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.

Prom Time

Well, bit like buses, you don't hear from me for ages , then two come along  !!! .

I have been being a Mum and visiting family.  Managed to do both at the same time. 

It is my Sons prom this year and we have family down in Devon.  My Nan and Grandad are both in very good health and it was lovely to see them , not many 40yr olds can say they have Grandparents and I feel very blessed. 
Whilest there, my Son and I went shopping for his prom suit in Exeter.  He tried on a couple, but fell in love with one from Moss Bros.  Funny, but we got it half price but it did not have anything on to say it was .
He wanted a 3-piece, its charcoal, and has purple lining .  We got a shirt and tie set in purple, to match, from Next
I know I am biased, but here is a picture of my gorgeous, grown-up boy.

I cant believe where the time has gone xxx

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 !!!

Wedding Fayre

On Sunday I went to a wedding fayre, as an exhibitor.  I have not done one for ages . 

It was at the newly refurbished Civic Hall, Trowbridge. And what a transformation it has had , its lovely.  There were 20 +  exhibitors .

I met some lovely people , I am based in Melksham and it seems that I was surrounded by others from Melksham too.  The lady on the stall next to mine was Helen , her stall was so pretty.  She hires Vintage China and makes cakes.  Which I can confirm, are delicious, because I got to sample one. Somebody else came to my stall and told me they were the best tasting ones she had tried out of all the other cake stalls , so it really would have been rude not to see for myself :)  www.cottagegardencakes.co.uk

See, good enough to eat.

I made a wedding dress for my stand but I cant believe I forgot my camera on the day, so I have not got a photograph of it yet.  I did take the jacket I had made, and had some very complimentary comments about it.

 One of the compliments was from Trowbridges' very own Town Crier, mind you, I think he has a thing for red  :)

It was a great day.  I talked the hind legs off a donkey that day, so hopefully it will lead to some work.  It always takes a bit of time. People visit these wedding fayres quite early.  A fair few people are not gettting married until 2013.  Now thats preparation for you.

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

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  

Transformation

Well, I seem to be up really early, so rather than trying to get some more sleep , figured I would do something useful .LOL Have not blogged for a bit but thought I would show you what I have just completed.
I have a lady who I do alterations for , she raises money for a charity involved in helping people in the Air Force who have become injured through their work. Something she knows about personally.
 Well, she sent her Mum to me because she too  needed some work doing, as she is to receive an award in London for her fundraising. Fabulous, and well deserved. It always amazes me how much of a positive person she is when she visits too, even though she is no doubt, in constant discomfort.

Basically the job to do was to change a stole, into something easier to wear, now that the weather has taken a bit of a dip.

 

Luckily the stole was nice and wide, so it was no problem.  Here is what the stole is now , along with the top of the dress it is to go with.  She was very pleased, and a very proud Mum.
Here's wishing the family the best of luck on their trip to London and congratulations on a well deserved award xxx

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

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.

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 !!

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

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.

All Dressed Up for Prom Night

Here is my prom girl, in her dress, she looks gorgeous, her hair is fabulous and make up too.  She lives across the road from me and so she popped over so that I could see everything together.  Her belt and shoes are from Next.  She hugged me again, and considering her age and the fact that she does not really know me, I thought that was lovely.  I am so pleased to have made this, although, I do hope she doesnt cry in it , as she keeps saying she loves it so much she wants to cry !! LOL   It would spoil her gorgeous makeup.