Wedding Dress Update

The dress is coming along really well now. The silk satin is *beautiful* to work with, and I love it looks. The colour is just perfect. But now I’m up to the bit where I have to make these two pieces into one:

I’m askeered!


Review: Clover Patchwork Pins

The wedding dress is going much better today – I’m feeling more positive about the change of design. Today’s aim is to get the final muslin completed, so I can start on the real thing tomorrow. I might be able to get most of it done this weekend, depending on how long it takes me to appliqué the motif.

This morning I went shopping for a few essentials – interfacing, zip and a new rotary cutter blade. I realised I should also get some sharp new sewing machine needles and pins.

I had planned to buy the trusty Birch wedding and lace pins. But when I was over in the quilting section getting my rotary cutter blade, I saw that they had quilting pins that were even finer than the Birch ones. I weighed up all my options, and eventually picked up the Clover Patchwork Pins (Fine).

pins01

It would not be going too far to say that these things have made my weekend. To start off with, one little thing that I always appreciate with pins: a good case. This one has a sturdy little fastening that keeps the pins safe and sound. I can be a bit forgetful and clumsy, so knowing that my pins aren’t going to go everywhere when I inevitably knock them off the table is reassuring.

pins02

The pins themselves are a delight to work with. They’re so smooth and sharp, they glide through the fabric as easy as can be. I’m using butchers paper for my patterns (the movers left a pile of it behind when they packed up our kitchen in Adelaide, so I snaffled it for my sewing room) and the pins go through it like it’s nothing.

I also really appreciate the glass heads – it makes it easy to see and pull out the pins when you need to. When you’re working on a big project, little details like that can help to preserve your sanity! Finally, the packaging does note that the pins are heat resistant and can be ironed, but I don’t think I’ll be trying that out any time soon – I always worry about scratching my iron!

So there it is – one of the best finds I’ve come across for my sewing. I’d love to hear your favourite finds too!


Wedding Dress Update

Today has not been a good day. Today was the day that I realised I’m not going to be able to make my skirt work the way I wanted. I’m just not skilled enough to get it to drape how I wanted. And the elephant in the room I’d been ignoring – the seam down the front – suddenly stomped around and smashed a whole heap of things.

So I phoned my mum, cried a bit, and we came up with a solution, which is essentially this Burda pattern:

Burda wedding dress

I’ll still have a princess-seamed bodice, and the skirt will be one layer of satin and two layers of georgette. I’ll have enough georgette to be able to use it for the sash as well. I had been planning to self-line the bodice, but now I’ll have to use a lining fabric; fortunately the shop I bought my dress fabric from convinced me to buy lining for the skirt (which I wasn’t convinced I needed), so I can use that for the bodice.

I’m not sure that I’m completely happy yet; the other night I had a nightmare that my dress didn’t work out, and today I’ve felt a little bit like it’s been coming true. But hopefully it will work out in the end.

 


Daily Spotlight: 28 March 2013

Daily Spotlight: The Simple Things

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The Simple Things is one of my favourite magazines at the moment – it’s such a feel-good read! The only problem is, it’s not always easy to get hold of (I’ve actually started reading it online). The blog is lovely little fix, with extra articles that didn’t make the magazine. Even better, they’re currently holding a competition to win a subscription!


Daily Spotlight: 27 March 2013

Today is one month until our wedding! I’m getting excited now – and you can rest assured I will be very busy sewing this weekend.

But more of that later.

Daily Spotlight: &Stitches

andstitches

 

If you love embroidery, you’ve probably heard of &Stitches. If you haven’t, it’s a gorgeous online magazine by the very talented ladies from Polka&Bloom and Follow the White Bunny.

Even though the magazine is really affordable, I know that there are times when even a few dollars is too much. That’s why it’s so great that Carina and Nicole have brought their curating skills to the blog, with lots of lovely features  of great embroiderers, as well as articles on stitches and more. It’s definitely worth a peek – and don’t be surprised if you end up wanting the magazine as well!


Daily spotlight: 26 March 2013

Daily Spotlight: sew and so

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This blog is really close to my heart. Becky and I started making our dresses at roughly the same time. Of course, she’s almost finished, while I’m yet to start the real thing (and her wedding is after mine!). Despite that, seeing how beautifully her dress has turned out has been a big inspiration for me – and the process has been really interesting. It’s great reading, even if you’re not planning to sew a wedding dress.


Daily Spotlight: Swedish Embroidery blog

I’ve been missing my blog lately! But at the moment I just don’t have the time to create proper updates. So I thought I’d do a little series looking at some of my favourite blogs – not just embroidery and sewing, but other craft, cooking, design and more.

Today’s spotlight: Med Nål Och Tråd

MedNalOchTrad

Now, obviously I don’t speak any Swedish, so I can’t speak to the content of this blog. But the embroidery? So gorgeous. It cheers me up every time I see it. I love her use of colour, and it makes me so keen to play around with some felt appliqué!

Just a quick one for today, but I’ll be back with more tomorrow. If there are any blogs out there you think I should check out, let me know in the comments!

 


Wedding Dress Update

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No, you’re not going crazy, it’s not actually Wednesday. I’m just too impatient to wait until Wednesday to post this!

So, I ordered the fabric on Saturday. I managed to find the perfect shade of grey in a silk satin and georgette – they didn’t have it in stock, but fortunately someone else had placed an order for the same material (for bridesmaids dresses, apparently), so I was able to piggyback on their order.

I was able to get a little sample of the fabrics:

dress-fabric

And then somehow this fell into my shopping bag:

dress-embellishment

 

Isn’t it stunning? It’ll make an amazing centrepiece for my bodice. What I’m planning is to do a trial run bodice with a high neckline, position the motif, and then draw in the neckline in a way that suits the motif.

Also, I’ve gone back to the original plan for the skirt. I tried out the gathered effect, but I think you’d actually need to treat the fabric (something along the lines of fine pleating?) to get that effect.

I’m pretty nervous about it now that it’s actually happening – I just hope it all turns out OK.

 

 


Winding down

My first week at work was (in what I’m sure is a complete shock to no-one) pretty exhausting. So it was nice to unwind this afternoon with a little gardening.

It’s been raining for weeks here in Brisbane, and doesn’t show any sign of letting up. So I figured I’d make the most of it by planting some herbs – this way I don’t have to worry about watering them!


Wedding Dress Wednesday: Getting there!

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Sorry for my silence over the last couple of weeks! I started a new job this week, so until I get used to my new schedule I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for blogging.

The good news is that I’ve got my slopers from the dressmaker. The fit is fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to getting sewing. I was in The Fabric Store last week, and saw some silks that had great potential for the wedding dress, so I’m going to go back in this weekend for a closer look.

I did a fitting with my bridesmaids on the weekend, and the good news is that they fit really well! They’re both a little snug around the midriff, but once that’s sorted they’ll be perfect. Even better, the muslins were really easy to sew – I got the both done in just a day, so I’m feeling pretty good about them.

That’s all for tonight – I’m about to fall asleep on the keyboasdkjf o;awie ag