Amy's Renaissance Wedding Dress - Third Fitting - April 2010

The morphing of the corset worked quite well. I made new pattern pieces with the new additions, and I cut a new bodice. I also added boning to all the seamlines, since it fit so well at the last fitting.

I made a new sleeve with elastic sewn into the bottom 3 lines.

I love the way the back fits! That’s one of my favorite parts so far.

Can you start to visualize it now? Just imagine how lovely those ruffles will look once they’re peeking out of the back of the skirt.

Amy's Renaissance Wedding Dress - Second Fitting - March 2010

After I did the alterations on Amy’s wedding dress, or should I say, chemise, my next step was to sew up a bodice fitting and a puffy sleeve.

I used my favorite corset pattern and sewed up a fitting with white twill and interfacing. I then used one of the medieval patterns and sewed up the bodice with a square neckline, and a sleeve to match. I didn’t have any extra cotton laying around, so I had to get creative. Pretty colourful, hey? I kinda like the plaid. I may have to use that idea some other time…

I pinned the white corset on her, then I put on the bodice, and pinned it to the corset. My plan was to morph both of these together, that way, I would have a neckline and shoulders attached to the corset.

I was pleasantly surprised with the curve of the bottom of the purple bodice. We wanted the skirt to be attached in a V pattern, and this looked absolutely perfect! I traced the lines onto the corset, and then I measured the length to the floor in several places, so I would know how long to cut the skirt pieces.

We also decided to add elastic to the sleeve on the three bottom lines of trim, to help the sleeve stay put, since it tends to fall down if it's not tight enough.

Amy's Renaissance Wedding Dress - First Fitting - Feb 2010

Amy came to me with the most incredible wedding idea I’ve ever heard: a Renaissance theme. She had already bought a gorgeous white wedding dress, which she calls her ‘chemise’. She wanted me to sew a Renaissance overdress to wear over her wedding dress. She sent me a package with sketches, details, and several Medieval patterns. After going over all her ideas, I came up with the following sketch:

She came for her first fitting in February. Our first step was to pin her wedding gown alterations, and go fabric shopping. I pinned up her hem and a bustle at the back of her dress.

Her alterations were very easy, since the dress fit her like a glove. That’s always a good thing.

Check out the ruffles on the back of her dress! I spent 7 months working at The Bridal House last year, and I’ve never seen anything like it! She wanted the ruffles to be shown off, so the back of the skirt of the overdress will be open to fit around the ruffles.

We spent the afternoon fabric shopping. It was a very long day, but at the end, everything came together. These were the results:

Anita's Top - March 2010

We found this pattern when we were shopping for Anita's grad dress fabric, and I got so excited. I love the design of this pattern.

We didn't even do a fitting. I just chose a size that was closest to her measurements, and cut and sewed. I'm so happy with how it turned out. It's so cute! I can't wait to make more. There are several different sleeve options, and you could pick any colour of the rainbow.

Thanks, Anita! I want to make another one soon! :)

Anita's Grad Dress - February 2010

Anita graduated as a Chartered Accountant, and had a ball to attend. She wanted a formal evening gown. After looking at patterns, she decided on a very flattering design with ruching at the waist, a cross-over bust, and criss-cross straps.

I sewed the lining first, and used that as the fitting. It needed a little bit of tweaking, but was fairly easy to adjust, and the second fitting went really well.

The ruching was fun. I didn't know what it was going to look like, so I was excited when it turne out so cool.

For her last fitting, everything was perfect, so all I had to do was pin up her hem and mark the placement of the straps at the back.

I'm so happy with how well this dress fit her, and it was the most flattering design. Congrats, Anita, you looked beautiful!

Karen's Lion Costume - Halloween 2009

Karen asked me to make her a lion costume. She had a lion head already, so I made her a jumpsuit and fur boots. She made the tail and furry mitts.

The pattern fit very good considering I didn't make a fitting first. The torso was a little bit short, so I had to add a couple inches at the shoulders.

I designed the boots from scratch. I was going to use elastics at the bottom to hold them to her shoes, but when I tried them on and stuck my foot up to the mirror, it was in the shape of a foot! So, I traced my shoes and cut out some leather bottoms. Presto! Worked like a charm.

I love these boots. I can't wait until I get an opportunity to make more sometime.

Karen looked great in her lion costume. And she said she was nice and warm!

Scott's Halloween Costume - October 2009

Scott had this idea for a long time. He wanted to be Ron Burgundy, aka: Will Ferrell in Anchorman. He ran this idea past me over a year before we decided to tackle the project, and the details we talked about back then were almost exactly the same, right down to the rust orange colour choice.

I went shopping and found a really great colour of rust/burgundy courderouy, and some cotton for the shirt that was nice and tacky. Twigs and flowers anyone?

I learned a few years ago that 70's patterns are cut way differently than the stuff we wear today, and I knew that if I went vintage, that it would have a more authentic look. I scoured e-bay and found this lovely batch of 70's patterns, and they arrived about 2 weeks before Halloween. Time to get busy!

I made muslins of everything, just to make sure it was all going to fit.

The shirt pattern was a size 34 chest, and Scott is a 46, so I used my grading skills I learned in college and made the pattern bigger. With one minor tweak to make the armholes a bit lower, the shirt fit him perfectly.

The pants and suit jacket were already a size 48, so I whipped them up just the way they were and made a few minor changes to the muslins. Both the jacket and the pants were too big, so I just needed to take them in a bit.

The sewing process was fun. The shirt was my favorite. It has double topstitching all over it, and I loved that I got to use snaps instead of buttons.

Scott came to pick it up in the afternoon on Halloween, and Mom and I were playing with different wigs, since we were getting dressed up that night, too. We had a black page-boy wig, and we made Scott try it on. It was horrible. He looked like a girl. But then we turned it around, and the hair just fell every which way, and he looked like he just stepped out of the 70's! He added a gold chain and some aviator shades, and the look was complete.

He looks pretty good, doesn't he?