Gathering - The Magic

The "Better Late than Never" Dress calls for a fair bit of gathering in the bodice and the skirt.  There are all sorts of techniques out there for gathering fabric, but I thought I'd document my favourite method in the pictorial tutorial.  I am showing how the gathered midriff overlay piece is attached to a stay, but this technique can be used in any situation requiring the attachment of a large piece of fabric to a smaller piece of fabric, via gathering.

Run a line of basting stitches along the seamline on the larger piece of fabric (you can see the larger lime green fabric will be gathered onto the smaller avocado green stay in the picture below).  You can do this by machine by cranking up your stitch length as high as it will go - on my machine, it is 5 mm.

 Pin the two ends in place and pin the middles of the two fabrics together.

Continue to pin at equidistant intervals.

Add as many pins as is necessary to evenly distribute the fabric.

Pull up the basting stitches to gather the larger piece of fabric as tightly as possible.

Pull the ends of the smaller piece of fabric back into shape.  The gathers on the larger piece of fabric should now be evenly distributed amongst the pins.  Sit back and revel in your awesomeness.

 

P.S.  The dress is done and not a moment too soon.  I will be heading out in a couple of hours.  Hopefully tomorrow I will have all sorts of fab photos of me rockin' out at Prom.

French Seams - Magnifique!

The "Better Late than Never" Dress is coming along nicely.  Looks like I won't be naked at Prom.  Hey wait, I'm pretty sure I had a dream like that once.  Scary.

I like my formal wear to have a flawless inside finish, but I am pressed for time on this project, so I will be doing some serged finishes on the silk charmeuse lining.  However, I refuse to have a messy looking seams on the exterior silk chiffon fabric.  Nothing is tackier than a fraying or serged seam showing through a sheer formal wear fabric.  So, I took the extra bit of time required to employ some beautiful French seams.

Although I have done a tutorial in the past on how to create a French seam, I thought I would show some real live action shots of a French seam in progress.  Be prepared to be dazzled:

Place fabric wrong sides together and sew a 1/4" seam.  Trim the seam to an 1/8". This removes any loose fibres and cleans up the edge nicely.

Press the stitches flat to meld the thread into the fabric.  Then, press the seam to one side (it is pressed upward in the picture below).  Alternatively, press the seam open if the fabric allows.  On this silk chiffon, pressing the seam open was tantamount to herding cats, so I took the path of least resistance and pressed to one side.

Turn the fabric so it is right sides together.  Pin along the edge. Stitch a 3/8" seam.  This will encase the first line of stitching, creating a strong, neat seam, in which all raw edges are encased (you can see the encased raw edge if you look closely at the picture below). 

Press the seam to one side or the other (the seam is pressed downward in the picture below).

Admire your handiwork from the right side.  Beautiful!

Lacquer Lundi

Today, I have a new nail polish line for all the Canadian gals in the crowd:  Joe Fresh Style nail polish.  I found my bottles at Zehrs, although it appears to also be available at Superstores and Loblaws.

The colour selection is decent.  Although there is a distinct emphasis on pinks and reds, there are several fashion forward blues, pastels and dark vampies.  I decided to stick to the pastels for my first foray into Joe Fresh Style polish.

The bottles are tiny - a mere 6 mL, compared to OPI's substantial 15 mL or BB Couture's ginormous 18 mL bottles.  However, for polish addicts like me that don't see many repeat polish wearings, the small bottle is just fine.

All the polishes I am reviewing had the same characteristics, so I will speak about them all together.  The formula is good - ever so slightly thick, but not annoyingly do.  The polishes are very pigmented and in each case, I was content with two regular coats for complete coverage (if I had been more careful, I could have gotten away with one thick coat).  The brush is excellent (similar to the OPI Pro wide brush) and makes application a breeze.  The polish also dries nice and quickly.  The wear is decent - only tip wear after two days (although I did have one small chip with Mint).  All in all, a good bang for the buck!


On to the pretties:

Joe Fresh Style - Faded Violet & Essie - Sterling Silver
- JFS purchased at Zehrs (chain grocery store) for $3.33 CDN
- Essie purchased at Rachelle's (local beauty salon) for $0.50 CDN

Faded Violet (left) is such a pretty pastel purple, that is so springy and fresh.

Looking to extend my manicure, but have a different look, I added a couple of coats of Sterling Silver (right).

Joe Fresh Style - Mint & Essie - Classical
- JFS purchased at Zehrs (chain grocery store) for $3.33 CDN
- Essie purchased at Rachelle's (local beauty salon) for $0.50 CDN

Pastel green is so trendy these days and Mint (left) is a great addition to the passel of light greens that are available in stores right now.

The addition of two coats of the frosty Classical (right) kicked this mani up a notch.







Joe Fresh Style - Powder Blue
- JFS purchased at Zehrs (chain grocery store) for $3.33 CDN

Powder Blue is such a refreshing colour.  It speaks of summer skies and cool waters.  Lovely.

Mother's Day Bouquet

Although I have decided not to partake in the gestation or rearing of human offspring, I am still a mommy.  It just happens that my son is really short and really hairy (which is likely what genetics would bestow upon me anyhow).  So, in honour of my exalted status as the mommy of Simon, I went a little nuts at the Fabric Mart Mother's Day Sale:

Obviously, I loves me some flowery fabric this spring season.  Or as Bubba puts it, "Anyway, like I was sayin', floral fabric is the fruit of the loom. You can make floral skirts, floral sheaths, floral tank tops, floral blouses, floral sundresses, floral capris, floral jackets ... that, that's about it."

The "Better Late Than Never" Dress

I actually attended two Senior Proms when I was in high school.  My boyfriend at the time was a year older than me, so we attended his Prom and a year later, we attended mine.  I've shown both of the dresses I made here and here.  Even back then I was channeling the full skirted 50s vibe.  Thank goodness I went with this classic style because the late 1980s were responsible for a lot of Prom fashion victims. 

Fast forward twenty years and I am again attending Prom (I estimate I've attended ten Proms over the years - you'd think I'd get to be Prom Queen just once, simply for sheer tenacity!) on May 14th.  I've already introduced you all to my inspiration for this year's dress, as well as the fabrics that will be used.  So, let's talk pattern.

I have made this vintage McCall's 9690 before (for Timmel's SWAP 2007) and I was really pleased with the resulting dress.  I will revisit this pattern for my "Better Late Than Never" dress.  It has the same full skirt, shirred midriff and gathered surplice bodice as the inspiration dress.  

Obviously the lime silk chiffon will be used for the bodice and the darker avocado silk chiffon will be employed for the midriff and the skirt.  If I had more time, I would tweak the pattern to look exactly like the inspiration dress.  However, time is short*, so the only changes I will make will be a small bust adjustment and a slight enlargement of the midriff band.


*This past week has been hectic, so I have yet to actually start this dress.  I hope to have it cut out and mostly sewn up by the end of the weekend.  Fingers crossed.

The BIG 4-0

Today I am 40 years old.

I'm am officially middle aged.

Huh, I guess it's time for a mid-life crisis.

I'll start with a 2010 Dodge Challenger please...

Vroom!

Lacquer Lundi

I must have been channeling a purple people eater (warning - this link goes to a You Tube video - don't click it unless it's safe to blare some tunes) all week long.  Check it out below.


On to the pretties:

BB Couture - Midnight Malibu
- purchased at overallbeauty.com for $9.00 US

In the bottle, Midnight Malibu polish looks like a dark purple base with silver and teal glitter.  On the nail, it is more of a dark navy blue with silver and teal glitter.  It reminds me of the night sky when it just starts to get dark enough to see the stars.  Stunning!

Midnight Malibu applies wonderfully, like the majority of the BB Couture polishes that I have in my stash.  It took two coats for full visible nail line coverage, but I did a third coat for a nice depth of colour (this ended up biting me in the arse at removal time, as the excess glitter was a real pain to remove - ah, the sacrifices I make for you people).  Wear was good - only minor tip wear after two days.


Orly - Charged Up  & Orly - Twilight
- both purchased at Sally Beauty Supply for $6.49 CDN each

Charged Up is a reddish purple creme.  It got a lot of love from the people around me.  It's not a unique colour - I've seen very similar shades out there, but it certainly is pretty.

Charged Up applied nicely due to the fine formula.  It only required two coats to achieve opacity.  The wear was okay - tip wear after one day.

I decided to try to wear this manicure for another day, but I wanted another look, so I added two coats of Twilight on top.  Twilight is a silver shimmer in a very light lilac translucent base.  It added a subtle dimension of sparkle to the Charged Up.  Unfortunately, the addition of Twilight to my mani caused the polish to essentially fall off the tips of my nails (check out the photo to the right for an example of major tip wear).


Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Violet VOOM
- purchased at Shoppers (chain drug store) for $5.49 CDN

Violet VOOM is a gorgeous purple metallic with very fine teal and red shimmer.   It is simply stunning and I was quite taken by the colour when I applied it.

Violet VOOM applied nicely - between the wide brush and the excellent pigmentation, I was able to use only one coat to arrive at complete coverage - excellent.  That is where the love ends however.  This polish is the chippiest stuff I have ever used.  After only one day, I had massive flakes falling off my nails - not excellent.

Better Late Than...Whatever, You Get the Idea

Procrastinate?  Me?  No.  Never.  Maybe.

Okay, I did say I was going to make this dress ages ago.  And then, it went into the "it's-next-in-line" pile and then it went into the "soon-to-be-made" pile and then I forgot about it.
 
So, for those of you that require a refresher on my plans (What?  You don't hang on my every word and memorize all my lofty goals for the future?  What kind of crappy blog readers are you?  Sheesh.), here goes:

Two years ago, I fell madly and passionately in love with a dress that I found on Vintageous.  Cast your gaze upon its fabulousness over to the left.  If it hadn't been so big in the bust, I would have snatched it up right then and there.  But, alas it was not meant to be.  So, I dabbed away the tears and formulated a plan:

Must.knockoff.dress.Must.knockoff.dress.Must.knockoff.dress...

The search for two similar (read: identical) fabrics ensued.  My quest was arduous and all-consuming.  I looked far and wide for lime green and avocado silk chiffon to no avail.  Tired and weary, I finally conceded failure.

Then, as if sent from heaven, I found them (cue angels singing) - the perfect fabrics.  Back in the day when Denver Fabrics was still Denver Fabrics (and not just a weird doppelganger of Fashion Fabrics Club), I received a sale email from them.  Intrigued, I went to have a look-see at their fabric offerings and the rest, as they say, is history.

I purchased the two gorgeous silk chiffons on the right and my hopes for the project were renewed.

Unfortunately, this dress requires some sort of lining, because see-through silk + Shannon = police record.  Well, trying to find lining fabrics in the appropriate shades was a major pain in the ass my next challenge.

I started to feel like that Ahab dude in Moby Dick and this dress was my white whale.  I kept sneaking up on it, sure that it would be mine, only to be thwarted yet again.  (Don't worry, I'm pretty sure this project won't ultimately lead to my death...I hope...I mean, I'm not some crazy obsessed person...I'm way more stable than that...!...Ishmael, hold me.)

However, as it turns out, patience was my friend.  Slowly, over time, I was able to locate and purchase two silk charmeuses (charmeusi?) in the perfect matching shades from Fabric Mart.  But, by the time I had collected all my materials, I no longer needed a formal dress.  Drat!

Until now.  It's Prom season, baby!  And I am chaperone extraordinaire.  So, I have to put this little lovely together by Friday, May 14th.  That gives me just less than two weeks.  Wish me luck.