well, hello there

didn't mean to be blog absent for so long. the family and i were gone for two weeks on vacation for my sister's wedding and i had all these grand plans of catching up on posting my finished projects while i was away from my sewing machine... well plans were shoved aside in the flurry of wedding goings on and general sibling mayhem.

yes, that wedding. the one i expended a half-life sewing for. let me just say: the first time i saw the whole wedding party trying on their dresses and standing together in the same room (and it all looking fantastic!) i nearly cried with joy and relief! not a single alteration was necessary. the girls all looked fabulous with possibly the best fitting dresses i've ever seen on a wedding party.

not a particularly stunning picture, i got basically no good shots.
i hope the photographer fared better than i did.

i was struck by the extreme amount of talent in my family. my sister rebecca (the bride) made all the flower arrangements, my sister teresa sang and played violin, my sister monica made the wedding cake and cupcakes and i did all the dresses and jewelry. what a great family event!

the whole trip left me completely exhausted though. the wedding was in kansas and we live near boston. and we drove (3600 miles round trip!!!). after seeing the prices of plane tickets for a family of six, we decided to make a road trip of it. while i wasn't particularly thrilled at the thought of driving with four young children, it was exciting to see so many amazing sights. and the kids handled the long car rides spectacularly. not kidding! 

we visited niagra falls, ny...

the st. louis arch in missouri...

drove through the appalachian mountains in virginia...

and spent a morning sightseeing in washington, dc.

kansas was... well kansas. the 105-108 (F) daily temperatures were brutal to say the least. however, it was a small price to pay to get to see family and long-time friends.

in my last post, i promised some information on how to sew french seams for the pocket bags of my thurlow shorts (which got lots of wear on the trip and held up fabulously!) and i will post that shortly. in the meantime, i really need to get those piles of laundry under control...

—lisa g.

yes, this IS a bridesmaid dress

i just finished up making three bridesmaid dresses for my sister's wedding (one month from today!!! eeks!!!) and since one of the bridesmaids is very close to my size, i thought i would snag some pics. while bridesmaid dresses are notoriously awful, i think these turned out pretty cute. that's not to say any of them will see a second wearing, but it certainly beats some of the awful dresses i've seen over the years.

so, how does one approach making three of the same dress? basically i worked factory style and just did each bit three times. i didn't want to get to the end of the first dress and then have to start completely over TWO MORE TIMES. i managed to finish all three in about a week excluding cutting time. i never count cutting time.

i used new look 6776 with a few modifications. i cut the bodice straight across, raised the neckline a touch, added the straps separate, lowered the back bodice, and cut the back bodice as two pieces to continue the midriff all the way around. i wanted continuity from the wedding dress to bridesmaid dresses and i think these changes make the designs work together. i also changed the gathers under the bust to pleats since there are pleats on the skirt and my ocd just needs things like this to be the same.

since i was making dresses for other people who live no where near me (and hence could not do fittings as i went) i constructed these dresses different than i normally would. i sewed the entire back of the dress separate from the front, then joined them at the side seams. i did the same with the lining. this way, if minor alterations need to be made (i already did a muslin fitting earlier) i can just pinch or let out without having to rip too much apart. typically i sew in a more top down approach: sew the bodice, join to the midriff, then join to the skirt, sandwiching the seam allowances between the shell and lining. adjusting the fit with that type of construction is a royal pain. since i sewed the front and back separate, i was also able to insert the zips in the flat. i cannot tell you how much faster and easier it was to do it this way. without all that extra dress to fuss with and move out of the way the zips took maybe five minutes each. not kidding.

then i used tasia's method i saw over on the sewaholic blog to sew the lining to the shell. also, super fast with a nice tidy finish. i left the straps to sew in via the "reach up between the layers and pinch" method and sewed them in the front only. i'll wait until i can fit them in person to sew them in the back, so for now they're just pinned.

tagged the inside of each with her name so nobody gets confused!

now the only beef i have with this method is that there really isn't a chance to understitch the neckline. there's just no way around this, so i took some steps to make sure the lining doesn't roll and the neckline remains stable with wear. first i applied a 3/4" strip of fusible to the shell all along the top (before sewing it all together, of course). then i trimmed the top of the lining fabric by 1/8" so the shell would roll slightly inward, and finally i pick stitched along the front of the bodice neckline.

inside of bodice: i don't know why, but i am so in love with the pick stitch.
next time i'll do it in a contrasting thread color so it shows up more!

i can't pick stitch the back of the bodice since i need to be able to finish sewing the straps in later. now, you woulda thunk i'd have taken some inner construction pictures. but then you'd a thunk wrong. i just wanted to push along and get these done. plus, a large chunk of my sewing was done after hours and my lighting is abysmal.




i finished the hem with lace hem tape and a blind catch stitch. i'm pretty impressed with my blind hemming capabilities here, my stitching on this "everything shows up" fabric is about as invisible as it gets.


so there you have it. wedding party sewing is done. the fog has cleared and my regular life is coming back into focus. now i can get back to doing the laundry, washing dishes, cleaning bathrooms (it's a glamourous life i lead), paying attention to my children... wait... where are my children? just kidding. sort of...


in case you missed it...
wedding dress post
flower girl post


—lisa g.

flower girl: the chloe dress

while i was putting the finishing touches on THE WEDDING DRESS i made up my daughter sylvia's flower girl dress in bits and pieces when i needed a break from all that hand sewing. so, yes... i sewed when i needed a break from sewing... totally normal.


for the flower girl dress i tossed around a few self-drafted ideas and sketches but nothing really hit me. it needed to "go" with the wedding and bridesmaid dresses without matching. it needed to be fancy. it needed to be fun. it needed to be easy. then i remembered the chloe dress by violette field threads which fit the bill perfectly!

chloe dress by violette field threads
oh... em... geeee... is this not the cutest thing ever?

this is such a cute dress, and while i probably could have drafted something similar myself, i'm always curious about construction details (specifically how to do that tulle skirt) and this one promised pages and pages of pictures and instructions (that and i deserved a bit of laziness). fortunately i was not disappointed! and turns out the methods i've used in the past dealing with tulle were pretty much spot on.

my daugher, sylvia is an average 6 1/2 year old in size. i wanted a closer fit than the pattern calls for and i wanted the skirt to hit her high-ish on the waist. after careful measurement of the pattern pieces i cut a size 5 and made up the lined bodice in about an hour out of scraps from the wedding dress. it fit perfect, though i needed to slice out a half inch wedge from the back bodice pieces as in a swayback adjustment. it calls for buttons down the back so i found some cheap faceted clear plastic buttons. in a way it mirrors the beading down the zip of the wedding dress, so i went with it.

the skirt from outermost layer in, is two double layers of tulle, one double layer of netting and lined with a layer of ivory taffeta. the directions have you baste together the bottom of the bodice but since i was giving this a closer fit i left a couple inches of each layer of the skirt unsewn at the waist seam to make sure she can get in and out easily. the tulle and netting was all gathered and sewn to the bodice, then the lining. i did reduce the amount of tulle/netting that was called for just so she doesn't block out everyone else in wedding pictures...

since i left the little opening in the skirt, i just folded it around the back opening of the bodice and stitched it down. now, since this is fluffy tulle it all worked out just fine. any irregularities are more than hidden. for a regular dress, this probably wouldn't look so hot (since there are multiple layers not sewn together up the back seam). then i added some bias binding to finish the inside of the skirt at the waist to keep it from being too itchy.

the sash i made out of the dark teal which will be used for the bridesmaid dresses. the directions have you sew this directly onto the front of the bodice. i opted to keep it separate, though i may tack it on at the sides for the sake of the wedding so it doesn't shift around but could still be easily removed later. i also lengthened the sash ties and angled the ends for a more dramatic bow.

fancy dress or not, she still wants to catch bugs

overall, i love this dress pattern! each time sylvia has put it on i've had to practically rip it out of her death grip. for her, this is an everyday sort of dress. and my little four year old izzie has already requested her own, naturally. doesn't every little girl need a ridiculous pouffy dress like this? it's one of those low cost, fast to make, high impact dresses. violette field threads has several other super cute kids patterns too (the emmaline dress is to die for...). if you have a little girl in your life you need to check them out!


—lisa g

the wedding dress is finished!!!

a long time ago i agreed to make a wedding dress for my sister. future me always has lots of time on her hands. thankfully the dress is FINISHED and has been shipped 1600 miles to it's very eager recipient. i waited on pins and needles (no pun intended...) and with untold anxiety until it got there and ya know, got zipped into.


you see, i am a terribly anxious person with a disproportionate amount of self-doubt. yes, the dress fit her just fine a month and a half ago when she visited me and tried it on, but many many many many many many hours of work later i had it in my head that the dress had somehow morphed into some ridiculously ill-fitting shape. or that the dress fell apart entirely during shipping. or it changed colors between here and there. or that it would just be awful all over. or...

or perhaps we should just get out of my head now and talk about the dress! when last i posted i was showing the bodice interior. i finished up the bodice with a hand picked standard centered zipper. i just don't trust an invisible zipper to handle the number of layers going on in the bodice. i've never had one fail me, but this was not something i was about to risk! since i was hand picking i decided to add some small beads with each pick stitch. can't say i've ever seen this done before, but i think it does look pretty and adds a special touch to an otherwise mundane thing. 

the waist sash is made from a dark teal satin that
will be used for the bridesmaid dresses

of course, a wedding dress just isn't a wedding dress until there is some silk involved. i decided to surprise her by adding a silk lining to the bodice. my hope is that it will be nice and soft to the skin as well as a touch cooling since the rest of the dress is a stiflingly hot polyester. also, i hand stitched a tag with their names and wedding date.

as you can tell, i've been going for a classic timeless look. but i wasn't about to leave it without embellishment! and so i began a saga with lace. the lace i used is actually leftover from what was used on my wedding dress, which was made by a family friend, and is ten years old. this lace is rather a collection of floral motifs on netting that has cording to outline the details. so i cut out the individual flower motifs then dyed them from their original bright white to ivory.


oh the lace... the lace could practically be a post in and of itself, but i'll spare you the drama. i began with a tea dye and ended up with an ivory color, but next to the dress it just looked brown and dirty. so i washed the lace to remove some of the tea color then used a heavily diluted RIT dye in golden yellow to change the tone to match the fabric closer. after much duress i finally ended up with a color i was happy with. i kept reading about how polyester won't take dye and this and that... turns out it will, as i highly doubt this lace is cotton or silk.

once the lace was dyed, i stitched it all on. by hand. i thought i was going to lose my mind! i really don't want to admit how many hours i spent on that lace, from cutting to dying to sewing... i kept thinking: i know it's pretty, but is it this many hours pretty? please just don't tell me if it's not...

i will most definitely post actual pics of the dress on the bride when
the time comes! i just had to show off my work before that.

honestly, i exhausted myself on this dress (and i didn't even tell you about how i hand stitched the hem... twice) so having a little distance from it (literally!) and knowing that it arrived safely and all of those awful things i imagined happening didn't... i am immensely proud of my work. it isn't perfect and i know it's every flaw (please don't feel obliged to point out my mistakes), but come on... i made a wedding dress!. and as a bonus i now know that wedding dress making is NOT something i will ever make a living at, and hopefully it will be many years before i am stupid enough to undertake such a project ever again! the end.






—lisa g

random wedding dress post

long ago in a faraway land i mentioned about how i was making my sister's wedding dress and i believe i promised some posts relating to such... so finally i'm delivering on that. i'm about a week away from finishing it up (yay!!!) so i figured now is as good a time as any for a sneak peek. now, i am by no means an authority on such things as making wedding dresses. i might be doing everything wrong. in my defense, i have studied couture bridal books (such as susan khalje's) and gleaned the best blogs for every technique that seemed useful. 

the dress is fairly simple in design with clean lines in a classic shape. this means that every seam must be perfect because there's no hiding the mistakes. in a gown such as this, the name of the game is structure, structure and more structure! it's a bit tricky to balance the number of layers involved without having enormously bulky seams. the shell fabric is a duchess satin, which i underlined with a medium weight sew-in interfacing. the interfacing is rather thick, so to keep the seam bulk down i cut off the seam allowances and zig zagged over the edges onto taffeta, which is significantly thinner.

taffeta with sew in interfacing zig zagged
clear of the seam allowances

each bodice piece ends up looking kind of like a giant band-aid. how glamourous is that? then i stitched the shell to the underlining band-aid pieces and sewed it up. i left a huge seam allowance at the back seam, just to check for fitting and such.


onto the skirt... i spent forever trying to figure out how to draft the skirt in order to add on a train. it's not just a matter of adding length at the back (or so i found out). it took me forever to get this part right, but finally i ended up with something that looks like a wedding train. i was very close to giving up and buying a pattern, but i'm glad i held out. 

seam matching perfection!

instead of a gathered pouffy skirt, we went with four tucks in the front and four in the back. notice how the tucks and bodice seams line up? not an accident. i also drew on the skirt tucks in creating the cap sleeve-ish straps, also lining up a tuck with the bodice seams. lovely, is it not?

boning layer

for the boning, i decided to make boning channels by sandwiching some lining material with organza and stitching through the two. this is much more sleek than using sewn on boning channels plus the organza provides an extra layer of support.

neckline catch stitched in place

now for the neckline, i have seen in susan kajhle's bridal couture book that you turn down the top edge and catch stitch it to the underlinings (instead of using facings) then slip stitch the top edge of the lining to the turned down shell fabric. i don't have the final lining layer in yet, but i do have the catch stitched edge done. have you ever used this stitch? it is so lovely and feels quite sturdy. it also encases the edge of the fabric very nicely.

it fits!
(the cap sleeves are just in muslin here, hence the funny color)

aside from a waist stay and the final bodice lining, that's about it for the bodice itself. next i'll show more of the skirt details and then the finished dress itself! i am quite excited to see it all come together and actually look like a real wedding dress. that i made! [pats self on back] now, here's to making it to the finish line...


—lisa g.

a juggling act

usually i stick to one project at a time from buying fabric to sewing the last stitch. not so much right now... so i just wanted to share with you everything i have been working on!


at christmas i received the colette patterns handbook, which i totally love. the illustrations are beautiful and the content is very thoughtful and really makes you stop to think about your sewing choices. the book includes five patterns and i'm working on the first two for now: the meringue skirt and the pastille dress.




they are both relatively simple pieces with lovely little details. the skirt has a scalloped hem and the dress has a cute neckline, cap sleeves and tucks at the bottom of the skirt. both are very practical and will fit into my wardrobe perfectly!


i also have a casual dress i made a while back (the anda from burdastyle). while i love the cozy plaid flannel i used, i just hadn't been totally satisfied with it. the dress was too wide, the armholes too big and the whole thing was a bit fiddly because i left off the drawstring in favor of simply belting it. soooo i hacked off the top, added pockets, a wide elastic waistband and... ta-da! now i have a skirt! (elastic waistband skirt tutorial here)

sometimes you just have to know when to let go of your original plan and make a change. hmm... sounds like more than just sewing advice. i do plan to revisit the pattern this summer, it was supper fast and would be a great floaty summer dress or swim suit cover-up! hahaha... like i can even think of summer when it's 30º F outside!


then i reworked a dress i made last year for one of my sisters. i've learned so much about dress construction and fitting since then—i took apart practically every seam, underlined the bodice pieces, changed out the lining and cut the bodice differently.

ahhh... nice soft cotton lining

in the end it was a ton of work but totally worth it. i'd rather put extra work into something and have it get worn instead of hanging squished and unused in the back of someone's closet. lucky for me, my sister and i are basically the same size from shoulder to waist (though i'm at least 4" taller...) so i can show off the finished product!

it's seriously 30º F right now. dedication? stupidity?
it's a fine line between the two really...

even though it's freezing right now, this dress has me totally dreaming of spring!

seems like there's one more project... oh yeah, i'm outfitting that same sister's wedding! here's a picture of the wedding dress muslin work in progress.

there's not much to show on this yet, i'm working out some cap sleeves, will have to adjust the bodice seam lines to match up with the pleats and figure out how to make a short train. i'll definitely let you in on the project as i progress! i don't know about you, but i am endlessly fascinated by the interior workings of gowns and such.


well this was a wildly schizophrenic post, i'll be back next with my lovely meringue skirt. i've already made it up, worn it and love it! i have an awesome little trick for the waist facing you WON'T. WANT. TO. MISS. seriously, sometimes i'm a genius...


—lisa g