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 . 

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

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.

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

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.

Grecian style Prom Dress

Grecian style Prom Dress, a photo by Paula Goldstraw on Flickr.    Aaah , there is usually a way around these things.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   I wouldnt be able to wear it myself !!! LOL  But for the 16 yr old , slim, lovely girl !!! Its perfect . Hopefully will actually get some pictures of her in it.

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

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.

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

More work done

Front and back view of a jacket I made. Fully lined, and covered buttons

Very pleased at the fit, did a lining sample first just to check. If I had made the jacket in the size it suggested it would have been huge. There was far too much wear ease, made it nearly two sizes smaller so that it was snug, as the customer wanted.