Extra Special Prom Dress

LOVE it when I get  some pics back.

I was not even sure this dress was going to get worn to a prom at all. 
This beautiful girl is the daughter of a friend of a friend. I was approached about making the dress, but before I got started, she was to be sent for emergency surgery, regarding cancer.
The operation was due 2 weeks before her prom, so they asked me to wait . However, I had already got everything prepared for it, because I had decided I would make it for her anyway.

She has a scar on the front of her neck, about 4 inches long, but my goodness, the surgeon has done such a fantastic job, I am sure it will hardly be noticeable in time.  She is doing extremely well, although a little tired at times, but decided she was going to her prom anyway.  She has taken it all in her stride and has to be thoroughly commended on her attitude.

Here she is .

I also made a matching tie for her date.

 She continues to go from strength to strength,  she seems to be on the mend, all is good xx

She had a thoroughly good time at her prom and loved her dress.

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

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

Fate and a ' Posh Frock '

I have a friend, who always thought she would never need me to do any sewing for her, as she just did not get invited to an occasion where she would need a 'posh frock' .

This year however, quite by accident, she met a new man.  You cant help but believe in fate sometimes !!  She rang a phone number, twice, left messages, thinking it was someone that she knew.  What are the odds on typing in a wrong number TWICE, the person  rang her back to inform her of the mistake, not only does he live in the same town as her, but he was single . They started texting each other, met up and fell in love.  How amazing is that !! 

So, his boss had arranged an evening of fine dining and a casino, hence the need for the 'posh frock'  .

I have not made the dress, it was ordered over the internet and although they ask you to measure for the sizes, this dress arrived 1-2 sizes bigger than we ordered, so extensive alterations were needed and the train was taken off the back.

The other thing I did was to make a black satin bolero and a matching clutch bag to finish off the outfit.  The picture is a bit fuzzy because we were laughing :) But she was so pleased, and so was I.  It is a lovely story and I am so pleased that she finally gets her very own 'posh frock ' x

Buyer Beware

When making a dress in ivory only, you do always need to make sure that you use good quality fabrics, or you run the risk of being able to see through the dress !!!

However, I had a lady ring me up with a bit of an emegency. The bride had bought a bridesmaids dress from Debenhams and considered that it was rather indecent for the bridesmaid as you could see right through !!. The dress itself is lovely, however the skirt was made up of 2 layers of low cost lining fabric and 1 layer of tulle.

So I took the skirt away from the bodice, removed the tulle layer, inserted another lining and added 2 more layers of tulle , just to add a bit more body to the skirt.

I had a look on the Debenhams website and it has actually had nothing but good reviews.  One of them even said the quality of the fabric was good !!  Still, managed to improve it for my customer

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

My Sewing 'Bible'

Just thought I would share with you, what I consider to be my sewing 'Bible'.

When I went to college, back in ........ (Too long ago !!) I was told that the best book to get would be Readers Digest Complete Guide To Sewing.  It has so much information that it really has been unnecessary for me to purchase any other sewing book for techniques of everything I need.  Although that has not necessarily stopped me !! After all , I am a woman who likes to buy books even if I never open them again after I have bought them LOL

Every now and again I will get it out and go back to basics, it is surprising that even though I have been sewing for many years , that I can still learn a technique that saves me time.

I found the tutorial on invisible zips, that I had avoided for a long time, was actually very easy.  I dont have the correct foot for an invisible zip, just a normal zip foot that came with my machine and once you get the hang of it, was so simple to fit that I was annoyed with myself that I had not tried sooner !!
You do not necessarily need to have loads of fancy gadgets and gizmos, just a bit of practice with what you already have .

People I have made dressses for say that I must be a very patient person !! But they are quite wrong, if I cant get something straight away, I tend to give in and go back to my own methods, but really, with a bit more patience !!! you can probably save yourself time in the long run .  Think I might have to try my own advice on this one LOL . Happy sewing xx

By the way, if anyone who reads this has any other books they consider to be fabulous, please feel free to let me know. I love to nosey through a book, even if it is only once LOL  I liked this books so much, I now have 2 because found one in a charity shop for a bargain £1 !!