ANOTHER BEADED COLLAR

It has been 6 months since I last blogged, got rushy-busy and complacent about writing and many things happened including the death of my dad in November. But now I'm back and sorting out my Twitter and Tumblr account which were dormant for years. 

Here is the second beaded collar that I was talking about in my last post! The lovely customer (friend) who commissioned this was the same person who wanted the black collar. Beading took over 400 hours and includes Japanese tiny seed beads in gold, pink-lined and pearly white. The lace is an antique, possibly Edwardian era. I carefully covered every space of the lace with beads and my hands cramped after this was completed (still does a little). My sister saw the work in progress and asked if I would do another. My reply was 'probably not!'

Completed front.

Back of the collar.

BEADING... BEADING...

For the past 2 months I have been trying to complete two commissions for a customer friend who wanted beaded lace collars, something that looks like french lace but fully beaded and worn as a detachable collar.

I sourced this beautiful handmade black lace from Poland and then proceeded to embellish all areas with hex-cut japanese glass beads in black and purple. The beads have an iridescent coat for shimmer. Decided on the tinier-sized seed beads, although it takes more time to stitch but the results will be more refined for a delicate thing like this. This took about 200 hours. However this is less work compared to a white victorian lace I am currently working on which I will post once it's done!

EVENING DRESS COMPLETED

This is a rather chinese looking dress I'm gonna wear for my friend's wedding dinner banquet! Rust red Thai silk with glass beads, fully lined, the neckline is an overlap wrap and ends somewhere around mid-torso. The strap is bias-cut. It took me 5 days non-stop to sew this because I had to juggle errands too so I'm glad it's over. My lessons for the period: Invest in an invisble zipper foot for my domestic machine! The handstitching of the invisible zip took way too long - 4 hours- and it's not fun to sew when the weather has been extremely hot and humid even at night. Beading took 6 hours.

And Murphy's Law answers, just as I'm complaining the weather is too hot, it's pouring now =/ and I need the sunny weather to take photos of my vintage jewellery that just arrived... does that ever annoy you?!

MAKING FORMAL DRESS PART 3

SEWING LINING TO FABRIC... CONT'D:

So here I have attached the lining to the fabric on the inner sides. There is only one method to do this because there is no way you can join all seams on one side: you have to sew halfway while joining the seams, then flip it around and finish the other half from the other side. If you are worried about the seams not matching up when fixing the 2-halves, you can take the less stressful method of leaving a gap like what I did in the photo.

The gaps can be easily concealed with handstitching! Just hide your knots well. 

ATTACHING INVISIBLE ZIP:

I don't have an invisible zipper foot for my domestic sewing machine (which is really essential) so what I did was to sew as close to the zipper tooth as possible. Then I handstitch it by holding the zipper teeth outwards with my thumb and do secure stitching to my center back (with the specialised zipper foot it is designed in a way that the zipper teeth are flipped out when you are sewing, making zippers an easy task). Very time consuming with handstitches but no choice for me!

*Tip 5* Make sure your seams align when the zipper is closed!  I have a waist seam so that was important to make sure they are not uneven when zipped. It looks unprofessional if the lines don't match. Also the top seam you might just get one up and down if you're not careful. Just be patient and use pins or tacking and test it out before sewing it.

Next I understitch the facing piece, note it doesn't go all the way around the straps because the machine can't do it. It's better than nothing though, and after that I steam everything nice and flat.

ATTACHING ZIP TO LINING:

The quick way is to use a machine, but I prefer handstitching with invisible stitches to save me the stress of trying to align the seams. 

*Tip 6* I iron out the seam first then use a single white thread and stitched it on the zip a little to the side so the zipper won't catch the lining and rip it. The bottom of the lining piece is sewn first with machine then I just steam the seams open.

*Tip 7* Optional: I use a 'little worm' (not sure what it's called in English) as a buffer for the zipper so the stitches don't wear out when you pull down the zip.

HEMMING:

I use invisible stitches to hem. Double fold, iron then handstitch. My slits were originally on the side (it was an A-line skirt then I altered it into a straight skirt to make it look more stylish) but I shifted it into the center back so I didn't manage to leave a seam to fold in, but I stitched it anyhow. Won't fray because I'm using the selvedge for the center back. And I added another 'little worm' at the top of the slit too. 

I used machine for the lining's hem.

RIBBON:

Made with 3 pieces of  scrap cloth, the bow is made with a rectangular piece, the tail with 2 pieces and the 'knot' is from a small rectangular piece. Not hard to assemble, after that it's sewn onto the waist band of the dress!

Done! I just need to iron this and it's ready =D Now I'm gonna make my 2nd dress. Hope I didn't bore you to death!!

MAKING FORMAL DRESS PART 2

So I'm almost done with my white tea-dress, the fitting is not perfect but I'm still gonna wear it anyway after spending  2 full days sewing it! Here's a very brief outline of what I did:

PAPER PATTERNS:

Drafting and cutting out of paper patterns. Very important to make sure all your seams align before cutting the cloth, so you don't have to handle the excess cloth when sewing. It is the darnest occurance when somehow the measurements don't match after minusing here and adding there. The most impt part of the draft to me is the hip line. Because you can't walk if you don't leave extra ease around your hips.

I draw out my facings, linings and original fabric pieces separately. I don't use a tracing wheel because it becomes inaccurate when the paper shifts around while tracing (esp on my flimsy tissue paper!). I do it in pencil. After doublechecking that the total circumferences of bust, waist, hip and side seams tally in measurements, then do I cut it out.
FABRIC CUTTING: 

Cut fabric time! This photo below shows the lining pieces. Steam your fabric & lining fabric before cutting them to make way for shrinkage. I'm using silk so not supposed to have water contact but it was crumpled from folding so I just let out a wee bit of steam. 

*Tip 1* To mark the dart points, I use a pin, poke thru fabric and use a tailors chalk to dot the dart point instead of using tracing wheel. It's very accurate that way. Snip the edges to indicate your allowances and you can use a ruler and chalk to draw your darts on the fabric. 

*Tip 2* You may notice the lining becomes very tight when worn although you use the same measurements as your original fabric patterns. To avoid that problem I include a pleat in my lining (this time I used 2 pleats since there are 2 back pieces because my zipper is at the center back). Yea! That way your dress will be all comfy.

INTERFACINGS:

I also cut interfacing which is the same paper pattern as the facings, and iron them onto the facings immediately so the fabric won't stretch so much from my rough handling lol

SEWING:

Ok so I assemble the pieces: darts and seams that are easily sewn. Then you come to the part of...

SEWING LINING TO FABRIC:

Here the dress is in shape, I want to attach the armholes of the lining to the silk fabric from the outside first. Of course if you have other sequences, it's perfectly fine too!

*Tip 3* For sewing curves, the more curvy the seam, the more snips you have to make on the inner seams so the cloth will stay flat when you flip it out. Else there will be a tension of the thread and cloth and your fabric will pucker badly. Don't want that, so I snip really generously like 8 snips per curve lol. See? My armholes don't pucker any more. 

*Tip 4* After steaming seams flat I sew an understitch (that is, securing the seams towards the facing-lining piece) to make the seams fold backwards better. It really makes a difference and your seams will be as neat as... origami =P ! I'm hooked on that method, or usually a topstitch to flatten stuff but this dress I don't want stitches seen on the front so understitch it is.

To be continued.. need to sleep now it's like 4am =P

I AM MAKING 2 FORMAL DRESSES!

To wear at my friend's wedding. One bridesmaid (or as we call it 'sisters') dress and an evening dress for her wedding banquet. I would rather just BUY the dresses, but nothing really fits me since I have an awkward body shape lol or fits my budget too. Dug out my old school notes for drafting. The basic bodice totally looks wierd from what the 'model' typical size looks like (small bust, not so small waist lol) Anyhow I also wanted to save paper so I used tissue paper (bad mistake), it keeps ripping and flying all around and crumpling. The weather is so hot and I need the fan, just makes things worse hahahaa. See you can even see my table texture (marbleing) under the paper! I pray everything goes well. Hopefully if it does I'll do a short overview!

I've sewn so many clothes but never for myself. I prefer wearing knits and t-shirts. This is my draft for a basic block that took ages, I'll keep it for future use.

A rough sewn sample of my basic block. Of course, some alterations to be made after trying it on.

I went to the bestest place to get fabrics in Singapore- Arab Street. Much cheaper than Spotlight stores, prettier varieties and sellers less ill-mannered than Chinatown. My fabrics - white Indian silk (bridesmaid dresses are agreed to be white) and a terracotta red 2-toned Thai silk (for the wedding dinner). I'm a fabric snob, don't really use polyester unless it's poly-cotton blend (besides these silks are CHEAPER than the polyesters in Spotlight... go figure) Also some acetate lining, invisible zips and interfacings. Till the next post! Am absolutely tired lol