Casey and her Brothers

One woman's journey sewing with her four Brother Machines: Innovìs40-e Sewing, 5234prw Serger, HE1 Embroidery, and Pacesetter 2040cv Coverstitch. Oh, and a 1951 Singer Featherweight Centennial

[caseyandherbrothers]

M7281 - For a Wedding

My husband’s cousin is getting married Labor Day weekend...so I needed to get cracking on the dress to wear!  This pattern is M7281...meant to have almost unlimited variations on how to sew and wear it.

See the view on the bottom left?  That’s the one I did.  Short overskirt out of the main fabric, and a tulle petticoat underskirt sewn into the dress.  Let’s take a closer look at some of the details

I used a stretch sateen from Textile Fabrics in Nashville, TN.  I’ve had this fabric for MONTHS and had just been waiting for the perfect project with which to use it.  The hardest part was finding a stretch underlining and lining fabric.  I eventually settled on stretch lining for the underlining and stretch satin for the lining from Joann.

Check out the piping!!  I don’t know where the desire to pipe ALL THE THINGS I have right now is coming from, but I think this turned out even better than I could have hoped.  This is my favorite detail about the whole dress.  Wright’s pipings are already cut on the bias, so they sewed easily into the sweetheart neckline and princess seams.  There is a small amount of boning in this bodice as well...one bit halfway up the direct middle, one each in the middle of the side pieces, and two on the back pieces.  Speaking of the back...

LOOK HOW CUTE!  I just love those criss-cross straps, and check out the zipper pull:

I can’t quite remember where I got the zipper from..odds are it was ZipIt on Etsy.

The tulle I used for the petticoat is just the inexpensive stuff from Joann with a layer of purple netting closest to my body.  Also...CHECK OUT THAT ROLLED HEM!  Someone made the Rolled Hem foot her BITCH!  I used an iron on woven stay tape by SewKeysE, and went slow using a stitch length of 3.5.  It made such a lovely hem...I’m so proud of it!

So, that’s my latest dress.  Next up is Vogue 8648 for yet ANOTHER wedding September 17th.

[caseyandherbrothers]

Simplicity 3823 and a Noodlehead Envelope Clutch

Not gonna lie...I’ve put a few inches on since my wedding dress.  Remember how I said this dress was what I was going to be sewing next for a black tie wedding?

Yeeah, that didn’t happen.  The bodice is VERY close to my wedding bodice, so I thought I’d use the same pattern.  I pulled out and ironed the muslins, wax traced everything and got the whole underbodice done only to find that HORROR OF HORRORS - I’m too wide.  Not by much...but enough that I needed to call an audible for this wedding.  So, I went with Simplicity 3823, which I had initially purchased for the Muslin from Hell, but this time I decided to make the pattern straight for View C.

When I purchased my wedding dress fabric back in Cincinnati, there was a BEAUTIFUL shimmery purple taffeta that I just had to buy.  I’d been waiting for the right time to use it when it just felt right, and this dress absolutely felt right for the fabric.

Because I was crunched for time, I committed the cardinal sin of couture, and I didn’t muslin.  I got beyond lucky that it turned out a hair too big, and I could just fold over some of the boning in the bodice and re-sew it down to bring it in to the proper size.  Dodged a bullet there!

Sorry for the crappy bathroom mirror shot...I really need a better photography solution!  But check out the hem!  I’m really into banded hems these days.  I find it so much easier to do to finish the garment, and I think it ads a bit of interest to a part of a garment that most people don’t really think about or notice.  This is a 3″ black satin ribbon that I simply folded over and sewed all the way around the hem of the skirt.

When I was done with that, I noticed I had about a fat quarter’s worth of purple taffeta left, and so I thought “What the hell!  I’ll go ahead and make a matching clutch!”

I used the Noodlehead Envelope Clutch pattern, and made the smaller of the two sizes.  Instead of piping and interfacing for the flap, I used a piece of gold metallic felt that I got at the Etsy shop AMarketCollection.  To give the bag the sturdiness of a formal clutch, I used Pellon Sew-in Peltex (71F) for the interfacing.  I’ve got a whole bolt of the stuff, and hadn’t used it yet.

Inside, I used remnants of my dress lining, a basic magnetic snap, and left out the pockets and zippers that the pattern calls for.  Just wanted something simple to carry my lipstick and my iPhone.

I think we cleaned up pretty nicely!  Well, at least until the open bar opened up...

Duckface is not normally my thing...I SWEAR.

Up next: finishing a baby quilt for my niece who is due April 7th, another Finsihed Block Swap block, and a charity minion quilt top.  No rest for the weary I suppose!!

[caseyandherbrothers]

Spirals Are Hard

As I said to my husband mere moments ago, “I don’t want to mess with pi.  I want to eat pie.”

My first finish of my swap marathon is my “Kaylee’s Parasol” mini quilt for the Big Damn Heroes Swap for Firefly/Serenity fans.  It’s definitely not perfect, but I think I did a good job of getting close to replicating the original:

Shiny! Let’s be bad guys!

In all honesty, the hardest thing about making this was deciding how to go about it.  I thought about raw edge appliqué, but making the spiral line up PERFECTLY would be very, very difficult.  Then I thought about cutting spiral shaped pieces and sewing them together as a spiral so I’d just have 4 pieces to sew.  But how would I make the center come together?  That idea had to go, too.  Finally I found this paper piecing pattern and I knew all would be well.

Lollipop Candy - betukbandi.wordpress.com

Sadly, I don’t know the name of the woman who runs this blog, so I’m going to just send a shout out to the universe and hope she receives my thanks.  :-)

This spiral was quite easily adapted for my needs.  I only used four colors, and instead of piecing all those tiny bits in each pie piece, I would do the width of three at a time.  I also know the jagged edges around each spiral piece wouldn’t work for re-creating the parasol pattern, but didn’t know what to do about it.  My husband looked at the pattern pieces and noticed something:

There are only two wedges, really.  They just swap back and forth.  Loot at the top of the wedge on the left, and compare it to the top of the wedge on the right...one has a skinny sliver of fabric, and one has a fatter one.  We figured out that if I flip the fat wedges upside down, the spiral would look a lot smoother.  So, I took my wedges back to my sewing room after getting them in order.  I then traced the sewing lines on the back of the ones that were flipped upside down, and I numbered each on what would be the back to eliminate any chance for confusion or error.  Then I taped the whole thing to my cutting mat and colored in what colors would need to go where.

Then, I got sewing.  It all came together pretty simply after that.  I appliquéd a white circle into the middle, quilted out the spokes in a tan color to make it look like the wooden rods that hold up the parasol, and voilà!  Just like that, wrapped up this swap in record time!

Up next on my Swap Marathon list...my Finished Block Swap.

[caseyandherbrothers]

For My Next Trick...

It’s January, and the afterglow of the wedding has finally subsided.  We got all of our souvenir stuff shadowboxed and up on the wall, the Wedding Albums came in in time for Christmas Gifting, and my husband and I are working feverishly on launching our company this year.  (Not sewing related, sadly).  I didn’t get a ton of sewing done after the wedding.  I completed a few swap items, made a quilt for some friends that had blocks embroidered with dragons on it (my personal favorite post-wedding project), and made some cute opulent stockings for our first Christmas in our house.

The finished Dragon Quilt top...pattern is Aria Lane’s Concerto Quilt

The Opulent Stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Now I am faced with a month of free time to knock out my upcoming swaps (that I will hopefully be taking a break from after I’m done with these...but that seems unlikely...) and sewing one more couture garment for a black tie wedding we’re attending on February 27th.  Oh...and losing the 13 lbs I’ve gained since the wedding.

MY BLACK TIE GARMENT

Meet the Patricia Gown from Caroline Deene.  I saw these pictures of the dress on Pinterest, and got all the deets on it from Rent the Runway.

This. Dress. Is. Gorge.  And it will use a lot of the same skills I learned making my wedding dress...but will require one MAJOR alteration.  I cannot wear empire waists.  My tummy doesn’t need any more help looking bulbous thankyouverymuch.  So, I’m going to lower the waistband to my natural waist, and I think the slit probably shouldn’t go up quite that high on me.  I’m going to a wedding, after all.  I don’t need to be taking attention away from the bride (who on her worst day is still one of the most beautiful women I know.)  And now that I have a bodice muslined, I can skip all of that process and save myself a boatload of time.  (Since the wedding dress, I cannot advocate enough for muslining.  And for keeping your muslins to use again in later projects.  Lots of time investment up front, but will save so many headaches and so much time down the road.)  Although I might go for steel boning this time to test it out.  I’m going to head down to Fabric Mecca later today to check out the selection of lace and embroidered tulle.  And I think I’ll use Silk Organza for the underlining this time...the tulle in my wedding dress worked, but if I had known better I would have gone with the organza.

I spent some time rifling through my pattern stash only to find that I don’t have an evening dress pattern that I could use to engineer a replica of this dress.  Enter: McCall’s.

Hello M6893!  This has all the variation I need!  I’m going to take the bodice of view D, lengthen the sleeve to full from three-quarter, and stick it on the skirt in views A and B.  Here are the sketches of both views:

Then, I’ll just cut a slit in the skirt and we’ll call it good!  It looks like in the line drawing, views A and B even have the button-up back.  I think I’ll go with something a little more delicate than the commercial gown, itself.  To me, those satin button loops look a bit bulky, but we’ll see as we go.

SWAP PLANNING

And on the other end of the spectrum, we have my mini-quilt swaps...SO MANY MINI-QUILT SWAPS...that I have committed to.  Take a look at the spreadsheet I use to keep my sewing organized:

Everything is coming up back-to-back-to-back!  The good news is that I am a much faster quilter than I am garment sewer, and I think it’s because I do a LOT of paper piecing.  (Also, no kids.)

So, that’s that.  My first blog update of 2016.  I’m off to try and knock out all these mini quilts.  By my calculations, they should be done by the 25th, but we’ll see...

[caseyandherbrothers]

Wedding Finale

***Huge thank you to JD Swiger for the photos on my wedding day. You can see more of his work at johndavidweddings.com***

Well, I kinda fell off the planet. The last couple of weeks leading up to the wedding were bananas, and I was sewing until 30 minutes before I walked down the aisle.

THE FINISH OF THE DRESS

When last we met, I had completed the underbodice. From there, the next step was the sleeved lace bodice that went over that. This was where most of my time went. Working with lace is very time consuming. The key is to make it seem like there are no seams, which involves lots of overlapping and trimming and hand sewing teeny tiny stitches so you can join two bits of lace without anyone knowing. There is also a layer of tulle underling to give the lace bodice extra support. All of this done by hand.

By the time that fiasco had ended and the underbodice and bodice were joined up, I had watched all of the Project Runway available to me on Hulu, and was three weeks to the wedding. I then had to hand sew bridal button loop tape to the back of the bodice and sleeves, and match up the loops to where 60 taffeta buttons on the back and 10 per sleeve were to be sewn in. Ooh…and to sew the lace trim to the bodice around the neck and waist to hide the raw edges. Again - all. By. Hand.

By now, I’m two weeks to the wedding, but not panicking. The skirt is all that’s left, and skirts are easy. I got it done in a day! Well, the main structure and lining of the skirt, at least. I decided that I didn’t want to hem it…no that would be far too boring. I wanted to use lace scallops to hide the raw edges! So, I busted out my serger, and serged my lining and my satin so nothing would fray. I then cut out and pinned my lace scallops so that the serging was hidden, and used my sewing machine with invisible thread to sew it down. It took me some time to sew around the beading, but I I got it all done in a couple of hours instead of days, if I had done it by hand. And I had more faith that the lace would hold with my machine stitching. I also cut out a few appliqués to add to the train.

At that point, I added in two large white hook and eyes for a bustle, and then took a step back to admire what I had done. Holy crap. My dress was finished! I was not ready for that. The end happened so fast!

With one week remaining, I assembly lined the bridesmaids dresses together, and finished the bulk of the sewing by the Thursday before my Sunday wedding. Had my fittings, made some adjustments. Just a few hems, and I was in good shape.

RETURN OF THE MUSLIN FROM HELL

My attempts at my one long-distance dress were futile. Something changed between when I cut the muslin and the fashion fabric. I really think I was burned out on sewing by the time I got to this last dress. So, I cut corners and was more focused on speed than fit and quality. As such, when my bridesmaid went to try on her dress the day before the wedding, it was to small by about a mile. We were already checked into the hotel, I did have my machine with me for a couple of hems left still to do, so this did not faze me. I got her in the dress as much as I could, stood back and examined where I needed to add width…and then promptly began cutting into the arm holes and slashing the skirt off the bodice. All of my bridesmaids were in the room at the time with jaws dropped. I thought the one I was trying to fit was going to have a panic attack. But they saw how I wasn’t concerned…at least on the outside…and it must have given them faith. I pinned and chalk marked her until we needed to leave for the rehearsal dinner, where I had four too many margaritas and was in bed at 1 am. Not the most auspicious start to my wedding day.

After the booze got out of my system on my wedding day, I got to work.

This was what I posted on Instagram the morning of my wedding at about 7. I had ironed all of my fabric, and trimmed excess off where I had pinned and marked the day before. I didn’t have my Butterick 5710 pattern on me, but at this point I made the maid of honor dress (heavily modified) twice, four muslins, and three successful bridesmaid dresses. I could sit down and put the thing together right now blindfolded if I wanted to. I started by attempting to rip out the invisible zipper, not realizing that when I cut the skirt off, I cut off the bottom zipper stop. The pull slid right off the zipper, and I thought I was going to throw up. My sister and maid of honor, God bless her, Ubered to JoAnn where she got the last black invisible zipper in the length I needed.

After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. While my gals got beautified, I sewed. I took a break around 3 pm to get my hair and makeup done, and got right back to it. In hindsight, I was so happy to have the sewing to distract me from the day. I didn’t expect to be as anxious as I was, and since sewing is meditative and relaxing, I was able to go into the zone and not freak out.

Until 5:30. When my needle broke. My only needle. I was supposed to be getting into my dress, and I had to figure out how to hem the last 19" I had to sew before I could marry the man I’d waited 33 years for. God love my mother…she had hem tape.  So I threw up that last hem, and got my gorgeous ladies all dressed.

Then I started prepping to wed.

Did I mention I made my veil, too? Butterick 4487 sewn with invisible thread to a tiara. I added some fancy trim to the edge of the veil, as well.

I’ll let the rest of the wedding pictures speak for themselves.

It was the best day of my life, and I was so sad to take the dress off at the end of the night. It’s now hanging in a shadow box above my cutting table. I can’t believe it’s all over. I learned so much, and feel like I leveled my skills up. So…what will I do to challenge myself next?

[caseyandherbrothers]

Bodice Badass (or OMG IT’S 29 DAYS TO THE WEDDING!!)

I'm not even kidding right now...but this bodice is the single most difficult and involved piece of any garment I have made to date thus far. It was the most time consuming as well. My first post about this thing was right after Labor Day weekend, so it took me over two weeks to complete, from muslin to final product. Not only that, but actually sewing it up in my fashion fabric was a very long process involving lots of handwork. In fact, pretty much everything was done by hand.

This is my sewing notebook. I decided with the start of this dress that I would write down my process step by step in case I ever need to refer to it for another garment in the future, and to refresh my memory so I can write posts like this! So, when I got to tracing and cutting out the pattern pieces in my fashion fabric, I needed to cut my satin, my underlining, and my lining fabric. For the underlining, I used one of my dad's old blue button down shirts. I guess my dad wasn't an oxford guy...the shirts were all sateen. I needed to iron some Shapeflex to the back of those pieces to give them a little more body, stability, and sturdiness. In addition to being sentimental, the underlining still had to do its job of supporting my satin from within the garment, and the sateen on its own just wouldn't do the job. The material was far to flimsy. My main satin is a very thick and creamy silk duchesse satin. I call it creamy because it's the only word I can come up with to describe how it feels in my hands to cut, pin, and manipulate. It's very easy to work with, and very sturdy. When I first started working with it I was very, VERY timid because I didn't want to do anything to potentially damage it, but it's holding up just fine. I decided to add 9 more boning channels to my bodice, because I felt that the four the pattern called for was just not enough. The shilouette was wrong, I didn't feel contained in the garment, and I really want that nice hourglass shape that this kind of bodice is meant to give.

I referenced this chart from Susan Khalje's "Bridal Couture," since it is essentially the exact same bodice I am making, and placed every single one of the boning channels in my bodice where this diagram said. I used all of the boning that came in my package! The channels were machine sewn to the blue underlining, I put stay tape on any curved or angled edge, and then hand basted the underlining to the satin along the stitching lines. I then basted my bodice pieces together, and tried it on the dress form and then me to make sure it fit...and it did!!

I sewed the lining together in exactly the same way (minus the boning channels) and got to work sewing what the pattern calls the "underlay." The underlay is essentialy two flaps that attach to either side of the bodice, that zip up and hook and eye close above the zipper to hold the bodice in place. I had a hell of a time getting it sewed up right and I don't know why...I easily spent a day and a half just on this part of the bodice. I learned a new hand stitch as well...the "prick stitch." This stitch was how I sewed my zipper into place. Susan Khalje (again) has the best description:

I FINALLY got the underlay into my lining, and machine stitched the bodice and then the bodice lining. I then inserted the boning into the channels and, using a catch stitch, sewed down all of the seam allowances in my bodice to the underlining only, to ensure the seams lay nice and flat for eternity.

One little detail that I love is my waitsline stay. This is a piece of fabric or ribbon (I used blue grosgrain 1.5" wide) that is the crux of the entire garment. My bodice attaches to it and uses it to stay up, and when I sew my skirt it will hang from the waistline stay instead of the bodice, ensuring the structural integrity of my garment remains intact. When I went to get the ribbon I saw a spool of lace that I couldn't get out of my mind, so I bought it too and sewed it to my waistline stay.

It's another tiny detail nobody will see but my sister and me, but I find it absolutely beautiful. I sewed a bra clasp to the ends of the ribbon, sewed the stay to my boning channels at the waistline, sewed a big buttonhole in the lining for the stay to exit out of, and then joined the bodice and the lining. I folded and pressed the seam allowance of the top of the lining wrong sides together, and then fell stitched the lining to the bodice.

Voila! Bodice complete! Technically, this is actually the underbodice. I need to sew the lace overlay that will attach to this creating the entire bodice. And I'll do it all while watching Project Runway.

I'm off to make it work!

[caseyandherbrothers]

The good news is that I have a plan. The bad news is...well...have a look at said plan. #caseysweddingatelier #sewing #b5731 #insertexpletivehere

[caseyandherbrothers]

#boninforlife

I am a nerd. A Star Wars watching, Lord of the Rings reading, Firefly quoting (but not as bad as my fiancée), Renaissance Faire attending nerd. And as a "Rennie," one of the things we nerds have a great appreciation for is the fine garments made for Faire Garb. I mean, have you SEEN some of the corsets you can get? One quick Google Image search will turn up more than you can imagine. The corsets and boning within them served a very functional purpose back then, since women didn't have bras. Check out this page from "Fit for Real People," illustrating how the feminine shape has changed throughout history:

Considering all of this, I think it's quite easy to understand why the concept of boning a bodice can be intimidating. Well, dear friends you can fear no more for I have tackled the un-tackleable on your behalf! For I am a sewing Hobbit. As Gandalf said, "Hobbits really are amazing creatures...you can learn all there is to learn about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you."

Hmm...I think I've veered a bit off track here. Back to boning. In "Bridal Couture," Susan Khalje says: "Bones are inserted into narrow fabric or ribbon channels that are machine basted to be muslin and later removed and re-attached to the underlining inside the gown...you can easily make them with lightweight cotton or ribbon. The bones should rest snugly inside the channels. If the channels are too tight, the bones will have a tendency to stand up on their sides; if the channels are too loose, the bones will shift rather than stay in place." No sir. I don't want any of that action. I have less than five weeks to get this done...I do NOT have time to perfect my boning channel construction. Enter Dritz' boning:

This is what it looks like right out of the package. And upon closer inspection...

You can see that it is already covered, saving me the step of creating the casing for it. Thank you, Dritz. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

When you slide the casing down a bit, you can see that this particular boning is made of plastic, and is reinforced with some thread wound around it to keep it from sliding around too much in the casing. Which is good because the pattern called for me to cut it to a specific length plus 1", and then to trim off 5/8" but to round the plastic as you trim, like so:

So now, this is what the boning will look like inside my underbodice lining:

I have space on either end of the boning channel to sew over without risking broken needles or skipped stitches. Here is the placement line on the left side front of my underbodice:

And I will pin it in and sew with my narrow zipper foot on either side of the plastic boning piece:

The pattern recommends four spots for boning, but I don't feel like my D cup pattern pieces have quite enough support. Susan Khalje comes to the rescue once again and says that you can't really overdo it, since when properly inserted it is virtually undetetable. I do think I will go back and insert some more boning lines in this bodice...but that may be a step for muslin number 2. It's entirely possible that the lace bodice that will overlay the underbodice may act like straps and help hold the girls up. But if I add more boning, I suspect I will get a nicer shilouette. Here's what I'm working with right now:

Underbodice Front

Underbodice back. (Yay for no back fat, amiright?!?!?) And there you have it. #boninforlife. Aside from needing to add some more boning in there, please comment and let me know if you see any other fit issues I need to address in this round of muslining. I have to say, though, I am pretty proud of myself, and feel SO empowered!

[caseyandherbrothers]

So You Want to Sew a Bodice

Good luck with that. I kid, I kid! The bodice you see above is what of my wedding dress muslin I was able to complete over the Labor Day weekend. And man alive it kills me to sew this slow. I'm not sure I was meant for couture. Regardless, here's how things have been going: Much to my dismay, I cut out the actual tissue pattern pieces and pinned them to myself to check fit, per the recommendations in "Fit for Real People." I don't have any pictures of it, and I apologize for that. Tissue fitting isn't very easy, and it's even more difficult to tissue fit yourself in a garment your fiancée can't help with because he's not supposed to see you in it until 5 weeks from now. I did the best I could with what little help I had and what little I know. First things first, was to gather up my materials. Obviously, my pattern (Butterick 5731), my copy of "Fit for Real People," scissors, pins, and these guys:

Left to right: Frixion heat dissolving ink pen, tracing wheel, and double tracing wheel. (Thanks to Julie Bossert from Sewn Studio in Cincinnati, OH for the gift of the double tracing wheel.) One thing that was painfully obvious during tissue fitting was the sleeve was too small. "Fit For Real People" recommends about 2 inches worth of ease, and I went ahead and did some pattern surgery.

I didn't say I was great at it. I have no idea how it will turn out in muslin, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. As for the rest of it, the fit wasn't so off that I couldn't make it work in the muslin stage.

After tissue fitting everything, I ironed it back out so it was nice and flat, and then pinned it to my gingham to prepare for tracing.

This is the bodice front pinned to the gingham and laid atop my Susan Khalje Waxed Tracing Paper.

I set my double tracing wheel so that the wheels were 5/8" apart, which is the seam allowance for this dress. I then traced around the tissue piece, marking the seam allowance and my stitching lines all the way around.

From there, I moved on to my single tracing wheel, marking my notches, grainlines, center back/front, etc.

I then moved on to my Frixion pen, but retracted for use as just a blunt marking tool, to mark anything that had curves or to make any notations onto the gingham. ***NOTE: When writing letters or numbers, I learned very quickly that I had to write them backwards, otherwise when tracing, I'd have to hold them up to a mirror to read. Which you can see is exactly what happened in the next photo***

Oops. But, other than that, everything traced over fine and dandy. Then I went ahead and repeated the process on the opposite side, removing the tissue pattern piece and tracing my wax markings back onto the other side of the gingham.

After that, it's just a matter of cutting everything out. In her Craftsy class, Susan Khalje recommends at least an inch extra of seam allowance for the fitting process, so I just rough cut around everything.

I then safety pinned my pieces together that I had multiples of, and moved on to the next piece until I had everything all traced and ready to rock.

By the time I was finished, my waxed tracing paper looked like a blueprint. Pretty cool, eh?

And my hands looked like this:

After all that, it ws merely a matter of stitching everything together along my stitching lines, and trying it on to make sure it fit. Sadly, it didn't quite come together at the center back. I was short by 5 3/8". The good news is that because I had so much extra in my seam allowance, I divided the 5 3/8" by eight (which is the number of seams I had in my bodice,) and came up with needing an extra 3/8" in all my seam allowances. I went back with a water soluble pen, marked it, re-sewed, and it FIT!!!!!!!! HUZZAH!!!!!

After I finished Kermit Flailing, I had a glass of wine and reveled in my victory. And then realized that next up on my list to tackle was boning...

[caseyandherbrothers]

The Art of Procrastination

Before we get into the construction of my wedding dress, I wanted you to see the final Muslin from Hell. My bridesmaid should have received it in the mail on Friday, so I'll update on the fitting of said Muslin from Hell later this week. (Well, in theory. My mom is flying in tomorrow night to help me wrap up all of the other wedding stuff that doesn't involve sewing. But, I digress...)

Do you see all this right here? All these pattern pieces? These are the pattern pieces for my wedding dress - The Glorious, the Regal, the Timeless, The Grace Kelly, The Kate Middleton, The Father of The Bride (circa 1991) - B5731. Why am I sewing my own wedding dress? Basically, because I triple dog dared myself, and now here I am with five weeks to go and my tongue is stuck to the frozen flagpole. I have no choice but to go forward with this insanity. About a year ago, before I was even engaged, my four good sewing friends from Cincinnati and I were texting about weddings for some reason. And I just decided I was going to sew my wedding dress pretty much right then and there. I had loved the Kate Middleton dress like the rest of the world, and decided that was the route I was going to go. Lo and behold, some quick Googling revealed the Butterick pattern for the dress. Joann, unbeknownst to me, happened to be having a sale and I got it for $1.99 that same night. I shoved it in a drawer where my then-boyfriend wouldn't find it and run screaming, and forgot about it. Until the night after Thanksgiving when he went and proposed to me. It was all very exciting and exhilarating...and then I remembered that I had let my mouth overload my arse and had to make this thing. So, I went back to Joann for the cheap satin and tulle and netting and whatnot to make my muslin. While there, I also decided that I was going to make the Pippa Dress for all my bridesmaids, and even throw in a little taffeta number, B6129, for the rehearsal dinner. Patterns and material in hand, I went home and promptly stuck it all in a drawer. Again. At this time, I was pretty close to 210 lbs, and I figured making a muslin wasn't going to do me any good, because if I was going to lose a bunch of weight for the wedding it would cause more fit problems than it would solve, since my body was going to (hopefully) drastically change. I gave myself a target date of August 1 to lose the weight and to focus exclusively on my wedding dress, figuring in the meantime I would make the bridesmaids dresses.

Yeah. Thanks for the reminder. I have busted my tail losing weight...as it stands right now I'm at 40 lbs gone and counting. But so much else happened this year. One of my bridesmaids was a Breast Cancer survivor, and a recent one, too. Like, she just got her new boobs a couple of weeks ago. So, understandably, she had to back out. This happened in May, and I was so happy I hadn't begun my bridesmaid dresses! My job was beating me down with a daily 2 AM wakeup call and 100+ hour work weeks, so I quit that in June. And my fiancée hated Cincinnati, so we quit that, too. Bought a house in Carrollton, TX and moved in on...say it with me kids...August 1. Which brings us to why it is the end of Labor Day weekend, and I have just begun the muslin of my wedding dress. *** One week ago, I was on the phone with my sister talking about the reconstruction of her Maid of Honor Dress, when she said, just off the cuff: "That's a lot to do in six weeks."

SAY WHAAAAAAAATTT!?!?!? I suppose it was the most Maid-of-Honor-y thing she could have ever said to me, and given the situation, I'm glad she did. I took the next couple of days to get the remaining bridesmaids muslins done, fitted the two gals that live here in Dallas, and got going on my dress. After consulting Palmer/Pletsch's "Fit for Real People," Nancy Zieman's "Pattern Fitting with Confidence," and Susan Khalje's "Couture Dress" Craftsy Class and "Bridal Couture" book, I smooshed all the information together to come up with a plan that I thought would work best for me: 1 - Cut tissue pattern pieces in my size 2 - Tissue fit and alter 3 - Trace altered tissue onto gingham for muslining 4 - Assemble muslin 5 - Make fit adjustments 6 - Make second garment out of Joann fabric 7 - Make final alterations 8 - Make wedding dress I'll update the blog step by step as I complete them. For now...I have a bodice to construct!

[caseyandherbrothers]

Adventures in Muslining (Yeah...I know that’s not a verb.)

I hate making muslins. Hate it. I totally recognize and respect the importance of the process, especially for a new sewer such as myself. (I started in Spring of 2014). And it's especially important when I am making four bridesmaid's dresses, and two of my bridesmaids are across the country. You can only do so much with B/W/H and Neck/Back Waist. There are still so many ways these dresses can go wrong. So, I decided I was going to tackle couture fit this year. Before I left Cincinnati, my dear friend Julie Bossert (proprieter of Sewn Studio and the woman who taught me to sew) had the amazing chance to go to Craft South in Nashville for a workshop on fit with Liesl Gibson. I wanted to go with her so badly, but it just wasn't an option. So while she was gone, I struck out on my own searching for resources on fit.

Craftsy was the first place I turned, and I found this class by Susan Khalje. Craftsy boasted the class will teach me to "...learn how to sew a dress that fits like a dream! Once Susan Khalje teaches you these essential couture sewing techniques, you will have the skills to adapt the included Vogue pattern to create whatever dress you need - a swingy summer sleeveless, a classic winter-weight sheath with three-quarter sleeves or an elegant cocktail dress in seasonless black lace. Susan will help you construct a muslin and transfer the modifications to your pattern for a perfect fit, discover the magic of underlinings, achieve perfect set-in sleeves and finish your dress with flawless details like a hand-picked zipper." And OH MY GOD did it! I will be 100% up front here...I did not make the dress that came with the class. I did, however, watch it from start to finish, and plan to construct my wedding dress this way. The problem with my out-of-town bridesmaids is that I won't be able to do an in-person fitting and to adjust my stitching lines so precisely and whatnot. So, armed with a little more knowledge at LEAST about what some of the markings on the pattern papers meant that I didn't understand, I waited for Julie to come back from Nashville so we could compare notes.

This book was Julie's big takeaway from her weekend with Liesl. Sure...there were many things from the weekend that corroborated my Craftsy class (use tracing paper and a tracing wheel, mark your stitching lines and sew that way, etc). But Julie said this is the book that Liesl recommends most highly, and has used for years and years. She and I messed with a few things out of there...played with darts and FBA's and a few other adjustments. This book relies very heavily on tissue fitting and slashing/spreading for fit adjustments. However, until a couple of days ago, I didn't get around to buying it. And, in the meantime, with what little knowledge I had, I went ahead and began making my muslins for the bridesmaids.

My wedding dress is the Kate Middleton dress, so OF COURSE my bridesmaids need to wear the Pippa Dress. Go big or go home, amiright? All of my bridesmaids have pretty slim figures, with the exception of one who is more apple shaped, like me. So I came up with a plan. I was going to scour the pattern books from the Big 4 at Joann, and find a bodice, sleeve, and top that would harken back to Pippa, but give this bridesmaid a circle skirt that would be more flattering than a sheath. After spending several hours looking and comparing and hemming and hawing, these are the patterns I came up with:

Simplicity 2580 and 3823. "But, Casey...Simplicity 2580 is for Knits. You're using a woven. That knit pattern is bound to have some negative ease!." Yeah, I thought. Maybe that's the case. But the patterns were on sale for $1.99 or similar, and I figured I'd make the largest size and make my fit adjustments from there. Which is what brought us to the aforementioned monstrosity:

The muslin that I can't even get over the hips of Tracy, my dress form. First of all, I need to say that my muslin making for the other three bridesmaids is going just fine. I just have zippers to put in, and then I can begin fittings. I tried on one muslin with my soon-to-be sister-in-law last night, and it fit her like a glove. I am SO EXCITED! And I really needed that boost, because I tried and tried and TRIED to make the muslin from hell work. It was such a saga. First of all, let's look at the line drawings:

On the left, we have The Pippa Dress (Butterick 5710). On the right, Simplicity 2580 View D. The bodice of the Butterick dress is made of two pattern pieces: a main bodice, and the bodice drape. The Simplicity bodice pattern piece is one piece, cut on a fold, and that fold becomes the drape at the neckline. (I wasn't worried about how my fashion fabric will drape compared to the knit this bodice was meant for...it's a very light, shimmery, flowy black satin). I tried to put the bodice on a circle skirt, and tried to jimmy the sleeves from the Butterick dress into the armholes of the Simplicity dress. But I forgot one major issue: There's a sleeve back that attached to the back bodice, a sleeve front that attaches to the front bodice, and from there front and back join. The shape of the pattern pieces for the Simplicity dress don't allow for that. So, I ripped my bodice apart, took the Butterick dress bodice pieces and overlayed them over the Simplicity pieces and then traced, attempting to create a shape in the Simplicity bodice that would allow for these Butterick sleeves. Sewed everything up again, and the sleeves were too small. I couldn't move my arms up and down without moving the bodice up towards my head, and practically undressing myself. NOT COOL. I decided I need to enlarge the sleeves to allow for more movement within them. More flowy sleeves, in my mind, meant more room for movement. My theory was correct. My practice, however was not. I enlarged the sleeves alright...except I enlarged them both where they meet up with the neckline and where they will be hemmed. I didn't grade them at all. Which left me with the disaster of a muslin we now have before us. This dress is not just a boat neck...it has no neck whatsoever because enlarging the sleeves at the top also enlarges the neckline. And so, I cried. And cried. And cried some more. I admit defeat. And I ordered Fit for Real People. It's on its way now via Amazon. In the meantime, instead of sitting in my sewing room staring at the muslin from hell and feeling sorry for myself, I feel like I should be learning more about fit. So, I started googling around for the second best option, and came across a Nancy book (of course!)

This book I downloaded immediately to my iPad. Huzzah! I'm about halfway through, and feel a lot better for spending this time educating myself instead of ripping that muslin to shreds. And, while reading, I had a brainstorm. Instead of trying to craft a similar dress out of pattern pieces that were clearly not meant to go together in any way, shape, manner, or form - I am going to trace the proper Butterick bodice in my bridesmaid's size. However, I am only going to trace front and back skirt pieces long enough to come to her waist. And from there, I will attach the circle skirt I already have made. I may need to throw a waistband in there to keep her from looking like Elizabeth Bennett, but I feel like I have a more reasonable plan. One that won't make me start all over. So, I am off to try some more muslining today. Any other alternatives, tips, or tricks you might have would be fabulous. We'll give this one a go and see if it gives me as many emotional breakdowns. Wish me luck!

[caseyandherbrothers]

Fabric Mecca

I have found Fabric Mecca, and it is not in New York or LA.  No no no, my friends.  It is located right here in the DFW Metroplex. (Walnut Hills and Harry Hines, to be exact.)

Behold: the Golden D'or. Not the best part of town, true. But OH so worth it for fabric shopping. They had a little bit of everything, and it is all super discounted. Their fabric is all closeout, so it's 50-75% off retail...and on top of that they have a clearance room where bolts are marked down another 50%! Don't get confused when you arrive, however. This is where you will enter:

So old school. I love it. Seeing as how I'm in serious wedding dress mode, I made a beeline past the notions right to the Bridal area:

This is just SOME of the lace. It went on for racks and racks and there were even more bolts off to the side. I was in HEAVEN. And the prices were really reasonable...the most beautiful stuff was about $70/yard. Still expensive, but I bought my bridal lace for $120/yard, so there's that. And, because we're in Texas:

BOOM. The same laces in a rainbow of colors! Now I'm super resentful that I didn't get a Quinceañera!!! I do, however, go to Renassance Festivals:

Oh, hello there brocades! I'll take a yard of each!! They were so luxurious. I couldn't stop thinking about all the dresses and vests I could make for Matt and me for the Texas Renaissance Festival this fall!

Acevedo Fun Fact: My mother did beauty pageants when she was younger. She was pretty active in the Junior Miss program. (I'll have to dig up the pictures one day...they're amazing). And as I stared at these sequins, I felt the call of pageantry running through my veins...even though I've never considered such a thing in my life! But hey, when you're in Fabric Mecca I suppose it's hard to think straight.

I mean, really. I NEED these Ombre sequins in my closet. I have no idea how I would wear them...any suggestions? But my, they are beautiful.

I have never looked at eyelets before and thought, "Vibrant." Well, I do now. So much potential in this fabric. I think I'll have to pick it up once I have a reason to make children's clothes.

Ah yes. The Trim Room. A whole room dedicated to trim. And this is most of it...it went around the corner so I couldn't get the whole thing in the shot. Ribbons and ric rac and pom poms and cording and buttons and zippers and anything you could possibly imagine to trim a garment with resides in this room. It was a lot to take in.

Patent Leather. I'll be returning for plenty of this, for sure. This stuff would make some adorable bags.

This room is all swimsuit material. So much spandex and lamé in this room, it was dizzying. And in so many fun prints! Check out the dolla dolla bills, y'all!!!

And then I stumbled on the velvet:

Who needs me to make them a tracksuit? Or perhaps some Juicy knockoff lounge pants? This stuff was so pretty!!!

This particular fabric is one of my favorites: Dupioni and Shantung silk. Those colors were so beautiful...and because they are shot woven, had so much dimension as I was looking at each one up close and moving it around on the bolt, watching the colors flow in the light. Breathtaking.

Oh yes. Stretch lace for unmentionables. You know you want to make your own underwear, too. Suffice it to say, I spent a good 2 or 3 hours just wandering around the racks aimlessly, appreciating all of the beauty that was surrounding me. I had initially gone in to look for some upholstery fabric for the pampasan chair cushion I need to make, but there was nothing that made me stop in my tracks in that particular department. (Not that the selection was poor...I just don't have the eye for that kind of thing.) As I made a second trip around the store, I was able to narrow down my wants, and this is what I settled on:

Aren't they pretty? Let's take a look at each one a little more in depth:

My fiancée desperately needs a second pair of swim trunks. So, of COURSE I will make them. This is my favorite shade of blue. It looks great on him, too. Only $2.95/yard.

This fabric is going to solve a major problem in my life. We discovered when my sister was in town for a visit a couple of weeks ago that she had lost a significant amount of weight. She was already skinny to begin with, so I'm not sure where she had weight to lose but, alas, these things happen. So the beautiful Maid of Honor dress I made just a few short months ago is now a potato sack on her, and I pretty much need to remake the whole thing. There is going to be no altering that. This particular red fabric is a stretch crepe. Unlike the regular poly woven, it should skim her body very nicely. I'm going to go down two sizes based on her new measurements, and this should do the trick. Even if it's a tad too small, well, that's what the stretch part is for! The other thing I find interesting about this particular fabric is the grain. Look closely...it's already on the bias! The dress I'm making is bias cut, so this should be fun. It was only $10.00/yard, so if I can't make it work I'm only out $20, and I'll make something else with it one day.

Purple Leather Remnant. A little over a third of a yard for $3.50. Should make a cute clutch!

These were the trims I got from the aforementioned Trim Room. The top ribbons of headphones and a vinyl album pay homage to my other hobby: radio. (In my past life just 2 months ago, I was a fairly successful radio show producer, and I love all things audio.) For that reason, these two ribbons were a no brainer. The black satin I am going to use as the trim on the bridesmaid dresses. Both were $1.50/yard.

This was the most expensive thing I bought. At $39/yard I could only afford one yard of it, and it accounted for a little over half of my tab today. But the Fish Scale Sequins are probably my favorite item from today. I love how I can choose either the iridescent pink, the flatter white look, or a mixture of both for my garment. I think this is going to end up a tank top to wear either on our honeymoon or the week of the wedding. And they had SO MANY other colors to choose from! That's a wrap on my first visit to Fabric Mecca. I didn't even really get to touch on the upholstery, fleece, minky, flannel, knits, quilting cottons, athletic wear, shirtings, wool, suitings...I promise I will on future visits. The potential here is overwhelming, yet so inspiring!

[caseyandherbrothers]

Meet My Brothers!

So, I don’t actually have any biological brothers. I have a younger sister named Kristen. She’s a writer in LA and she’s hilarious. My Brothers are actually my Brother Sewing Machines, and I’d like you to meet them!

This guy is the workhorse of the group. The Innovis40-e Project Runway Limited Edition. (Oooooh! Ahhhh!) I bought him on a whim with my tax refund in February of 2014. I had never sewn before, but had been flirting with the idea ever since Pinterest came into my life. He came with a free “Getting to Know your Machine” private lesson with one of the lovely older ladies who worked at the dealer I purchased him from. (Kramer’s Sew and Vac in Cincinnati, OH. KramerSews.com. They’re lovely). During my lesson, she recommended a shop in town called Sewn Studio. She said “They’re quite young and modern. I think you’ll like them a lot. They bought their machines here too - six of them, just like the one you have.” (More on Sewn Studio later...that’s a post in and of itself!) I went home, downloaded "The Idiot's Guide to Sewing," and after some horrible felt and ribbon bookmarks, signed up for the six week beginner sewing series that owner Julie Bossert teaches at Sewn Studio, and have been non-stop ever since.

After about a year of sewing, I discovered I had a passion for garments and knits in particular. I was even teaching the knit classes at Sewn Studio. I asked around about if I REALLY needed a serger, since my sewing machine comes with an overlock stitch. And, once again, on impulse with my tax refund in 2015 purchased this guy...my 5234PRW serger. I LOVE SERGING. It's so much faster...I can crank out dresses and t-shirts like I'm my own personal sweat shop. I think it takes me less time to serge my pattern pieces together than it does for me to cut them out...especially if it's a pattern I've already made a couple of dozen times. (The Metro Tee by Liesl and Co. and Fishsticks Charlie Hoodie are a couple I have memorized.) Serging is my jam.

If serging is my jam, then the Pacesetter 2340CV Cover Stitch Machine is my marmalade. (Does that analogy even work? I hate marmalade...but I digress...) The coverstitch machine was something I actually had buyer's remorse about after purchasing it while my fiancée was out of town for work, and trying to sneak it in to the house out of guilt. (Sorry, Matt!) I read about the existence of such a machine in the Colette Guide to Sewing Knits. (The book didn't cover much I didn't already know, but is a great intro to knit sewing if you're so inclined. I highly recommend it!) Alyson Clair has a Janome, I think. So I went back to Kramer Sew and Vac and picked up this little fella, because of my intense loyalty to Brother's machines. (NOTE: I still haven't mastered the thread tension release after I'm done hemming. Any suggestions or assistance from those in the know would be greatly appreciated!) Again, that issue is another post in and of itself. But I LOOOOOVE this machine. It makes hemming my knits so much easier...and we all know how much drama twin needles can cause. I've never had a session with a twin needle go without issue. I HAVE had a perfect coverstitch though. And I do most of the time. It's a DREAM, and another machine I think anyone who sews a lot of garments (especially knits) needs to have in her arsenal.

And finally, we have my Embroidery Machine. From what I understand, this guy is the super-duper entry level Brother machine you can get at Hancock...the HE1. Got it super, SUPER cheap. It's a no muss, no fuss, simple 4x4 embroidery...which is all I need, really. I mostly just embroider labels for all of my Instagram Craft Swaps, (of which I'm currently in the middle of six or seven. Because sewing my wedding dress and maid of honor and bridesmaid dresses clearly isn't enough for me.) I did, however, recently discover Urban Threads and should be venturing into some more fun embroidery projects in the near future. Let's see what this baby can do!!

Oh...right. That guy. We don't talk about him. I'M KIDDING! This is my 1951 Singer Featherweight Centennial that my sister got for me for Christmas in 2014. It's true when they say "They don't make 'em like they used to." This machine is as old as my father, and its stitches come out perfectly every single time. It's got a great "clack clack clack" sound that makes me feel like I'm REALLY sewing when I use it. All it does is a straight stitch, but it does it better than any machine out there, in my opinion. My only problem is deciding when to use it. I usually end up piecing quilts with it, and that's it. I feel like I haven't truly tapped into the potential of this glorious machine. All in good time I suppose. So, those are my boys. Welcome to the family!

[caseyandherbrothers]

Our division of the rainbow comes from Newton—but it's more subjective than scientific.

This blows my ROYGBIV lovin’ mind!

[caseyandherbrothers]

First!

Hello there. This is my fist blog post. For the sake of context, it’s 12:58 am et one week to the day before I’m about to drive down to Texas with my fiancée and close on our new home. I haven’t been sleeping well lately, so I either buy fabric online from Etsy or #thegreatfabricdestash on Instagram, or putz around looking at my sewing blogs. The reality is that I am putting off the beginning of what will go down as my greatest sewing adventure…my wedding dress. We get married October 18, so I have a little less than 3 months to go, and I haven’t even started. Also, there’s the matter of my five bridesmaids dresses I’m also making. And my white taffeta rehearsal dinner dress. And my whole wardrobe for the honeymoon. There is white fabric EVERYWHERE these days. Hope you enjoy my chronicling of the process! It’s going to be a lot of fun. Now…if I can just keep the movers from getting their mitts on my sewing machine…