Something Blue

Just a quick post on the petticoat I made for my wedding dress.  I found a wonderful tutorial on how to make a petticoat here:  http://sugardale.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-make-petticoat.html.  Thank you Sugardale!  I had a lot of fun making this, and dreaming of my poufy wedding dress! 

The Wrong Turn

Sometimes when you take a wrong turn, it turns out to be a wonderful thing!!  For instance, last weekend, we were driving around town, and my fiance took a wrong turn, and we came across a yard sale.  We've been known to stop at a few!  Something in particular caught my eye this time, and I just HAD to check it out. 

I found this beauty and decided to take it home with me :)

It came in its original cabinet, with a nice box full of feet and accessories:

Now I had been dreaming of finding an old treadle sewing machine at some point, but I wasn't actively looking for one, due to space constraints, but this one was in pretty good condition and the price was right, so I made room for it!  I'm so glad I did!  

It took me about a week to clean it up and oil it, and get a new belt.  I found a wealth of information here:  www.treadleon.net . Here it is, ready to sew!!

Next I will have to learn how to thread it, and practice stitching.  Then I can relegate some of my wish-list projects to this machine.  Oh the possibilities! 

Diary of a wedding dress

So the big day is looming.  I really wanted to my make own wedding dress.  I struggled with choosing a style.  I pored over Pinterest and "liked" a bunch of different dresses.  I made 3 1/2 muslins.   Finally, it was time to decide.   I found this lovely vintage pattern on Etsy, just my size!!

I'm going with the shorter, less formal version, since we are eloping!

With some minor fitting adjustments, my muslin is looking good!

I've already made the petticoat (wearing it!) and of course I will be hemming it quite a bit.

The plan is to use French Satin (diamond white) and I have some drapery lining that will work well as an interlining.  This dress will be nice and structured!    This is one of my inspirations, only not quite as fluffy:

So much fun!!

Ken Doll

I've been so busy, not nearly enough time for sewing projects :(.  But now that the warmer weather is here, my very patient fiance allowed me to make him a man's short sleeve shirt from a vintage pattern.  He helped me pick out the fabric and buttons (good choices!). 

And here is my handsome honey, modeling the finished product!! 

The Red Dress

I've just finished a dress, and I think it's the best I've made thus far.  I found this in the "Make this Look" section of The Sew Weekly blog:

http://www.sewweekly.com/2011/08/todays-mtl-has-been-driving-me-crazy-since-i-first-received-the-request-at-the-beginning-of-this-month-kristen-writes-i/

Here is my version, sorry for the bad pics:

I'm loving the lapped zipper!  This dress is so comfy and cute!  Definitely one of my favorites!!

Blouse finished!

...a rare occurence these days, I actually finished a project!  Sure it was a relatively small one, but I'm so happy I can move on now. 

Before I began this blouse, I was in the middle of my "bombshell" dress, but I had to take a break from that one.   I am learning how to make the bombshell dress on http://www.craftsy.com./   It's a great class, but pretty intense!   Here it is so far:

I still have to create the lining and add boning for support. 

I have a lot of purple clothes

I just realized that as I was making this blouse.  Oh well, purple is good I guess. 

So the collar was a bit of a pain, as many reviewers noted on http://www.patternreview.com/,  but it's so important on this particular blouse.  Of course I had to make it harder on myself and use velvet.

I underlined the main fabric with muslin because it was very sheer.  I also underlined the velvet collar with muslin, to make sure it didn't come out floppy.  It worked out well! 

I'm happy with it.  All I have left now are sleeves, a zipper and a hem!