Little Black.

Tip: Sewing Practice

TIP: A great form of sewing practice comes from simply altering and mending your clothes. It's a great way to help you see how clothes are put together and the patterns that make up a garment.

- mending a ripped seam
- sewing on buttons
- hemming pants or skirts
- shortening sleeves
- taking in seams for loose clothing to fit more snug

How-To: Cute Puckered Sleeve Cuff

Click to enlarge:

How To Take In a Seam With A Zipper

This project is done on the back zipper of a skirt, but works the same way for any seam with a zipper in it...


Pinch your seam to fit. Pin your pinch. Take off the garment and mark how much you took in on each side of the seam/zipper with a pin.


This particular garment has a lining. Both material and lining will need to be released from the zipper.


This garment also has a seam binding to cover the raw edge at the top of the skirt. Use a seam ripper to release the binding from the top of the waist. Remove the hook and eye as well.


Rip the stitches that hold the material and the lining to the zipper to free both sides of the zipper from both sides of the seam. Notice how the seam binding is removed only enough to allow taking in the seam to desired fitting.


View of the zipper released from between the material and lining.


Fold in the edges of the seam to your marked area. Make sure it is even for both sides.


Pin your alteration in place and hand-stitch both sides of the zipper back in between the material and lining on each side. Sew the seam binding back in place at the top. Note that since you took in the seams, the binding will be a little long now. Clip the edge with scissors. Fold the edge to the inside of the garment and secure with a few stitches. Sew the hook and eye back on and you're done!

Melissa's Perfect Wedding Dress

I bought my pattern from Walmart for $9! It's not the pattern, but usually the material you choose that makes a garment what you want it to be. The center style is what I went with, and then made some revisions to the pattern.


I bought my fabric from Jackman in St. Louis and from Gail K in Atlanta. The main dress is made of a light cream/ivory satin layered under a sort of dotted lace.


Here are the pieces for the underside of the waist and skirt. I liked how this pattern didn't have a seam around the waist.


I turned the straight neckline into a curved sweetheart neckline. Also, the gathers under the bust are a nice detail.


The not-yet finished dress portion. I had to do a lot of taking in the side seams to fit my small waist, something I have to do on most of my clothes. Battling with this part took a long time and many frustrations ;)


I bought a beautiful lace from Gail K for the train and used the remnants for the hem ornamentation. Hand-sewing takes a lot of patience.


Here's what the bolt of the train lace overlay looks like before it was in train form. It was so huge I had to use the wall and a projector to lay it out properly. Worked pretty well!


I used the Audrey Hepburn "Sabrina" train patterning from a previous post on here to lay this out, but still it wasn't in great detail so I felt like I was doing a lot of it blindly. The lace gathers but not the satin underneath to avoid bulk under the belt that I would sew on over the top of the train later.


Working in my tiny seamstress corner. PS if you have the money for a dress form , GET ONE. They are super handy. Mine was $99 from Hancock. Making my wedding dress would have been impossible without it.


Here's the nearly finished dress, front! I love it.


Full dress front with the train pinned on.


Pinning on what I call the dust ruffle, to help protect the lace at the edge of the train since it was designed to drag on the ground.


The train from the back, pinned on before I designed the belt for the top of it which would hook on to the back of the dress.


I tacked the lace overlay to the seam between the ruffle and the satin to keep it even all the way around. So pretty! I was so excited to find this lace. It's absolutely perfect.


Grace and Audrey were definitely my inspirations for this gown. Very vintage, very different very lovely and very me :) ... and very tedious! It took me about 5-6 months to complete the entire project, and probably about $800 for fabric, dress forms, shoes,
cleaning/pressing, and accessories. Well, well worth it!

Wedding Day:


Still prepping: Beth was trimming some additional threads, ha.


Standing on a step stool to reach :)


:)

The Best Fabric Store In the Southeast

If you are ever in the Atlanta area because you've run out of sources of fabric options in Chattanooga, you absolutely must check out Gail K Fabrics. Terra and I mini-road-tripped down yesterday. I was looking for some material for my wedding gown that just didn't seem to exist in the inventories of Hancock Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, or Walmart. From the outside Gail K looks a bit like a hole in the wall.. but once you step inside.. oh man! There is literally bolts and bolts of fabric piled to the ceiling! I was in fabric heaven. Tons of colors of every type of fabric you could possibly imagine. We spent a lot of time roaming just to take in the awesomeness of this place.

I knew they'd have exactly what I was looking for. They did! And Gail K (I assume) was a huge help in my selection process. She's very eccentric, but she does a wonderful job paying attention to the specific projects of each customer despite that there were tons of people crowding already narrow aisles between the fabrics.

And so my awesome new design for my wedding dress can continue. I wish I could share specifics, but I'm kind of enjoying keeping it a secret until the Day.

Sabrina Dress

Wow, I was so excited to run across this website that shows (basically) how Audrey Hepburn's Sabrina dress is put together. Gosh I love this dress.

Style Reference

There's a ton more interesting vintage photos and stylings here.

How To Be Lovely

We're all familiar with what makes Audrey Hepburn so lovely. Not only was she a wonderful actress, but she was also an extremely decent human being, which is rare as celebrities go.

Her loveliness attracted the attention of some quality fashion designers of her time. Hubert de Givenchy is responsible for many of her most notable ensembles.

A lot of the classic styles of the 50s and 60s were very form-fitted in the bodice with full A-line skirts. They were very flattering, and not just on small thin body types. I think this is the reason why I tend to prefer these vintage styles. They work! Why redesign something that already works well? Plus, if you've ever worn a dress of this style, it just feels good to have on, hugging your best curves. Sort of like you're your own Audrey Hepburn, and who doesn't want to be like her in some way?

Check out this dress. I love how the skirt has pleats in the back but not in the front. She has a wide neckline and a fitted waist, which gives that very flattering triangular shape to the bodice. Very classy and lovely. Also the subtle pink fabric with horizontal stripes is a nice touch for this style. Sometimes you can choose pink and it'll go horribly wrong, other times it can work very well, even if pink isn't "your color." I'll have to write later to discuss fabrics and color choices.

Ps: Many of my first posts won't be about specific projects because my main project currently is my wedding dress, which I can't talk about here (yet) because Jon is one of my blog followers. But I love that he probably will be the only male to do so. And I'll share plenty about the wedding dress post May ;)

Introduction

I'm really excited to start this blog and share the things I've learned about sewing with whoever may be interested to explore a new hobby for themselves. I always wanted to host a sewing class but haven't yet been able to find the means or the time to do so. I'm hoping this blog might be a good solution for those interested. If you are, feel free to bookmark this page, or let me know if you want me to add your email to the list for updates.

Sewing has sort of become a lost art, not to mention viewed as a craft and not even an art. Don't be deceived by that notion! It will only make you feel as though you should join the red hat society, ha. There are very few girls my age that have discovered the pleasure in it, but I know there are a handful of you who would love to learn more.

Well I have some words for you if you're even somewhat interested, don't get discouraged by the beginning stages of learning to sew. Sewing is a puzzle to be solved, which involves a sometimes finicky machine that can tend to give you grief. These things can make you extremely frustrated until you get the hang of it. Don't give up! I really want to encourage you to keep at it. It took me about 4 years on and off to become confidant about just trying new things, solving the puzzles and just keeping at it. Eventually I became very fond of the challenge the puzzle presented me and I was able to overcome the doubt in my ability. When you get down to it and begin to understand the basic how-tos, it's really very simple. Once you get to that point, you can become more artistic and creative about your sewing projects, and really have something unique to wear, gift, or display. (Not to mention that altering your own clothes can save you a lot of money if you happen to be someone who needs that kind of work done often, and your clothes will always fit you the way they should).

So what do you say? Give it a shot. Try something new that challenges you. It's good for your soul. And feel free to use my blog as a reference for some tips and tricks that I have learned so far. I'll also be sharing my successful (and maybe sometimes the unsuccessful) projects I've worked on.

Go forth and enjoy a good challenge!