Upcycled Wedding Dress

I don't know where the time has gone !!!! I have not blogged  for so long. 
I have been working, being a Mum, taking trips to visit family, trying to sort out my son with a college and generally just busy .


I had a bride, who had bought her dress 2 years ago, at a charity shop.  However, when she got it out again, had changed her mind about the bodice design.  The bodice had lace and beads along the bodice top and around the bottom edge too.  I removed the lace and beads and we sent it off to be dry cleaned. 

My bride wanted a more traditional floral design so I used organza  and pearls  and created this design instead

This is the dress afterwards, although  we did pull the centre flower down a bit lower before she took it away. As an older bride she was a bit conscious of showing any cleavage, but was happy that the design was fine as I had said it would be.

Luckily the dress did not need any other alterations.  It was perfect and she was more than happy .

Just what I like to hear xx

Butterick 4657

(reference previous post )

I found a picture of the original dress I made, unfortunately I am rather annoyed that I did not taken one when she had it on.  It looked absolutely stunning on her with her tanned skin and dark hair.  It fitted her beautifully, unlike the model :(

The pattern needed a lot of alteration .  The lady came to me with the pattern and fabric from a shop.  Unfortunately, I do not think the shop employs someone who is a dressmaker and the lining was not suitable for the design, also, because of the pale colour of the chiffon, everything needed to be doubled so that it did not look washed out.  It took me a long time to work out how to alter the pieces and cut out the fabric so that it would all be able to come out of what she had bought !!!! 

I would always suggest someone speaks to a dressmaker first before they purchase anything, could save time and money .

It really is a beautiful dress, but if you are tempted to get the pattern, make a sample one first.

One of the things I did was to use a skirt size 2x bigger than was suggested so that the skirt folds were nicer.

I still struggle to look at this picture as I know how nice it looked on her.

  She brought the brooch with her, a friend of hers makes jewellry, nice to have friends like that :)

It finishes the dress off lovely.

If anyone does buy the pattern and needs advice, feel free to get in touch.

For the Wedding Dress I had to downsize a 14,16,18,20 pattern, down to a size 10.  Instead of a brooch I decided to put on lace and beading.  I also made the skirt long, with a slight train on the back and one day will take a picture properly :)  I am very pleased with it .

Happy Sewing x

Wedding Fayre

Uploaded some photos of the dresses , jacket and bag I took to the wedding fayre.

I made this dress before , in a pale peach chiffon and really liked the style of it, so I decided to do my own take on the original and create it in ivory, as a wedding dress.

However I did have to alter the original pattern by a considerable amount, to get it like this.  I also lengthened it from the original .  I added some lace, with beading and sequins.

The full length photo is a bit hazy as I left my camera in the car, where it was cold, and in Leigh park Hotel, it was humid, so that is actually mist on the photo and no amount of editing will sort that out !!

I also took some items I have shown before , except I have now made a clutch bag to go with the red jacket .  It really was a lovely day, even though outside it was a different story.  I don't think the rain stopped the whole time we were there. There were no cars or horses and carriages at this one !!!

Finally Photographed !!

Well, I finished this jacket the other day and got around to photos eventually !!!

 I have still been trying to get better at them, which is why it has taken a while to do them .  I seem to be getting there.

 I am pleased with the jacket and was considering opening my Etsy or Folksy shop again, but can't decide which one.  !! .   The jacket would look great for weddings, prom or evening wear and personally I love this colour , so warming and its nearly Valentines Day so I guess there has been a lot of it about .
TIP ;-     I love the ruffles but have not really done them in the past,I found them difficult to get neat. I found a great way to easily do them is to have 2 rows of gathering stitches. It makes a much nicer ruffle and also found this makes sleeve heads ( different project) easier to fit by using the same method.

 Any comments about photography would be gratefully received , or the jacket, obviously :)  Its made in a lovely burgundy satin, with diamante centred flowers.  Gotta love a bit of bling :)
There are also two bags I have designed to go with the jacket, one of them is now finished, but again, slow photographer , didn't catch the best light .

Have a good day :)

Love Getting Pictures x

I love getting pictures of dresses I have created.

 I have just received some lovely photos. The photographer, whom I  do not know, seems to have captured the group really well.

The bride came to me because, although they had found some lovely childrens dresses, there was not an adult dress in the same colour and also one of the young bridesmaids had measurements that were not standard for her age.
She wanted all three to match in colour, but have their own choice of style.

The bridesmaid, pictured next to the bride, wanted a long dress with a swag front and, at the time of the visit, I had a small dress out that had a ruffle on the strap and she liked it and wanted it on her dress.

The next bridesmaid wanted thicker straps and a shorter style with the swag front.

I did not meet with the adult bridesmaid until a later date and she was thinking of not having the swag front, just a princess line dress with a band under the bust and spaghetti straps, however, when I showed her how slimming the swag would be if it were added, she decided to have the swag too.

And to finish off I made three stoles , because the wedding was in October.  I think it was actually the hottest day I have ever known in Britain in October !! It was perfect.

It is lovely to get emails with pics xx

Beautiful Bride xx

Today I received an email with these gorgeous pictures. This is my bride that I have written about in two previous posts and I couldn't be prouder of the how lovely she looks when all dressed up . 

Cant Wait Any Longer !!

This post is connected to the previous post, which shows ideas and information I was given.

I do not have any official photographs because Emily only got married yesterday, but I do have some that we took on completion. I look forward to seeing some when she is all dressed up properly.

After our first talk, I knew she did not want anything too fussy. The main focus was to be the lace.
I ordered this from www.bridallaceandfabric.co.uk  They very kindly sent me a sample and , after looking at several different types of laces we decided on the best one.

Here is the final dress.

I love this dress, and most importantly, the Bride and her Mum do too .

It was a pleasure to create Emily her dream dress .

The main body of the skirt is Satin, with a Chiffon overlay.

The buttons down the back are covered in the lace, because, for me , the back of a wedding dress is just as important as the front as this is what people are looking at throughout the ceremony.

  

Happy Birthday :)

Woo Hoo !! Tis my birthday today.
I hope the brides I have worked with have a great day and the weather is kind, its not  been too bad where I am .

I love my birthday because you get random emails and texts from allsorts of people wishing you a Happy Birthday.
 This year Next have been in touch with the offer of £5.00 off my next order of £25.00. Lovely, one of my favourite shops
Snow Patrol sent me an email and a text !!! Makes me feel VERY special LOL. They are one of my favourite bands, even before they were texting me.
Also, I had Best Wishes from a community I have slightly neglected of late. It is a fabulous craft forum and highly recommended . There are lots of lovely people on there.

www.thesewingforum.co.uk

If you sew, knit, crochet, craft, or like to chat, have a craft -related problem and need advice, thinking of starting in business etc . People are there to listen and try and help if you have any queries.
The people range from complete beginners to very competent and experienced. Most of all, this site is just lovely and very friendly, and anyone who cant be , is removed.

There are so many useful tips etc, and although its UK based, there are people from all over the world on there. 
Ok , enough waffle, I think  I have said enough !!! LOL But even as someone who has been sewing for quite a while, I still learn new tips/ techniques and I have passed on my own tips too. 

Basically wanted to say www.thesewingforum.co.uk is a site worth looking at XX

Anything is possible , well , probably

I quite often get asked about changing a zipped back dress into a laced up dress.  There are several reasons, mainly because a dress doesnt fit anymore !!!
 However, this time it was because a bride had bought her special dress but had always wanted a laced up wedding dress.
 I normally forget to take a photograph !! However, I thought I would take one for my collection.
The dress is beautiful , and by Amanda Wyatt.
This is the before............

I removed part of the zip, leaving it in place up to the waist.
 I had to remove some of the back of the bodice too, giving it the V shaped back, which meant I also had to take out the boning  from the lining and move it over.  I inserted loops, made the tie and a modesty panel for the underneath
And here is the after ......

Luckily, for this dress, I had a perfect match in my fabric stash to do this.   The bride is very pleased, which is always the main thing xx

Photo Tips Tried

Well, my mission for today was to try and get a better photograph !!!

Here is the original. So , did I manage to get it to look better ? ?

First tip was outside. Cloudy day it is then, no sun in sight. However, no one warned me about the breeze factor !!! I put a covering on the floor first so that my fabric did not get damp, then had to hunt around for something to hold that down because it wanted to blow away into next doors garden !!! I had to wait until lunchtime too, because builders are next door blowing dust everywhere !!!

Tip two was to have a simple background, your item should be the star !! No problem to do that one, I have fabric everywhere !!

For some reason, one of the settings kept making the flash go off !! I did not want that, but it did not do it on all settings, so I just changed the setting I used , simples . LOL

Crisp and clear photos !!! I have had to delete several, they do not fall into that category !! LOL Thank goodness you can delete on digital cameras

This one is done indoors, and I quite like it, infact, I would have to say, I think they have all improved from the ones I took before.
Another of the tips that I read was to have things at an angle, this is to add depth. I like that too.

I uploaded my pictures onto my laptop , transfered them to Microsoft Office 2010 and then edited them. I have hopefully made them so that they will be the correct size and shape to fit in my Folksy shop. I shall be going off to do that now. If you have any feedback to give then it would be much appreciated.


Thankyou for looking, and reading. Hope the tips help

Happy New Year - bit late, I know x

Happy New Year everybody.

I know its a bit late but now that son has gone back to school and normality has resumed after the festive season its sort of like a new year again.

I was unfortunately caught off guard by a bug the day before New Years Eve so had to cancel plans for NYE. My bestest friend has found 'love' and has decided that I now need to do the same !!! She had plans for me anad keeps trying to suggest a certain someone !!! She said that I " would do anything to get out of kissing ....... " LOL . It was a real illness , I promise !

Soz, I digress.

I dont make New Year resolutions, I hate to disappoint myself when I fail !

Last year I joined a Getting Things Done website and did not get to grips with the theory of it properly, although I initially did get things done !!

I have just bought the book and started reading. You are supposed to collate all information on anything that you would like to Get Done, then you have to process that information in different ways for future working towards any goals that you have.

Trouble is, you are not supposed to work on the wrong things at the wrong time. One of my items on my GTD list was to tidy my wardrobe !! Actually, just realised, it didnt even make it to the list. I just went ahead and did it !!!

That is not how its supposed to work !!! But I do now have a tidy wardrobe. However, I now have loads of things in my room that I have no idea what to do with !!!! LOL

This year I hope to stock a FOLKSY shop that I have just opened, with some of my own creations. Unfortunately I am a great procrastinator, and work better under pressure, which is why I generally have deadlines ie wedding dates, prom dates etc . ( My day job www.inspired-brides.co.uk ) . So we shall see how well I manage with GTD and FOLKSY.

Love to you all for the New Year xx