see what time has to say about that.
My next problem was/is how to make the front look good. I try it on, pin and unpin. Make a few stitches here and there, alter a bit, pin and redo.
In order not to go completely mad I started making the trims for lining the front of the creation. Inch wide strips of fabric torn, sewn together and hemmed left me with a 10.5 meter strip to play with.
Btw, I’m fully aware of mixing inches/cm’s/meters and yards but that’s just part of my charm :-P
Zigzagging across said 10.5 meter strip seemed like a good idea and it was, until I started gathering it together. It just didn't work out and had to be undone again.
FYI I can disclose that I alternated between seam rippers as I didn't want either of them to feel wrongfully treated. There is always work enough to keep them both happy :)
So, two days work later, maybe three - time isn't really my strongest side - and the trim is now zigzagged by hand with strong enough thread that will never break no matter the pull. My fingers are however a different matter. If pulled they might fall right off!
In my next post I intend to share some pictures wearing this outfit. Quite a bit of work still remains before getting there though. I have to make a matching petticoat, fix the front, attach the trim, and probably add some more boning to the vest. In other words - I need to finish this whole shebang.
Also, I need to figure out what sort of hairdo would be suitable to wear with it! So, see you all in August! ;-)
Alas, the bread maker has done its job and this grumbling tummy is going to be fed. We both did well today, but whoever put the salt in the fridge is a mystery yet to be solved!
Front and back pattern pieces pinned to fabric and cut out. Having sewn the back and side seams together, the lack of instructions on how to drape, pleat and fit them became more and more clear while the actual process on how to manage was still hiding in the darkness of a slightly confused mind.
 |
| In the top right corner you can see some flesh coloured pieces of fabric that is the birth of a cloth doll. One needs something to take the mind off sewing now and then ;o) |
Pondering how to continue, hooks and eyes were sewn to the vest and that took most part of a day to finish. Ta-da!
Also, being I have a lot of this fabric I thought starting a second dress was a splendid way of postponing having to deal with the problems of constructing the first one ;-) Therefor I now have the beginning of a Regency gown in the making as well!
Jane Austen - here I come!
As did my mother one day. After the initial oh's and ah's she said she thought I might have it finished by summer - if ever. To those as weak in faith I say, grant me one more week and you shall be astounded! ;o)
It has been quite some time since practicing my skills in pleating. Knife pleats, box pleats, Watteau pleats and what all was nothing but faint memories, and since I wanted progress I pleated away, found it to look passable and so went on to stitch them and add the strip to the neckline to make it neat looking.
Yes, I did try it on several times but there’s a certain difficulty in seeing quite what things look like from behind, so after attaching the dress to the vest I noticed the fall in the back was completely wrong.
Nothing to do but to undo the past days work.
 |
| Coming undone. |
Here is when my seam ripper having gone AWOL annoyed me to bits. After a day using a pair of small embroidery scissors I went mad and spent £2 buying another.
Commonly known, that is the only way to summon back thing lost, and need I say it worked? That means I now have two seam rippers and they get a long pretty good, if I may say.
After spending an unreasonable amount of hours online researching pleats, I finally have, what I sincerely hope, a backside looking and falling to my likeness.
I have put some boning into the vest and hopefully that will be enough but in case it isn't, I already have period stays to wear that I made years ago :o)
 |
| A few boning canals - steel boning. |
I also made a stomacher to cover the front in between the fronts of the dress (that doesn't sound like it makes sense, but it does - I know it does).
So far I’m undecided if to use it or not. We’ll see what time has to say about that.
My next problem was/is how to make the front look good. I try it on, pin and unpin. Make a few stitches here and there, alter a bit, pin and redo.
In order not to go completely mad I started making the trims for lining the front of the creation. Inch wide strips of fabric torn, sewn together and hemmed left me with a 10.5 meter strip to play with.
Btw, I’m fully aware of mixing inches/cm’s/meters and yards but that’s just part of my charm :-P
Zigzagging across said 10.5 meter strip seemed like a good idea and it was, until I started gathering it together. It just didn't work out and had to be undone again.
FYI I can disclose that I alternated between seam rippers as I didn't want either of them to feel wrongfully treated. There is always work enough to keep them both happy :)
 |
| Hemming trim. |
 |
| Machine zigzagging the same. |
In my next post I intend to share some pictures wearing this outfit. Quite a bit of work still remains before getting there though. I have to make a matching petticoat, fix the front, attach the trim, and probably add some more boning to the vest. In other words - I need to finish this whole shebang.
Also, I need to figure out what sort of hairdo would be suitable to wear with it! So, see you all in August! ;-)
Alas, the bread maker has done its job and this grumbling tummy is going to be fed. We both did well today, but whoever put the salt in the fridge is a mystery yet to be solved!
Saturday, January 26, 2013
The Birth Of a Dress!
Hello everyone this blessed Saturday evening!
As I have a way of embarking on different projects that tend to never be absolutely finished, I thought that making some kind of dress diary to show the hoped for progress might work as enough motivation to see this project through till the very end.
I'm not a seamstress by any means, but a number of years back I fell in love with the beauty of corsets and dresses from the past - those things are very expensive to buy so my idea was to learn to make them myself and so I did. Trial and error is always the best of teachers :o)
The pattern for this dress is originally from 1769 France and published in Les arts et les métiers. I'm using a copy of the original pattern published by The Swedish National Museum in 1979.
As I have a way of embarking on different projects that tend to never be absolutely finished, I thought that making some kind of dress diary to show the hoped for progress might work as enough motivation to see this project through till the very end.
I'm not a seamstress by any means, but a number of years back I fell in love with the beauty of corsets and dresses from the past - those things are very expensive to buy so my idea was to learn to make them myself and so I did. Trial and error is always the best of teachers :o)
The pattern for this dress is originally from 1769 France and published in Les arts et les métiers. I'm using a copy of the original pattern published by The Swedish National Museum in 1979.
 |
| Pattern used
I got started with the vest that goes along with the dress. To begin with I made a mock-up using an old, very lime-green sheet, always a good idea before cutting into the more expensive fabric to be used. As I hadn't yet gotten the fabric I couldn't even be tempted ;o)
Pieces cut and pinned together, they seemed to be fitting really well and I considered myself very lucky indeed!
  
So the fabric arrived, I washed and dried it....
and today I finally got the pleasure of cutting into to it.
For whatever the reason, some pictures refuse to upload turned the right way (and this is where I begin to wonder how much more sewing I could have done if not fiddling with posting pictures and worrying about a pop up telling me this draft can not be saved, doing so every couple of minutes, ah well ;)
Next...
As lining I used the old sheet, pinned the layers together, sewed them, turned, pressed and pressed the pieces some more. The iron is by the way one of my best friends.
And this is as far as today and yesterday has taken me. Pieces all fitted together and I will be spending the rest of the evening hand stitching the lining closed in the back and side seams. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday evening, at least I'm not pulling my nose hairs! ;-)
Will put a hook and eye closure in the front, but before that I will have to start the actual dress and that I plan on doing tomorrow!
Tally-ho!
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Friday, December 7, 2012
My wire mannequin Christmas tree!
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| So the kids really wanted a Christmas tree this year and I'm not the mum to deny them one. Just hope they'll find it as pretty as I do ;o) |
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
God Save My Inkbleed Princess!
11 seconds isn't very long but one doesn't need more to recognise pure beauty :o)
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
My weekend's little DIY project!
Have been in need of a place to put my keys since I rarely know to where they've wandered off, they're devious trolls and never say a word!
Found a fun way to keep check on them and since I have too many silver spoons laying around I might end up filling the wall :o)
Link to the idea!
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