Mother of the Bride dress: Is this the one??

So here we go, the year 2013! As you all know I am going to make my mother of the bride dress for the June wedding of my daughter. There was much talk about me making her gown, but the last time I was visiting in California she found the dress of her dreams. It was a gorgeous strapless gown from a Columbian designer and was an allover embroidery over tulle style. Now, as much as I wanted to make her gown, I understood my limitations and that I could not duplicate this gown. So she decided to purchase her gown instead of having me make it. I was not upset at all because when you find the "one" gown that blows your mind, that takes over. It's her day and she should have what she wants. And she looked stunning in it!!

Now, getting back to my dress. I have been going back and forth for several months about the style of my dress. Meghan gave me no restrictions, it is all up to me. From what I hear of European weddings, they are big on the hat and gloves thing. I am so all over that! It appeals to my love of vintage and if I have a free pass to wear a fabulous hat and gloves in public, I'm there!

With that said you have to have a certain style dress to pull that look off, IMO. So I was thinking a vintage styled type dress, with some modern touches. I also didn't want a strapless dress or anything that really shows my arms. Don't want to scare the relatives!  Also, although I am working on losing weight I am still a bit chubby and want to have a style that is flattering.

So what to do? I think I may have the answer! The following is a vintage styled pattern (from 1951) that should fit the bill. I am concerned that I may be too big to pull it off, but it has the elegant style I was looking for and would look great with a fabulous hat and gloves! Not sure of the color yet (have to match those Dress Blues!!).

So: What do you think? Is this the "one"???

The Wedding Quilt: Complete!!!

Well after about 6 months of sore fingers and hands, the wedding quilt is finally finished!! Yay! I did the final wash and dry and went over the quilt to look for any mistakes or things I missed. I won't actually mail it out to Meghan and Don until after the holidays as I want the local family members to take a look at it. They may not get a chance to see it after I send it off to California!

I am really proud of how it turned out. I consider it a bridal quilt, although not one in the traditional sense because it is not white. But this is what the bride wanted and we all know that whatever the bride wants, the bride gets!! This was the first one that I actually designed the entire pattern myself. Normally the wholecloth quilts I have made used a paper template that I traced onto the fabric. This one I used several different designs from books and such, and incorporated it all together into one quilt. I am very please with the results!

A close up view of the border

The center "lovebird" design

A view of the all over quilt

My apologies if the pictures are not that great. I think it had to do with the lighting in the bedroom.

So there it is: only 6 months or so in the making! I loved how it turned out but not really ready to do another one anytime soon!

Now stayed tuned after the holidays for the mother of the bride dress I will be making for myself. No idea yet as to the color or style, but it will be fabulous! I get to wear a hat and gloves, just like the royal family (but without all the crazy family drama!!!)

Happy Holidays all!

The Wedding Quilt: Labels!!

Labels, labels, labels!!!  I have a thing for labels. I think that not only do they provide a nice way to "document" your quilt, but they also provide a type of history of why the quilt was made. Especially for something like a wedding quilt. I added two labels to this wedding quilt.

One label simply provides my name, it is the same type of label that I use on garments. You can have these made from an online service and I probably have these from years ago. Simply hand stitch onto the back of the quilt.

The other label is one that I had made from a vendor I found on Etsy. I wanted something embroidered that documents the wedding. And since I don't do embroidery I enlisted the help of someone else! She did a fabulous job and the entire thing only cost me about $25. Now some have mentioned that this label is rather "large". It is. And I like it that way. I wanted to have this very cute saying on the quilt and although the label is larger than normal, it will document their wedding!

The last part of the quilting process is well, in process!  I go over the quilt for any mistakes and loose threads, then wash and dry the quilt. Why do I wash it? Well, it does several things. It removes all the pencil marks that might have been left on the quilt. It also removes any batting fuzz or potential dog hair (yes that happens!). But probably the main reason I wash/dry it is to shrink it. It gives it an "antique" look that I like. I do preshrink the fabric before I quilt it but the batting will shrink somewhat as well. When that happens it give the quilt a type of "lived in" look that I like. And of course washing and drying it makes it pristine for the presenting of the gift!

Stay tuned for more quilting madness!!!

The Wedding Quilt: Home stretch!!

Ahh the home stretch of the wedding quilt! Yay! I have been working hard to finish up the quilt so that the family coming to the house on Christmas will be able to see the finished product. I wasn't sure who would get to see the quilt once I send it to Meghan in Berkeley, so I want to have it done soon for all to see "live".

So we are basically done with the quilting part and starting on the binding. I like to use a narrow binding and not a really wide one. The wide bindings remind me of the ratty blankets that kids drag around when they are little, with the wide, satin bindings and I don't care for that look. It's just me, if you prefer wide bindings by all means, don't be offended! Now you can make your own bias binding in any color or fabric you like, but I actually prefer to use pre-made binding. It is easy and there are many different colors available today.

My preferred type of binding

I like to use extra wide, double fold binding and then open it up and press it flat. Then I fold it in half and re press it and it is the exact size that I like for my quilt bindings. It is easy to work with and if you need to make it longer then just stitch another package length to the first one. I think that I like this because once I finally get to the end of the quilting process, I want it to be done and over with. So easy is the way to go!!

Now there has been much discussion (at least I think there has been much discussion) about how to round the corners of your quilt so that it looks right. My favorite way to do this: use a dinner plate. Yes, a dinner plate! It is the perfect round-ness and you simply trace the edge of the plate with your pencil and you never miss! You can use a saucer for small baby quilts, a salute plate for twin quilts and a larger dinner plate for the larger quilts. Plate: not just for meals anymore!!

Trace along the plate with your pencil!

Now once that is done, you simply cut along your tracing lines and then stitch the binding to the edges of the quilt. I machine stitch. I find I have more control that way and it holds better. Then I hand stitch the edge of the binding to the back of the quilt. It may take a while but it gives the front of the quilt a nice, clean look and allows you to manipulate around the corners.

Hand stitch the binding to the quilt

After that you are basically done! I have a few more tips and tricks for the final steps which will be on the next post. I like to go over the quilt to check out any "mistakes" and also put on labels and wash the quilt. Stay tuned: more to come!

Trip to San Francisco!

So this past weekend I headed off to San Francisco to visit Meghan and do some "wedding planning". Actually I headed to Oakland International airport and then traveled to Berkeley where she lives, but same difference!
The plan has been to try on multiple wedding gowns with the thought to decide on a style which would suit her tiny frame and then design the dress from that. She already had a style in mind, we just wanted to make sure that the one she thought she wanted would look good on her. She is very short and we all know that the fashion magazines tend to have 6'7" models in them who weigh collectively 42 pounds. Not the normal woman. Not even Barbie. But I digress....

One of our stops was the fabulous Britex Fabrics, on Geary Street in San Francisco. It is not far from the Union Square shopping area and is a SF landmark and caters to the local design stores as well as people from all over the country. If a fabric store could be orgasmic, this would be it!! It has a total of 4 floors and each one is amazing! If you are ever in the SF area, a trip to Britex is a must! Even if you don't sew, your senses will become alive with the fabulous fabrics and the extremely knowledgeable salespeople. Don't have the cash flow to spend $300 for Armani wool? No worries, head up to the 4th floor where they have a great selection of remnants for everyone! I myself have purchased remnants up there that have turned into wonderful garments!

See picture of the outside street level of the shop:

Britex Fabrics

We looked at many types of silks, chiffons and satins for the potential wedding gown. I didn't take pictures inside the shop because it just isn't the kind of place one snaps pics with your iPhone. I suppose that some people do that, but I felt uncomfortable doing so. Besides, we were talking with the clerk about wedding fabric, not trying to be tourists!

Now on to the wedding gown:
Well, there has been some discussion about me not making it at this point. Reason being, Meghan may have tried on the "perfect gown" in a bridal shop. It was something that I would be unable to duplicate, with an allover embroidery on silk and just the most amazing style and fit on here. She is deciding so stay tuned as to a potential change in plans. Since it is all about the bride, I am comfortable with whatever she decides! Stay tuned!!!

The Wedding Quilt!

So it has been a while since I've worked on the wedding quilt. Work travel and life in general have had the quilt sitting for far too long. Since I had a long weekend to myself (Ed was visiting our daughter in the Bay area), I spent the majority of the weekend in front of a warm fire quilting away!

Now we have progressed to the border, and you can see from the pictures that it is a simple flowing wave border, although I have added some hearts in between. Very cute!

We are moving right along! I hope to get more quilting done this week as my travel schedule permits because we are fast approaching the holiday season (can you believe it?), also I want to have this done by the end of December because then I will be starting on the wedding gown!

Stay tuned!

After some of the quilting: I have added hearts to the wave border!

The border simply traced on to the fabric!

Navy work skirt!

So I have not been working on the wedding quilt this weekend. But my plan is work on it this evening while I get caught up on the stuff on the DVR. Until then, here is Sunday's project!

A new navy skirt for work. Something just quick and simple that I whipped up today (took about 3 hours, including cutting out the fabric). I have a fabulous tweed suit jacket from Ann Taylor that I wear with navy pants but I didn't have a navy skirt to go with it. I like being able to mix and match for work because it makes packing easier and allows me to get more use out a piece in my wardrobe. Enter Vogue 8835. I chose version #2, shown below.

Vogue 8835

Now I only used a navy crepe-type suiting fabric that I found at Joanne's fabrics, nothing special. I just wanted something simple that could coordinate with the jacket. The one difference to the pattern that I made is to line the entire skirt, the pattern only calls for just the yoke to be lined. I prefer to line the entire thing because it A) slips on and off easier and B) allows your fashion fabric to last longer, thus extending the life of your garment.

I have finished everything except the hem on the skirt. I normally like to let my garments "hang" for at least 24 hours before I hem them. (Normally this is only done on bias cut skirts, but I prefer to do it on just about all of my garments). So my plan is to hem the skirt next weekend when I am home from work travel!

The skirt is kind of a mock wrap skirt, the wrap part is stitched up about 1/2 way down the skirt on the left side. These are not the best pictures. Unfortunately, my dress form is the one that I have had for about 25 years. It is much smaller than I currently am so the clothes don't fit as well on it as they should. I don't understand why that dress form "shrunk" as much as it did. Maybe a manufacturer's defect?!

All in all a satisfying project. I will probably use the pattern again with other fabrics. It seems to coordinate well with suit jackets so it will extend the choices of my current suits to make additional outfits!

It's not hemmed yet, that's for next weekend!

Look, I'm lined!

The skirt with the Ann Taylor jacket I wanted to match up with it.