does DIY and Crafts include custom sewing?

[joneschick]

I'm doing two prom dresses for this Friday evening. Send energy!!!!! I promised daughter #1 I would make her dress so she blithely told a friend that she would make hers! Guess who's doing that? http://store.sewingtoday.com/cgi-bin/voguepatterns/shop.cgi?s.item.V2241=x&TI='2241'&page=1 in apple green shantung and http://www.mccallpattern.com/item/M4826.htm in turquoise embroidered cotton with little sequins.

[NMDemDist2]

1. hey no pressure Mom! ROFL, the kid better be doing all the cooking

and cleaning while you're slaving over a hot sewing machine

:evilgrin:

[joneschick]

3. yeah, you'd think, wouldn't you?

she's also graduating HS, doing her first semester at the university and working 2 jobs........

[Dora]

2. That Vogue pattern is gorgeous.

I'm curious how it will look with the shantung. Isn't shantung a stiff fabric?

(Will you post pictures when you've finished?)

I'm a novice sewer myself, but haven't had any time since my son was born last year. All I do now is pattern and fabric browse, dreaming of free hours that don't exist.

[joneschick]

4. the shantung is a fairly soft

though not drapey. I wanted a nice charmeuse, but I didn't buy when I saw it. sigh. I will make every effort to post pics when I'm done. She loves the camera. Off to my studio now. And I can call it a studio even if it is just the back bedroom!

[politicat]

5. Yep, it includes sewing! Those are great dresses!

Make the girls ham it up with their dates!

I'm doing a hot pink fuzzy bunny suit for my friend for Burning Man right now, and a couple of antique reproduction garments (a 1914 summer dress in white cotton, a 1921 blouse and my "suffragette" dress, designed from pictures of the 19th amendment rallies).

I'll try to get my friend to pose when I'm done with his suit, or if you're a Burning man type, you may see him.

[joneschick]

6. tell me about the reproductions!

your own patterns--threading off originals? inquiring minds want to know! Burning Man is also very interesting, although I only know about it in a very minimal way. Share!

[politicat]

7. Go make the Prom dresses. /stern

The dress uses basic dress patterns (the shapes are pretty standard) and these pictures:

- Alice Paul

(Plus a lot of others from books in my library and some photos of Eleanor Roosevelt in the teens and 20s.) The hard part is the pin-tucking, and all I can say is I'm glad I bought the sewing machine that can do stuff!

The skirts are just-above-the-ankle A-line skirts with stiffened waistbands that button/hook on the sides. Some of them are dual layered, with an upper, contrasting overskirt that has a handkerchief point hem (Pointed in the center front and back, and curved to about mid-calf to knee on the sides). Since I'm doing summer dresses in white cotton, I'm doing double layers on the skirts, the only embellishments are pin tucks in the overskirt. (See the ballot box woman's skirt above.)

The blouses are Buttericks B4091 pattern I'm adding pin-tucks to the blouse in the lower left hand corner, and putting a cotton lace overlay on the collar and basque. I'm also using traditional cuffs instead of flares.

The dress uses the skirt pattern with some help from folkwear's garden party dress (#220)

I hate modern clothes. Three scraps of badly dyed cotton serged together with mismatched thread and the unfinished hem on the outside is just crap, not fashion.

As for the pink fuzzy bunny suit... it's for a 6 foot tall, 230 pound guy with piercings, tats and a penchant for kilts. It's based on basic yoga type pants and a tunic shirt, with velcro up the back and at the fly. He's still trying to decide if he wants a satin tummy or a cotton tummy, but that will just be hemmed and overlaid on the costume. It has a hood, but the face is exposed. I believe he's going to wear it with a plastic scythe and a big old stinky cigar, in a parody of the Energizer bunny. I'm making it out of hot pink stretch cotton with a terry-cloth face, and little daisies embossed into the pile. It's so cute I could throw up.

[eleny]

8. Both are such neat retro looks! I love them!

To me, one is such a vamp 30s style and the other is fun 50s Marilyn all the way. The girls will have so much fun and won't see themselves coming and going at the prom. You're a great mom for doing this.