The Great Outdoors

I first met Dee last year when she had a bit of pre-Hawaii-vacation sewing for me to do. I liked her right away - she's got this great combination of no-nonsense-physical-therapist meets imaginative-fun-loving-kayaking-fantasy-geek vibe going on.

So I knew when she called me up a few months later to tell me that the Hawaii vacation "took" (part of the point of the getaway had been for her to spend a bit of focused time getting to know that handsome gentleman right there) and that she wanted to talk wedding party garb, that it was going to be out of the ordinary and it was going to be fun.

At our first design meeting, Dee came with the idea for the bridesmaids fairly well-set. Since all of the lovely ladies were down-to-earth women who were comfortable in who they are and none of them were particularly girly, Dee wanted to have them in laid-back, flowing garments instead of the usual cocktail dresses. The reception was planned for a wooded area next to the river, and she didn't want anyone held back from enjoying themselves by having to worry about finicky clothes! After scouring the local fabric shops, we decided on wide-legged linen pants in a tobacco brown and mandarin-collared tunic vests a crinkly, sheer sage over simple chocolate tank tops. 

The bridal fabric was a bit more difficult to settle on, until a magic moment when we held a lovely light embroidered sheer over a soft, flowing white pongee. Dee actually jumped up and down and clapped her hands like a delighted little girl (and then recovered and gave me her more standard high-five.) It WAS pretty stuff, very lightweight and cool, and was the unexpectedly perfect thing to use for the design we'd developed. 

Dee doesn't wear dresses all that often herself, so her primary considerations were that it be comfortable, fitting her athletic and outdoorsy personality, but also - she admitted - she wanted to feel a little bit like a princess. Maybe an elf. She had come to me with the basic idea of a sleeveless tank dress with a boat neck and a keyhole back. We tweaked it a bit to work with her jewelry and the fabric we'd found, and the end result made us both smile.

(Their getaway car was a kayak. As in, they actually paddled away from the reception. How cool is that?)

Congratulations, you two!

Photos all courtesy of Wendy Sue Tipton.

Working on the NotWedding Dress(es), Part Two

Just sticking my head in here for a second to show you all some of the pretty pretty things sitting around my sewing area...and my living room...and...yeah, these projects have taken over the whole house by this point. It's a good thing that I love looking at lace, linen, and silk!

This is a bit of the dress for the Orlando NotWedding - a pewter dupioni sash (with handmade anemones) against a top of ivory lace overlaid on blush satin.

And this is some of the detail on the Atlanta NotWedding flower girl's dress - tiny pintucks on the bodice and a self-fabric applique on each little sleeve.

 I've been doing TONS of French seam work. It makes a lovely finish, but is rather time consuming to do. If you're not familiar with the technique, it basically involves sewing a seam with the raw edges facing OUT (so they show on the outside of the garment), and then trimming the edges very very close to the seam (as shown below), and then turning it inside-out and pressing the seam line and then sewing it again so that all those raw edges are enclosed. Capisce? Don't worry if it doesn't make any sense...it still makes my brain do somersaults every time I do it.

And then there is the fun of dyeing fabrics. This is for the pink sash belonging to the Atlanta dress. Unfortunately, I measured something incorrectly after the test piece, and the whole yardage of what I was going to use turned out rather brighter than I wanted it. I have a backup plan. This will be what I'm doing last minute before I head down to Atlanta on Wednesday.

Clockwise from left: Big pot of dyeing fabric, bottle of Synthrapol, bag of dye activator (soda ash substitute), pot of fiber-reactive dye powder. This is so much fun to do, especially since you have to stir the dyeing fabric for about 45 minutes straight. I watched a lot of music videos. Taking suggestions for the next time I have a dye job.

...so...be on the lookout for the lovely professional photos of the lovely finished projects in just a few days! I'll keep you posted. Have a wonderful week, friends.

Pink and Purple

A bright and happy custom-made dress for a South Carolinian mother-of-the-bride (I don't wear pink very often, but my six-year-old inner princess has just died and gone to heaven)!

This customer wanted a hot pink dress similar in styling to my Anemone Dress, but with several modifications: a lower neckline, an included self-crinoline, and a pleated sash with three contrasting kanzashi-style folded silk flowers.

Everyone in the wedding party and family were told to wear bright colors. I can only imagine what a dazzling party it is going to be - like flowers everywhere!

(These flowers are so much fun to make, especially if you're using a nice thin silk that finger-creases well. These are three variations I took off the tutorial kindly put up by my friend Deborah of BeeHoney Designs.)

Spring Green

A couple of wonderful people from my church are getting married in a week, and I'm having fun doing dresses for two of the bridesmaids. One of the gals chose my Lula Dress, only we had to match the paint chip given by the bride...which turned out to be a rather daunting task. With no time to order silk samples, we scoured the local stores so we could match the tone in person. We finally found the color in a linen-look rayon blend that gives the dress a new laid-back character (and doesn't have to be dry cleaned, woohoo!) I've got another (very different) dress that'll be in the party, and I can't wait to see how it all comes together with what the rest of the attendants selected for themselves.

We found the right color!

Sorry the green is off a little in this one - that's what I get for taking photos at night! - but you
can see the texture. This fabric is very soft and breathable and will be easy to wear all day long.

Getaway Skirt

Sometimes, fabrics themselves inspire certain designs. I once ordered a satin to use for a skirt - I got a bolt of it, because it was such a good deal, but found that it wasn't exactly the stuff I needed for that particular order. It is a lovely fabric, however, and when I paired it with another impulse buy (some really great medallion lace I found), this is what came out of it!

Isn't it pretty? The combination begged for something fairly simple, but not overly traditional. I played around with it for a bit and settled on a straight skirt with a surprising twist; a flat-pleated high waist, bound with a triple-wound grosgrain ribbon and finished with a very soft ruffle formed by the pleats just spilling over the top.

You can see more photos at the Getaway Skirt listing in my Etsy shop. Thanks so much to Emily at Red Leaf Photography for featuring this skirt in a fantastic giveaway (you can still enter up until midnight tonight - February 28th - go check it out!)

Ladies in Red

A talented bridal party of uniquely beautiful women + cherry-red silk dupioni = one happy seamstress.


(Click on the photos for high-quality images and zoom!)

More photos and full description ~>