pleased and proud of myself
I worked some magic this last couple of days.
My mission was to either find or make a simple white dress that I could "bling up" with silver sparkly bits for the upcoming Imbolc candle dance. I don't have a ton of money (or time!) so I went looking at thrift stores for ideas.
On a whim, I went to the tiny shop next to the Episcopal church, thinking that I might find an old granny muumuu or something. What I found was a white cotton caftan with silver embroidery on the collar and cuffs. Immediately, I decided that this was the one - the silver threads seemed to be a sign.
It needed work. It was way too big around the middle, and way too narrow around the bottom, so that I looked like a baby beluga in it. I headed to the fabric store, bought silver sequined trim, some silver-on-white confetti dot fabric (with which to make a sash - very sparkly!), and some white quilting broadcloth. My plan was to use the sash to create a waistline and to use the broadcloth to flare out the bottom of the caftan to create an A-line skirt silhouette.
Once I decided what actually needed to be done (which took some doing), the process started to flow very easily. I ended up carving curves into the seams in the waist area (quicker and easier than putting in darts) because the sash wasn't going to be enough. I sliced up the side seams and inserted fabric triangles. I slipstitched closed (by hand) the whole front opening. I added a panel behind the too-deep V-neck collar. I cut off the cuffs and created elastic casings, which resulted in the caftan looking more like a dress and less like a bathrobe. And I sewed on the sequined trim around the collar and down the front.
I'm actually most proud of how I handled those stupid sequins. The way the trim is constructed, the sequins overlap one another in a very pretty S-curve pattern. However, at one point, the sequins were poised to go through the sewing machine backwards, with edges up so that they caught in two places on the presser foot. This meant I could stitch maybe a quarter inch before the machine got hung up and started making that awful noise.
I thought for a while about how to solve this problem, and then the light bulb went on. Now, maybe every seamstress in the world knows about this trick, but I'm very proud of having thought of it on my own. I cut wax paper into strips, taped the strips over the sequins, and proceeded to sew. The wax paper kept the sequins from sticking up, was transparent enough for me to see what I was doing, and stripped away easily when I was done.
It's the small things in life, they say, that give the most satisfaction. I was more pleased and proud of myself in those ten minutes of solving the sequin problem than I have felt in a long time. Yay me!
I pressed the whole thing and tried it on with the jewelry (also made by me) and tiara that I'm going to wear for the dance. I saw a woman in the mirror who was not only beautiful and radiant, but damned clever, too.
My mission was to either find or make a simple white dress that I could "bling up" with silver sparkly bits for the upcoming Imbolc candle dance. I don't have a ton of money (or time!) so I went looking at thrift stores for ideas.
On a whim, I went to the tiny shop next to the Episcopal church, thinking that I might find an old granny muumuu or something. What I found was a white cotton caftan with silver embroidery on the collar and cuffs. Immediately, I decided that this was the one - the silver threads seemed to be a sign.
It needed work. It was way too big around the middle, and way too narrow around the bottom, so that I looked like a baby beluga in it. I headed to the fabric store, bought silver sequined trim, some silver-on-white confetti dot fabric (with which to make a sash - very sparkly!), and some white quilting broadcloth. My plan was to use the sash to create a waistline and to use the broadcloth to flare out the bottom of the caftan to create an A-line skirt silhouette.
Once I decided what actually needed to be done (which took some doing), the process started to flow very easily. I ended up carving curves into the seams in the waist area (quicker and easier than putting in darts) because the sash wasn't going to be enough. I sliced up the side seams and inserted fabric triangles. I slipstitched closed (by hand) the whole front opening. I added a panel behind the too-deep V-neck collar. I cut off the cuffs and created elastic casings, which resulted in the caftan looking more like a dress and less like a bathrobe. And I sewed on the sequined trim around the collar and down the front.
I'm actually most proud of how I handled those stupid sequins. The way the trim is constructed, the sequins overlap one another in a very pretty S-curve pattern. However, at one point, the sequins were poised to go through the sewing machine backwards, with edges up so that they caught in two places on the presser foot. This meant I could stitch maybe a quarter inch before the machine got hung up and started making that awful noise.
I thought for a while about how to solve this problem, and then the light bulb went on. Now, maybe every seamstress in the world knows about this trick, but I'm very proud of having thought of it on my own. I cut wax paper into strips, taped the strips over the sequins, and proceeded to sew. The wax paper kept the sequins from sticking up, was transparent enough for me to see what I was doing, and stripped away easily when I was done.
It's the small things in life, they say, that give the most satisfaction. I was more pleased and proud of myself in those ten minutes of solving the sequin problem than I have felt in a long time. Yay me!
I pressed the whole thing and tried it on with the jewelry (also made by me) and tiara that I'm going to wear for the dance. I saw a woman in the mirror who was not only beautiful and radiant, but damned clever, too.