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.

The Only One Like It In The Whole World

One of the reasons I so enjoy custom sewing is that everything I make is unique. Even when I do several of the same item, say for a bridal party, the custom fit to each person creates enjoyable challenges. Sometimes, to get a dress to look the same on different body types, I actually use very different base templates to generate my patterns. It's a game I play, with no hard and fast rules, to make unique items look like each other.

But often, I have the joy of making something that is really unique - I won't ever make something that looks exactly like it again. In this case, I had an unusual order; to design and make a dress for a beautiful young woman as her Christmas present (from her then-boyfriend! Fellows, take note!)...no inspiration photos or guidelines given, so that I had near-complete creative freedom with it. Yes.

More photos and full description ~>

Fine Linen

I recently had the opportunity to create a baptismal gown for some dear friends of mine. Their first child is five months old, and her baptism was a wonderful celebration with both sets of grandparents and several friends present.

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Retrospect

My dear old friend Courtney is visiting, my dear old friend Emily is over too, and we're sitting around talking about what idiots we were in college. I expect when we're all post-middle age we'll sit around talking about what idiots we are now.

And look! A prototype dress I developed (coming out of my fascination with architectural stained glass, Frank Lloyd Wright, and such) and made a few months ago fits Courtney! I want her to live here and be my model.

The bodice is partially pieced and partially appliqued; I'm currently working on a wedding gown design based on this concept, but in shades of white, ivory, and deep champagne (if anyone is interested, I would love to make it for an actual bride rather than my mannequin.)

At the Fire Hall

My "booth" from last Saturday's Spring Market, just before opening. I had a great day, lots of fun talking with people, including the other vendors - no two had the same kind of wares. Looks like it's going to become a regular happening every month or two!

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.

Minxy Dress

Remember that amazingly beautiful red dupioni I used for these bridesmaid dresses? Well, I bought a bolt of it at the time, since we weren't sure how much we were going to use up. And I have quite a bit of it left. I take it out from time to time, look at it, sigh with happiness, and then go about my day.

I would like to use it up for great projects, though; and this past Christmas, I had the opportunity to put a few yards to another good use. A lovely little friend of mine was going on a cruise with her family for the holidays, and she wanted a vintage-looking, sassy gown to wear for on-board partying. We put our heads together, and this is what we came up with!

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Additional details

Shoulder embroidery on the strawberry-picking dress (see the original post here.)

In Which To Play Croquet and Be Wed

"Oh, it came and it's beautiful! It fits perfectly, and I'm so happy with it. My sister, mother, mother-in-law, and best friend all (separately) said "That dress is so YOU!" when I sent them the pictures...I can't think of anything else I'd rather have heard. Thank you so much, Bekah, it's the best dress I could have asked for."


- E.G. in Chicago

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Anemone Dress

This is a prototype pattern that I developed while creating a birthday party dress for a customer recently. She ended up going with a modified design, with a slightly longer waist and a narrower skirt, but I fell in love with this little round-waisted, party-skirt dress!

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Picking Strawberries

My lovely, dear friend Rachel, in a dress her husband commissioned. "I want something she can pick strawberries in," he requested. Of course, this was shortly before we knew there would be a bump along the way...I'm so happy for you three!






















photo courtesy of Rachel and Paul

Her Great-Grandmother's Brooch

"The first decision I made in planning my wedding was that I wanted Bekah to make my wedding dress. After seeing her beautiful work on a friend's wedding gown, I knew that I wanted to work with her to create my own, uniquely me garment..."



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

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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!)

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Navy One-Shoulder Sheath

This was the second time I'd worked with these materials...

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Catie's Wedding Dresses

Plural, because I made six dresses for her wedding.

Here is one.




















(and a half, because I altered the one I'm wearing.)


(That's me on the bed.)


(I got terrible wrinkles in my vintage sky blue acetate-and-lace gown, just for relaxing for a few minutes like that. The nerve.)

























And here are some of the bridesmaids. The strapless dresses are the Eclair pattern, unaltered, that was also the basis for my flower dress in the previous post. The pleated-ruffle-collar dress is a pattern of my own making (I got some basic dimensions from Simplicity #2497.)

I will be posting some good, up close images later on of all the dresses - I have to get them from the incredible photographers who sensibly protect their photos on their websites from nefarious photo-stealing people like myself. They didn't protect a few of their Facebook postings, which is how I stole these, but they are my personal friends and will forgive me.

Photos (so far) by photolodico. More to come from both her and redleafphotography.

A Dress For Me

Every now and then I take time to make something pretty for myself. This was a combination of "I really would enjoy a new dress" and "gaaaaah why can't I go to sleep when I have to be up early for church band practice in the morning."

So I opted for little sleep and a lot of fun.

This photo courtesy of Red Leaf Photography.

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Ruffle party dress

"Thank you so much for all the work you put in, it's gorgeous!"

- R.M. from the UK















Another customized dress-from-a-photo; this is for a customer in Great Britain, and I have to say, it was one of the most fun jobs I've had recently!

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Red Ball Gown - Retro Reproduction

Again, please pardon the poor photography...sometimes I don't have time to wait for the afternoon sun, and the flash wreaks havoc with the fabric reflection, but sans flash I get all kinds of funny colors. At least you can see the shape.

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Stepford Wives Dress

"The dress is BEAUTIFUL!!! Your work is wonderful and the attention to detail is fantastic. The colored tulle is such a nice touch. This dress will be perfect for the wedding I am attending next month. I am extremely pleased and can't wait to work with you again. I'll be sure to pass your information along to friends and family."

~ S.R. in Michigan







This item was sold in my Etsy shop.

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Miscellaneous Completed Projects

A smattering of candid photos, which are all I have to show the existence of my first ten or so years of sewing for other people -

Embroidered peacock bellydance skirt - a collaboration with my friend Denise, who dyed and printed the skirt.

More photos and full description ~>