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

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

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.

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.

New Monthly Make in Time for Valentines

Told you I was on another design for the Folksy Monthly Make.

I am loving making these bags.  Unlike dressmaking, which can take quite a while.  These are more instant and are satisfying my 'impatient' mode.  A lot of my customers tell me I must be a patient person !!! If only they knew. LOL x

This bag has been finished just in time for Valentines and is in my Folksy shop  http://folksy.com/shops/InspiredBrides

I love it, even got the royal seal of approval from my son ( a rare thing indeed !!)

Its made in Claret Satin      ( seems to be a theme with colours, last one was Cappucino, wine and coffee, my two favourite drinks).
I made all of the petals individually and have stitched the flower onto the bag along with a diamante centre.

Here is a close up of the flower.  I love the claret colour, its slightly darker than burgundy and is very rich looking, I think .

I can also make it in other colours, there are so many satin colours out there.

I have realised the pictures do not show that there are 2 straps, 1cm thick each. When they are pictured it is looking like one strap.

Well, I hope you like it as much as I do, and there is still time for a special Valentines gift to yourself xx LOL

Ooooh, what should I make next !!

Folksy Monthly Make - evening bag

I have recently finished an evening bag which I have made to join in on a monthly make with the craft selling site Folksy. Set up by TheFeltFairy.

This is to make me finish my own projects, as well as my 'normal' sewing jobs.

I really like the shape of this bag.

Its made with black satin. The flower on the front has a brooch fastening so that it can be removed and the two pieces can be used seperately.

The flower is made up with chiffon, organza ribbon, satin and diamante.

Its the first time I have made the design .

I really like it, which is unusual for me . I normally have an idea and it sits in a cupboard on a piece of paper without getting made, so it was great to actually see one in 'real life'.

I think it may be the first item in my folksy shop, however, it might need to be photographed a bit better !! My photographty as per usual is not showing it at its best x

Hope you like it

Well, I did it again !!

Well, as the title says, I did it again.
Yesterday I tidied the bathroom and my sons room !!

I am supposed to be trying to master the art of Getting Things Done as per the book !! But I just went ahead and did some stuff that, although needed doing, was not relevant to what I am trying to achieve. Habits are so hard to break , I am so used to not being that organised, that I am finding it hard to be organised LOL

However, I did manage to remind myself of some things that I wanted on my GTD list, for future reference, so I dont assume thats all bad . Sometimes, I guess you just have to go with whats good for you.

It might help if I got on with reading the book, because I havent got past the collecting information stage !!!!! So maybe thats why I am not getting it right LOL

I have however drafted a pattern for a wedding bag that I want to make for my new FOLKSY shop, which goes with a jacket that I am working on too. So I guess I am making progress.

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

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 to sewing

Well, I have chatted about my mini break but my blog was supposed to be for showing some of my work !!! Inbetween my little excursions I have done some work.

This one was for a Stepmother of the Bride. The lady in question had actually found a shop which stocked a line from http://www.linearaffaelli.com/ . Unfortunately they did not stock her size, she was told that if they ordered one she would have to have it. It is difficult to be sure of something if you can not try it on and they are costly if you decide that once it arrives it does not suit you ! However, their clothing is lovely.

She showed me a picture of the one she liked, however, she did not want a bodice so we changed the top completely. Also, we decided on a longer length skirt. It is made in tafetta, Chinese Red and Black. The red is lovely, it catches the light and looks purple/red. I had extreme difficulty in finding a lace motif that I liked. I ended up buying some Chantilly lace and cutting it up !!! Rather expensive to do, but it was the right thing to get. I added some black beads and sequins to it.

This is the end result. She was very pleased and enjoyed being able to make her changes to suit her own figure.

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.

I WON , yay !!!!

I won a prize !!!!! I have never won anything before !.

Spratsie, one of the people on http://www.misi.co.uk/ had posted a thread to win one of her sculptures. you just had to pick your favourite one and say why.

I picked the one called Blowing Kisses Your Way . I really liked it, and as I am a wedding dressmaker, amongst other things, if it wasn't for love I would have no job !!!!! What a lovely name for a sculpture.

I am not giving it away either, its beside my TV , blowing kisses my way !!

Well, you can't possibly expect me to give away the only prize I have ever won, can you !

here, could you give this away x

She has other ones, and they are very reasonably priced, so if you are looking for a gift thats a bit special go to www.misi.co.uk and check out Spratsie store - The Seven Seas

Happy Valentines xx