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A Strappy Red Dress

1/25/2018

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A simple alteration, today.  My client had a shift dress with spaghetti straps.  The top of the dress had a ruffle over the bosom, which was sewn right-sides-together to the neck and arm holes, then turned right side out, thus finishing the neck and arm-holes and hiding all the raw edges under the ruffle.  Simple and cute.  The problem: the straps were too long for the wearer! 

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Adaptive Clothing - zippers in pant legs

1/22/2018

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"Adaptive clothing" is the term for clothes which are designed for use by disabled people.  The goal is to look like regular clothes, but to have adaptations that either make them easier to don, safer and more comfortable to wear in wheelchairs, or more practical for caregivers.  By their nature, adaptive clothes can be unique to the individual.  Recently, a friend came to me with a particular need: a man whose Parkinson's makes it difficult to get the narrow ends of his pants legs over his feet (even if you sit to do it, it still requires balance and co-ordination).  She asked if I could install zippers in the bottom of the pant legs so he could unzip them, get them on, and then zip them down?  I said of course! 

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Rose on Snow - An Embellished Gown

1/4/2018

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​A friend (B.) found a lovely wedding dress at a thrift store.  Check out the pricing history: originally $3,000, marked down to $350, then marked down to $19.99!  The tags were all still on, so the dress has never been worn for a wedding.  But it's clearly been tried on... a lot.  I suspect it was a floor model at a bridal salon, and when it got shop-worn, they discounted it.  Eventually it landed at Goodwill, where B. bought it. 

B. has a vision for the dress, though.  She planned to attend a Leukemia survivors' ball, and wanted to wear this wedding dress, but embellished with flowers to look less bridal, more fairy-like. 

Now, as Mark Twain put it in The Prince and the Pauper, "Let us change the tense for convenience".  (If he could do it halfway through a novel, I can do it in a blog post!)  Present tense for the project diary...
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Making a Flower from... a Flower.

1/1/2018

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Happy New Year to everyone using the Gregorian calendar! 

Have you ever looked at a fake flower--you know the type: plastic stem and fabric leaves and petals--and thought "too bad that's a big bulky fake flower; I wish it were softer and more sew-able so I could stick it on my dress"?  If that's the sort of thing you think, you're reading the right blog! 
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If not... well... how does your brain work, then?  I'm really interested, because it seems like such a normal thought to me, and I'd be curious to know how someone thinks who doesn't have that thought. 

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The "Wench" Top -- construction pics!

12/28/2017

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Ooh, look'it what I found!  In-progress pics of the construction of the "wench" top!  How fun!  Well, you've already seen the result of the alterations, but read on to see how I did the alterations on the bridal bodice. 

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Regalia Alteration

12/21/2017

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Christmas is almost here, so let's have a festive post!  And what could be more festive than dance... in a dress covered in ribbons! 

A few months back, my client was all set to go to Powwow when she realized that her ribbon dress, part of her regalia, was a bit harder to get into than she remembered.  The ribbon dress is a simple dress that is pulled on over the head.  It can be a T-tunic style, or constructed with a yoke.  The problem in this case was that the area under the arms was tight.  If you have mobility issues (like a frozen shoulder) or a little extra weight, it's hard to pull something over your head that is tight around the arms.  She wanted to be able to dress herself without getting stuck and having to call for help! 
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TUTORIAL: Hemming with Horsehair Braid

11/30/2017

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On Monday I showed how I hemmed the sheer overlay of a wedding dress using a Calvin Klein hem.  Today I'll show the way I hemmed the heavier skirt underneath, using horsehair braid. 

I figured out this technique simply by reverse engineering the hem as it was done originally, before I altered the dress by cutting off several inches.  It's pretty basic. 
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TUTORIAL: Calvin Klein Hem

11/27/2017

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Remember this from May 2017, my post about draping a peplum top? 
The hem of the peplum is a skinny Calvin Klein hem, so called because at one point Calvin Klein garments used it a lot, not because Calvin Klein invented it.  (I'll do a tutorial soon on the Calvin Klein hem, since I'm rather fond of it.)  
Well, "soon" has become "today"!  I was recently working on hemming a wedding dress, and decided to use the Calvin Klein hem for the sheer silk overlay.  The biggest advantage, for me, is that the hem is thin and inconspicuous.  It also looks professional, not Becky-Home-Ecky.  I got some halfway decent photos, so here is the process in pictures! 

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A "Wench" Top!

10/9/2017

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Recently, a friend asked me to help costume her for a masquerade ball she was planning to attend.  Her inspiration was white/gold/silver, with a historical look. 

So one day we went to The Bins to get raw materials, and another day we kluged together a top for her.  I also whipped up a pair of white satin pantaloons, so--what with top and bottom--she wouldn't be naked!  But we didn't have time to really complete the costume, so she took the materials and finished the project with string and safety pins on the night of the ball.  I think she did fabulous, don't you?  

I'm tagging this post "Alteration" because nothing was made from scratch; everything was Franken-sewn together from pre-existing garments.
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Eryn Rieple, ready for a ball!

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Salmon Striped Dress - update!

9/14/2017

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Here's an update on my salmon striped dress, an early experiment in pattern drafting and an entirely hand-sewn dress.  Previously, I had bemoaned my failure to get the neckline right on this pattern; the pull of my bra straps in the strap-catchers and the movement of my arms in the armscyes always drew the neckline in, and that created awkward bunching which I would have to fix by tugging the shoulders outward.  Part of the problem was the wide neckline which made the shoulder straps sit too close to the joint of my arm, and part of the problem was that I didn't interface or otherwise stabilize the neckline while sewing it, so it "grew". 

Recently, I realized that this dress was languishing unworn in my closet, even though I like it and always get compliments when I wear it.  So I fiddled with the neck and pinned out the excess into two outward-facing pleats that mimic the other pleats and darts.  I hand-sewed these pleats down, and the dress finally works! 

I also finally got pictures of myself wearing it (many thanks to a random and confused tourist whom I press-ganged into doing the job), so I can analyze the pattern a little more.  (I should subtitle this post "Finally!")

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    Karen Roy

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