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.

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

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 . 

Poppy Dress, For A Different Remembrance x

Earlier in the year I met a Mother of the Bride and made three purple bridesmaids dressses, which are on a previous post.  Whilest I was making the dresses, her sister, who had been ill for a short time, sadly passed away before the wedding took place.

On one occassion, whilest bringing a bridesmaid for a fitting she mentioned that there might be another project that she may want me to do.
Before her sister got ill, she had made up the lining for a dress which she had picked out this fabric for but unfortunately had been unable to finish it .

The fabric is just lovely with embroidery and some poppys are attached

She tried on the lining, I did a few alterations , used the lining as the pattern and made up the dress for her . 

It was picked up today, and she loves it. It is obviously very special to her for her own reasons of

remembrance.I felt quite honoured to be asked to be asked to finish it for her  

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.

  

Ooooh Excited !!

Cant wait !! Cant show you the proper dress yet, the bride is getting married tomorrow but I love the dress I have recently finished.  As a bit of a pre-lim to the actual pictures I thought I would write a post on the ideas that she came to me with. 
I often get people come to me with some pictures of dresses which the person likes a bit of one and some of another but has had no luck finding the RIGHT one .
My bride to be came to me with some pictures, and she had also been to see another dressmaker too, who had created a drawing for her based on what she thought the dress would look like. Our 2 ideas were totally different even though we had been told the same things.
So, the Bride to be went off and considered, and came back to me because she liked my idea.  Which I consider very lucky, because my drawing is not especially good !!!! Something I really need to work on .
Here are some of the comments and pictures that I had to work with

I dont know if the writing might be a bit small to read, but it basically says everything I needed to know about the style she wanted. Top part of lace, with an asymmetrical ruched part, Aline skirt with a bit of volume and train.  Quite simple but elegant , no jewels or crystals .

I just hope the weather is kind tomorrow !! I have been telling her it is always nice in September , its my birthday tomorrow and it usually is a nice day !!!  I have a new rule now, never talk about the English weather !! Really, nothing is a given anymore !! The weather forecast is not too great !!

I just hope she has a lovely day.

I love Purple x

This year my sewing has been slightly different in that I have had some people bring me patterns that they have bought.  Normally, I just get some magazine pictures which people like bits of different dresses !!

One of the patterns I have used and found to be a really nice dress was New Look 6699.

Unfortunately, I dont have a good picture of the three bridesmaid dresses, but I made the style on the model, in purple satin.

In fact, I liked the pattern so much, and the purple satin, that I made a dress for myself !  I had an 80th surprise birthday party and a wedding to go to this year, so thought it would be ideal.  I changed the top part of the dress though and here is an actual picture of me wearing it

I have since read some reviews on the pattern, and they seem to be all good.

Prom Time !!

Well, this year I have been working on several dresses, bridesmaids, proms and a wedding dress, which I cant show yet .
 I have been a bit lax on taking photos and following up my clients for photos.
However, one of my favourite styles has to be the 'Grecian ' look and I had the chance to make a prom dress for a dot of a girl !.. Size 6-8 and very petite.  I have actually taken a photo before she takes it away this week , just incase I dont get around to getting one of her in it. Its two layers of ivory chiffon over a lining of crepe de chine so that its not see through !!


Well, I know I have been away a while, but it wont let me upload a picture !! Anybody got any suggestions

Bride who Twirled x

Earlier in the year I had a Bride-to-be come to me with some pictures of styles and her only other requirement was that the skirt should swirl as she was dancing .

We chose a Champagne satin and burnt orange as an accent colour. I made waistcoats and ties, small bridesmaid dress to go with it. And it looks great when she twirls x

Wedding Dress pictures

I have not written for a while, I just don't know where the time goes.


Although , these days I have a job to get my hands on the laptop !!!

Earlier on in the year I was working on a wedding dress that meant I had to keep moving the furniture round. The skirt part was so long.

My customer based her idea on the Wedding Dress worn by Princess Margaret, designed by Norman Hartnell, in 1960.

However, she wanted tulle to be used , instead of organza. We had to change the style of the collar because the fabric was just too flimsy to stand up as high. It was quite a challenge but this is the result.

The tulle jacket was edged in ribbon , as was the skirt. I also had to make a cathedral length veil which was again, edged in ribbon. I bought some diamante buttons which were sewn on the front, the cuff and there were six at the back of the neck ( three on each side for decoration, it had hooks and eyes to fasten at the top)

The bodice underneath was ivory satin.

I still hope to receive some official photos, I dont know why I dont take more myself , but I just can't take good photos. I hope you like it xx

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.

Re-styling a dress

One project I have just done is a little unusual, and not at all easy.

A young lady comes to me every now and then with unusual requests, and this was no different, she brought me a dress

The problem was, she did not like the top of the dress, wanted it taken off and a new one put on.

I told you it was unusual.

Problem one; she wanted a top with floaty sleeves.

Problem two; dress has a side zip . A top with sleeves can not have a side zip !!!!

Oh yes, and there was no centre back seam on the skirt.!!!

I love problem solving and a challenge, just as well in my job.

I made a muslin top with floaty sleeves with a centre back seam. I found the centre back of the skirt, marked it and stitched a V shape around it because it was made of chiffon and would have frayed !!!

We had a fitting, just to make sure everything was to her liking and it was fine.

There was no way to find a matching colour, so we picked a contrasting one for the top.

Made the top and attached it to the skirt.

For the centre back I used the sash that had been around the waist, to surround the raw edges before inserting the zip.

I made a little flower, using a technique I found on a blog, to bring both colours together. Unfortunately I can't remember the blog, otherwise I would happily tell you where I got it from. I changed the technique because I could not find the blog again and repeat it !!!!! I was quite happy with the result though. Here is the finished dress

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

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

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.

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.