Hits

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Buttonholes

Snaps: annoying, but workable so long as you don't sew the bottom on backwards.

Hook and eye: amazingly simple; just be careful not to sew them too far away from eachother.

Buttons: whoever invented them should be strung up by their toenails.

Elastic: genius.  This was an answer to the question, "Why the hell should I have to sew two matching parts on two pieces of fabric?"

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

HALLELUJAH!!!!!

Look!  Look!  -->  RJ is sewing!!!!  ;-)

I'm playin'.  He really is sewing, but it's not that crazy to see him sewing either.  He's working on his shirt...

Not so sure he's ejoying himself! 

One down! Hooyah!

Okay, so I'm basically done with the dress.  I have to hem it, BUT...dress-wearing 101: buy the shoes first!  I will hem it after I have gotten my shoes.

Check this out...it's the new happy dance!  http://www.thegratidudes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=1

Gotta admit, I know now why all those women back in the day wore super tight corsets and were so skinny you could see through them.  With as many layers as the dress is, I feel like a whale.  Ugh.  Maybe I'll feel better about it later.

Ha HA!

I got zipper in!!!!

Took awhile, but looks good.  Dress as a whole is a bit "poofier" than I thought, but I suppose it will do.

:-)

Can you see it?!?

Okay, so I've got two days to get as much done as I can.  I can feel the engine revving....and then I take off at the breakneak speed of 2 miles an hour.  It's slow going, but at least it's going!

I just got the bodice and skirt sewed together.  I still have to adjust the fit, add the zipper, and sew on the sash.  So the dress will be done today!  I will post again when it's done.

Next task....I think I will start with RJ's shirt.  Not many pieces, no buttons...we're using snaps that won't show. Whew....

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Is it just me, or does my dress resemble a peppermint patty?

WHEW!  So Nicole and Danny have been with us for several hours, contentedly cutting pattern pieces and fabric for RJ's suit while I've been working on my dress.  I owe them my sanity!

Today's objective: my skirt.  This type of tea gown has an underskirt and two over skirts, each one slightly shorter than the one before it.  I got the whole skirt cut out, sewn together (sort of), and ready to be gathered together at the top.  I laid it all out on the table so I could see what it would look like when I'm done.  As soon as I did, one thing hit me.

It looks like chocolate and mint.

Good,bad....I don't know.  But hey, at least it's almost finished.

The monumental task of sewing the suit is still looming...

Friday, November 11, 2011

Bodice...COMPLETE!!!!

Well......sort of.

More complete than it has been while sitting on my dining room table for the past few days.

Who would have thought that sewing three parts of fabric together would be so FREAKING HARD?!?!?  Ok, not altogether HARD, persay.  It is very difficult to get an inset to be the right size and lined up correctly.  Otherwise, you end up with one side sewn right under your chin, and your boob hanging out on the other side.  Seriously.  I'm just sayin'.

SOOOOoooooo.....

After I got everything lined up right, I learned a brand new term (for me) - understitching.  I was REALLY nervous about sewing the lining to the seam allowance, especially with as much work as I put into getting everything just right.  As soon as I looked at the seam after I sewed it, I understood.  Looks really nice!  Wanna know what it is?  Google it.

Fortunately, I have some help coming tomorrow.  Nicole will again be joining me.  Maybe we can finish the dress????????

Monday, November 7, 2011

Day Two

Okay, so today I had to be at school extraordinarily late.  Parent/Teacher conference time.  Though I knew I would not be making any progress on the dress, that didn't stop the mountain of fabric on my dining room chair from taunting me....

it's just sitting there....

mocking me....

can't you hear it?!?

Sunday, November 6, 2011

First Day on the Job

Whew!

So even though my stomach adamantly disagreed, I figured I better get started on my dress.

The instructions recommended making a fitting toile out of muslin prior to cutting the actual bodice fabric.  Thank goodness I did!  Turns out that the pattern runs REALLY small.  I made a second toile that fit much better.  My nerves were getting to me, but I went ahead and cut the bodice fabric.

Though complicated, the steps have been pretty clear.  I knew it was time to take a break when I realized that the inset I had sewn onto the bodice was too high for my taste (meaning I was going to have to seam rip it so I could lower it) AND I sewed the interfacing to the incorrect side of one of the bodice pieces (more seam ripping).

Eh, c'est la vie.

Best part?  It's going WAY faster than I thought.  Once I fix the parts I just mentioned and attach the other bodice piece, the bodice is basically finished!  Only took about 3 hours.

That leaves:
- Skirt and two overskirts
- Sash
- RJs shirt
- RJs three-piece suit

38 days to go....

Start your engines!!

At the risk of sounding like Piglet - - Oh dear.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

So, RJ and I are finally getting married!  We decided we wanted to keep it very small and intimate, but we still wanted to do something memorable and unique.

Them's dangerous words.

We bought tickets to Vegas, reserved a cheap chapel, and then set about thinking of a theme.  Did we want to do costumes?  If so, what should they be?

Several options crossed our minds:
- Superman and Lois Lane
- Lord of the Rings (no, not Arwen and Aragorn -- he wanted to be a hobbit or Golom)
- Western
- Medieval (though all the typical character choices have issues)

We finally settled on simply wearing Edwardian Era (Titanic-style) garb.

This style of clothing is much harder to find than you would think.  The dresses I found for sale were gorgeous, but cost an entire month's salary.  Suits, on the other hand, just didn't exist.  Problem.

So I thought maybe I should just MAKE our clothes!  That would be unique and memorable, right?!?

Let's revisit the beginning of the blog - - Oh dear.

I found some really great authentic patterns and ordered them.  When they arrived, I pulled out the instructions.  While wonderfully detailed, it was clear this would be no simple task.  My blood pressure went up a bit.

RJ asked about the cost of buying fabric.  Due to the amount and the types of fabric we needed, I told him it would cost at least $100 just for material.  His reply?  "That's not so bad."  Ha!  Guess who's got two thumbs and will get blamed for wasting all this money if this doesn't turn out?  THIS GIRL!

So......

Last night we went to JoAnn Fabrics.  Thankfully, our good friends Nicole and Danny tagged along.  Nicole knows how to sew and also has a great eye for color, so I was able to stop hyperventilating and take a few deep breaths.

Nicole and I waded through seemingly endless aisles of various fabrics, a plethora of colors and textures at our disposal.  After an hour and a half of contemplating, comparing, and debating we finally made our selections.

Here it is:

RJ's suit will be dark charcoal gray wool-like suit fabric with a herringbone pattern.  The cuffs of his sleeves, the collar of his jacket, and his buttons will be black silk.  His shirt will be just barely off-white, made from drapery linen.

My dress will have a bodice that is a sort of ecru/eggshell color (off-white with just a touch of yellow) silk dupione.  The two overskirts will be a light sage green silk dupione and a darker sage chiffon.  The sash will be chocolate brown silk.

Sounds great, yeah?  WHEW!!!!!

Thankfully, when we explained to the wonderful ladies who were cutting our massive amounts of fabric, they both agreed that they thought it would look beautiful.  They insisted we bring in pictures for "show-and-tell" when we get done.  The amazing cashier was wonderful enough to stay a few minutes late to ring us up (the fabric took about 15 minutes to cut) AND made sure we had a coupon to use since this was clearly going to be an expensive endeavor.  What would have cost us over $300 at regular price, we got at $165 due to sale prices and the coupon he gave us.  We were incredibly grateful.  However, in the back of mind I'm thinking....NO PRESSURE!!!!

So here I am, Sunday morning looking at a table full of everything I need to get started.  I'm wondering how in the HELL I am going to pull this off in only 40 days....with a full-time job....with 5 small children....cooking, cleaning, etc....

What have I gotten myself into?!?