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.

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

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 !!!

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

Something new

I have recently made something new for my Misi shop.

I have worked with some gorgeous fabrics in my time and find it very hard to throw, even the smallest, leftovers away. So I decided to make this large brooch / corsage .

The first layer is red silk Dupion, left over from a Medieval style wedding ( shown in old posts if you want to scroll down).

The organza petals on top of that, fabric left over from the beaded bridesmaids earlier this year ( again in previous post).

I then added some seed beads and glass beads.

I also thought that it could be used to decorate a handbag or a dress.

My shop is www.misi.inspiredbrides.co.uk

I am pleased with the final brooch, thought I might make some more. I know just the fabric for my next one !!

Bridesmaids

Over the summer I have met and worked with some lovely people.

I met Caroline, she wanted 3 bridesmaid dresses and could not find the colour that she wanted in the shops.

Also, there was one little problem, one of the bridesmaids was in America and would not get her dress until a day or so before the wedding. Caroline was getting married abroad so there would have been no way to alter her dress if it did not fit properly.

Did not think of it before, but maybe I should have said that if she paid for me to go over with her I could have done the alterations abroad with them !!!! Ah, missed opportunity there !!

To overcome the American problem, we got her mum to measure her and we sent a sample dress over for her to try, just made in a lining fabric, her mum emailed me to say that it fit perfectly. Great, so I could just get on with making the dress.

Also, a couple of weeks later, Caroline rang me and asked if I could do another 2 bridesmaid dresses !!! Ofcourse, you can't say no can you, so I ended up making 5. I hand beaded all of the dresses and had to make them all look the same even though they were different sizes but it all looked very nice. I hope to receive some of the actual wedding photos when things have settled down for the newly weds but for now here is a picture of one.

The dress is in orchid satin with organza overlay and these pictures are takaen before the final press. I hope you like x

See , I have done some work, just been a bit lax in my blog posts, and I always wait until after the events have happened so that no-ones secrets are out the bag !!

Do you think its too soon to show pics from another break I had ??!! I went to Glastonbury too xx LOL

Back View

Hi, hope everyone who reads this is well. Just thought I would show the back of the wedding dress sash from a previous blog showing the front of it.

I like to do my bows in seperate pieces, because I like them to stay in place exactly as I make them, I do not think a sash that you tie into a bow looks as nice on a wedding dress.

First I made the pieces that hang down the back. I used chiffon and bound the top edge with some satin because its firmer, and I was stitching this to the dress on one side of the zip. Then I put a popper on the dress and the bound edge. This means it will not hang off anywhere.

Then I made my bow pieces in chiffon, with a satin in the middle bit. I did start to bead this but found that because of the design on the front being wavy, it did not look right with similar beads on the bow. I had to unpick all my hard work !!!!!!

Being a perfectionist is a blessing and a curse xxx

(he he he )

So I opted for the gorgeous sew on Swarovski and used the philosophy , less is more.

The dress is gone now, I am working on other projects at the moment . I hope you have enjoyed looking at my creation x

Wedding Dress Sash

Amongst other things, I have been working on creating a new sash for a wedding dress.

The dress started off fairly plain and my customer wanted something with a bit of sparkle.

This is what I started off with.

I had a bit of muslim, cut in a strip, so that she could give me the correct width of what she wanted. She also wanted a bow at the back.

I started off with a piece of organza that was the correct width ( + small top seam) and used some chiffon behind and over the top of it and pinned it into place (as picture).

There was a small strip of fabric on the dress and a bow that needed removing so I had to undo the stitching that held this in place, cut and remove it. I had to undo an area along the zip edge and open up the sides to put the sash into it!!!!

I find it difficult to 'create' beaded areas, purely on a design level. What one person would like is not necessarily the same as you might create and because it takes a long time to hand sew beads into place, I must admit to being a little nervous !! I showed her some beads that I was going to consider and she liked them, Swarovski crystals, whats not to like, truly my favourites, plus a few others. Bit too extravagant a budget would have been needed for it all to be Swarovski .

I also got sew on ones (because I like them and did not want to risk burning the chiffon with some hotfix ones) which I got from http://www.cheapfabrics.co.uk/

She came around the other day to check out the beading, just to make sure she was happy before I continued with the back and the bow, and she was really pleased.

So, thought I would show you it so far.

Christening Gown

The date for the Christening has passed , so I feel that it is ok to show you my picture.
As usual, my photography is below par and does not show the detail of the skirt or bodice.
The lace was taken from a wedding dress, it was then placed onto the skirt and bodice (as shown in a previous post) and then re-beaded. The flowers were also taken off the dress.
It is the first one that I have ever made and, although it took longer than anticipated, it was a pleasure to do. She is a beautiful little girl.

On my twitter I have been writing about one of my sewing projects.
It is a Christening Gown.
The customer came to me with a pattern (McCalls M4865) and her wedding dress. She asked if it would be possible to make the Gown from the train of her dress. The wedding dress fabric was too thick for this, so I suggested a thinner satin.
I took the lace and beads from the train of the wedding dress, had to also make the wedding dress train shorter and finish the hem.

I positioned the lace onto the christening gown skirt, tried it in 3 different patterns before I decided that I liked this way best.

I have hand sewn it into place, added the beads, then attached a lining so that it hid all stitching.

I made up the gown, although, I sort of followed the instructions. I had lined the skirt, which was not in the instructions. I attached the skirt lining and skirt together, then continued, as one piece. I also made the sleeves longer, I needed to add elastic around the 'cuff ' part because they were quite wide. I found fiting the sleeves a bit tricky because they were so small. But got there in the end.

The little baby is beautiful, I cant wait to see the pictures . Valentines Day, what a lovely day for a Christening

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.

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.