Drum roll please!

Here it is!

 The zipper is on the dress:

I know, I know it looks a bit sloppy but I do plan on fixing it. And no it is not an invisible zipper because I HATE those things they never work! Have you ever had a dress with an invisible zipper that actually zipped up without getting caught? I have not. And you have to buy a special foot for your machine for those.

Now as for the how to I told you I found for zippers:

http://makezine.com/craft/101/sewing101_zippers/

I thought this tutorial was brilliant I had never hear of attaching a zipper this way and I did try with my dress but there was just too much fabric for my machine with all of the gathering so I did it the good old fashioned way with my own two hands.

Here is what the dress looks like on my dress form:

Unfortunately I was pretending to have a larger chest area when I was measuring (or maybe I was just hoping they'd grow by July 11th haha) so the top will have to be adjusted but I am pretty happy with the way it looks so far :)

And now for some side notes...

Side note 1:

check out this cute wallet I made for my cousin

 Made out of paper, soft lamination material, and thread

 Complete with a hidden pocket in the dollar bill spot.

Side note 2: Cleaning my machine (this will be informative)

Somewhere in the process of making my dress I noticed my machine was making a funny sound and decided I should get to the bottom of it so I took my machine apart. I want to mention here that is pays to buy the expensive thread because it is bound together a little better than the cheap thread and the cheap thread will not only leave more lint in your machine but will break a lot easier.

The above is what the bobbin case looked like before cleaning 

 Look how much lint was in there! You really have to clean out your machine often if you want it to function properly. With all the lint that builds up the parts do not move as well and will cause you a big headache.

I thought I had a problem in the top of the machine because of the weird noise my machine was making but it turned out I just needed to clean that out too it was filthy!

This is what's inside a sewing machine!

Happy Tuesday and thanks for reading

Zipper fun!

The Zipper is on!

That's right, the procrastination is over.

Before I put the zipper on my dress, I took some time to think about how the dress was going to come together and I am glad I did! 

I realized that something had to be done with the raw edge of the taffeta layer on the bottom. I hadn't done anything with it because I figured it would be hidden but it won't be hidden by anything but organza so...

I folded it under and pinned and then stitched the taffeta to the inner lining with a plain old top stitch (speaking of which I don't know if I have mentioned but I have been using a top stitch needle this whole time and if you don't know why (or don't believe that) the needle type makes a difference, ask the ladies at the viking counter in Joanne Fabrics. They will tell you all about it and I promise it is not B.S.... Maybe I will do a side note about the different types. It really comes down to the fact that each type of needle is a different sharpness and shape and every type of fabric is knitted a certain way. Anywho...

I ended up sewing the zipper on by hand here is why:

I saw this wonderful tutorial about how to do zippers easily and though I would try it but I failed miserably because there was just too much fabric with the gathers in my dress but check this out if you are putting a zipper on anything:

Ok I can't find it at the moment and I am running out of time I will have to edit this later! but... 

There is also this one for invisible zippers:

http://www.coletterie.com/tutorials-tips-tricks/tutorial-installing-an-invisible-zipper

 

I am going to leave you wondering what the dress looks like with the zipper on for the next 8-12 hours so that you come back to see muahahaha! 

thanks for reading I'll post again soon!!!

Adding the lining to my wedding dress:

After quite a long procrastination period, I finally added the lining to the top part of my gown here is how:

I waited a while to put the lining into my dress because the task seemed so difficult but now it is done! I started by measuring and cutting the lining to be fitted:

(the lining is folded in half here)

I decided that I would attach the lining to the top of my gown first and then do the sides but then I realized I had made a mistake with the dress... I hadn't finished the edges before I gathered! : / ooops

 You can see that the edges are raw and fraying which simply will not be ok when I put the zipper on so...

I used a zig zag ladder stitch (I do not know what the stitch is actually called but that is the best description I can give) to finish the edges. This step would have been much easier had I remembered to do it before gathering because it would have been just two layers of fabric (the taffeta and the organza.) Since the fabric was already gathered, it was hard no to accidentally leave chunks of it out of the finishing stitch. You can see above that I used my all purpose foot because I thought it would be easier to keep the stitch close to the edge that way but it also made it easier for pieces to escape the stitch. I highly recommend a satin foot for things like this because that one does not have a gap which makes it easier to not leave chunks out and because a satin foot is the foot you use when working with this type of material. (duh Nicole!)...yea I just used the term duh!

Yay finished edges!

Now for the liner... Which I remembered to finish before attaching. (for that I used a good old zig zag stitch since the lining was thinner and my machine was unwilling to do any other stitch without making a mess of it)

Of course after finishing the edges of the lining I realized I could have just pinned it to the dress and finished and attached it all in one go, but I insist on working harder not smarter haha! 

To attach the liner I used what I will call a half ladder stitch (the one selected in the picture indicated by the little red light above it.) I put the right sides of the lining and the dress together and stitched along the top.

TA-DA! The lining is in...Sort of.

After this I decided that, I would just do a stay stitch along the sides to hold the liner and the dress together while I put the zipper on. The stitch for the zipper will also hold the sides of the lining and dress together. I have been pretty nervous about putting the zipper on the dress because I don't have a ton of experience with zippers... And so began procrastination phase 2!

SIDE NOTE:

While procrastinating I made a very cute fanny pack check it out!

Complete with a cell phone pouch and rings for keys (I seriously needed this for my dog walking job it comes in so handy)

And it was not completely to procrastinate, I practiced putting a zipper on!

I found that adorable bow buckle at Jo Anne's (where the heck else do I shop!?) I was worried about how long it would last because it is a clasp so I expected it to come undone on me but it has held up quite well! I keep so much stuff in the pouches when I walk dogs and I am still able to jog without being careful and the bow stays in place. I am super excited to make more! And it is swimsuit season I am dying to get my hands on some swimsuit material and create beautiful swimwear :)

Thanks for reading and HAPPY FRIDAY! May your weekend be filled with sun

You live and you learn...

Keeping up with Nicole

In my last post I gave some tips for working with slippery fabric and showed you my stay stitches. Since then I have made quite a bit of progress with a few mistakes(which is to be expected from me!) 

After I did stay stitches on three sides of the large rectangle of fabric, I measured the top, middle, and bottom of the fabric and pinned where I would start my gathers. As I have mentioned before, I want my dress to be perfectly form fitting so the lines I stitched for the gathers were curvy (Top and bottom are wider to match my chest and hip size.)

When you want to do gathers it is always best to use the longest straight stitch on  your machine so that it is easy to pull the thread through. You also want to remember not to back stitch at all and you need at least two rows of stitches to gather.

I had to be extra careful about holding the fabric in place so that the organza wouldn't slip (it did of course my dress will not be perfect!)

After I put two lines of long straight stitches in I pulled the bottom thread and scrunched the fabric (that is the best description I can give at the moment but there are a ton of tutorials online if you are confused.)

AND...

Vuala! Tis finished! 

The gathering part is anyway!

Now the real fun begins.. Lining and zipper!

I measured my lining the same way I measured the outer part of the dress so that it will be fitted and it will fit with the outer part.

And then I cut it and here is what it looked like folded in half! 

After cutting it, I attache the lining to the dress but I just can't find energy to keep explaining  (Sorry!) It will have to be done tomorrow or perhaps this weekend. Until then have beautiful dreams and sunny days! Thanks for reading!

Side Note: Check out this snappy little thing I made in a hurry the other day because I needed a way to carry keys for work and something to hide my butt so it doesn't get stared at in leggings haha!

Just two pieces of  fabric with seams down the sides and a cute little sideways bow for a key chain to hang off of 

Worked perfectly for the keys not so much the not getting starred at but I tried! 

PS

Fanny packs are back in and I made the cutest one you will ever see! Look for pics in my next post!

Sewing slippery fabric

Working with Organza and Taffeta can be tough!

Here is how I have managed so far:

Making your own wedding dress can be made easy if you choose a simple pattern and a fabric that is easy to work with. For my dress, I knew I was in for a hard time because the dress of my dreams is made of taffeta and organza; two very slippery fabrics. I did  some research to find some tips and tricks before I started my actual dress. Here are some helpful websites I found:

http://www.essortment.com/sewing-crafts-work-organza-45114.html

I also found a lot of tips for organza which included:

• Buy a big cutting mat or have a large area for cutting
• Use a Rotary cutter if possible or at least very sharp scissors
• Use heavy objects to hold the fabric down while you are cutting and measuring.
• Pin, Pin, Pin!!! and use basting stitches

After I did a practice run gathering the taffeta, I cut a new taffeta piece and a matching organza piece for the outside of the dress. I pinned the pieces together very carefully and did stay stitches along the top and sides of the fabric before I moved on to gathering them.

I used heavy objects.

And I pinned like crazy before stitching.

I was also super careful to keep the fabric even as I stitched. I started with a large straight stitch on three sides of my large rectangular pieces.

After I did the stay stitches, I measured to find where I wanted the gathers and marked the wrong side of the fabric for reference. I did not do the gathers straight down the sides because I want my gown to be fitted with one seam in the back. I added three tapered rows of large straight stitches to each side for gathering. The tapering went in from the top toward the waist area and back out from the waist to hip area making it so that when I put the zipper in, the dress will be fitted all around.

That is all I have for today!

Side note: I found out this weekend that somebody that was once a daily part of my life passed away. I still considered this person a friend even though it had been a while since I had seen her and it was very hard news to hear. It still hasn't really sunk in as reality. When someone is not part of everyday it just seems so unreal when they leave this world especially when they are young and the death is unexpected. I was thinking of this person just a couple days before I found out about her passing away and I regret  that I didn't even consider calling or even just texting her. I encourage everyone to keep in touch with the people you care about because you really do not know when it could be your last chance to do so. -R.I.P. Jaime Burnett your beautiful and fun loving soul will forever be missed.

Moving along...

Happy Tuesday evening :)

In my last post, I introduced you to the dress of my dreams and promised to give you more about how I got started making it, so here it is: 

The first thing I thought about when I decided to make my dress was the fact that I should do a mock up dress first. I went to buy cheap fabric and ended up walking out with $70.00 worth of nice fabric. I did not want to use my nice fabric for the mock up so popped some tags at value village (seriously, I love that place!) 

I bought a giant moo-moo like dress that had plenty of usable fabric and started practicing:

This fabric was silky and pretty tough to work with. At this point I wasn't sure if I wanted to gather the fabric or pleat it so I tried both.

I don't have a picture of the gathered fabric because I ripped ou tthe stitches after gathering this piece so that I could try pleating it. When I gathered the fabric, it did not hang the way I wanted. Here is what it looked like as I pleated it

I was too lazy to finish pleating it because the material was so slippery. I decided to move on to the nice fabric because I really wanted to know for sure what that material would look like pleated and gathered. 

As you can see above, I started to pleat my white fabric and decided against finishing it because I didn't like the way it looked sooo...

I tried gathering it. You can see in the picture above that I didn't just do a straight line of stitches down the sides because I want the dress to be fitted so ideally there would be one princess seam down the back at the zipper. 

This is what it looked like when I pinned the trial version onto my dress form. By the way if you need a tutorial on gathering I can help! Although there are already a million out there so you could also just ask google or youtube.

I decided gathered was absolutely the way to go and I started on the actual dress (so much for a mock up!) More on this later!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Make your own wedding dress!

Hello readers,

Welcome to my first blog post!I started this blog to share my experience as I make my own wedding dress. I am not a seamstress but I own a sewing machine and I know how to use it. If you are thinking that I must have had years of experience sewing, you are wrong. I simply wanted the wedding dress of my dreams without paying more than $200 for it.

The decision to make my own dress is quite an ambitious one for  me as I have actually only ever made three dresses in my life but I want to prove that it is possible. I of course did try on dresses before I made my decision. This is the dress I fell in love with and the one that my gown pattern will be based off of:

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Organza-and-Tulle-High-Low-Gown-with-Beaded-Flower-SPK470

Before I even started working on my dress I knew I needed a dress form or mannequin. If you are considering making any kind of clothing especially dresses you NEED one of the two. Of course the nice dress forms cost around $100 or more and I do not have that much to spend so I followed this tutorial:

http://etsylabs.blogspot.com/2007/03/dress-form-tutorial-want-to-make-exact.html

And here is a picture of what I ended up with:

  

I followed the instructions in the tutorial and, with the help of my awesome fiance, put my dress form on an old lamp stand. To mount it on the lamp stand, We taped cardboard to the neck and arm holes (to close them off.) Then, cut a long rectangle of cardboard to attach to the lamp stand so the stuffing would have something to "stick" to. We attached the cardboard to the lamp post by cutting slits in the cardboard and weaving the lamp post through it. We stuffed it by holding the dress form upside down with the pole in the middle of it and putting stuffing from an old pillow in it until it was about the right shape. I then closed off the bottom with another piece of cardboard and TA-DA! If you want a tutorial with pictures comment. I can probably put one together. 

I started working on the dress about a month ago and have been slowly making progress. I made a trip to Joann fabrics first and talked with a lady at the cutting counter about my plans. It was awesome to hear her say, "If you are confident that you can do it, you will succeed." those were certainly the first encouraging words I received since everyone else (including myself) was skeptical.

I will post more about how I got started later! Thank you for reading! Happy Thursday afternoon!