We all love our pets…..but what is it that our pets love?
This is Cassini with her pop tarts!
She loves her pop tarts!
Yes she did finally get inside the package, after dragging the box out of the pantry and then, getting them out of the box. Don’t mess with her pop tarts!
Favorite flavor???? Strawberry….unfrosted!
I am working on finishing all of the embroidery.
These will turn into the patches that will attach the cape to the back of the dress. I will layer some stiffener and add an underside, then satin stitch the whole thing to turn it into a single piece. I’ll sew the top of the cape to one, add some velcro and it will look so pretty!
This is one of the sleeve embroidery pieces stitching out on the embroidery machine.
While making this dress I am also continuing work on a school dress order. We thought we had all of the fabric squared away and ready to order. One of the colors turned out to be not quite right, so we are selecting something different for that. It is one of the main fabrics so it is important to get it just right. Plus we want to do the best we can to make sure that this same fabric will be available in the future so all of the school dresses will be consistent. Many of the other items to make the dresses are starting to come in….I’m wishing I had another closet in my sewing room! I may take over some space in my son’s closet next. I keep seeing these dresses in my dreams…it’s so funny how that happens. But very soon the construction of these will start, and I look forward to documenting that journey.
Moving right along on this cute little salmon dress. I have all of the bodice pieces nearly finished and ready to assemble! I worked this afternoon and evening on transferring the cutting and sewing lines on those, and all that is left is to serge them before finishing. Always hesitate before deciding whether to line the front of the bodice as one whole piece (center and sides of princess seams) or do each little one by itself. I always wind up doing it the same…but for some reason it never wants to stick and I always take a breath here!
I also spent a good deal of time on the sleeves. Copied the pattern, and played with the embroidery design options. Here are some photos….
This is the one I finally decided to do:
Here’s the reasoning….We decided that the sleeves would not be fully embroidered from top to bottom. That might be a bit overwhelming for this little girl. So I played around with variations of the bodice. I wanted the embroidery to cover more distance length wise than height wise, so I kept the original size of the long “arms” and shrunk the size just a bit of the center piece. I rotated the “arms” so that all three elements would fit in one hooping of my largest hoop. That will save time, and fits within the budget allowance for this dress. I choose the pointy scroll (for lack of a more specific word) element rather than the triskele because I thought it gave a nice vertical line for the sleeve. Will help her arms look nice and straight.
So far things are coming along nicely. I’ve got the bodice totally mapped out. It’s funny when I am working on the bodice I always think that’s the most difficult part. Then when I move to the skirt….you got it….I always think that’s the most difficult part! So either all of the difficulty is behind me….or still to come!
Just finished up the full bodice test. Happily it went very well. I love the thickness of the design, and it stitches out very smoothly. It’s going to be great.
The first one is with the flash, second one without. The color is very fun, and the glitter is perfect for a bit of sparkle without being over the top. My sewing room looks like a christmas tree!
The whole family went to an Eileen Ivers concert last night. Tara danced with some of the girls from her school. Now that Trevor is playing violin, I thought he would really be able to appreciate seeing someone who plays at such a World Class level. The show was beyond wonderful. Eileen’s playing really defies description, and she seems so gracious and heartwarming on the stage. I may have mentioned a few times before how lucky I feel we are to attend concerts at The Homer Center for the Arts. This is where Tara takes her Irish Dance lessons. It is such a lovely venue, small and intimate. Yet the talent that performs there is astounding.
This is after the concert. Eileen signed autographs for the girls and let us take a few pictures. She was indeed incredibly gracious and could not be kinder. I had had the chance several times in the past to arrange for dancers to perform at some of her concerts and even her staff members are as kind. The kids had a great time dancing in their home venue….I heard they pretty much felt like rock stars! They did a nice job, and were appropriately in awe of the whole band.
Sadly, Trevor did not make it through the whole concert. He had said before we headed out that he was starting to not feel well. Sure enough by the time the first half was over he’d had the chills and the start of a good fever. Ron and he left early and Tara and I were generously given a ride home by our dear friends. It was a late night so that was especially nice of them to go out of their way. Trevor did get to see lots of great playing, and when asked about it he said “it was good, I liked it.” I suppose that is high praise indeed from a sick ten year old. He was a bit sad not to see her play her blue fiddle, but as it turned out she never did use it. I was delighted to see her use the electric Mandolin! Now that was a first for me.
The whole night was a lot of fun. Glad that the whole family could be together for at least part of it!
Here is one of Ann Donahue’s fantastic designs. At least part of one! I am doing some test stitch outs. Just wanted to show how I handle that. I prepared this glitter velvet by using a 100% cotton iron on interfacing. Then I hooped some sticky back stabilizer and laid the velvet onto that. Under the hoop I used some medium wt. tear away, and on top of the fabric I laid some water soluble stabilizer. All this to keep the thread from sinking into the velvet. That was what was present for the right side of the design.
I’ve used the glitter velvet before, so suspected I would need yet one more layer to make this stitch out work. That did prove to be the case! The right side of the design was subject to shredding thread, thin coverage, and lines not quite lining up. For the second side, I added the miracle layer…Waxed Paper! Thus I achieved the beautiful result of the left side. I was able to lay the waxed paper right on top of the fabric, it came up leaving no little bits to pick off. Just lovely!
Now of course my lame picture does not show all of this in such great detail, so I’ll try to take a better one and add it to the post shortly.
Here is a better one….
All Finished!
I took this last photo on the day that I mailed it off. The white background helps show the black organza very well. It also really highlights how the back of the skirt is longer than the front as the customer requested. The gold plisse has a lovely gradual lengthening as it wraps around to the back, and the black is very swirly and floaty. It should move beautifully when she dances!
I’ve just finished this project. I do hope it works well for the dancer. It should move nicely, and appears to have lots of potential for some lovely sparkle under the stage lights!
It is hemmed to the correct length, longer in the back. The finishing touch was the black sparkle organza for the underlayer. We had some black satin in mind as well, but that would have made the skirt too heavy.
When I had the top two layers done, I knew the satin would not be right. The black organza is very light and airy, which is a good contrast to the gold plisse.
Can’t wait to see a photo of the dancer in her new skirt!
After taking lots of pictures, and seeing how the fabrics were working together, I decided to make a change. While I did like the colors of the three fold fabrics, I was growing concerned that the gold organza was going cause restriction in movement. The lace/net is very flexible, and will move well when the dancer kicks. The organza seemed to not be moving as freely when I lifted up the hem. I don’t want the skirt to behave in an unexpected way, so thought it best to eliminate any chance of that occurring. So I took off the sparkle organza….but not to worry about the loss of that bit of sparkle, because the bottom most layer is the black sparkle organza and I think it will be just lovely. So here are some photos of today’s progress.
This is the front. The lace looks a bit off for the picture, but that is just because it is not centered. I was working on the back when I took these pictures and did not rearrange the front!
This shows the side and how the dress gets gradually longer as it goes around the back. This was requested by the dancer, and I think it a nice choice for a Senior dancer.
This is the back. It is still being pinned, and has not been properly hemmed. The hemming of this is tough as it must be hand basted and then machine sewn so each diamond matches up. I don’t want any loose ends hanging out. Plus I can’t actually sew the back seam until I add the final layer of fabric! So many steps. If I don’t make sure that it will match up nicely now, it could cause problems later….it is worth the time to do the checking at this point.
I am hoping to finish this tomorrow so I can get it in the mail by Wednesday!
So I’ve started construction for the Irish Dance skirt. I’m a pretty visual person when it comes to sewing. I can picture things in my head pretty well when it comes to how things get made, how they should look in the end, and most of the steps along the way. When it comes to color and fabric, sometimes funny things can happen. When you put different fabrics together, many times the colors can change. Not only can they create all new colors by being combined, they can also completely change color! Sometimes the light can make them reflect differently, and distance also plays a part. I like to put my fabrics together and take lots of photos to see just how they will look once I start the construction process. Sometimes I start with pinning them, sometimes I actually sew to check out the hang factor as well. Here are some of the photos I’ve taken for this dancing skirt. They are mostly to check color and hang.
These first two photos are all about color. The gold in each of these fabrics is slightly different, the shine is also slightly different. I really needed to see how it would look, and I am really happy with the final result. I think the pictures both with and without the flash give a nice idea of how well they are blending. There is a nice sparkle which will look great under the lights, but not so much that it will distract.
This is a gold plisse fabric that the dancer specifically requested. This is a view from the backside of the front just after I have pleated that section. The lengths are not correct yet. That will come soon. I am working out how each will function with the other….what is light, what is heavy, what will pull, and how much room there will be for kicking. It’s coming along!
These are the top layer of fabrics. Since the lengths are not accurate it does look like the gold and black mesh is really weighting the other layers down…but once that one is cut to it’s proper length I think it will have a nice shape. The colors look nice and that is right what I was hoping for. The bottom and longest layer will be black and that should tie this all together very nicely!
Keep checking back, there is lots more to come.
I made the decision!! I added the lace. I did hear the comments from those who did not care for it. I also appreciated the comments from those who liked it. I just hope that in person the lace is a plus rather than a minus. I quickly changed patterns and went to work on the little sister dress!
I’ll get some better photos when the weather permits outside picture taking again. For now it is nothing but snow.
Over the holiday I answered a quick plea to make a wonderful dancer a skirt for her final year of college. She had seen a skirt on her dressmakers website that inspired her to have a new one made for herself. It was Ann Donahue’s site, and since she no longer makes dresses, she put out a call for another dressmaker to take up the task. I responded because I also happen to love the skirt in question!
If you want to see the original, it is on Taoknitters site and is the Teal and Purple skirt that goes underneath the Teal and Purple Tunic dress.
Since the dancer will not be getting a full dress, we will need to modify the skirt just a bit to make it wearable with a leotard or other type of bodice. I’ve come up with a plan really based on some of the other skirts that Ann has made to go with her Tunic dresses. Here are some of the fabrics that will be used in the skirt.
The first photo shows some Black Sparkle Organza, Gold Crinkle Satin, and a very unusual Gold and Black lace type fabric. Here is a better shot of that.
The dancer requested something in a lace that was not flowers, but more unusual or asymmetrical. The colors don’t all show up great in the photo, but they will look very nice together. I went with the black organza after realizing how heavy the skirt would be if I used a satin as the very bottom layer. Plus it will add a very nice shimmer to the skirt which was one of the very appealing aspects of the original. Construction has begun, and I’ll keep the blog updated as it comes along.
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