She did have a go at twirling. We need some action shots when dress is fully finished. We might even persuade her to remove the vest.
Wednesday, 26 February 2014
Quick photos
Got Katie to try on Frozen dress today. It's still unfinished. The pictures won't be very good quality I'm afraid because they're just taken on my phone. I never think of taking my camera at useful times. Oh yes, you're eyes aren't deceiving you, she is wearing her vest! I know she's supposed to be some sort of ice queen, but really. Wait until you see the pictures of her in a tutu and socks. The girl's nothing if not stylish.
I'm quite proud of the technological route these photos went too. I used bluetooth and uploaded them from my tablet. Now I just have to learn how to edit them!
She did have a go at twirling. We need some action shots when dress is fully finished. We might even persuade her to remove the vest.
She did have a go at twirling. We need some action shots when dress is fully finished. We might even persuade her to remove the vest.
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Taking shape
As I said in my previous post, I decided to use Simplicity 5520 as a base for the Elsa dress.
Unfortunately it would need quite a lot of tweaking to get the look I was after. Cue copious amounts of greaseproof paper and nicely sharpened pencils. From a nice simple dress with four main pattern pieces we went to one with 11 pieces in the space of a couple of hours. It went quite smoothly, but I did start to get a bit lost off when I tried to add seam allowance back in!
Please excuse the quality of the photos, it's something I'm going to work on in future. I had to put the pattern pieces on a piece of ivory fabric. It's not a good day when you realise that your carpet is very similar in colour to greaseproof paper! Ah well, it meant I didn't have to vaccuum.
The sewing together went smoothly and relatively quickly. My side front/centre front seams don't quite match, but I won't tell anyone if you don't. For the cloak bit I just cut a piece of net about 2m long to roughly the right length, gathered it and sewed it in the seam between the net and the lycra of the bodice. Katie did try it on when all relavent pieces were together. It is a little large around the bodice (seriously, these children are weird shapes), but she could at least get in and out of it. On to the sleeves. The sleeves included in the pattern weren't the right style at all. When I made a dress with the pattern last time I did draft some. By myself. And amazingly they fit. I can't remember much about the process other than it took several different books with different instructions before I cracked it. It was a very proud moment when they fitted into the dress. I kept pointing them out to people. Honestly. The most boring part of a princess dress. I digress. I did make the pattern piece slightly longer (in the vain hope that Katie has grown a bit in the last year) and made the wrist end pointy, to look more like Elsa's dress.
Then I tried to attach them. And I tried again. And again. I just couldn't get my head around the logistics of it (this is what happens when you don't follow patterns). I even tried tacking the sleeve in and I avoid tacking at all costs. My problem was that to hide the seam in the lining under the arm (basically in her armpit) the rest of the sleeve was being pulled wrong and I'd have ended up sewing it closed. Not helpful. In the end, and after several days of head scratching and randomly saying to people "But why won't they go in, WHY?" I hit upon a solution. I'm fairly certain it's unorthodox and it felt like cheating but I, whisper, put some teeny, tiny cuts in the bodice. Just in the seam allowance really. But it worked! The dress now has sleeves. I've since hemmed the skirt and sewn in a bodice lining. I really only lined it because I think one layer of net might be too flimsy for the top of the bodice and I thought too many seam allowances in net would be scratchy on small people's skin.
And here we have it. Drumroll please........the almost completed Elsa dress. With a over a week to go until the big day. It's a bit concerning being so nearly done. I've only got to hack off (sorry, carefully measure and trim) the bottom of the cloak and clag on some sparkly bits. I know the original is quite understated in the sparkles department, but Katie's almost 7 and there's nothing understated about her!
The front view. I'm quite liking how the net looks sparkly as well as the bodice. It's not, it's just plain white, but it looks good in photos. I think I've got enough of the trim used around the neckline to go around the bottom of the cloak. I'm trying to add a bit of weight to the cloak for all important twirling. The dress should flare out nicely as there's plenty of fabric in the skirt and the lycra's quite heavy.
The bodice front...
and the bodice back. You can see where the cloak's attached. After her birthday we'll hopefully have some pictures of a child in the dress, but I'll post some more later in the week of the completed dress.
Unfortunately it would need quite a lot of tweaking to get the look I was after. Cue copious amounts of greaseproof paper and nicely sharpened pencils. From a nice simple dress with four main pattern pieces we went to one with 11 pieces in the space of a couple of hours. It went quite smoothly, but I did start to get a bit lost off when I tried to add seam allowance back in!
The sewing together went smoothly and relatively quickly. My side front/centre front seams don't quite match, but I won't tell anyone if you don't. For the cloak bit I just cut a piece of net about 2m long to roughly the right length, gathered it and sewed it in the seam between the net and the lycra of the bodice. Katie did try it on when all relavent pieces were together. It is a little large around the bodice (seriously, these children are weird shapes), but she could at least get in and out of it. On to the sleeves. The sleeves included in the pattern weren't the right style at all. When I made a dress with the pattern last time I did draft some. By myself. And amazingly they fit. I can't remember much about the process other than it took several different books with different instructions before I cracked it. It was a very proud moment when they fitted into the dress. I kept pointing them out to people. Honestly. The most boring part of a princess dress. I digress. I did make the pattern piece slightly longer (in the vain hope that Katie has grown a bit in the last year) and made the wrist end pointy, to look more like Elsa's dress.
Then I tried to attach them. And I tried again. And again. I just couldn't get my head around the logistics of it (this is what happens when you don't follow patterns). I even tried tacking the sleeve in and I avoid tacking at all costs. My problem was that to hide the seam in the lining under the arm (basically in her armpit) the rest of the sleeve was being pulled wrong and I'd have ended up sewing it closed. Not helpful. In the end, and after several days of head scratching and randomly saying to people "But why won't they go in, WHY?" I hit upon a solution. I'm fairly certain it's unorthodox and it felt like cheating but I, whisper, put some teeny, tiny cuts in the bodice. Just in the seam allowance really. But it worked! The dress now has sleeves. I've since hemmed the skirt and sewn in a bodice lining. I really only lined it because I think one layer of net might be too flimsy for the top of the bodice and I thought too many seam allowances in net would be scratchy on small people's skin.
And here we have it. Drumroll please........the almost completed Elsa dress. With a over a week to go until the big day. It's a bit concerning being so nearly done. I've only got to hack off (sorry, carefully measure and trim) the bottom of the cloak and clag on some sparkly bits. I know the original is quite understated in the sparkles department, but Katie's almost 7 and there's nothing understated about her!
The front view. I'm quite liking how the net looks sparkly as well as the bodice. It's not, it's just plain white, but it looks good in photos. I think I've got enough of the trim used around the neckline to go around the bottom of the cloak. I'm trying to add a bit of weight to the cloak for all important twirling. The dress should flare out nicely as there's plenty of fabric in the skirt and the lycra's quite heavy.
and the bodice back. You can see where the cloak's attached. After her birthday we'll hopefully have some pictures of a child in the dress, but I'll post some more later in the week of the completed dress.Sunday, 23 February 2014
"Auntie Sandra, I know what I want for my birthday!"
How I've learnt to dread that cry! However I made a deal with Katie (youngest neice, and usually instigator of said cry) that she would be able to have any princess dress she wanted this year as long as she never asked me to make another tutu. I'll be blogging about Christmas tutus sometime in the future, but my nerves still aren't up to it.
Back to the war cry. It's Katie's birthday at the beginning of March and she made her announcement a few weeks ago. My heart sank. Who would she want to be this year? We've been through most of the major princesses. Her first suggestion was that she could have another mermaid's tail. But that was only because she'd temporarily mislaid the one I made two years ago. Final decision? Elsa from 'Frozen'. "The blue one though, not the other one." Quick search for pictures on the internet to see what we were talking about (I haven't seen the film yet). And order a book from the library just to make sure.
First impressions weren't too bad. I thought I could adapt the pattern I used last year for Merida (these children just don't seem to grow! Not outwards anyway, and barely upwards). The only snag I could see was the cape. It looks like it goes under the arms and I had no idea how to insert a usable zip. I'm sure lots of other people could have figured it out, but I'm ashamed to say it defeated me. The only solution I could see was to make the dress stretchy so she could get it on and off. You'll soon learn that most of the time I just make stuff up as I go along. I've never been to any classes (I'm mainly scared they'll laugh and tell me I'm doing it wrong!). I learn from books and the occasional internet tutorial. But I mainly just wing it. Fortunately the one thing Christmas tutus did teach me (apart from never, ever try to sew another one) is that sewing with lycra is nowhere near as bad as I thought. After searching the internet I found this lycra
It was more than I really wanted to pay, but I fell in love with the sparkly one. It's a bit more turquoise than I had in mind, but it's just soooo pretty! I ordered way too much as normal, but Katie's just started dancing lessons, so I'm thinking she might get a leotard or two from it. I had some white net lying around the house, as you do. There was about 2 1/2 m. I've no idea what I actually bought it for! Is it just me that manages to do that?
The pattern I used for the Merida dress was Simplicity 5520 (view A ish). I always trace the patterns I use. It started when I was making the first costumes for the girls. I needed two dresses the same but slightly different sizes. Now I just trace because I end up with weird sizing (for this dress I traced age 3 width (and that's only because it was the smallest) and age 5 length). But I think I'll sign off now and bore you with pattern and dress contruction another day!
Back to the war cry. It's Katie's birthday at the beginning of March and she made her announcement a few weeks ago. My heart sank. Who would she want to be this year? We've been through most of the major princesses. Her first suggestion was that she could have another mermaid's tail. But that was only because she'd temporarily mislaid the one I made two years ago. Final decision? Elsa from 'Frozen'. "The blue one though, not the other one." Quick search for pictures on the internet to see what we were talking about (I haven't seen the film yet). And order a book from the library just to make sure.
First impressions weren't too bad. I thought I could adapt the pattern I used last year for Merida (these children just don't seem to grow! Not outwards anyway, and barely upwards). The only snag I could see was the cape. It looks like it goes under the arms and I had no idea how to insert a usable zip. I'm sure lots of other people could have figured it out, but I'm ashamed to say it defeated me. The only solution I could see was to make the dress stretchy so she could get it on and off. You'll soon learn that most of the time I just make stuff up as I go along. I've never been to any classes (I'm mainly scared they'll laugh and tell me I'm doing it wrong!). I learn from books and the occasional internet tutorial. But I mainly just wing it. Fortunately the one thing Christmas tutus did teach me (apart from never, ever try to sew another one) is that sewing with lycra is nowhere near as bad as I thought. After searching the internet I found this lycra
It was more than I really wanted to pay, but I fell in love with the sparkly one. It's a bit more turquoise than I had in mind, but it's just soooo pretty! I ordered way too much as normal, but Katie's just started dancing lessons, so I'm thinking she might get a leotard or two from it. I had some white net lying around the house, as you do. There was about 2 1/2 m. I've no idea what I actually bought it for! Is it just me that manages to do that?
The pattern I used for the Merida dress was Simplicity 5520 (view A ish). I always trace the patterns I use. It started when I was making the first costumes for the girls. I needed two dresses the same but slightly different sizes. Now I just trace because I end up with weird sizing (for this dress I traced age 3 width (and that's only because it was the smallest) and age 5 length). But I think I'll sign off now and bore you with pattern and dress contruction another day!
Here Goes!
I've been thinking about blogging my sewing adventures for a while now (read a couple of years), but I've finially plucked up the courage to do it. The plan is to blog mainly about the dresses and things I make for my neices (hence the blog title). I'm not going to lie, it's mainly going to be about princess dresses. I hope to mix it up with other sewing projects and general crafts as well.
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