Medieval Dress

One of my ladies has sent me pictures for you to see.

I made this Medieval dress for August this year. Its my first one of this type, but it is a style I have always wanted to do.

She brought me a pattern for a costume dress because it was most similar to what she wanted. She had also bought the silk. I changed the neckline because I thought it would make it look nice, as its in a block of colour, it would be just a bit more interesting. I loved the sleeve design and it looks fabulous in the picture. She loved it and I was very pleased myself.

Hope you like

Well, its been quite a while since my last posting. I have been working on a couple of my own designs, trying to get people to send me pictures of some of the dresses I have made, and I actually knitted myself a cardigan.

My own designs are not quite completed but as soon as they are I will post some pictures. The customers pictures I have requested still have not materialised. My cardigan is lovely and I will also take a picture of that .

I had a stall at a prom fair in Devizes at the beginning of November, it was not very busy, but I handed out plenty of information and had quite a bit of interest. It was nice to meet some lovely stall holders. One was from Devizes, she has a shop and she sources her items from Italy. Gorgeous bags. Another lady was from Pewsey, tiaras and hair decoration was her forte. I have tried to encourage her to visit www.misi.co.uk and get herself a shop.

I went to The Paintworks, Bristol , to visit the Misi Craft fair. Some lovely items on sale. I went to try and get some Xmas pressies, but came out with a bracelet for myself from Tollykit (on Misi) she also has a website on http://www.elainehillson.co.uk . I have not dared look at that yet, there is bound to be something else I want !!!

Finally, I am pleased to say, I have got around to having a new website done . I am so pleased with it. Feel free to look and leave me any comments that you might have, I love to hear what other people think. www.inspired-brides.co.uk It has taken me a while, and will hopefully be available on search engines soon, its only just gone live.

Bridesmaids summer 2009

I got an email this morning from a bride. She looks lovely, but I did not make her dress. She had already sorted out her dress, however, she did keep telling me that she had wished she met me first.

I made her bridesmaid dresses for her though. Black and ivory satin. Made from a picture of something similar. Very pleased with the outcome, as was she . Always nice to receive pictures.

More work done

Front and back view of a jacket I made. Fully lined, and covered buttons

Very pleased at the fit, did a lining sample first just to check. If I had made the jacket in the size it suggested it would have been huge. There was far too much wear ease, made it nearly two sizes smaller so that it was snug, as the customer wanted.

Photo of Bridesmaids

I did some alterations on the bridal gown and older bridesmaids. The 4 young bridesmaid dresses are made completely by me.

The wedding dress was white and gold, so we had a gold satin bodice and white tulle skirt.
The older bridesmaid dresses came with stoles, I used these to make the sashes for the little dresses.

I think they look very complimentary.

look what I found

Was looking on http://www.misi.co.uk/ and found this. Love it . It is by cocorocco

I do not normally make jackets .

I normally stick with wedding items, proms, anything dressy really.

However, this lady had been let down by some-one . She had been given the fabric, which a family member had brought back from his travels to the Orient, bought a pattern and needed some-one to make it.

We decided to line it in a gold lining because it would have been too difficult to match the red.

She also did not want long sleeves, so I made them shorter. Good job really, she would not have had enough fabric for a long sleeve version. As it was I only just managed to juggle the pattern pieces on the fabric and had to cut out each one individualy

The pattern was quite straight forward, except that the sleeves were not lined , so I lined them because this fabric frays badly.

I should have taken a picture on the lady herself, but this is what I took before giving it to her.

Hope you like.

Wedding Dress 2009

This wedding dress is made of silk tafetta.
A lot of input came from the lady herself.
We started off with wedding dress pictures , and the dress evolved from there.

Because this was to be a non church wedding, the lady wanted a shorter, straight dress than the pictures that she brought, but the top part was similar to one of the pictures.
In order that we were both on the same wave-length , a sample dress was created and we went from there.

She sent me this photo and a lovely email to say how pleased she was , also that she had lovely comments from her guests.

Thank You Card

This morning, in my post, I got something unexpected.

The dress I have put on the previous blog was for a girl I have done some work for. This morning she sent me a lovely hand drawn card. Inside was the following;

I just wanted to say a big thankyou for making me 3 wonderful dresses that I love very much.
Its amazing how you made exactly what I saw in my imagination. I'll definately come to you if I have any more ideas.
Annie.


Well, it made my day. Its lovely to receive comments that are totally unexpected.

Costume Dress

Well, finally managed to get my old laptop on the go so that I can put some photos on line.

Cant really show too many until after the events they are for.

This dress is a similar dress to one that the lady saw in a museum. The lady in question seems to have money to spend on having dresses made, lucky her.I dont even know where she wears them. They are not for any other reason than she wants a dress and she loves old fashioned styles. She came to me with a picture taken in a museum in Bath , I think.

We could not find any fabric with a floral print that was the same so ended up making the base of the dress in a poly/cotton and I hand stitched the silkpetals onto it . She loves it.

She loves big girlie dresses and I love a challenge. Its not to everyones taste in todays world, but she was very happy with the end result. It has a hooped petticoat underneath to fill it out.

How time flies.

I cant believe that I have not posted anything on my blog since February !!!!

I have been soooo busy.

I have been working on several different things and will have to get my photos sorted so that I can post some pictures.

I also took a trip to London, on my own, staying at relatives. We went all over the place. I actually got to go into the Tower of London and see those fabulous jewels of the Queens. Wow, wouldn't mind some of those. We were lucky enough to have a fabulous Yeoman Guard guiding us around and giving us a talk , it really made it much more interesting and he was most amusing. Highly recommend it.

Ate in lots of nice places, there is a new mall, largest in Europe I believe. Fabulous eating places. I tried not too look in the shops too much . However, clothes-wise , most of the shops that I looked in were not really that impressive. Too much stock I thought, with not much in the way statements , that stood out. Mind you, I am limited to a middle of the road price range.

One shop that did stand out , for me, had to be Karen Millen. Dresses to die for. And matching shoes !!!! Bliss
However, if its shoes you want, and you can walk in high heels . WOW, loads , everywhere and sooo gorgeous, in all of the shops I went into.

Also had a trip to Harrods, cant believe that, at my age, I have not been in there. Some fabulous things. I did tell my Uncle that I would like him to save up for my Xmas present. A beautiful bangle with diamonds. Only about £8000 , bargain, I thought. However , was pleasantly surprised in the cake dept. Very reasonable prices fro London. Cheaper than some of the cafes we went into.
I was nearly drooling in the chocolate shop !!!!! Wow.


Sorry, gonna have to go now. Cant see the letters, watching Philadephia, the movie !!!

Butterfly Bridesmaid Dress

Well finally!!!!!

Have put pictures on my inspiredbrides.misi.me site. However, pictures are not that great because it looks sooo much nicer 'in the flesh'

It must be good, because I always ask my 13yr old son his opinion.

Normally he just grunts and says 'mmmmm' and then I know he really doesn't care and is not that impressed by girlie dresses . I have come to expect that , so was very surprised when he said it was pretty 'for a girlie dress'. I am truly honoured.

I LOVE Swarovski crystals, they just shine in the light sooo nicely.

Hope you like it. There are more pictures on the misi site

Swarovski on Misi

Hi, just wanted to let you know that I have just posted some genuine Swarovski Crystal Butterfly beads on Misi. Look out for Tazbride shop.

I have finally, in amongst all other work, completed a little bridesmaid dress, influenced by my love of butterflies. However, tried to take some pictures to put it on Misi , but I must be the only person I know who can take rubbish photographs with a digital camera, so I will have to try again tomorrow.

Something New For Me

Well, as a dressmaker, I am in my comfort zone. However, most people seem to think that because you can sew, you can make anything. Especially family members.

My sister asked me to make some seat covers for her two sofas. Aaah !!!. She has two dogs and cream sofas, I just wondered what took her soooo long to ask me, she was washing the covers several times a week in the bad weather.

So I got out my trusty sewing bible, Reader Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, wouldnt be without it xxxxx , and had a little look in the back . It has complete instructions for this task , thank goodness.

She had picked the fabric from a shop we visited in Trowbridge, Fabric Magic its called .
So, I got cracking , and here is the result.

Trouble is, we have enough left over for a couple of cushions too. She ordered extra fabric on top of what I said we needed, so I guess I should have seen this coming !

Schools Out !!

Well, first day of the holidays is nearly over.

Disrupted day, got hardly anything done.

Had to do housework because I had a customer coming over to try on her sample dress.

I have a small house so that involves cleaning virtually all rooms before any visit!!!

The sample is made in calico, she was pleased. A few changes are needed, but that is mostly style rather than fit, so I too, am pleased. Not a completely wasted day then.

I thought I would show some pics of some embellishment that I have just done.

The bride bought her dress, however she got some bargain party dresses for her bridesmaids and wanted a bit of sparkle added.

Basically I just used some beads I had and created something that looked similar around the top of the neck. Also a few large glass beads on the skirt.

INSPIRED BRIDES

Evening, hope everyone is not suffering tooo much with the weather.

My son tried to blag another day off school. Its only been raining !!!! But it has been continual, all day in fact, so there has been flooding in the area.

Still, I have retired to my blissful world of weddings and proms. No real world business for me. Weather , what weather !!!

Thought I would share with you some more photos of projects that I have done before.

I decided to call my business INSPIRED BRIDES .I wanted to work with people who wanted that something a little bit different. This one certainly fitted the bill. Although I do love all wedding related things, everyone is just so happy.

The lady in question had found her fabric in a curtain/cushion type fabric shop. She bought some and came to me with one metre of it, enough to make a bodice. Then wanted to know how we could incorporate this into her wedding. She just loved the colours.

After leaving it with me for a while, my brain ticked over , then I got back to her with some ideas.

We ended up putting a bronze silk with it , the colour was in the fabric, used it as a skirt colour.

The bridesmaids were all in different colours of silk, but they were all contained in the fabric also.

The young girl was lucky. She was a Liverpool supporter so I was told that red was a definate must for her. Thank goodness that it was the right red !!!!

Inspired Brides

I thought I would show you a dress that I made last year , for a bride.

She came to me because a dressmaker, in her town , had already had her fabric and pattern for a month and had not started work on it. She only had 3 months left till her wedding and was getting slightly concerned , poor lady.

The fabric came from China , via a friends husband who goes over there for working trips !!!!! Yikes , would you trust a man to pick up some suitable wedding dress fabric!!!!

I made the sample up in the lining fabric first, the bust area needed some alteration because patterns are generally in a B cup and we needed a bit more in that area. Once the sample had been tried on we found it still came down a bit low on the bust so made a fresh top part. Luckily it had a seam underneath the bust so that I knew I would not be wasting much lining fabric if I did have to re-do it.

We only just had enough fabric to make the dress, it could have done with being fuller on the skirt but I had to work with what I had.

Normally the fabric is organized after I have seen the pattern, but this was a bit different.

The silk was a gorgeous grape colour which changed in the light and it was lovely and soft. She was very pleased with the end result, the counselling and the speed at which it was started.

There is always counselling involved in the making of wedding dresses you know !!!

Hope you like x

Should I be Fired !!!!

Well,like a lot of people I did not make it to work today, my son is home from school, but I have not seen him since breakfast.

I was thinking, should I be fired for not attending!!

This is where I work,its at the bottom of my garden ,he he. Treacherous journey saved .

I am self employed , so a good talking to will do I think.

My sister popped round with her dogs, max and homer, who absolutely loved the snow. They are both now asleep because they wore themselves out. Max is the black dog and is getting on a bit now, but as you can see he was jumping about. My sister said he was like a puppy again.

Enjoy it while it lasts, I say. We dont normally get any that stays for this long.

More little bridesmaids

I was going to write about a jacket that I altered, unfortunately I seem to have deleted the photographs, and now only have them in my photo album for people to see. I do that quite often, maybe one day I will see if they will scan and show you the change of collar style.

For now I have decided that I will show you two more bridesmaids that I made, from scratch.

I created the patterns myself.

The bride came to me with her dress to alter, which was white with gold on it. She then bought two adult burgundy dresses, with stoles.

She had four smaller bridesmaids which she wanted to match, somehow, with what she had already bought. The picture only shows two dresses. Also one of the girls was only , nearly , one yrs old

We bought white tulle and some gold satin to match her dress and then I used the stoles of the adult bridesmaids to create sashes for all of the dresses. Everything matched !!!!

My first little bridesmaid pic

One of the first projects I did was for a friend of mine.

I cant seem to find the computer programme for most of the wedding party , but whilst going through a memory stick, I found this picture of her daughter who was aged one, at the time.

Finally !!!

Well, I have finally got around to posting my first official blog.

At the moment its lovely and white outside, I am writing this at my dining room table whilst my son is wrapped in his duvet , on the sofa, drinking hot chocolate.

I am a dressmaker by trade and, although at times, this can be stressful, its what I have always dreamed of doing.
I have a workshop, which , although only at the bottom of my garden, I am a bit loathe to go to because of the snow.
I have several projects on the go at the moment. A wedding dress, a prom dress, and a costume dress.
I have just finished beading two little bridesmaids dresses so that they are not quite so plain and it matches the brides dress, she is getting married abroad so I hope the weather is better for her.!!!!


I have a site on www.misi.me under the name tazbride and also a site on www.etsy.inspiredbrides.com which are quite new and really need to be added to more often but I find I work better with a deadline , which a wedding date definitely is .


Hope you find the time to have a little look. I believe in supporting small crafts people, I love the individuality and I know how much care and creativity go into these things.
Have just re-read that, it doesn't mean that they are small people , just meant, smaller businesses. Ha