Design Acupuncture

I just have to dedicate a post to this: the finishing of the dress.  Although I planned not to post about it again until The Big Day, it is still dominating my life too much to ignore!

Today was dedicated to cutting shapes out of the lace remnants and then melting the edges of the cut-outs, to create the border around the neckline and down the back.

(And check out the rainbow cake that Little Son and I made. CHECK OUT how the little sugar balls look JUST like the heads of my pins…)

Pinning and re-pinning the shapes until just right. Acupuncture sessions for the Dressform!

Tomorrow I shall hand-sew these shapes to the dress.  I searched all over for miniscule silver, crystal, marcasite or hematite seedbeads. No luck! So it will have to be small black glass beads. Or tiny silver sequins? I still have to decide….

The hem was a great deal of fun. (Sometimes I am so sarcastic I scare myself).  Marking it straight took a few days – on the kid, off the kid, measured from the floor, measured from the waist…then when I came to the point where I had to concede that I was NEVER going to get the thing even,  I tried all ways of roll-hemming the silk chiffon before I gave up and chased all 6 metres of if through the overlocker. Did the same with the 6m of lining. The dress now boasts an overlocked picot edge. That was just the best I could do.

The bow still has to be positioned and tweaked into shape a bit.  Originally, cut along the same (straight) grain as the skirt, it just disappeared on the skirt.  So I re-cut it on the cross grain, and now at least the bow-ends do not just camouflage.

I made the bow in a double layer of chiffon (cutting instructions on the pattern is for single layer of fabric but that would NEVER work with chiffon) and also added a layer of silk organza between the layers to give it substance.

The Daughter loves the bow.  She says it feels like a bustle.

I will make the bow detachable, so that she can keep it from getting too scrunched up while travelling to and from the photo session she and the boyfriend will have in the afternoon before the function.

 

And finally, there is the innocuous black tulle petticoat.  Although it is in position under the dress on the dress-form, it needs another layer.  Or two.

Aaaargh. At this point I am willing to PAY someone to make the damn petticoat.

Anyone?