Bodices, Boning and Dreams

Well yes, it's time for another dream report - this time my daughters and you guessed it - about the wedding gown, but that's for the end. I've been working on the bodice: it's been a difficult job. My daughter says it has to stand up like a suit of armor. The ladies at the House of Fabric in Asheville, gave me a sample to take home and study (below) and it proved to be helpful.
I have the outside layer of charmeuse underlined with silk organza...

followed by the layer of batiste and LOTS and LOTS of boning.

And then the lining - I couldn't figure out how to make it more structured. I think the charmeuse, even the heavier weight, tends to be soft - not one of the crisp silks.

So once again, I was off to House of Fabric to visit with my new best friend - Peggy. Peggy is the professional seamstress on board; she makes all the wedding gowns for customers. She is also very helpful and knowledgeable. I brought her the bodice and she did some handholding (I desperately needed) and told me the bodice was FINE - very, very fine. She said it needed a live body to give it the final amount of structure it needs. Makes sense, why didn't I think of that! She also suggested when using softer fabrics, to make another lining of flannel to insert between the outside and the boning layer. I'm anxious to try it, so now I'm off and running once again.

This project has been a roller coaster of emotions but - A Happy Camper I am once again - and now for the dream. My daughter being aware of the problems with the bodice had this crazy dream. The day of the wedding, walking down the aisle, she had to keep hiking up the dress as it kept falling down. She asked me to try and fix it between the ceremony and the reception! I think I said no in the dream - boooo - bad mama!

Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the wonderful work nationally known quilter - Ami Simms has done in raising money for Alzheimer's research. Ami's mother was diagnosed many years ago with the disease and eventually died from it. The newest exhibit - Alzheimers Illustrated: From heartbreak to Hope" opens in January, 2011 and travels until December, 2015. It will visit many venues throughout the US during that time. The exhibit features 182 quilts, all 6" wide and 7 feet high. The quilts are "name quilts" featuring 55 purple patches on each one. Each patch has the name of someone who presently has or has died from this dreaded disease.
The patches are sewn with the wrong side facing out. They are washed out and dull while the brighter right side is on the inside - never to be seen again, such as the fate of a person with Alzheimers.

There will be over 10,000 names.

I had the honor of being able to quilt one of these pieces. It's been very moving to see a project of such enormous proportions come together so beautifully.

My husband's cousin - Henry Johannes died from Alzheimers. He was one of the dearest, nicest people I've ever known and in the end he knew no one; it was a heartbreak. It makes me stop and think and thank God for my good health.

Have a wonderful evening!

Sewing Invisible Seams on Lace

I have just learned how to do one of the prettiest techniques ever - that of joining lace without a seam. The dress my daughter had tried on and loved, had no seams or at least nothing visible. I know you can't "shrink wrap" lace but it fit so perfectly with no apparent seams - what a puzzle! Reading up on it and talking to my friend Mary Ray who at one time made bridal gowns, lead me to this technique. I did a little mock up for some of the parts,  like in the photo below. I started by marking the seams with a pink basting thread.  Resources say to  never use black or any color as lint from the thread is impossible to remove. For easy viewing here, I used black. The seams are marked and a good amount of lace is left for the overlap.
Cut the lace in the overlap area (1-2 inches beyond the seam allowance) following the lines of the cording or applique. Trim one side only in the pair of seams - the side that will go on top.

It will look like this (below).

Overlap the seams by laying one marked thread line over the other - allowing the "pretty cut edge" to be on top. Pin the seam lines together - Pins should be very close together.

Next pin the top layer down, making sure to secure the appliques. Again, use lots of pins.

Set your machine for free motion sewing; thread top and bottom with a clear monofilament or white thread. I did a test for both threads, either works fine, however regular sewing thread is easier for me to manage.
Set the machine for a fairly narrow zigzag stitch and stitch around the edge of appliques the entire length of the seam. This is time consuming; make sure to catch every edge.
Once stitched, flip back the top layer of lace to see the "underlying seam" which will be wide.
Cut away excess - @ 1/2" from the stitching. The photo below has 2 pieces joined together - my family couldn't tell where it had been joined.

The red arrow points to where the 2 pieces of lace have been joined - hard to detect. This is a beautiful technique and perfect for joining lace fabric.

Signing off as a Happy Camper today!

PTA Yummies

We had a great Show and Tell at our PTA meeting the other day. A while back we organized a group quilt, each of us doing a block using Georgia Bonesteels "Grid Grip Papers - a product she developed for making perfect blocks. This was great for me as I have difficulty making "pointy points", but this made it easy. We used black and whites from our stash and one piece had to be a bright solid.
I don't remember what solid I chose but I do recognize my black and white prints - here's mine.

We often donate our group quilt, but this time we decided to sell it and use the money towards our retreat.

A really fun project to see come together.

Mary Berry showed us her "snow dolls" -  made during the storm when none of us were going anywhere. These darling little dolls even have lacy underwear!

Dort Lee showed us a quilt top ready to be quilted made as a gift for her son. Dort always makes happy quilts with lots of wonderful stories connected to each block.

Such a great day with great friends!

PTA at Gens

We had our monthly meeting of PTA at member Gen Grundys house yesterday. As always, it was great fun and inspiring. I've known Gen for a while and always thought she was talented, but yesterday was a real eye-opener. From the "perfectly made slipcovers, to drapes and pillows to a closet filled with amazing quilts, my mind was reeling. This lovely piece hangs in Gens living room - beautifully quilted.
And these whimsical chair back covers - don't you just love them.

I loved this next piece and the touch of black and white.

Posters that hang in Gens studio - created in fabric and reproduced on paper, inspiring.

I loved the colors in this next piece.

Gen's clever husband rigged up this table by cutting an opening and building a platform below the surface so her machine could be dropped down. How easy on the shoulders for sewing...

and a view beneath.

Besides making many traditional quilts, Gen makes wonderful art quilts and experiments with many surface design techniques.  She has 3 closets full of "stuff" for playing with.

This last idea tickled me. We looked up and saw this interesting treatment where the wall meets the ceiling,  could that actually be braiding? Yes! Gen put a fabric roping at the top of the wall where wall

meets ceiling, glued and pinned in place. It's quite an eye-catcher and just enough - great idea Gen!

Such a fun time and I always come home inspired.

Preparing Lace for Invisible Seams

In the continuing adventure of making this wedding gown, I'm now up to the part of joining seams - without making a seam, a technique I've never done but am anxious to try. It's a beautiful technique. There is quite a bit of fabric allowance on one of the sides of each pair of seams. This is to allow for the overlapping of fabric. It's recommended that you cut around motifs when possible. This edge (below) happened to be the edge of where the border was cut off, more than I need but already there anyway.
The adjustments on the pattern are marked and I'm ready to mark the seam line on the lace.

The seam allowance is pinned back on the SA line and through the lace to make it stable. You can now see the edge where the stitching line is to be.

Next is to mark the stitching line using hand basting and a light colored thread such as pink.  A dark thread can leave "dark" lint in the lace.

The pattern pieces are removed and time to line up the sections of the gown.

The lace pieces are overlapped matching notches (marked with thread) and seam lines created by the pink thread stitching.

Then - pinned and basted together.

Next is to trim the overlapping seam into a pretty edge. This you do by cutting close to the corded lace and around the motifs.

Using a pair of very sharp, small, pointed scissors works best.  I'm a scissor "junkie" so finding something in my scissor stash was easy.

They are sharp and got the job done beautifully.

Stay tuned for next step of stitching the seams.

Ironing Curves

I used to do a lot of tailoring and had wonderful equipment to help in the process, but over the years, I changed course and gradually got rid of everything. One of the things was a tailors ham. It resembles a stuffed oblong ball and great for ironing curves. You know Murphy's Law - the minute you toss something, you need it. Well, I could have used a tailors ham today. I was ironing the bodice on my daughter's gown and didn't want to wreck the silk or put unnecessary wrinkles in it - so here's what I came up with. I found a styrofoam ball in my closet - about 5" in diameter.
I cut off the bottom so it would sit flat on my ironing board.

I then covered it with batting (you can also use flannel or felt) - all will stick to the styrofoam. I laid it over the top and molded it to the ball with my hand.

And then placed the curve to be ironed, over it.

Before ironing, I covered the silk bodice with a press cloth of silk organza, sheer enough for heat to penetrate and also the same heat tolerance as the fabric underneath.

Worked like a charm and a beautiful pressing job, I'm patting myself on the back for this one.

Sunsets and Losers

With all this pretty, cold white stuff,  comes the breathtaking sunsets. My son snapped the following pictures on 3 different nights. It kind of reminds me of when I lived in Florida and the beautiful skies.

On another note, over the holidays, I was in the mall with my kids. They were laughing over something and said "look mom - a clinic for complete losers". With my gullibility and not so good eyesight, I looked quickly and started laughing so hard. Could this actually be? duh....read again!

I'm heading out for Atlanta to see my daughter and do another fitting on the gown, have a good rest of the week.