Sewing for my daughter

Nothing gives me more joy (or frustration) than my children. They are definitely an inspiration for everything I do. My daughter in particular has been the cause of many projects. This is definitely one of my favorites:

I just love this pattern company. It comes with a paper doll!

The whimsical bird print is complements of my sister-in-law. She works for a fabric store so I get a little spoiled by her. ;)

Hopefully before Christmas I will have a tutorial up on how to make a hooded bath towel. That's all for now though. I need to go make my Christmas list for Santa.

I'm really bad at blogging!!!!!!!!

So, I probably should post more often than every three months ;) Here are a few more pictures from my sister-in-law's wedding. These are the bridesmaids dresses and I thought they turned out really nice.

Artsy and unique pattern company. They name all the patterns after food! This one was called Eclair.

The maid of honor is in the middle. (That's why she's in different colors!)

The back we decided to tie with a fold over type finish. (I also loved her pairing of dark gold shoes with this)

Altogether you can tell how much fun I had sewing for this wedding! Hopefully I can remember to post something else before Christmas. Thanks for reading!

Victorian Forest Wedding

I have been dying to post these pictures ever since I finished this dress, but out of respect for the bride, I waited until after the wedding. This one of a kind completely custom dress has been one of my favorite creations so far.

The train was completely detachable, but we decided to bustle it for the reception.

The bride herself helped me design the roses at the top of the train using silks in various colors.

It felt like the dress was a little incomplete so we also decided to add a thin width of matching gathered lace around the entire top edge.

For the hem we custom cut it so it would cover the tops of her boots and swoop down in the back. Then I added two layers of silk with raw edges and an extra layer of lace for a completed feel.

Congratulations to the happy bride and groom and I can't wait to create another wedding dress.

Working with lace

Sorry it has been awhile since my one and only post. I've been busy, but have so many exciting things to share. One of the things I've tackled recently is altering another wedding dress. This is the first one of many I am sure that was almost entirely lace. Lace seems to be the fabric of choice these days as far as wedding fads are concerned. I personally have very little experience and was excited to have an alteration experience before doing the finer work on my sister-in-law's dress who is getting married later this summer.

One of my stumbling blocks was how do you hem the lace? If you just roll it under it looks cheap. If it has a nice border it only works for a straight edge, which the bottom isn't. So what do you do? I was surprised at the easy solution the designer of this dress had come up with. Upon close examination, you can see that the decorative edge from one fabric had been trimmed, and sewn to the bottom of a completely different lace pattern.

Hopefully this technique will work for my up coming dress, but we'll see what the bride thinks. :)

I hope this didn't bore you too much and I promise to get more consistent and interesting about my blog. Thanks to anyone who actually read this.

Hello

I have decided to join the 21st century and start a blog entirely devoted to my sewing career. Call it an on-line portfolio for all of my future patrons. Here are a few of my recent projects.

My sister's wedding dress. Designed exclusively for her from start to finish.

A custom Belle dress for my sister's 20th birthday. You are never to old to be the princess of your dreams.

Soon to follow: a Tinker Bell costume, vintage dresses and a girl's dress made from repurposed T-shirts. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions.