Sewing for Fun!

I recently had some time to do some sewing for fun! I’ve mentioned a time or twenty that I do enjoy quick little projects that I can finish in a few hours. I went to the fabric store for some elastic, and happened upon a remnant of quilted fabric. It was just under a yard, and immediately I had some great ideas! So I did a little imagining and made myself this handy spotty tote bag!

Here is the view inside of the bag….

I did this one Sunday evening after dinner when all was quiet. I was so happy with it, I quick threw a cell phone picture of it up on Facebook……and had a very nice response. My Sister was taken with it and asked if I could make one for her. That is what you see in the first photo. The Black and White totes are Mother/Daughter totes. The large for her, the 1st small one for my niece Chloe, and the second for my soon to be home with her family niece, Cassia! Cassia is still in China living with her foster family. Hopefully she will be coming home to our family before the end of 2010. She just turned six…I think she will like her matching bag. All the girls will be very stylish while they tour China and spend that special getting to know you time with each other! Here is another photo of them all laid out…

Here is the inside of the Mom tote…

I like to add some loops to the inside for my key chains. I keep all those little store key tags on their own ring and then hook them to the loop. This way my real keys are not overloaded. So my totes have two pockets, two key loops, and the owners name stitched inside. I do also put a fabric covered piece of stiffener down in the bottom. I like that it helps it stand up if I need to set it down. I don’t use a pattern…just go by what feels right, and how much fabric I have. The quilted fabric can be pricey…but with a coupon it is not too bad. Makes a great gift, but probably not quite worth selling as there is no way to charge enough to make any kind of profit! Don’t know how Vera does it!!!

Lots going on…..

I’ve been busy doing lots of little things recently. I had a very disappointing result with the last step of the Duffy Dress. I was unable to attach the skirt to the bodice even with redoing the faux point on the front of the skirt. Ultimately the only solution is to redo the entire skirt. The combination of stiffener, velvet bias binding and layers of fabric proved just too much for all of the machines I tried to do the attaching. I ordered new stiffener, which is thinner.


It arrived on Friday!! Yea. So I opened it up today to check it out and start cutting and ironing it out flat.

I also will need to satin stitch each of the panels on the front of the skirt. This is very time consuming and eventually would add more to the overall cost of the dress. For now I am moving forward the plans as they have been in place. We’ve adjusted a few other aspects of the skirt….shorter panels! So…while waiting for the new stiffener I redid all of the embroidery. That went well. To keep me happy while the embroidery machine was busy…I put my serger to work making small summer dresses.

These two will be donated by Murphydresses to the Pillowcase Project which can be found on facebook. They will be sent to girls in Uganda, and there will be several hundred sent in each batch. Each dress made by a person just like me!
I also like to make a few summer outfits for my niece Chloe. It’s so much fun sewing for a little girls…and it goes so quickly. All told for her outfits and the donation dresses I spent maybe three days working on them while I was doing the embroidery. It is so satisfying to start and finish something this quickly! So here are Chloe’s new togs….

This is her Keep Bo away dress….her brother is none too fond of kitty’s!!!

This is the Latte with Mommy dress….it will be seen at the nearest Starbucks sometime soon!

Here is the Sunshine Outfit…guaranteed to make the rain disappear!

So my fun summer sewing time is over. I am very excited to complete the skirt with the new plans for Duffy. It’s coming along pretty well so far, I started the construction on the panels this afternoon. I do anticipate that it will take at least until the end of next week to finish the panels. We are going to Buffalo this weekend for Tara’s Dance Workshop. Full speed ahead when I get back!

Boys Costumes

A while back, Ann Donahue and I worked on some boys vests. They both made their major debut at the North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando. Ann and I both hope that the vests made the dancers feel their best, and that they danced to their full ability on the day of the competition.

Gannon and his family had an idea for the design of this vest. We all worked very closely to achieve just the look they were going for. His excellent dancing on the day earned him 3rd place in boys U15! Congrats to him and his family and Clann Na Cara.

Peter from the Power Academy had the idea for the flames and basic color of his vest. He and his teacher worked with an artist to give Ann Donahue and I an excellent graphic for his design. I think that when the work was completed Peter has just the costume he was hoping for. He looks great in it, and we wish him much success in his future dancing career!

Both of the patterns for the vests were custom. Making the boys costumes involves as much work as making a bodice for a girls dress. The embroidery is very intense, and as in Peter’s can cover a very large area. Ann worked diligently to make the flame vest embroidery with just the right amount of density so that it would be firm but not inflexible. The boys costumes have really been evolving over the last few years. It’s nice for them to have this avenue to express their personality and enhance their dancing.

Orange cape with black button

Trying out the orange cape with the black button. I really like the proportion of the button. Plus it can easily be changed in the future should something else be a better choice.

Back a year or two ago when I made the reproduction dress (along with Ann Donahue) of the woman who was on the podium at world’s 25 or so years ago…..I had the pleasure of having her actual dress in my hands. It was as if she took it off just the day before. It was in such good condition. The cape was still attached to the dress by the most beautiful brooches. They were pewter with Connemara marble…or at least that is how they appeared to me. This school dress reminds me of the beautiful traditional hand embroidered dress in it’s coloring and style. I can only imagine the pride that the owner of that older dress had when she pinned that cape on her shoulder with those beautiful jewels. I imagine some kind of tradition like that for these school dresses….because I feel like they represent all of the good things about Irish Dance and the pride of wearing a costume that represents one’s school.

Below is a photo I took of that earlier dress and in the upper right hand corner you can just see one of the beautiful cape pins.

New Cape Idea

Trying out some of the yellow fabric for the cape with a black velvet covered button. This was a great idea by the TC’s. This is really just a mock up of how it could look. The fabric is not sewn or in a “perfect” cape shape. It is enough to give an idea of the overall look though!

Almost

Almost made it. While trying to sew down the faux center piece my machine broke. Nothing terrible, I’m sure when I take it to OSMG it will be good as new in a few days. They can work wonders ya know!
Don’t mind the pins or clips you might see in the pictures. I just use those to get the dress to hang right for the pictures.

This kind of gives you and idea of what I am sewing through. That shows the backside of the faux front point. This piece has 1 layer of velvet, vilene, interfacing, and charmeuse. Put that on top of 2 layers of velvet, timtex (not really that but nearly as thick) charmeuse, and various interfacings…..and you get an idea of why the machine died. Mind you that was only after about breaking 10 needles. Now breaking a needle does not scare ma at all. I’ve broken more than I can count, and in the irish dance dress world….it is expected! Needles are gonna break…but why when it happens I still jump out of my chair and shriek I just don’t know! I think it is the optimist in me that is sure I’ve got just the right combination of needles, thread, silicon, tension, presser foot pressure and anxiety….that I’m gonna be lucky this time and not break any this time! Ah….that day has not come yet…but I’ll keep trying.

This is just the skirt with that faux point panel laid out. I have not trimmed the excess off the top of the skirt yet. In the first picture on this post, the skirt is actually hanging a little lower than it will be after the final construction. That is due to the excess ….it makes it hard to pin the skirt on the dress form and be able to put the bodice on.

This shows the soft cape and the patch for attaching it. The back panels are not on there yet. Once I get that front behaving I can attach the back.

Those are the back panels. They will have a diamond shaped applique on top with the same embroidery as the front skirt panels. That is still to come. The embroidery is done, just need to whip up the panels. You can see the underside of the front of the skirt in the photo with the cape. The girls usually like to have a fun underside. Gotta love the kids!

I’m sorry and disappointed in not getting the dress down the the school this weekend. It’s tough to not meet a deadline…I am the one who is always on time or early. I can’t just “make this work” though, because I have to be able to do this over and over for the next dresses. I have a plan of action. I’m going to redo the point, and take out the stiffener. I am going to wrap it into the side seam. I’ll keep posted!

I’m trying, I’m trying……

I am going as fast as I can to try and get this dress in the mail in the next day or two. I am binding each of the panels with velvet that I am making myself. I’m not in love with the whole process. I’ll write more about that in a future post….

I do think the colors really pop and the black velvet frames everything in a perfect manner. Always a silver lining. I have to put the whole thing together, then make a few accessories. Just finished creating the patch that will attach the cape. Have to get the size right so it does not completely obscure the beautiful yoke on the back.

Here are a few of the in progress pics I took and just have not had the time to put up here.

All of the interfacing and stabilizer had to be cut away on these pieces or they made unattractive bumps and lines on the panel.

Each panel is individually numbered. They are not identical due to the angle they must be attached to the skirt. So they must be kept track of….thus my little stickers with their numbers!! Same for the underpanels. Each one is unique in the shape of it’s point at the bottom.

Sorry I can’t say more….just need the time to work. I’ll come back and fill in some details once the dress is in the mail!!!

Duffy Dresses bodice

Decisions, Decisions!!! Lots of choices to make when making something for the first time! How amazing to see something on paper come to life…..I think that is the case here!!!

Here is a great photo that shows the yoke on the bodice. Ann Donahue has done a great job of taking the Duffy design and bringing it to reality! This photo does a good job with the colors. It is sometimes hard to get a nice picture with a close representation of the colors (and I am notorious for taking bad pictures!!) but this one is pretty close.

Here is the full back. This is pinned on the dress form, so it’s not all neat and tidy. But it does give a good idea of how it all comes together. The neckline is not trimmed to size. That will be done when I bind the neck seams.

Close view of the back. Just so pretty! How nice it all comes together, and looks just like the TCRG’s design! No zipper in there yet of course! Thats last!!!

Thats a longer view. The cape is going to be a flowing soft cape of the same orange fabric as the yoke. It will attach with an embroidered patch.

A peek at the lining. Here is a closer peak….

More soon! Going to be using a velvet binding for the skirt panels, as just seaming from top to bottom was all wonky. The front would not stay still, it kept slipping to the back and made everything look bumpy and uneven. Thanks to some dressmaker help, I think I am on the right track for the finishing touches.

New Test completed

After some adjustments to the digitizing, our second test stitch (on the right) was a nice success. There is great coverage of the yellow, and the border really makes it stand out from the base fabric. This is how we want them to look on the real dresses. On to doing this 24 times for the first batch of dresses. It takes about 2-3 hrs for each piece to be completed. That includes fabric cutting, ironing, stabilizing, hooping, thread changes, and finishing. Lots to do!

Skirt Embroidery

A little late with these photos! Wanted to get them on here Friday. Here is the process of Test stitching out the skirt design for the Duffy dresses.

That is just the first swirl. Test stitching involves alot of different factors. There are the known items…the fabric, thread, and the design. After that there are many variables…..tension, interfacing, stabilizer – both under the fabric and above the fabric, needle selection, and hooping method. Just like when we were kids and some kind older person taught us how to embroider using an old wood circle hoop…machine embroidery involves a lot of the same principles. Each of these variable needs to be addressed for a proper finished item.

On the above pictures you can see that I have added something on top of the fabric that was not there when I started. This is to help the stitches stay on top of the fabric and not sink in. We call it a “topper.” This orange fabric is very soft. I had hoped the smoothness of it would mean it would not need a topper, but the softness of it proved otherwise. The edges looked much better after adding this.
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This is the design all finished. This is about the distance that I think most people would see the design when a dancer is wearing the dress. Plus this is on the skirt, so the viewer will actually be looking down rather that straight on as this photo shows. These are stage costumes so we must always keep in mind how they will look in that context.

This is a very up close view. You can see my markings showing the different thread tension numbers that I tried while doing this test. Noone will actually be examining this item this close up except for when it is being constructed and probably when the customer is picking it up. I’d like it to look well done in those circumstances too! Much was learned during this test. A few adjustments have been made to the stitches of the design, which will give better coverage inside the outline. (and your eyes are not deceiving you…I did use two different color threads in this test!) More updates as things progress!