Sunday, February 13, 2011

Wedding Dress Round Two - The Final Version

silk and lining being marked and cut out

fusible interfacing ironed onto silk


 This is actually really tricky to get right
Attaching fusible interfacing to fabric:
1. Cut out pattern pieces in the interfacing.
2. Sew the interfacing onto your outer fabric just outside the seam allowance being really careful not to warp the silk and using a 4.5 stitch length as this stitch will be removed shortly. 
3. Lay the fabric flat once it is sewn to check that it is flat. Unpick and resew any sections that have been warped. It'll be worth it in the long-run.
4. Cut the interfacing outside the seam allowance off. When sewing seams, you want to avoid any unnecessary bulk. This is especially important in a boned garment because the boning and its casing are going to add bulk themselves. This is why you go to great lengths to cut off any unnecessary interfacing as it's quite thick material.
5. Iron the interfacing onto the silk, again, making sure that the silk doesn't warp as the ironing creates a permanent seal between the interfacing and your fabric. If this goes wrong, it's back to square one.
6. unpick all your stitching and go over once again with the iron to ensure all interfacing has fused. 


hand made boning casings

I ran out of interfacing after 6 panels, so this is where the bodice has to end today

completed lining

front of bodice. all seams need boning but I am waiting until I have sewn the entire bodice before I do this (except for the centre seam) so that I can make sure it fits perfectly and can easily make any seam changes

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

A month-or-so in the life of my sewing machine

Sewing. The craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread.
Sounds a bit standard, right?

Below you'll find some of the things I made over the recent Christmas holidays:
Apologies for the poor quality photos.

cotton box pleat skirt
fabric from Tessuti
pattern by me


sheer top.
I took the pattern off a top in my wardrobe

love this material!

am a bit of a fan of this band 'Die Antwoord'
I made this t-shirt and then painted it with this image in acrylic.
the image comes from some Sydney graffiti that I found and loved. 
ZEF $O FRE$, Indeed!!
...I also made a plain white version of this tee


shimmy shimmy

mind the wrinkles
made this simple box-pleat skirt and painted my bunny character on it

simple stretch stripe skirt. made a plain black one too
I also had some random items in my swing kit, so made this  one-shoulder thingy

....it adds a touch of pizzaz

floor length fine blue and white stripe dress with braided straps
I also made an obscenely long square bead necklace. I love the sound it makes.

very comfortable black jersey dress with beads and twisted straps 

fin.....for now....