Ice Cream Dress Update!

 I wasn't going to share these pictures until I had worn the dress, but I'm not sure when I'm going to be wearing it next now, so I decided to share them anyways.

Apparently I really like this color.

Top skirts and bodice, before hemming. You can see the band that the underskirts will connect to.

Hanging underskirts on the back of a chair to let them stretch before hemming.

Something I didn't know when I made my first couple dresses was that you need to let skirts that are cut on the bias hang and stretch before you hem them. Parts cut on the bias will stretch out a lot more than portions cut on the straight of grain or cross grain, so to make sure your skirt stays even for years to come, let it hang to let those parts stretch out first. I've heard a week is recommended to hang, but you can speed up the process by adding clothespins along the bottom edge.

 

Here's the dress after I hemmed the topskirts, attached the crinoline to the underskirts, and sewed them in. I made a couple ruffles which are attached to the neckline and form the sleeves. I didn't get any pictures while I was making them, but they're easy to make using a donut shaped stencil. I'll have to make a post about that later since it's much easier to explain with pictures. I made some more ruffles to put on the skirt then, alternating green and pink on each godet.

I ended up bringing the underskirts up a little bit, shortening them and evening them out a little bit so the green doesn't shown under the pink when standing still. Next stage is making the floats and stoning. The plan is to stone the lace like so:

Pink and spearmint dress update

Hello all! Been busy working on my pink and spearmint dress (which I affectionately refer to as my "ice cream" dress, since the pink looks like strawberry ice cream, the spearmint looks like mint ice cream, and the tan looks like coffee ice cream, and maybe I'm just a little too hungry when I sew...) and I've gotten a lot done in the last few days. I've sewn the top layer of skirts to the bodice, and I'm quite proud of how it turned out. I used my serger to properly finish the seams, and they look very nice and professional. Sewing points into a cavity is infinitely trickier than it sounds like it should be, and I had a lot of trouble with it until a) I looked at a friend's dress to see how it was done, and b) I took the time to actually hand baste it in place. The trick is to get very close to the edge of the stretchy top fabric that's the concave part you are sewing the point into. This is much easier when you're not dealing with pins and it's hand basted.

Yay for sergers and nicely finished seams so they will stop unraveling!

After finishing the godets, I made the bodysuit and basted it to the bodice. In a super blonde moment, I made the bodysuit tan, instead of the pink I had intended, so I'm going to have to change my plan a little bit. In the end, I think my subconscious knew what it was doing though, cause I think this will turn out better in the end. I also made some elastic straps, which are covered in the cappuccino dance crepe, and are now wonderfully soft and will be the right color for when I'm in comp tan. These are really easy to make, some day I'll make a tutorial for it, since the technique could be expanded for making those arm bands that floats are often connected to (which is probably what I'm going to do for the floats on this dress).

And now I'm working on putting the zipper in. More pics to come once I can actually wear it!

Edited to add: Zipper is in, and thank God, it fits! It's tight, but nice and snug. Phew. Was worried there, this lace doesn't stretch as much as the lycra does.

Swarovski Bangles!

These are so much fun to make, I can get them done in a few hours and the sparkle:time ratio is wonderfully high. I made these for a silent auction, but if you know anyone interested in some, let me know: $25 for one, or $40 for a pair, many colors.

Blue zircon and Aquamarine mixed bangles

Blue zircon and Aquamarine mixed bangles

Sun (orange) and Sapphire Bangles 

The Saga Continues: Green Dress Version 2.0

Chopped in half!

I then proceeded to shorten the organza skirts and soak the bodice in acetone to remove and clean the stones. Gas mask highly recommended for anyone attempting.

Attached to new bodice!

New sleeves. Pleating fine net was a bad idea.

Sleeves AND feathers!

Sleeves and feathers and me!

Belt in process.

I believe this was a total of 21 sew on stones and approximately 10 gross of flatbacks

Front feather rhinestone detailing

Front showing bodice stoning

Bra cups are only pinned in still.

Front side with belt, sleeves detached to stone

Skirt detail

And in motion! I actually remembered to sew in the bra cups so the pins weren't stabbing me the whole time.

Green Standard Dress Version 2.0

I made the mistake of hanging my green standard dress on my closet door not in a garment bag for a while. After seeing it every night when I went to sleep and every morning when I woke up, I began to notice more and more mistakes and imperfections. Like Frankenstein, my creation stared at me and reminded me of everything I had done wrong again and again.

So it came to the point where I decided I needed to fix it.

My initial plan was to just restone it and hope that would solve a lot of the more glaring mistakes. I attempted to soak the dress in warm water, then tried washing it in the washing machine on warm (in a sewn shut pillow case) and still had not lost a single stone. Apparently I did a really good job with the gluing first time around. I know that acetone will remove the stones, but that means ruining the lycra underneath. As I was ordering fabric for the new pink standard dress, I decided to order a yard of lycra and some extra chiffon in the apple green, since it it now all on clearance. In the meantime as I started working on the pink dress, I realized I did not have enough organza and crinoline trim to do what I wanted with the underskirts. Since my parents will be in London in the next month, I am going to have them bring me more fabric to save the cost of shipping.

This meant that I still needed a dress for DCDI though, and I was not happy enough with the state of the green one to wear it. So I began working on the remakes, version 2.0, of the apple green standard dress. After only two days of work, here is the state:

The pink is just the other dress underneath,  I was too lazy to take it off.

I am going to be taking the organza skirts from the old version and adding them as the bottommost layer of skirts in addition to this layer here. I haven't worked up the courage to actually cut them off the other dress yet though. There's no going back then.

After a third day, the back seam is now sewn, the bodice has the elastic sewn in, and it has tan straps. I have decided to do high mesh gauntlets instead of sleeves with a lycra top, and hang my floats from them. More to come later, but there will be feathers!

Pink Standard Dress in Progress

I've been terrible about taking pictures of this as it goes, but here are a few in progress.

Here you can see the underskirt pinned to the dress form with the bodice and overskirt pinned to the front

The view from the front

New standard preview

If I weren't so dead tired already (it is almost 2 am now) I would be diving on in, but the effort to move is greater than my desire to sew. But here are some pretty pictures to give you an idea of the things to come!