A Wee Wedding Dress

Once upon a time, instead of shelling out $30 for an American Girl Doll dress, women hand sewed dresses for the dolls in their little girls lives. Sadly the art of sewing has become very lost these days, and most mothers don't have the time or training to create little garments. However I've always loved the art of dressmaking for miniature people, and I was thrilled when my friend Christina shared pictures of an adorable  wedding dress she'd made for her little sister's doll

 It is simple, sweet and elegant, and exactly what every little girl would love to play with. I think Christina's little sister is a very lucky girl!

What do you think, should I do a few tutorials on basic dressmaking for dolls? 

Class Act Fabrics

http://www.classactfabrics.com/index.html

A fellow seamstress recently recommended this website as a good place to get high end fabrics. I checked it out and immediately started drooling over the selections -- and the prices! While wool remains high, this looks like an excellent place to find silks and velvets at manageable prices. Includes some fabrics from couture houses, as well as historically accurate prints for re-enactors.

I hope at some point in the future either my finances improve or I get a client wanting a costume with high end fabric so that I can get a chance to order from this site.

Do you have a website that you recommend for seamstresses? Fabrics, notions, embellishments, laces, trims, etc? Let me know! Leave the link in a comment and I just might do a post about it!

Cream Vintage Dress - Part 2

The saga of the cream vintage style dress/tunic continues! 

My next step was to cut out the skirt panels. I originally cut six, but realized this would really make the skirt too large for a dress of this tiny-ness and delicacy, so I eliminated one.

I spent quite awhile thinking about how best to do the hem and eventually I decided to sew right sides together at the bottom and turn out and iron to create a practically invisible hem.

I then lined up the tops of the lining and eyelet and gathered, then sewed into the eyelet side of the waistband. On the lining side I ironed over the raw edge and hand sewed it down to create a completely finished interior as well as exterior.

The dress so far! Looking nearly complete, right? But not quite.

I still had to add a zipper, straps and a bow. Below are the pieces for the zipper and bow.

Pieces with the edges sewn.

Gathered the larger rectangle to form a bow shape.

Looped the narrow rectangle around the larger one to secure and finish.

Stitched in place and tacked to a safety pin so that bow can be moved/removed as wearer desires.

Attached in ideal position at waistband.

To add the straps I slit open the top of the bodice slightly, inserted the end of the strap, and sewed shut.

And voila! The finished garment! My sister will wear it as a layered piece, but some girls could use this style without layers as a sundress (although boning might be a practical addition to the bodice for support).

Cream Vintage-Style Dress

For Christmas I made my sister a vintage style tunic/dress that we designed together. It was an intensive but rewarding and fairly straightforwards process and we both are really happy with how it turned out.

I started off with taking an existing dress of hers and drawing out bodics pattern pieces based on that on the lining fabric.

I then cut and basted the lining pieces, put it on my sister and made adjustments as necessary.

I then took out the basting stitches and used the lining pieces as patterns for the eyelet fabric which would be forming the top layer.

I assembled the entire bust part of the bodice and attached the eyelet to the lining at the top seam. I then measured out a straight waistline of both the eyelet and the lining.

Next I sewed the lining waistband to the bust lining, and the same with the eyelet. No seams showing inside or outside!

I then ironed down the seams and topstitched-in-the-ditch along the upper seam of the waistband to hold the  eyelet and lining together.

The bodice, pressed and folded right side out.

Part Two

Sewing actually happened today.

For the first time in at least three months. I'm pretty delighted.

Photos coming when my camera card decides to play nicely with my laptop.

Design your own Tudor England dresses

DollDivine.com is one of the coolest sites out there. It has several really nice dollmakers with some truly fantastic options. As a designer I've had more fun on that site than any interactive game could ever give me. 

Last night I logged on and discovered that they'd added a new doll maker. "The Tudors Scene Maker." Little story here. It was my love of Tudor England that got me into costuming ten years ago. Out of all of history, Tudor clothing still remains my favorite. 

Does this dollmaker do it justice? Heck yeah! It's gorgeous, versatile, has the most options of any dollmaker I've seen, and best of all is historically accurate. 

Below are just a few of the dresses I designed last night: 

Halloween Ideas

Heads up, costumers! It's that time of the year when our skills are in heavy demand! But what do you do when you don't have time to make costumes for all the kids, yourself, significant other, and nine of your friends?

Use the ideas from this site! http://takebackhalloween.org/

They've got some really great historical suggestions, and many of their ideas can translate into other genres as well. Plus they link you to every article they suggest for their ensembles, so it's invaluable! And their suggestions are quite historically accurate too, so check it out!

(Thanks to Bowman for sending the link my way!)