Holiday Set: The Candy Stripe OP + Bonnet
So, hoping to blow one of my friends out of the water, and give my new sewing machine a test, I busted my butt and made them an OP and bonnet to wear out of a modified square dance dress. Breathing life into old pieces is an exciting challenge for me, and this one presented new problems. Let's share, shall we?
Candy Stripe OP + Bonnet
Start Date: 12/19
End Date: 12/20
Lessons Learned: Not everybody photographs stains and is completely forthwidth with information, and water can still burn you like whoa. Also the prospect of sewing without a sewing machine is now daunting to me. Technology has spoiled me rotten.
A thing to note: The bow on the front looks sort of floppy, but I assure you, it isn't crooked in the least. It's just the angle at which the pictures were taken. Also, my camera is crap, so it yellowed the pictures up a ton. The stripes are more of a reddish violet color, and the lace is a deep soft pink.
This is not the first square dancing dress that I have bought with the sole intension of re-making into a lolita piece. That said, this dress was probably in the worst condition of all the ones I've worked with. The OP came to me covered in thick yellow stains that, for the life of me, I couldn't figure the stains' origins out. The etsy seller never took pictures of the stains, and never stated what caused them in the item description. I should have taken the 'As Is' as a warning, but that can mean so many different things in the 2nd-hand world. I'm spoiled rotten by the sales_comm standards. Anyhow, I had no idea what caused the stains, or how old they were, or what the previous owner had done to try and get rid of them. The stains didn't smell, so someone had washed it already, but they were the size of my outstretched hand in places, and really obvious and visible against the soft red-pink of the stripes! I had to get rid of them, post-haste. I drowned every spot I could find with a deluge of Shout! and scalding hot water. I was both over-eager to clean it AND incredibly stupid, so I decided to throw my hands straight in to work the fabric despite the stream visibly rolling off the surface. Working the fabric to further lift the stain burned my hands at first, so I had to wait for it to cool somewhat before I could start physically working on the stains. It worked like a charm, though my hands are now terribly chapped thanks to my own stupidity. A+ for effort, I guess. It came out clean as a whistle, thank heavens, and I could continue work. The bonnet was made from the left-over scraps of the OP in question. It occured to me that she didn't have any red in her entire wardrobe to pair with it, so I punched out a bonnet in about 3 hours.
Anyhow, on to the OP! No shirring on this one, just a straight zipper and hook-and-eye latch at the top, with gathered sleeves at both the cuffs and shoulder. It's A-line, with 8 gussets for a nice full skirt, and a secondary gathered tier. That tier is what attracted me to the OP in the first place. It had great bones! It only needed some modification, internal work, and considerable clean-up to shine.
Here's a close-up of the lace. It's just a basic cotton eyelet that I've dyed to match the stripes. Those cuffs have my first button-holes! My old machine had a very complicated button-hole feature, and it was terrifying. I had to whipstitch all of my old buttonholes by hand, but these were a breeze!
This is the third dress I've made for a friend, and the second one I've made for her in particular. I really hope she likes it.
Candy Stripe OP + Bonnet
Start Date: 12/19
End Date: 12/20
Lessons Learned: Not everybody photographs stains and is completely forthwidth with information, and water can still burn you like whoa. Also the prospect of sewing without a sewing machine is now daunting to me. Technology has spoiled me rotten.
A thing to note: The bow on the front looks sort of floppy, but I assure you, it isn't crooked in the least. It's just the angle at which the pictures were taken. Also, my camera is crap, so it yellowed the pictures up a ton. The stripes are more of a reddish violet color, and the lace is a deep soft pink.
This is not the first square dancing dress that I have bought with the sole intension of re-making into a lolita piece. That said, this dress was probably in the worst condition of all the ones I've worked with. The OP came to me covered in thick yellow stains that, for the life of me, I couldn't figure the stains' origins out. The etsy seller never took pictures of the stains, and never stated what caused them in the item description. I should have taken the 'As Is' as a warning, but that can mean so many different things in the 2nd-hand world. I'm spoiled rotten by the sales_comm standards. Anyhow, I had no idea what caused the stains, or how old they were, or what the previous owner had done to try and get rid of them. The stains didn't smell, so someone had washed it already, but they were the size of my outstretched hand in places, and really obvious and visible against the soft red-pink of the stripes! I had to get rid of them, post-haste. I drowned every spot I could find with a deluge of Shout! and scalding hot water. I was both over-eager to clean it AND incredibly stupid, so I decided to throw my hands straight in to work the fabric despite the stream visibly rolling off the surface. Working the fabric to further lift the stain burned my hands at first, so I had to wait for it to cool somewhat before I could start physically working on the stains. It worked like a charm, though my hands are now terribly chapped thanks to my own stupidity. A+ for effort, I guess. It came out clean as a whistle, thank heavens, and I could continue work. The bonnet was made from the left-over scraps of the OP in question. It occured to me that she didn't have any red in her entire wardrobe to pair with it, so I punched out a bonnet in about 3 hours.
Anyhow, on to the OP! No shirring on this one, just a straight zipper and hook-and-eye latch at the top, with gathered sleeves at both the cuffs and shoulder. It's A-line, with 8 gussets for a nice full skirt, and a secondary gathered tier. That tier is what attracted me to the OP in the first place. It had great bones! It only needed some modification, internal work, and considerable clean-up to shine.
Here's a close-up of the lace. It's just a basic cotton eyelet that I've dyed to match the stripes. Those cuffs have my first button-holes! My old machine had a very complicated button-hole feature, and it was terrifying. I had to whipstitch all of my old buttonholes by hand, but these were a breeze!
This is the third dress I've made for a friend, and the second one I've made for her in particular. I really hope she likes it.