The Heirloom Wedding Dress Makeover

Last summer, a soon to be bride brought me a dress that had been worn by both her grandmother and great aunt. She was hoping to continue the family tradition and wear it again. It was yellowed and desperately needed cleaning. It fit her fairly well, but needed significant restyling. She showed me a picture of a dress she liked as a possible model for the makeover. I agreed to give it a go.

Since I knew she wanted the sleeves removed, I  did a laundry test run on one of them. The silk damask cleaned up beautifully. It soaked for 12 hours in a gentle but effective cleaning solution, and after an extra gentle wash and double rinse it was air dried outdoors.

I modernized the shape of the poufy, open at the top darts. We decided to leave the original neck drape in place and I used the sleeves ends to face the armholes. A couple of the buttons on the back were missing, and several had rust stains on them. I used buttons from the sleeves as replacements, restitched every button, and reinforced the button looping from behind, as these buttons were the real deal- no hidden zipper tucked underneath them!

The dress has a very long train, and a piece of it had been clumsily removed to enlarge the bodice for her grandmother. I reshaped the train and rehemmed the remainder of the dress. I added a deep ruffle from her mother's dress to the petticoat she wore underneath it to add fullness.

I also added a 3 point bustle.

She wore it with her mother's veil.

The dress was packed and flown to England for the wedding. Wasn't she beautiful?

Catching Up With Myself

I went for 13 months without blogging- from September 2013 to October 2014- not because I wasn't doing anything, but because I was doing too much to keep up with the blog. During those months, I did three shows, a couple comicon costumes, and several weddings among other things. As a quick catch up, I thought I would do a photo essay of those 13 months. 

The Gifts of the Magi

November/December 2013

Wedding- January 2014

Les Miserables- March 2014

The Wizard of Oz

May 2014-

with a touch of Steampunk

A Doctor Who costume, including a very long hand knitted scarf

 a Kaylee costume

some awesome aprons and towels for our Annual Honey Harvest Open House

...and another wedding dress, which I blogged about in October 2014.

I left out a lot, but these are the high points. I haven't stopped working, but have slowed the pace a bit. More soon!

The New Baby

I have a new baby. Well, not exactly new, since it came into being in 1951. It is my grandmother's 50th Anniversary model Singer sewing machine. It was well used for many years, first by my grandmother, then by my mother. I also did a lot of sewing on it myself when I was a teenager. 

I took it in to the shop and had the belt changed, the wiring replaced, and the machine tuned up. It runs like a top. My grandmother was a professional seamstress, and had all sorts of feet and attachments. The two bias binding feet are really impressive looking- I can 't wait to give them a test drive.

The instruction book is still in good shape, too.  

I repainted the cabinet, updated the knob on the drawer, and recovered the seat cushion.

I made room for it next to electronic Bernina #1. I smile every time I look at it, and plan to put many more miles on it.

The acquisition of this machine prompted me to update and make over the sewing room, but I'll save that for next time.

The Anatomy of a Wedding Dress

Long time, no blog.

I have been plying the needle unceasingly for the past year, too weary and drained to blog. Now that things have settled down a bit, I am ready to get back in the blogging saddle, starting with this custom wedding dress.

The bride fell in love with Carolina Herrera's Monet inspired Water Lily Dress from her 2010 Spring Bridal collection. You can see the runway show here.

The only problem was the time element- I had 6 weeks to make, fit, and deliver the dress. I decided that I was up for the challenge.

We designed her dress to be very much like its inspiration. The waterlily fabric of the original was hand painted especially for the collection and was not available to us, but she found another spectacular Herrera fabric to take it's place.

The biggest challenge was the 500 miles separating the seamstress and the bride. Good measurements are always essential, especially in a closely fitted strapless bodice. The bride found a local seamstress to take measurements and to do fittings on her end. I made a pattern and fitting muslin based on her measurements and mailed it to her. Once it had been fitted I made the lining, which was then shipped out for a fitting. 

 Next came the outside of the bodice.  The organza over bridal satin base was overlaid with a layer of hand pleated organza. Fun fact: there is a total of 64 pieces in the bodice, not counting the boning and cups.

1. 

Last but definitely not least came the skirt. One of the unique features of this dress is the blue underskirt that peeks through three layers of organza. They are all attached to the outer bodice.

To save time, I purchased a lightly used petticoat instead of building one. After cutting it to the right length, I attached it to the bodice lining.

After that came the lining, zipper, and putting it all together. I shipped it to the bride, and it arrived 3 days before the wedding. She was stunning in it!

      

Those Crazy Days of Summer

Long time, no blog. I blame those crazy days of summer, which are anything but lazy around here. Summer is prime wedding season, and I do lots of wedding alterations with a few custom wedding, bridesmaid and flower girl dresses added to the mix to keep things interesting.

Lace is stylish everywhere right now, especially in bridal wear. This makes me happy, as I love lace. This summer I had the opportunity to make a custom lace wedding dress. The bride found a dress she loved on Pinterest and asked me to make one like it. 

She purchased off white re-embroidered lace in the NY Garment district. It was lovely to work with, albeit hard on my scissors. As usual, the most challenging part for me was the pattern making for the bodice. We did multiple muslin fittings, as perfect fit is not optional for a dress like this.

I also made a dress for the flower girl. Lace and tulle... What could be cuter?

             

When I wasn't sewing, I was gardening. We had a very good year.

Summer is over, my fall theater season has begun, and with any luck I will be blogging regularly again.

The Anatomy of a Pirate Costume

You are staging Peter Pan or some other show featuring pirates. Captain Hook is a pirate, and everyone knows what he looks like.  But what about Smee, or other pirates with less name recognition? How does the audience know for sure that they are pirates, too? The obvious answer is that they look like pirates.  Here are some hints on how to make that happen, even if you are on a tight budget.

Most pirates- and their costumes- are a form of historical fiction. While there is some truth in this image, there is more that is the product of the imagination. If you do it well, your show should carry its audience off into the world you have created. Bad costumes are a distraction and an impediment to this.  Since most Americans think “Disney Captain Hook” or “Johnny Depp” when you say the word pirate, sticking to this sort of imagery works well.   Without buying cheaply made and expensively priced commercial costumes, how do you accomplish this?

Start by looking at pictures of pirates and visually dissect what they are wearing.  Some of the things I noted were blousy shirts, open at the throat, knee breeches or pants tucked into boots, heavy belts, sashes, vests, long coats, things that lace up, ragged edges, stripes, eye patches, bandanas, earrings, and hats.  I also used billowy skirts and corset style belts for some of the lady pirates.

Go thrift store shopping and start looking for these elements. Almost all of the guys wore something from the ladies rack, because in our culture, women generally wear more varied and interesting clothing than men do.  One day I went looking just for pants. I found stretch leggings with pleather on the front of the thighs, loose fitting heavy knit pants with faux diamond trim down the sides, and flared capris with eyelets and lacing on the outside of the leg. The leggings and blingy pants were worn with high boots or boot tops, and the pirate wearing the leggings also wore a coat that covered his thighs.  

The next time I hit pay dirt on belts- most of them heavy leather, studded with metal brads. Another day I went looking for vests.  I was amazed at what I found when I walked through the store thinking “pirate vest.”

 Bandanas can be cut, raw edged, out of suitable fabric.  I made a lot of hats (that is a blog entry unto itself) but I was also able to turn dollar store straw hats and a couple thrift store wool felt hats into pirate hats with minimal work. 

 Once you set your mind on the pirate channel you begin to see pirate in clothing items you might not have considered before.