Wedding Dress Part V: Embroidering the Bodice

Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comThis is probably the making of part of the wedding dress I am most excited to share with you! That’s very likely because it was the most fun part to create. Assembling a garment is fun, but it is also pretty repetitive as it is a similar process with many garments (even a wedding dress is just a dress after all). So trying something I haven’t done before was exciting and helping me loads to keep my sewing mojo up during the process.

The embroidery was initially part of the plan but I kind of discarded the idea once I started making my dress. I thought I wouldn’t have enough time because I procrastinated for too long and didn’t really start until five months before the wedding.

While making my dress I was really unhappy about not using embroidery and also, the dress seemed to become a lot plainer than I wished.

Eight weeks before the wedding, when I knew I could finish the dress on time, I decided to take a week out of the sewing schedule (which I didn’t stick to anyway) to try my hand at embroidering. I had never done this before, I didn’t have an embroidery frame, I didn’t even have the notions yet.

Not a particularly promising outlook, right? I decided not to get a frame and experiment with a DIY solution, and also ordered relatively cheap acryl beads, diamonds and sequins online.
Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.com

At first I experimented with shapes and arragement of the different sized and coloured beads etc. I roughly stuck to the embroidered pattern of the Jenny Packham Esme dress I based my wedding dress on.

It’s a beautiful Art Deco style pattern which really suits the 1930’s silhouette of the dress. I changed it a bit here and there and also used a different colour of sequins to match my fabric. The colour of the sequins is hard to describe, it’s not gold or rose gold. Actually more like a warm silver if that makes sense? It reflected the colour of the fabric really well which helped ‘carmouflaging’ the sequins a bit so they weren’t too loud.

Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comBefore testing out DIY embroidery frame solutions, I used a small embroidery hoop to check if my fabric was suitable for embroidering.

My lining fabric is silk satin and my main fabric silk chiffon (although I’d say it’s a silk organza rather than a silk chiffon). Anyway, the fabrics are way too delicate to hold the strain of heavy embroidery, so I got some extra silk georgette in the exact same colour (which was lucky) when I bought my wedding dress fabrics last summer.

The georgette is as lightweight and transparent as the chiffon/organza, but much stronger and actually worked really well with my embroidery attempts:Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comOnce I got the knack of it, I had to think about creating a larger frame which would fit the whole of my bodice plus seam allowance. I used some styroform boards and pinned the fabric on it very tightly. The advantage was also that I could pin my template underneath so I didn’t have to mark the pattern on the fabric.

Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comHere you can see my template underneath the fabric, which I drew with pencil on drafting paper to make sure the pattern was neat and mirrored exactly.

The outline of the seamline was marked on the fabric with basting stitches.Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comI actually didn’t use too many different kinds of beads and diamonds:

  • cream white rocailles beads
  • silver rocailles beads
  • transparent beads
  • sequins (silver/gold coloured)
  • 3 different sizes of acryl diamonds (5mm, 10mm, 12mm)

Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.com
Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comI had roughly outmapped the lines and shapes, but the exact positions and arrangement of beads and diamonds came about during the creative process.

It was so much fun, it was hard to stop. But I had to get on with the rest of the dress, so I limited the amount of embroidery compared to the Packham dress and only embroidered the bodice front and back pieces.

It took a week and three seasons of Homeland to finish.

My back hurt a lot during that time, but it was absolutely worth it. Embroidery like knitting can be very addictive because it so relaxing in a way.Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.com

What do you think? Do you have any experience with embroidery?

Next time I’ll share the last steps of assembling the actual dress before the big reveal! So make sure you pop by!

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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Refashion it! Golden Vintage Dress to Embellished Crop Top

vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Hallöchen, ihr Lieben!

Hope you’re having a great week so far! I’m starting to get a bit stressed by the wedding preparations, especially with things involving the dress. A blog post was long overdue, though, so I’m trying to squeeze this one in between all the fittings and muslins and whatnot.

This is a really quick refashion project I wanted to share with you. It’s a loose-fitting embellished crop top I made from a dress that the Mr’s grandma gave me a little while ago. (scroll further down for before pics!).

vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comIt was basically a rectangular, light-weight long dress that looked suspiciously handmade, but had some sort of label in it, so I’m not too sure about that fact. The dress itself had no shape whatsoever, the hem going way below knee-length. At first I thought it might be edgy and cool but when I put it on it simply looked horrible and I felt like wearing a potato sack.

As it so often happens, I forgot to take proper before pictures (which is really stupid when planning an before & after project, I know!), so this is all I have:vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comThe dress was too narrow to give me enough fabric for cutting out a whole new garment, so I decided to take the easy way out and cut the bottom off. Chop, chop!
vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comI overlocked the raw seam and hemmed it by hand using matching gold thread.vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The fit was ok-ish, but the top still lacked something. Since it’s a really simple shape, I thought I might add some embellishments to add some bling and make it a bit less boring.

I played around with different embellishments I had at home, like studs and acrylic diamonds.
vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I liked the studs best and started placing them on the neckline. Once I liked what I saw, I attached them using my pliers. I added more and more until I was happy with the end result.vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Since the crop top is very wide, I love wearing it with my pencil skirts. Since they have a high waist, my belly won’t show which makes this look pretty work appropriate. Also, I can wear a tank top underneath during the cold season which is neat.

Personally, I love the tight skirt – loose top combination which is quite flattering as it makes your waist appear smaller than it is!

vintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.comvintage dress to crop top by thisblogisnotforyou.com

It’s amazing how such small changes can make a big difference to a garment. Take an hour and an unloved garment and turn it into something you love wearing. Instant happiness!

I would love to hear about your experiences with transforming your old or vintage clothes!

xx

Charlie


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Embellished Cropped Coco-Sweater

embellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comHappy New Year, folks! Hope you all had awesome holidays! It’s a bit late but I wanted to share one of my holiday makes with you: A cropped embellished sweater! It’s super cosy and the perfect thing to wear with all my sleeveless fit-and-flared dresses.

I often find it very hard to find the perfect cardigan with the perfect length. If they’re too long and paired with a flared skirt or dress they make the whole outfit look awkward and bulky. Making a sweater was on my to-do list this winter and I found some really awesome sweater fabrics lately (some of which I had ordered by accident). For the pictures I paired the sweater with one of my Hepburn dresses.

The Fabric:

I got the fabric on ebay. It was pretty much cheaper than any other tracksuit fabric I had seen in the shops, so I gave it a go (despite hating to order fabric online). I ordered it in the wrong colour by accident – I wanted school grey fabric to make a hoodie for the Mr. For some reasons I got the colours wrong and despite emailing back and forth with the seller the fabric was navy when it arrived a couple of days later. I mean, to be honest, I wasn’t disappointed or anything. Navy blue is my absolute favourite colour, the fabric was cheap and the quality very nice. And I had loads of it. So no regrets.

I bought the ribbing from the same supplier, so the colours were a perfect match. I had 1.5m of it and managed to make a Lola dress (Victory Patterns) and this sweater, the latter using up less than a metre. The Lola dress is not blogged yet, but it will be pretty soon 🙂

The acrylic sew-on gems are also from ebay, I bought a pack of 50 mixed shapes and have enough left for a second project.

embellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comThe Pattern:

The sweater pattern is more or less self-drafted. I hacked Tilly’s Coco Dress, changing the neckline a bit and making the waist less fitted. The ribbing is cut a bit smaller than the waist and sleeves, so it cinches everything in nicely. I drafted a facing for the neckline, cut out from the same fabric and used understitching to keep it in place. I sewed the sweater mostly using my overlocker, and it only took 2 hours or so.

When I made the Coco dress a couple of months ago, I had to take it in a lot and it still was a bit on the wider side. So for the sweater I went with Tilly’s size 3. The fabric is quite heavy and has a bit of stretch, so the loose fit was perfect and it fits me nicely.

embellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.comembellished cropped coco sweater by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Will I make it again? I love this sweater and you see a lot of these on the high street at the moment. I got more tracksuit/sweater fabric for Christmas in light grey and brown and am planning on making at least one more sweater and maybe a Lola-hack. Next time I want to try some other embellishments, maybe lace or zips but I have yet to figure out what I want it to look like. So keep your eyes peeled 🙂


Happy sewing!

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