Mother of the bride outfit! Fabric found!!

So! My trip to San Francisco last weekend was wonderful! Although I got home on Sunday night and had to be back at the airport Monday morning to fly to North Carolina for work! Busy Busy!!  But we did a great deal of wedding stuff while I was there, including finding the fabric for my dress!

I had been going back and forth about what color I should wear. Meghan was completely unconcerned about it; she left it up to me. I did however, need to coordinate with my husbands USMC dress blues uniform, so that really left out colors like yellow and light green, etc.

Even though it is a June wedding, I was really feeling red. I look good in red. I love the color. I bought a new car in red. It’s MY color! So we headed over to the orgasmic Britex Fabrics on Geary Street early Saturday morning. We looked at a couple of different fabrics, but when the salesclerk showed us a fabulous red silk faille, I was in love! It was a lovely red (not that orange red but a clear, blue red) and was a nice weight with some texture to it. 100% silk and just fabulous! I was sold! And so was Meghan. It has a nice weight that should drape wonderfully with the pattern I chose for the dress. This is not the type of fabric one could get at a Joanne’s or Hancock fabrics. (And at $95 per yard I can understand why!)

The button purchased for the dress!

100% silk faille

It's not nearly this pink

 

The pattern I chose. I will be making the short sleeve one.

The pictures don’t really do it justice; I blame the late afternoon sun in my sewing room! The plan is to do all gray accessories, with gray gloves, shoes and hat (and potentially a purse) to complement it. I also have been thinking of lining the front skirt drape with a lovely gray to bring out the gray accessories as well. Will think on that!

So, what do you think? Is it weird that I am wearing red to my daughter’s wedding. (Not that I care!)  I figure that as long as Meghan is happy, that is all that matters!

Stay tuned for shoes!  Ahhh….Shoes….

Plaid, Plaid, Plaid!!

So here we are another weekend and another weekend project! I know, it has been all sewing all the time for me! I attribute it to the cold weather. Or something. Not sure why I have been so busy in the sewing room, unless it is because I am getting close to making my mother of the bride dress!

This being said, I started work this weekend on a cute cardigan type jacket. I have a wonderful plaid wool that my daughter gave me for Christmas one year. I this it was 2 years ago and I have been dying to use it, but wanted to use it for something special. Plaid is tricky. You have to use just the right pattern or run the chance of looking like a 1970's throwback. Basically I feel that you should use a simple design for the garment the more "busy" the fabric is. I have never been a super fan of plaid but this is just a lovely fabric with a great "feel" and is very lightweight!

The plaid I am using is a beautiful lightweight wool with an all over brownish beige pattern. It is very lovely and just a joy to work with. Used as the lining is a rement that I bought a few years ago at Britex on their rement floor. It is a brown silk with a slight dotted pattern. Another lovely fabric!

Vogue basic cardigan style jacket

I used a simple Vogue pattern for a basic cardigan style jacket. No buttons or closures and patch pockets on the front. I used view B of the pattern.

Beautiful wool plaid!

Looks kind of funky 1/2 done!

Somehow, I managed to match up the pockets!

 Plaids are tricky. You have to make sure that if the design is very visable, you have to match up the plaid in certain areas. That means paying attention when you cut out the pattern, and it may be necessary to obtain extra fabric (more than the pattern calls for) to allow for the matching. Also, if you have pockets in the front, there will be a need to allow for the pattern to match up on the front. It is not difficult, but it does require more time and patience. Also, this wool was a loose weave. This means that it unravels easily so extra care will need to be taken to finish seams to discourage the fabric to unravel. I used both bias tape as well as finishing the seams to provide a more finished look (even though it is inside the jacket and will never be seen!

View of the inside lining

Hand sewing the lining on

The finished product!

I really like how the finished product came out. The picture above does not do it justice (and the pattern does match up on the jacket in the front, it just looks funky on my dress form! I really like the option of having a cute, lightweight jacket that I can dress up or down. I can pair this with a dressy skirt (brown or blue) and I have a suit for work. I can throw it on with a pair of jeans and a bright scarf (purple or pink would be nice) and I have a cute casual look.

 A view of the inside facing. 

I love my labels!

All in all I am very pleased with the outcome. It took both Saturday and Sunday (1/2 day each day) to complete the jacket (including the cutting out of the fabric and matching the plaid). I would use this pattern again, it was very simple. Hopefully I can post a much better picture of the finished product on me instead of the dress form. It looks much better on!

I intend to stay away from the sewing machine for the next few weeks to give myself a break. I plan on traveling to San Francisco to the fabulous Britex fabric on Geary Street to shop for fabric for my mother of the bride dress. I am leaving the weekend of the 22nd so stay tuned for fabric blogging!!

Mother of the Bride dress: Ughhh!

So... After a long decision concerning my mother of the bride dress, I decided to go with the vintage pattern shown in my last post! I have started working on the muslin for the dress and so far so good. Until I started to shop for fabric.

I went out today for a short trip over to Lansing, IL to visit Vogue Fabrics. Now I hadn't been over there in a while, but they have been in their Lansing location for years. I remember shopping there back in 1989 when I was living here with hubby's mom and pregnant with Meghan. Much to my surprise when I pulled up: the store had a "for lease" sign on it and was vacant!! I was horrified! I drove about a block away to a local fast food joint to use the restroom and grab a Diet Coke and questioned the young lady behind the counter. She said they had been gone about a year or so now. Damn! Now they do have other locations (Evanson as well as the south Loop area). But Lansing is closer and I was really looking forward to the day browsing through the bolts of fabric. Ugghhhh!

So the plan is to potentially go next Saturday for a Chicago area fabric- crawl (some people do bar crawls, some do cupcake crawls: apparently I do fabric crawls!  I may also just say screw it and book a trip back out to San Francisco to visit the Orgasmic Britex Fabrics! After talking with Meghan this afternoon that might be the best option. I could also help her with potential veil ideas while I'm there.

Stay tuned! If I do the fabric crawl next weekend, expect a post and pictures! And there may be a SF trip in March as well! I still don't know for sure the color of the dress. I have been leaning towards a type of Thai Silk or something similar in weight. I know that I don't want anything shiny or noisy like taffeta. I am of the mind that when I find what I am looking for, then it will hit me. I just may have to fly across the country to find it!!

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

I have been trying to work on the quilt in between work travel and normal "house stuff". I am currently working on the part in between the medallions which is the "filler" part of the quilt. (Don't know the technical term, I say filler)  I was going back and forth as to what design to use and finally decided on just a straight line. The main reason is that I wanted the feathered wreath medallion to be shown off. I find that to be a beautiful part of the quilt and I wanted it front and center.

These pictures are a little hard to see because of the late afternoon lighting, but you can see the straight lines filling in the design. I think that it looks really nice because it doesn't take away from the central design but simply adds to it.

Working hard and coming right along! That's a good thing because before you know it I will be working on the wedding gown! My trip to San Francisco is booked for middle November to meet up with my daughter to try on wedding gowns! We are going to have her try on several styles that she likes (that she saw in magazines) and then decide on what type of style to design for her gown. We will also visit the ultra-fabulous Britex fabrics, located in San Francisco. It is the orgasmic version of a fabric shop and a must-see for anyone visiting the Bay area! 4 floors of fabric heaven!!

Stay tuned for updates on the quilt as well as wedding gown updates and my upcoming trip. Finally a trip that is not for work but simply for pleasure!!!

Straight lines fill in without taking away from the design.

Hard to tell it's navy colored but it is!