A Day at the Office

I love this job.

The Girl Back Home

My friend’s husband joined the army recently and he’s been away in Basic Training for the past couple of months. She hasn’t seen him at all, and has only gotten to speak to him a couple of times for brief intervals – about 15 minutes in the past two and a half months!

This coming week he graduates from Basic and she’ll get to visit him before he starts AIT. She asked me to make a new dress for her to wear when they go out, something beautiful and flattering to her newly-pregnant shape, something summery and comfortable. This is the custom dress I created. It has princess seams with godets below the hip for a full, swingy skirt. I cut it a little roomier than her current waist measurement, but with a tie back, so that she can adjust the fit depending on how much her figure changed between taking the measurements and seeing her husband. The hem falls just below knee length, and the sleeveless bodice should be comfortably cool in the summer heat.

Have a Happy Fourth of July everyone! My sincere thanks goes to all those fighting for our freedom, and for all the wives and children back home whose sacrifices are just as important.

Custom nursing bra

My friend asked me a while ago to make her a new bra, both because she needed new ones, and because she was excited about the prospect of a custom bra. Her favorite ready-to-wear bra comes only in white. And white is fine some days, but not every single day. The bra I made was cloned from her old one for an identical fit, but in a beautiful black stretch satin. Even a nursing momma ought to get to be sexy!

Green Goddess

I’m so pleased with how this dress turned out! It’s so simple and elegant. The body is made of a hand dyed nylon lycra 4 way stretch fabric, and the two layer full circle skirt is made from a beautiful georgette fabric. The dress features off the shoulder sleeves, a wired hemline, and of course a built in body suit. Perfect for a standard or smooth ballroom dance!

Happy Birthday!

Today I’d like to share a rare non-sewing-related post with you all.

For as long as I can remember, my mother has just loved beautiful glass artwork. When I was a child she only owned a few vintage pieces, heirlooms that had been passed down from my great-grandmother. As the years went by (and we rugrats grew up into more cautious individuals) she gradually started purchasing pieces of her own. When she bought her house, the home I spent all of high school and much of college in, and where she lives still, she moved into a full fledged collector.

It’s an older home, nestled under the spreading branches of a half dozen mature oak trees. It is full of windows. In every room of the  house, every single exterior wall has at least one window, and in many rooms the windows stretch nearly the full length of the wall. Furniture placement has always been a challenge. My mother has never minded. She loves the natural light, and loves the beautiful views of her ancient oak trees, her hibiscus and boganvilla, the curly leaf philadendron and king sago palms, the plumbago, and the two dozen other varieties of plants growing cheerfully in her Florida garden.

And all that natural light dances off the colored glass that has found its way into every room of the house as well. There are glass vases, bowls, sculptures, and glasses everywhere – on the coffee table in the living room, on the bookshelves in the family room, above the cabinets in the kitchen, on her dresser in the master bedroom, on the shelves and filing cabinets in the home office, and perched to receive the most daylight on windowsills throughout the house.

Not long after I set up my shop on etsy, I met a glass artist there who is very close by to me here locally. We’ve met in person a few times to discuss our respective work. She is not only a talented artist but also a lovely person. So, of course, I asked her to custom design a piece for my mother for her upcoming birthday.

My mother’s home is decorated largely in rich jewel toned blues and greens. She is always in search of beautiful glass pieces that combine the two, but this has always proved a surprising challenge. Brilliant cobalt blues abound. Beautiful emerald greens are plentiful. Pieces that combine the two can scarcely be found. I asked Michele to create such a piece.

What she came up with is simply stunning! The blue and green are both brilliant shades. The hand cut sections of glass form waves of color. The patterns are irregular, asymmetrical – and yet beautifully balanced. The whole thing continues to be interesting even after gazing at it for quite some time. I was delighted to be able to present such a gift to my mother for her birthday this year, as she was to receive it! This newest piece, I’m told, was granted a space in a window sill in the living room, where the light shines through it all day.

You can see more of Michele’s work in her etsy shop and her own website.

Valerie Bridal Gown

Previously, I posted pictures from our bridal photo shoot showing off the two bridal veils I listed in my etsy shop (the beaded one sold already!), but I wanted to give a few details today about the gown itself, which is also available now.

Simple elegance and feminine beauty grace the bride wearing this beautiful gown. This dress is made from a splendid white Lamour Satin with a sweetheart neckline that sparkles with Swarovski rhinestones in Crystal AB and hand sewn glass beads. The strapless bodice has a self fabric facing with boning and sewn in bra cups for a secure fit and a beautiful feminine shape. The bodice flows smoothly into an A line skirt that ends in a chapel train. The entire gown is self lined with a second layer of satin, and it closes with an invisible zipper in the back.

The dress shown here is available in my etsy shop for immediate purchase! I am also taking orders for custom bridal and formal gowns at this time.

After Midnight

This sexy Latin number was so much fun to make! The super short skirt has a dramatic V shaped hemline with beautiful fringe for fantastic movment, and the top features padded bra cups and off the shoulder straps. And of course, it’s been positively COVERED in Swarovski rhinestones in Jet and Jet AB. There are about 8 gross of rhinestones on the bra cups alone!

What do you think? Is it over the top, or a fantastic choice to STAND OUT on the dance floor?

Custom Swimsuit

Quick post today. Here are a few pics of a custom swimsuit I recently made for an etsy customer:

Green Glamour

This was FUN! I deeply enjoy sewing in general, and custom dressmaking in particular, but when it comes down to it, some projects are more enjoyable than others for a whole world of reasons. Some go smoothly and others surprise you with unexpected challenges. Some are beautiful and some are… less so (a custom pair of velveteen shorts for a guitarist in an ACDC cover band comes to mind). Some allow a great deal of artistic license and others need to achieve someone else’s design concept very precisely. And sometimes I’m able to work effectively without difficulty, while other times the other demands on my time and energy make it challenging to sew. This particular project was a sheer delight in pretty much every possible way.

The process of creating this truly custom formal gown began with an Alchemy request on etsy. I knew from reading the client’s description of what she wanted that she would be fun to work with. She needed a beautiful formal gown to wear to her cousin’s wedding in a very traditional Muslim village in Palestine, and wanted a custom garment that was modest enough to be appropriate, formal enough to please the bride, but that also demonstrated her personality. She described the challenge with phrases like “I need to be modest but that doesn’t mean I have to wear a potato sack” and included many passionate descriptions of clothing styles she liked… ranging from fantasy elvish inspired costumes to the glamour and tinsel of a 1940’s Hollywood starlet. The challenge set before her piqued my interest, and her open, excited tone fuelled my creative fire. I put in a bid immediately.

We emailed back and forth for several days, discussing her various needs and wants for the dress – fabrics (it had to be silk!), colors (preferably green), embellishments (embroidery perhaps?), her budget, her body type, and photos of several dresses to get a feel for her style. After a great deal of discussion I drew up a sketch for her of a 40’s inspired gown, and she responded with a very enthusiastic, all caps, reply that she LOVED it.

For a completely original design, one for which I’d never seen a commercial pattern, it made sense to draft a pattern from scratch. This particular dress required a lot of draping to determine the right shape for the pattern pieces on the bodice front. Draping is fun. It appeals to my love of  sculpture, and honestly it’s just so practical! I made a muslin for her to try on before working with the silk for her gown, and we discovered that while we needed a few tweaks to improve the fit, on the whole the dress worked and was just want she’d wanted. Fabulous!

Next came the dye bath. I purchased a beautiful acid dye worthy of our silk fabric to dye her dress an emerald green. I have to thank the good people at Dharma Trading for supplying fantastic dyes at great prices as well as thorough instructions for using them with silk fabrics. For that matter I should thank them as well for their awesome customer service, their INCREDIBLE turnaround time processing orders, and their use of recycled materials for packaging and shipping. (Honestly, if you need dyes or silks, or just want to look at gorgeous pictures of hand painted fabrics, go to their site! They are truly awesome!)

The color turned out beautifully. And it was time to sew. On that particular day, my husband took our daughter to a theme park, and I had the rare treat of the house to myself for eight solid hours. I was able to work free of interruptions, at a steady but comfortable pace, watching *my* TV shows (instead of Veggie Tales and Little Einsteins) while I endlessly made little pintucks in the beautiful silk fabric. It was heavenly, and one of those days where my work felt more like play.

I felt confident that the finished product was just right. It looked like the sketch, it fit her measurements, and it embodied the goals she’d had for her dress, being uniquely stylish, modest but flattering, feminine, colorful and lovely. Far more important than my own delight at the result though was hers… and she was thrilled! The final product fit perfectly and was exactly what she’d hoped for. She tells me she expects to be the most beautiful woman at the wedding – except for the bride of course!

So here’s a happy ending to a truly delightful project. And I sincerely wish a happily ever after to the bride and groom!

Ballroom dance WIP’s

Just thought I’d give you all a quick look at some of my recent activities. I’ll post better, modelled photos as I finish up these dresses, the rhinestones, etc.