Civil War Patchwork Quilt

My family has been and gone, another whirlwind visit and now I miss them.

My patchwork quilt was calling as I need to buy the border fabric on Tuesday, ready for Wednesday. On Thursady night I was invited to my friends quilting group where they sip red wine and nibble cheese and sweet treats. My squares were placed on the floor and then arranged by the group to decide the correct order of assembly and how big a border I need to buy. I dont want to go to this much effort and end up with an expensive knee rug although that is planning ahead for the nursing home ! ' We' decided on a generous double border so that my finished quilt will reach the edges of my queen size bed. So off to the fabric shop on tuesday and I will post the next view.

Patchwork brrrrr !

I have never been into patchwork and after sewing squares together for 1 hour yesterday, googling patchwork last night and ironing them all out this morning...I am still not into patchwork. I had great hopes for this new craft, It was a pre- packaged 'jelly roll' of colours in a Civil War theme. Civil War patchwork ? the colours are autunm toned and I love autunm.
I will keep going as I am locked into the Wednesday craft gathering now and I need something to do but will my gut feelings about this patchwork project be spot on or will I end up with a beautiful quilt for my tired old bedroom? All will be revealed !

Life and old age care but dreaming of beautiful Wedding Gowns

My head is aching with old age. I have had another visit from age care professionals, so much to say, so much to read, it does my head in. So instead of reading the brochures left last week ready for todays visit I sewed for an hour on my NEW craft- patchwork.

Yesterday I took my mum to a craft group for the purpose of getting her out to socialize. I needed a craft and she had bought me a 'civil war' inspired patch work bundle of fabric 2 1/2 years ago. I am on my way to a patchwork quilt and when I have the camera handy I will attempt to photograph and blog my attempts.

In the meantime, I came across a photo of a wedding dress I made about 30 years ago (that makes me feel old, but clever) Recently as my family and I sat watching Kate Middleton marry Prince William we all commented on how similar Kates dress was to one that I had designed and made for a friend a while back. 30yrs. So I am sharing the photo as I am proud of my efforts.

I hand cut the lace to suit the brides desires, the skirt had 11 metres of Chiffon knife pleated into her tiny waist measurement. It was always one of my favourite gowns and possibly the 4th gown I had sewn.

Busy Day

Well I am feeling pretty proud of myself after having blogged the morning away uploading all of my photos in one day. I was told by 'somebody wiser' that I should draw my blogs out and tease the readers. hmmmm I only have two followers, both dedicated daughters.
I started this blog to keep up with the rest of my family of bloggers, it seems like a fun thing to do if you have the time. I am very nervous of posting spelling mistakes and gramatical errors, thats what I do ! So if you are reading any just try and gloss over them.
Today is an important day I received my birthday present order of an IPad 2, so this is something else I need to learn. I will now be able to sit in the warmish lounge room and blog and search as opposed to sitting alone in a freezing room out the back.

modelling

and on another day...still a princess

I helped turn this beautiful young women into a Princess

The Big Day

Dressing the Bride with the help of the Bridesmaids

last fitting

Happy

back of dress showing tulle bustle

Not happy! I think we need more tulle so that you cannot see the satin skirt as clearly

the Back

more layers

add some layers of Tulle

Now for the Skirt

LOOPS yum!

sewing beaded lace on to top bodice

The Skirt

Lining and skirt both in Satin with a fitted tulle over -lay

BUTTONS !

Exciting day when my buttons arrive. I think buttons and loops are the best. http://www.allbuttons.com.au All Buttons Great and Small are so helpful. The turn around time for me to post the fabric to them for covering and for them to return post 3-4 days

more lace positioning

Tulle Froufrou

playing with some tulle to 'froufrou' the top

Positioning Beaded Lace

The lace has had over 400 Topaz coloured Swarovski crystals attached by now and is ready to stitch in place.

Finished Under Bodice

Between the layers

Grosgrain ribbon used here for the waist stay. I used a bra hook and eye to close the waist stay at the centre back. This is the under bodice which is attached to the upper bodice by the lace at the top of the bodice

The Inside story

inside lining under bodice showing the lace finishing just to make it pretty and wow the bride!

Finished boning

Cutting the boning

using wire cutters on boning, I do one side of the boning then the other.

loops ready to go

Pinned ready to baste in place. I am using a piece of lining fabric to stabalise the loops so that I can sew them in place on the centre back of the outer bodice

Back bodice draping

Top Stitching

Top stitching close to the seam line of bodice lining to prevent the lining riding up above outer bodice.

Lace Positioning

Just working out where to cut so that I can manipulate the lace onto the curve of the top neckline.

Design Beginning

this is the beginning, talking to M and drawing a design...

Spiral steel boning and cotton casing purchased from Aussie Corset Supplies

They are very prompt to buy from and very helpful. I followed links on Gertie's New Blog for better sewing for help on using spiral steel boning.

The top bodice. I am draping tulle across the dress diagonally in 2 directions then sewing it in place on the side seams.

This dress has a lining under bodice which is boned, a satin bodice and a satin and lace over bodice. This is the satin bodice

Extened bodice, hopefully a mermaid style bodice.

I have decided to try and up load my photos and get them out of the way. I am finding this blogging a little tricky but here goes! This is the beginning of M's wedding gown. Choosing a pattern I can convert into a design for M

being a dedicated blogger is hard!