Short party dress to Bridesmaid long dress ...

Several months ago I was asked to make bridesmaids dresses for 4 children ages ranging between 5 & 13 - only 1 (the eldest) living locally. Several challenges were set in the making of the skirts (full details can be found by clicking this link CiCi Designs).

Below are the first set of images together with brief details of the garments.





The wedding was to be in October & the bride had seen short 'party' dresses (see left) to buy on-line but wanted her bridesmaids to wear full-length.


To give the younger girls the opportunity of having 2 outfits as well as providing the best opportunity for a single fitting, it was decided to make separate skirts to wear over the shorter dresses.

The dresses had a separate net petticoat (see right) which consisted of 2 layers. This was wore under the short dress as a base layer for the main skirt.

The skirt was made of 2 layers, worn over the nets & to cover the waistband, a separate sash was made with velcro fastenings.

Wave curtains information here ...

One of my blog entries here is quite popular !! so I've decided to add it to my Stitcherydoing page. I've also added more information regarding WAVE CURTAINS or DRAPES & over the next few days will be adding more pix. In particular:

        Dressing a Window shows how curtains are hung to retain their folds &

        Make a Wave Curtain demonstrates & details how to make these flattering furnishings.

If you want to have a read 'in one spot', then please click Curtains to the link.

Invisible Lock-stitch hem ...

Above is the finish of a lock-stitch hem - hand stitched on a pair of trousers when they were shortened. If you would like to see how they were done together with the addition of petersham along the inner hem edge, please visit this link:

Lock stitch with petersham

Hem finishes ...

Into the New Year has seen me with a wide variety of trousers for hemline 'alteration'. As I usually repeat whatever is the original stitching finish, some of these are completed by machine (like jeans) whilst others have to have a 'blind hem' copied. These 'industrial blind-hem finishes' are quite invisible but with their continuous thread manner of stitching, once an end is pulled, the entire hem can easily & quickly come undone. Although domestic machine 'blind hemming' is especially good for some garments, I find that in others it leaves the inside hem with a row of visible stitching as well as sometimes leaving a 'slight ridge' on the outside if the fabric is somewhat thick. Also, it can result in the missing of some of the 'catch stitches' especially if the fabric is a man-made one & as stitched, will normally result in a 'foldline' being visible that is sometimes difficult to press out.

So if the garment is to be used frequently & have a reasonable amount of continual wear &/or cleaning, there is nothing better than a 'hand-worked lock-stitch' hem (see above finished - red circle shows almost invisible stitching). Something resembling a peculiar type of blanket stitch, it enables a hem to be held firmly in place whilst being almost invisible from both sides of the work when finished. Very hardwearing, it can easily be adjusted in stitch size to take into account the fabric type being worked on, is fairly quick & easy to stitch & if the hem needs adjustment later, is readily unpicked.

Over the next few weeks, I will be showing this technique in greater detail along with some of the problems mentioned above.

The importance of boning a bodice ...

I've just finished uploading information for making the boned bodice that was used for the black wedding dress (above). It's more detailed than the information originally completed - mainly because I didn't have time! This has now been included on one of the pages at Stitchery-doing (click if you want to follow the link & find out more).

I've also uploaded more images & processes involved for making the entire dress (& have still some more to go) & these can be found here at CiCiDesigns.

Wedding dress information ...

Above is the completed Black wedding dress being worn by the bride.

There are specific design details about the style of garment & the fabrics used as well as more explicit sewing & making-up instructions - if you want to read them, just click here or if you would like me to make something for you, then please visit my website.

Wedding dress : IMAGES ...

Finally the images of the dress in its final stages:

Dress linings

Above are the individual linings: left - inner satin lining (stage 5 - first layers of nets are shown on the inside); centre - inner satin lining to outside (stage 6 - cream & black net layers); right - boned bodice (stage 4) with final tulle layer (stage 6).

Finished dress: front & back views

If you want to read more about the dress & how it was made, please click CiCi-Designs