Wedding Gown Journey: Completed

Wedding dress progress underway!

The beaded panel was complete.
At this point, I decided that I needed flares on the sides of my dress that would hang down lower than the front and back. Very 1930's. Very pretty and twirly. Very tricky.

I drafted two rounded bottom triangles. They were the wrong size. I drafted two more and decided to leave off the rounded bottom because the bias would make the pieces sag lower anyways. I sewed them on. They were pretty. It required much steaming and pressing and fussing.

Next installment.... Sewing the beading onto the dress! (Insert scary violin music)

Wait!!! You didn't even make a lining yet! (I then drafted and pasted and cursed and cut and pasted some more and cut out the pattern that I had made, praying, and sewed the lining together the correct way. I even did a proper rolled hem with my rolled hem foot, which was perfect)

the lining sat for three weeks untouched. I ironed and pressed it twice but didn't bother to do anything. Laziness! Finally, I did something about it and pinned the lining on my dressform, where it remained for two more weeks until I decided that I had to sew it in. Finally, I could do the beading.

But I hadn't sewed the dress hem... so, I sewed it all by hand using an invisible catch stitch and it looks great!

To attach the beading to the dress, I used the same trusty beading needle and invisible thread. I pinned the design as best I could (grammar... at 1:30 am?) and after watching the entire tenth season of Grey's Anatomy and a few choice X-Files episodes on Netflix, It was finished.

But wait... something is not right.

The design was not centered. Yes, in my lack of sleep motivational speaking mode, I had pinned the whole design off center. Did I try to fix it? Perhaps... we won't divulge the lengths I went to.

I finished off the procrastination by deciding to attach an applique triangle to the dress by hand. Yes, with teeny hand stitches that resemble a serger's rolled hem setting. Crazy.

Then, I finally pinned and sewed the drapery parts on the skirt back. Let me tell you, there are thousands of billions of hand stitches on those things. Do not be fooled. The entire process took an entire month to complete. Insanity!

Later, I applied rows of beading over the applique triangle. And it looked like a satin diamond with the skirt back peeking from beneath the cascades, just like I wanted. And I was happy.

But then I had to go back to my dilemma of the off-centered beading. Oh, golly what to do.
I settled on squinching some more beads on top of the design to make it look more even and added rows of beads at the neckline. And some accent lace. And it is very pretty.

I noticed that I had not sewed in the lining for the shoulder seam properly, and foulmouthedness resulted. But, I finished it, and it looks good.

Then I had to finish the armhole edges, but I didn't trust my machine to do it. So, again, I sewed the edges by hand. All you do is wrap the needle around the fabric edge to roll it under and secure with stitches. Quite easy. Took 15 minutes for each side. Then came the satin binding. I used satin ribbon. I had to stitch down the edges by hand and cursed myself for staystitching and then overlocking the edges because they are so hard to hide.

After that was done, I knew that I needed to sew the peplums on still. That was not fun.
For this step, I had to try on the dress again. I realized that I had grown an entire four inches on my bustline. FOUR. INCHES!!!
You are possibly thinking 1) "Gosh, I'll take those four inches on my girls any day" 2) "Stress-eating will do that to you" 3) "She's totally pregnant".

So which option is correct? NONE! It was my darn blessed birth control that gave me all those lady hormones and resized my bustline to 200%.

So, now almost a D-cup, I have a dilemma. I'm filling out my C-cup bras with cleavage. I have never before experienced cleavage in my life!
One must always wear a brassiere with one's wedding gown. But mine has a sheer lace back. What to do... I have yet to try those silicone cups.

By the way, When I tried on my dress, I popped a stitch. Because of my boobs.

PEPLUMS.
I tried on the dress. The bias cut fabric did not want to sit properly over my tummy (I didn't go to the gym or run like I promised). I pinched and poked and pinned and poked myself and finally pinned the peplums and the dress into submission at the same time.

Then I sewed the right peplum on (but before that, sewed a ribbon on by hand) while wearing the dress. No one there to help me, just by my lonesome.
The left peplum was more fun. It was a carnival.
The zipper is on the left side of the dress. What did I have to do?

SNAPS! The snaps were even more fun than the right side pinching and poking. No... do not go gentle into that good night.... I was about to flee from the earth at this point. It was hellish. The fitting, that is.
Thankfully with some tugging and struggling, it managed to look all right.

Then, I had to strategically place (read: fuse 1/4" ribbon to dress and then hand stitch thinking it will remain straight, only to press it, revealing a whole mess of wrinkles that you can't fix) ribbons and do several rows of beading on the front V part. It looked a lot nicer after that.

It is finished. All done. Viola.
 Twirl, Twirl, Twirl.

Bridal Embroidery Complete

Here is the completed embroidery.

This took ages! It is not for the faint of heart!

I hope that you enjoyed the bit of eye candy. I do not have a tutorial covering the beading techniques. I looked all over Pinterest and the internet for examples of beading techniques, tore a hole in the tulle trying to use my tiny crochet hook for tambour, and decided to use invisible thread and a beading needle.

Again, this took AGES. I started in December 2014 and finished in February!

Sewing a 1924 party dress

I am sewing a 1924 party dress for New Years, as I have been invited to a "Grand Gatsby" party. Now, the thing is, I happen to dislike the new Great Gatsby movie. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald is rolling in his grave. There was very little if any semblance to the music and social aspects of the era, not to mention the cars (Gatsby's jalopy would not be seen until 1931) and the lack of historically accurate costuming. The 1920s was not all fringe an sequins. It was mostly rhinestones in fact. I asked my Great Grandmother a while back about what people really wore in the 20s. She said her mother and older sisters always wore simple, neat dresses with little ties and fancy collars, and evening dresses with pearls and skirts with sheer, floaty petals. They wore real silk stockings and shoes made up in silk brocade. Their makeup was light and peachy, with green eye shadow to bring out their eyes. They wore pink on their fingertips and lips, and their hair was done in marcel waves that they styled at home with water and flaxseed setting lotion. They lived a simple, regular life. 

So where in the new rendition of Great Gatsby was

Madeleine Vionnet's handkerchief dress? Jean Patou? Any of the Art Deco saque type beaded masterpieces? Nowhere to be found. Only jangly, dangly horrors and poorly depicted costuming. I swear that the movie industry 1) tried vainly to steal a suspension of disbelief factor from Moulin Rouge 2) incorrectly depicted costuming so that teenage fan girls could go crazy over "Gatsby Clothes" that the fashion industry was ready to cheaply manufacture. What a disappointment. So enough ranting. Here is my preliminary sketch:

This is very historically accurate. I may add godets to the skirt as well. 

Step 1: sew wrong sides together for front panel 

Size up the seams and pin the other side, see and trim straight. 

Pink the edges. 

Then move onto the skirt lining. Do a flat fell seam. Make sure the shiny side is counted as the wrong side. 

Iron, trim seam to 1/8", and press with raw edge on inside. Sew 1/2" seam. Turn right way round and stitch other side down. 

Assemble front panel with left and right bodice front. Sew shoulder seams of front to back. 

Attach skirt to bodice. 

Make drapery pleats with iron. Stitch onto side swag belt. 

Tack front and back onto waistline with small catch stitches. Tie swags in double knots at each side. Carefully pink an catch stitch all edges. 

Hem skirt with catch stitch. 

Sew sleeve seams and set in sleeves. 

All done!

And lastly, a photo with my Husband. 

Bridal Embroidery

Bridal Embroidery 

I decided to embroider a panel to place on the front of my bridal gown. After sewing the gown, I saw a need for a bit more front and center pizzaz. 

I chose a mirrored frame Art Nouveau design, which I resized and traced. I decided to place very fine size 11 glass beads around the design for some subtle shine. I played with tambour and the chain stitch, using only one thread on the hopes that it would be delicate. It was bad and I was about to give up and take the dang thing to a machine embroidery shop. It would have cost me $80 to get this little design done. So of course I ponied up and did the damn thing myself! I finally woke the hell up and used 4 threads instead of 1. I was not about to buy embroidery thread that I would have to sit and tangle by trying to separate the threads. So I saved money and used a big cone of white serger thread. Sure, it is my first ever embroidery project and it is by no means perfect in any way. But I tried. 

Here is what I have been working on.

Materials:

-Embroidery hoop large enough to hold your design

-Fine net Tulle (the finer the better!)

-Water soluble stabilizer tissue

-Fine straight hand needle or quilting sharp

-Tracing pencil (water soluble is best)

-White sewing thread (I used serger thread)

-Needle threader

The setup is quite simple. Create a design with the program of your choice and print or draw out your design on micrograph paper. Make sure that the design size is the same as the area of the garment where you plan to place it. Next, take a piece of water soluble backing stabilizer or red dot Swiss patternmaking tissue (never use fusible interfacing!) and cut it to fit into the embroidery hoop. Place the transparent tissue stabilizer over the drawing, pin down, and trace. Use a pencil or sharpie to do so. Next, cut a piece of tulle the same size as the stabilizer. Place the tulle over the stabilizer and place both over the bottom hoop. Secure in place with the top hoop, pulling the fabrics taut but being careful not to rip them. Place your needle on a needle threader. Pull a length of regular white sewing thread and fold in half. Place the first two inches of thread into the needle threader and pull the needle onto the thread. Tie the 4 ends of thread together with an overhand knot and snip off the tails as close to the knot as possible. 

Outline any continuous lines with a running stitch. Then go over the running stitch with satin stitch, which is just covering up the stitches so that any mistakes will be hidden!

If you see any black marks remaining, don't worry. You will rip away the stabilizer (carefully) after ALL embroidery has been finished. 

The satin stitch is very useful for stitching little five petal cherry blossom flowers. Just make sure that you leave a net diamond clear of the stitching in the center of each flower on the first petal so that you can go through the middle multiple times without getting stuck. 

After completing each flower separately, tuck the thread through the stitches on the wrong side of the work and snip the thread. Retie and start a new section. 

I recommend stitching all the flowers or repeating shapes first, and then doing the line work. You will feel much more accomplished if you do this. Have fun!

If there are any mistakes, cover them up with tiny beads! It will look so pretty and hopefully you will impress. 

Sockages

I mentioned in the last post that I cast on a pair of socks. They are for my Beloved Future Husband whom I refuse to diminish my raving about.

The yarn is from my ever-loving stash (more about the lovely stash later)

The main yarn is Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima 100 Socka 2085.

It is a nice 3-ply weight grey heather composed of three plies of brown-grey wool with two additional plies of black and white, and nylon for durability.

The toe, heel and stripes are knitted in an unidentifiable 3-ply cadet blue variegate.

I used the Turkish parallel needle cast on with two circular needles, size 1.

I finished the toe and a bit of forefoot in one night.

I placed 1x1 twisted rib and then 2x2 twisted rib for 1/2". (Durability in high stress area)

I then switched back to stockinette and added a cute blue stripe for 3 rounds before switching back to grey.

I shall add more later. But for now, back to knitting this sock for my Dear Loving Future Husband!

The Yarn Supply in Dahlonega, Georgia

Lady Lacewings loves to knit socks. Why am I writing in the third person?

Alas, sleep deprivation strikes again.

On a whim last night (as always, as things can only ever be created on a whim), I decided to cast on for a pair of toe-up socks. I am, of course, making up the pattern as I go along. Usual vendetta against my brain. But wait! What's this?

I used yarn from my stash. GASP! I didn't go out and search for the most perfect of perfect options?

No. Unfortunately, and to my immense dismay, there are but two locales from which to purchase fibery stuffs.--

*Except during the months of October (Goldrush) and April (Bear on the Square). Street vendors will sell beautiful artisan goods including needles, handspun yarn, and hand-dyed alpaca.*

--The first is WM. Now, the WM in Dahlonega, Georgia is not for the faint of heart. There, you shall find derelict dregs of society intermixed with sorority girls and the eyes from the hills. And then there are the sweet old ladies that want to talk with you for an hour before you must dash because you are now late after being stuck in the twilight zone that is the Dahlonega WalMart (For our purposes, it shall henceforth be referred to as the DWM).

Now, the craft section. Not so bad if you are a budget quilter who likes smurf and flaming basketball prints. No Michael Miller or Amy Butler here. Sigh. The ribbon comes in neon colours and the shelves have pictures of ribbon styles for ease of restocking. However, not all styles are present and some are placed where they do not belong, as if on purpose. Oh, the Laze. The sewing needles are ok, if you have a Singer or Brother machine in one of 3 models.

Note: NEVER purchase a serger/overlock machine from DWM. Enough Said.

And now, the "yarn".

Yarn is "yarn" here, because the quality and redheartedness of the entire shebang is just too acrylic for my little woolen soul. No offense to dear Gram, but loads and loads of sport baby acrylic and supersaver acrylic and that dastardly ribbon thing in garish colors to be made into a jellyfish-like thing are just an eyesore. Admittedly, the colours of the Lion Brand "Amazing" are appealing, but only until you read the label to discover that it is, alas, but an acrylic incog of wool. Ah! Lion brand has wool-ease, right? But only in weights that are not rather appealing to flighty fingers of the sock and lace knitting populus.

The prices should be a quarter of the shelf proclamations, because how many dollars does it really take to produce that petrol derivative stuff? (Needless to say, the price should be less because it is produced IN MY STATE).

The conclusion is that WM "yarn" is for beginners only. Unless you have the hots for those groovy McCall's Home Crafts or Needlecraft magazines circa 1967. Wavy Afghan callin' your name?

There is only one exception: The sadly discontinued bamboo rayon yarn that Red Heart marketed as crochet thread. It acts like silk and is very pretty. I got 6 balls for $1.50 each and never saw it anywhere again, ever. Sad.

The other shop in Dahlonega is Magical Threads. The building is the first house built in Dahlonega. You will find pure, unadulterated wool YARN there. I bought some pencil roving from Plymouth yarn company there, and it was $16. I later spun a 2-ply laceweight from it and ran it through a fishing line gauge to measure it at 748 yds. That would have cost me about $10 more if it were pre-spun, I figure.

The shop does have Crystal Palace Mochi in a few colours, and some kidsilk haze. The yarn selection is mostly novelty yarns, but they are all on sale and they have K1C2 Ty-dye coming in.

In the next post, you will find more about my past and present sock knitting. Let's not be preemptive. I can't even resist the future.

Back to University

School is back in session, and my university classes are taking up all of my time. Not to mention the fact that clinical times keep changing.

It is a boon that I finished the main structure of my wedding gown before the start of the semester.
I shall upload photos when I get home.

I am so happy that I do not need to make alterations at this point in time.
I allowed the dress to hang for about two weeks now. I will not hem it until I have completed everything else, including the beading, because the weight of embellishments can affect the way that the hem will fall.

One thing I am stuck on is the flat satin piping. I could not find any double sided satin ribbon in the town where I reside. I had to settle for one sided satin ribbon that is not as pearly as I would like. I don't know if I will end up using the self fabric, but I really don't want to go to that point. It will be difficult to pull off.

As for the embellishments, so far I have completed the cascades that will be attached to the back with hand stitches in white thread.

I shopped for embellishing trim for the cascades with my mother. At first, I wanted a heavy machine crochet Victorian-type trim with little picots around larger scallops. However, my mother dissuaded me and said, "That's just not you." So instead, we came to a consensus on a slightly pleated white lace trim with little scallops that have smaller scallops bordering the edges.

When I was pinning this to the edges of the cascades, I was disappointed to find that the lace was unevenly sewn to the strip of netting that holds all the pleats in place. So, different widths of lace throughout the length make it look kind of tacky in my opinion. But I am a perfectionist and Lord only knows that I would spend a year crocheting little picots round the edges with a size 14 steel hook and white sewing thread.
Or even worse, I would probably spend every waking hour with tatting shuttle in hand, clicking out gazillions of tiny little picots that would then have to be sewn onto the edges by hand.

I think I'll have nightmares now. My hands will be working in my sleep.
Actually, someone cast a spell on me so that I can be more productive and finish knitting all those UFOs in my sleep. I'll pay you in yarn.

Anyway, getting sidetracked here.

I shopped for lace fabric and could not find exactly what I wanted. I ordered lace from fabric.com but ended up sending it back because it was really strange and made of that shiny, heavily draping poly-acryl which makes me sweat, just by looking at it.

I went to JoAnn's Fabric in Gainesville (my wonderful Fiance drove me there, as I was coming down with some horrendous illness and had a migraine)

We decided on a luxurious, light-as-a-feather white Point d'espirit, the same type of lace used on Elisabetta of Belgium's beautiful wedding gown.

This is the same fabric I will be using for the  cascade veil.

I decided to omit the sleeves from the gown. For a June wedding in North Georgia, sleeves of any kind would make me suffer in the heat.

Besides, I worked hard for my biceps, and this gown will certainly show them off!

Speaking of biceps, I need to get to my 11am Critical Injury Management class.

And then hand off a rather nice 4-page love letter to my Fiance...