Pictures Of Wedding

Yesterday was a day that didn’t allow me to sew. I had a meeting at noon and another one at 5 p.m. The rest of the hours were spent preparing for those meetings.

To recap on the Rodeo Queen sewing, I heard back from the last two clients. They loved their articles of clothing. All items fit perfectly so I am happy.

I got some pictures of the wedding I did the sewing for. We were invited but we didn’t go due to the number of people and the Spousal Unit’s condition (we didn’t know what we know today). Here is a line up of the pictures.

The bridesmaid’s dresses showing the detail.

The Bride’s dress showing the detail.

The Bride’s fascinator.

Everyone in their dresses. They got hauled to the wedding in a stock trailer. What fun.

The Bride and her father. The bride wears a dress made from her mom’s and grandmother’s dress and her dad wears her grandfather’s cowboy boots which grandpa wore on his wedding day.

The garter I made. It is very symbolic – something old – satin from grandma’s dress, something new – the lace, something borrowed – the flowers from her mother’s dress, and something blue – the blue crystals on the flowers.

The wedding party and oh so western.

And the Bride after the wedding ceremony.

All I can say is – what a wonderful ranch wedding and not sticking to but sticking to tradition.

Until tomorrow......................

Learning Bias

When I was Nanaimo doing the Ron Collins sewing extravaganza, I started a western shirt for the Spousal Unit. I wanted to learn the tricks of doing bias; what you can do and can’t do when making a shirt. So Ron got me to do the all out bias shirt.

Here is a synopsis of what I learned:

1. The body of the shirt needs to be on the straight of the grain. That is the support or foundation for the bias.

2. The yokes were cut on the bias matching up the best I could and having the front bias meet in the middle. As these are laid on the body of the shirt, no extra preparation was needed.

3. The pockets were cut on the bias and no extra preparation was needed as they are sewn onto the body of the shirt.

4. The top pocket flaps were cut on the bias and the under flaps cut on the straight of the grain. The interfacing was cut on the straight of the grain. This gives the bias part lots of stability as they are not sewn securely to the shirt; only the top part is.

5. The cuff was cut on the bias and the interfacing on the straight of grain to stabilize it. If you have a 2 piece cuff, the top part is cut on the bias and the under part and interfacing cut on the straight of grain.

6. The sleeve placket was cut on the bias but not interfaced as it was sewn onto the sleeve which is on the straight of the grain.

7. The front button band was cut on the bias and the interfacing was cut on the straight of grain to stabilize it.

The fabric I used was a shirting fabric I bought at Fabricana. It is 60” wide and pricey at 15.98 a meter. I bought 3 meters of it as I was going to do bias. I will buy this brand of shirting fabric again as it is a delight to work with.

I spent a lot of time laying out the pattern so the pieces cut on the bias were going in the right direction and the horizontal lines matched at the side seams. Had a couple of sweats and heart palpations doing it but I succeeded.

When sewing, I took my time making sure everything was placed so it looked pleasant to the eye. Ron helped me get the pocket flaps so the lines matched the pockets.  The bias sewing was basically done before I left Nanaimo and I could tackle the rest at home.

Waiting for the snaps. The Spousal Unit really likes this shirt which makes me happy.

The sleeve placket cut on the bias. I am happy with the results even if the lines go in the wrong direction. My fault and I will correct it on the next shirt.

The Spousal Unit will put white snaps on this shirt as he does not like buttons. His choice as he wears the shirt.

This is a basic western shirt that I bought and tweaked to what I wanted. The yokes, pockets, pocket flaps and sleeve placket are the design elements I wanted and worked on to get them on this shirt.

I have ordered another western shirt pattern for the Spousal Unit – McCalls 6044 View E.

I also have Burda 7767 for a dress shirt for the Spousal Unit.

Until Tuesday as we are off to visit the Spousal Unit’s sister today and to the Cancer Clinic on Monday.

Here Comes the Bride

It was a beautiful sunny morning yesterday and the bride and bridesmaids arrived for their final fittings and I took some pictures of them.

This is the neatest looking wedding I have seen in a long time. Though the bridesmaids’ dresses are of the same style, they are different colours and have different embroidery. Each of the girls are wearing western boots with their dresses.

The bride’s dress has been recycled from her mother’s and grandmother’s dresses. It is so refreshing to see this girl wear something traditional yet non traditional.

She is so excited with the dress and I am so happy that I got to do the dress for her.

The fishtail in the back has a bit of a train, perfect for this bride.

It fits her perfectly. And then we had some fun. Why not, you only get married once.

Yes, she is wearing cowboy boots too. Her mom was unsure of it (though I loved the idea), when she saw the outfit together, she became excited about the total look.

Love the pose she struck in the above picture and the one below.

I must say I have enjoyed working with this young lady. We headed out to their farm with one of the dresses I had to tweak and saw what they did to the hay shed. It is gorgeous. The smaller hay shed is the “church” and guests sit on bales of hay. The large hayshed is where the reception is going to be held. They have tables set up, lights strung, a small dance floor and the head table up on a stage. The small room to one side is the bar. Lovely but too dark to photograph. We had a spaghetti dinner with the early arrivals, visited with old and new friends and then came home. We are not going to the wedding today as there is too much to do. We have to can more fruit.

Until tomorrow.....................................

Summer Clothing Idea

Every once in a while, I like to put together outfits that I might just wear. Yesterday the bug hit me when I was looking at some styles Anthropologie posted.

Though called Preppy, it is a look I would wear with some minor changes. The jeans could be white, navy, or black and look great. But I will remain with white for the time being.

The top is cute and is made from silk. There are owls in the center of each one of those circles.

but I am not sure it is me. You could make it out from Simplicity 2614 View C (OOP but still for sale on the Simplicity website until gone)

               

I would be more inclined to make it from Simplicity 2892 View A or B

               

My fabric choice would be a natural fibre in a plain colour. I cannot wear yellow so I would choose a bright pink or a bright blue or a dark red. If I chose a print, it would be a small one but I think I would love to have it plain and let the colour do the talking.

The earrings would remain similar or be a small hoop. And the shoes, well I don’t wear the type shown. Just not me. I would go for something like this

Or something like this if the top was red.

And the bag, well the colour could match the shoes or be striped in the shoe colour and white. McCalls 5914

Or this one Butterick 5109

Have fun putting together your look.

Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt

Disappearing Nine Patch.

Instructions for this can be found at:

Disappearing Nine Patch 

Chickpea's Birthing Quilt (Disappearing Nine Patch)

You start with a Nine patch square and by making two cuts through the center horizontally and vertically you go..............

From this:

To this

The possibilities for arranging this seem endless.

Square Mug Rugs

My fun project was mug mats. Instead of round, I made these square and put a lady bug into the square.

Rather than move on, I decided to do a small tutorial on this. As I am using free designs and a tweaked pattern, all is well.
The ladybug is a free design found at Sew Forum You need to register and log in to see and get the design (I bookmarked the page prior to registering so it was easy to find it again). When you have downloaded the design, bring it up in your software and center it the 100x100 hoop. Do any colour changes (which I did). Rather than have grey, I used black twice. Then I added the square part, which can be found at Sew Forum. Remember you need to be logged in to get the design. Center it on top of the ladybug and save the design.
You will need the following supplies
9” square of plain fabric (cotton or linen/cotton blend)
9” square of fusible interfacing
2 – 9” squares of organza (I used white but have used pink when the fabric was pink)
5” square of backing
5” square of batting
embroidery thread and bobbins. When I use light coloured fabric, I use a light coloured thread on the bobbin until the last stitch out and then I will use the same colour as the top thread.
Steps:

1. Fuse the interfacing onto the fabric. Lay fabric on top of the 2 pieces of organza and pin together so they don’t slip.
   
   
2. Bring up the design on your sewing machine.
   
   
3. Hoop the fabric into the 100 x 100 hoop and put into the machine. Begin to stitch out the design.
   
   
4. When the ladybug is fully stitched, stitch the next colour (colour 4), which is the first round of the square. Cut your thread and remove hoop from the machine. Do not unhoop the fabric.
   
   
5. The back of the fabric.
   
   
6. Spray baste the backing fabric to the batting and then spray baste the batting to the back of the hoop covering the stitching.
   
   
7. Stitch out the next colour (2nd colour of square) and cut the threads. Remove the hoop from the machine but do not un hoop the fabric. Turn over so you see the backing fabric.
   
   
8. Using small scissors, cut the backing close to the stitching line.
   
   
9. Cut the top fabric and interfacing a good one-quarter inch from the stitching line. Do not cut the organza.
   
   
10. Then cut close to the stitching line being careful not to cut the organza.
    
    
11. Change the bobbin colour to match the colour of the top thread. Put the hoop back onto the sewing machine and stitch the last colour. Remove the hoop from the machine.
    
    
12. Remove the fabric from the hoop. There will be a piece of fabric that will be loose and you discard that.
    
    
13. You are left with a coaster that has only the organza left attached to the design.
    
    
14. Cut around the mug mat close to the stitching. Discard the left over organza.
    
    
15. The finished mug mat front.
    
    
16. The back.
    
    

Make 3 more for a set of 4. Enjoy making these for yourself or for gifts.

The Dress

The weather in our area has been up and down. Wednesday was sunny and warm (low 70F’s) and Thursday started out cloudy and cooler though our overnight temperature was quite warm. I did plant pansies at the pond in the morning. Some are small and others are huge. Today I need to do some more transplanting.

I finished another shirt. I had to wait for an order of crystals to arrive as I was short around 60 crystals and had to buy 288 to complete the project.

The back of the shirt has a small design on it with crystals. I used two dark purple with one light purple.  I outlined the yoke to give it some definition. The piping is custom made and has both crystal colours in it.

The front and sleeves of the shirt has more detail. I did add the small flowers to the large rose on both the front and back. With this retro yoke I am always afraid that I will place my designs too close to the edge of the yoke and loose part of the design when I turn it under with a facing I make. The sleeves have lots of design embroidered on them giving them the focal point on this shirt.

I  worked hard on the dress yesterday morning. I got the front done to a point where I need to figure out about the sleeves. I had to do some adjusting but I think I have it looking fairly nice now.

It looks a little big in the back but I will adjust that when I put on the skirt. Easy fix. There are no facings just a lining. Once I know how to adjust the top, I will take it in.

After lunch, I did the lining and started on the skirt. After a lot of work I got it ready to sew the side seams by pinning the dress together inside out.

It doesn’t look pretty but it is an easy way to do a fitting. Especially as this person has a pear body shape, something I haven’t sewn for before.

And the muslin ready for sleeves.

Ready for the sleeves and some trial and error embroidery. And then onto the next dress. Unfortunately my back aches when I sit in a chair and sew most of the day.