When You Wish Upon a Sewing Machine...

Making children's clothing can be so much fun. It is always a delight to complete a cute little outfit, especially when it is for a special occasion.

In this instance, the occasion was a trip to Disney World. My client brought me three smocking plates (completed smocked designs) to be inserted into new outfits. Her family was going to Florida, and she wanted matching clothes for her children. Minnie Mouse silhouettes were to be inserted in the girls' sleeveless A-line shirts, and a Mickey Mouse silhouette was intended for the little boy's romper.


Are they not adorable? (Their older sister was still trying on her outfit.) All the pieces are fully lined, and all the tops unbutton at the shoulder. The girls' pants have elastic waistbands. Narrow red piping outlines the smocked insertions.

I hope they enjoyed their trip immensely. It is nice to think that my handiwork had the opportunity to go all over the "happiest place on earth."

Cushy Redo

Sometimes you just need something new. Or at least something that looks new. Moth and rust doth corrupt, after all--as do our beloved pets...

In this case, my client's dogs had decided that it would be fun to tear up the covers of her couch cushions. When she decided to redecorate, the interior designer with whom she was working told her to get a new couch. That is not an inexpensive proposition.

The couch itself was in good shape, but the cushions looked decidedly the worse for wear. Besides, she liked the couch. So she contacted me about recovering the cushions and making some new throw pillows.

When she brought the cushions to me, she had already cut off and thrown away the old covers. If she had not done so, I could have used them for patterns. I managed just fine without them, though. (The finished cushions are on my daybed in the photo; I wanted a picture of them but knew I would not be able to see them in her house.) The throw pillows are simple chenile squares. The covers for the couch cushions have piping around the edges and zippers on the bottoms, since she wanted to be able to remove and wash the covers. Considering the fact that she has dogs, that was not a bad idea.

Her ottoman also needed reviving. She was particularly pleased with how well it turned out, and so was I. The top cushion has a zipper on the bottom and is attached to the base with Velcro, again making it possible to remove and wash the cover. The base itself has an elasticized cover so that it, too, can be taken off.

This project cost her much less than buying a new couch would have, and she still got to update her decor the way she wanted. It is great to be able to resuscitate someone's "treasure."

Pillowed Parlors

Throw pillows can really make a big difference in a room. They can either complement or contrast with the overall decor, emphasizing different aspects of the color scheme. They also make the room cozier and more welcoming, inviting people to settle in and be comfortable.

In this case, my client wanted throw pillows for two very different rooms: the living room and the game room. She had fabric to work with both rooms; I just had to turn the material into pillows. The style of pillow is the same for both rooms, although the piping size is different for the two rooms.

This is in the living room. The small photo at the top of the post is of the left-hand pillow on the couch. Once again, the camera flash caused a color change.

This is in the game room. The walls in this room are actually the same shade of pale blue that is in the paisley pattern of the fabric. In both rooms, throw pillows were an easy way to add interest and comfort to the decor.

Veiled Belle

It is such an honor to be involved with a wedding. I am always pleased when I can contribute to such a joyful celebration. I started early with my wedding experience, since I was the five-year-old flower girl when my oldest sister married. (Incidentally, my sister is a fantastic seamstress, too. She made her own wedding dress, and she and my mother made the bridesmaids' dresses. You might almost say that sewing is in my genes.) Having a relatively large family, I participated a few more times in the nuptials of siblings before I first sewed for a wedding.

When I was asked earlier this year to make the veil for a friend's wedding (actually, both the bride and groom are friends of mine), I was thrilled. She wanted a cathedral-length veil with a lot of fullness and multiple layers. I talked her out of a layer or two, because it would have overshadowed her lovely dress and her lovely self. In lieu of using the added tiers of tulle to achieve the desired fullness, I did a lot of gathering. The result was nice and fluffy.

Is she not pretty? (As a Georgia native, she is a true Southern belle!) This picture was taken during the reception; she sweetly let me reattach the train so that I could take a photo of it, which is why the train is wrinkled. The white background makes it a little difficult to see, but the top back layer of the veil is fingertip-length, while the blusher is wrist-length. The nine-foot train is secured to the comb by Velcro, making it easily detached.

Here it is without the train. She was delighted with the veil, and it received several compliments. Even a couple people who did not know that I had made it commented to me that the fullness was very nice. I am pleased I could add to the special occasion.

Not Just a Scarf Anymore

One of the great things about sewing is being able to take one thing and turn it into something else. In this case, my client had a window scarf that she wanted made into a valance for her kitchen. She loved the material, but it just was not what she wanted for the room. Since I am quite accustomed to looking at just about any fabric item as a possible supply source for another project, it was easy for me to envision the scarf as something else. Not everyone can mentally "see" finished products like that, but my client could. In fact, she knew just how she wanted the valance to look and made me a sketch of it. I love working with creative, artsy people like that. They know what they want; I just have to figure out how to construct it.

After taking the measurements and with my client's sketch and the details she had given me about additional accents, I set off to find the necessary material and buttons. It does not show up very much in the photos, but the scarf fabric has dark sage green stripes among all the reds, oranges, and golds. I found some gabardine that nicely picked up the green. Finding the wooden buttons was harder; they must not be especially popular right now. However, I eventually discovered some that would work.

Since the scarf material was very fluid, I lined the valance with unbleached cotton muslin to give it some body. The straps are for decoration only; they cannot be unbuttoned. Since, as you can see, there is considerable wall space between the top of the window and the ceiling, the length of the valance visually extends the window and makes the room itself seem taller and more spacious.

It really looks good in her lovely kitchen. She told me that she receives many compliments on it, and that is always gratifying to hear.

On the Subject of Handbags...

Or purses or pocketbooks or whatever you call the accessory that women use to carry their personal stuff with them.

Since my last post was about the reproduction Victorian opera bag I crocheted, I thought it would be fitting to show you a purse I made recently. This one was a gift for my sister (a blue rose fanatic), and I made it to her specifications. The fabric was leftover from a dress I made a few months ago, and it just reminded me of her. You must admit that her fancy for blue roses is wonderful, since it is the reason that such things of beauty remind me of her.




It is fully lined with a blue plaid fabric that also brings her to mind (for an entirely different reason that would take too long to explain), and there is a zippered inside pocket in the back. I wish I had taken a picture of that before I sent it too her, but I did not think of it at the time. The button loop that secures the top flap is made of the same fabric as the outside of the purse.

In all, I thought it turned out well. She did, too, which fact delights me. I love you, sis!!

Just One More (for a Good Cause)...

This will be the final post about the Sticks to Bricks dinner. I think. It is not really sewing-related, but it does have to do with my outfit for the evening.


I posted earlier about my gold evening gown. I accessorized it with this beautiful little handbag, a reproduction of a Victorian opera bag:



I crocheted it a year or two ago, using size 30 thread. I made it a little larger than the pattern specified and lined it with some off-white fabric pulled from my stash. It is big enough that I had room for my car key, business cards, and camera; and the drawstrings are long enough that I could put them over my shoulder. The ecru thread went perfectly with the gold silk of my dress, and it added a vintage touch of class to my attire.

Evening Elegance--For a Good Cause

I promised I would post some more about the dress I wore to the Sticks to Bricks charity dinner. I had to make a new dress for it, because I had nothing appropriate to wear that actually fit properly. However, I did not want to spend a great deal of money, either. That is when I remembered something in my fabric stash.

Anyone who does very much sewing has a fabric stash. Having loads of excess material seems to be a sort of disease for seamstresses. We buy fabric just because it is pretty or just because it is on sale or just because we will have some use for it someday. The fabric multiplies, too, and not necessarily through additional purchases. Once friends and family--even casual acquaintances, at times--discover that someone knows how to make things out of fabric, all kinds of textile gifts are suddenly bestowed. The fabric stash grows.

In this case, it was a very good thing.

One of my friends is another seamstress. She is retired now, but she sewed professionally for over forty years. She loved doing it, too. Her specialty was window treatments (she worked with an interior designer), but she made a good many other things, as well. When I bought my house and mentioned to her that I wanted to make a gold valance for the music room, she presented me with a good-sized bag of gold fabrics. Not just any gold fabrics, mind you. No, they were all silk. Such luxurious gorgeousness!

That bag of yet-unused gold silk is what I remembered when I needed to make an evening gown to wear to a black-tie dinner. There was enough of one of the fabrics to not only construct the dress but to also line it. The scraps remaining after the project was completed were not skimpy, either. And I happen to think the dress turned out well:

The small photo at the top of this post shows a close-up of the decorative stitching that goes all the way around the dress: neckline, button placket, and hem. It also trims the sleeves. (Yes, the "signature" photo at the top of the blog is a picture of the same thing, but the stitching shows up better in the one with this post.) Since it is the same color as the fabric, it is a very subtle detail, but it adds just the right touch.

The buttons are covered with the same fabric. I love using button forms. Closures that perfectly match the garment make all the difference between an obviously homemade product and one that prompts people to ask where the item was purchased.

The back of the gown is pretty, too:

The lacing, made of the same gold silk as the dress, gives interest to the back in addition to enabling a precise fit. I made a couple French tacks between the dress and the lining to ensure that the lining would not bunch wrong when the lacing is tightened.

Only a couple people at the dinner commented about the dress to me. However, I heard second-hand that the dress had gotten many compliments. One woman told me that she had been upstairs in the gallery overlooking the main room and had heard several people saying that it was a beautiful dress. That was nice to know.

Even better, though, was the joy of wearing such a gorgeous frock and the satisfaction of having made it myself.

Sewing for a Good Cause

The Sticks to Bricks charity dinner was held at the Levine Museum in Uptown Charlotte last night. Its purpose was to raise money to build a school in the Sudan. David Chadwick, pastor of the Forest Hills Church, and his wife, Marilynn--both of whom recently visited the Sudan--were a couple of the speakers; and Damien Horne provided some of the live music. Truly, an evening of culture.

Part of the event was a silent auction, which is how I became involved with the whole thing. A couple of my clients helped organize the function, and one of them asked if I would like to donate a dress to the auction. I was happy to oblige, and constructed this pretty little thing:

The main dress is made of an off-white satin with a somewhat violet hue, and the overlay is a lavender, sheer, crinkled, slightly-thicker-than-chiffon polyester. The bodice is lined with a fine cotton batiste, which makes it more comfortable to wear than a usual polyester lining would. It turned out quite nicely, and I heard several people gushing over it. For some reason, though, someone put on the card that it was a Karen Bedding dress, which is not my name; and no one knows whence came that name, either. It was very odd. However, my website was listed correctly on the card, and I am quite glad about that.

The eventual winner of the auction wanted to get the dress for his mother, but I overheard him tell someone near him that it would not fit her. Seizing the opportunity to introduce myself as the maker of the garment, I told him that I could make another one in her size. He checked with the people running the auction, and we worked out a deal: If he won the auction, I would take back this dress and make another one for his mother. He won, and I brought the dress home with me.

I will be posting more in the future about the dinner and the gorgeous dress I made to wear to it.

Navy and White

It is a very pretty color combination. A project I have in progress uses it, and it reminded me of a friend's wedding, last summer, for which I had the privilege of doing some sewing. Among other things, I made the ringbearer pillows.

My friend had two ringbearers; their sister was the flower girl (a set of triplets, no less). She wanted contrasting pillows for the rings: a white one for the bride's ring and a navy one for the groom's ring. The ribbon trim on for each was the color of the other. They turned out quite nicely, if I may say so. She was thrilled, as well, which was the important thing.

Fun Little Skirt

It is odd how a camera flash can change the color of something in a photo, is it not? The fabric shown to the left is actually black--black polyester microfiber, to be precise. It feels somewhat velvety, but it has no nap. Having no nap makes it really easy to do pattern layouts. Yay!

The image is a close-up of the stitching detail on a skirt I made recently. I used one of the pattern stitches on my wonderful little computerized sewing machine to add some subtle interest to the seamline between the skirt and the flounce around the edge. You see that bit of stitching in the lower right corner of the photo? That is the other front of the skirt: It is a faux wrap design. It actually has an elastic waist with a separate sash to tie over it. Easy to make (I think the decorative stitching took the longest of any part of the construction) and easy to wear. Such a fun little skirt...

The Mother of...Style?

It can be difficult to construct a skirt without a zipper. One must have some way to cinch the garment around the waist. Of course, there is always elastic, but it usually does not provide a very tailored fit. The design of the skirt has to be conducive to an elastic waistband in the first place, too.

A few weeks ago, I was in the predicament of needing a zipper for a skirt I was making--but I did not have one. Granted, zippers usually are not very expensive, but I wanted to use what I had on hand and not make a trip to the fabric store just for a zipper. (You might have noticed the high gas prices recently.)

So I dusted off my resourcefulness.

Last fall, I spent some time reading various materials from the 1940s, such as some Cornell Bulletins for Homemakers (archived online) or a copy of The New Encyclopedia of Modern Sewing. (Modern, in this case, is definitely relative: The copyright date is 1943.) If anyone knew how to be resourceful, it was the woman on the homefront during the Second World War. Nearly everything was in short supply--including zippers, because most of the metal was diverted to the war effort.

Anyway, when I began the skirt I was talking about and I ran up against the wall of having a need with nothing to fill it, I recalled a passage from one of the resources I had been perusing (I wish I could remember which one), in which the author mentioned that clothing designers became very creative during wartime in order to compensate for the lack of various things--such as zippers. One of the techniques mentioned was that of using lacings.

Aha! I did not have a zipper, but I could make a lacing. It was quite simple, actually, and it gave an ordinary corduroy skirt quite a striking feature. Perhaps I will have to make more items with similar closures...

Salutations!!

Welcome to Seamly Thoughts, a record of my musings and activities related to sewing (and possibly other needlework). As a self-employed seamstress, I have a good many of them. Each new project is an adventure, and it is always exciting to finally arrive at the destination of a completed product.

I am delighted to have you along!!