The Brooch add-on

Remember the Prom Dress? Well we thought we would jazz it up a little with some bling and feathers, and hey how about some flowers? The girl I made it for had picked up the jeweled broach along with some matching jewelry from an antique store. I thought the broach was lovely and I didn't want to do anything that would be permanent to the broach. So I came up with a broach add on. It allows the broach to pin to the flowers and feathers and then to the dress, or the broach can be worn alone. 

The flowers are the rosettes I have shared before but the tutorial needed redone, so I thought I would show you again how I make these flowers. Start by cutting a long strip of fabric. The length and width determines the size of the flower. Then fold one corner of the strip.

Then ignore the dry old lady hands... and twist your fabric strip.

Then begin to wind the fabric around each other as you twist. The twists of folds of the fabric create the appearance of petals as you go along.

Keep twisting and wrapping until you are done with the strip.

Then using a needle and thread sew the flap at the end in place.

Then place the rosette flat on the surface you are sewing it to, in this case some felt. Secure the rosette in place by sewing it in random places until the whole thing is secure.

For this project I sewed three rosettes down to the felt and sewed some feathers under one of them. 

Then I cut off the extra felt around the rosettes. I left a spot in between two of the rosettes for the broach to pin in place.

Then I made two smaller rosettes and sewed them on top of the other rosettes to just build up the design a little. 

That's it then the broach pins in place.

(sorry for the blurry picture)
The broach then attaches to anything, but now with a little more pizazz.

The hint of bling really completed the dress.

Enjoy!

The Prom Dress (a mini tutorial)

My sister in-law's, sister in-law (how is that for connection) is going to Prom, and she asked me if I could make her dress more comfortable for her in a modest way. Doing this is really easy, there are a number of ways to do it. I will share one way today in this mini tutorial, and another way later when I share the bridesmaids dresses I made for her sisters wedding. 

She bought a lovely dress, that was really quite perfect in every way except the fact that it had two very thin and not very supportive straps holding the top up. She wanted something more modest (but still youthful) and something that would make her feel more secure in the the top. So we came up with some wider straps that kind of add a greek goddess type feel, adding elegance coverage and support. Here is a pretty basic explanation of how I did it.

I measured from the front over the shoulder and the the back to see how long the strap needed to be, then I added a little room for hemming and sewing in place. Then I made it as wide as I wanted it to be, knowing I would be gathering it and pleating it. To do this I would figure out how wide you want it and double that.

Then turn under the edges and sew them in place. Then I sewed a basting stitch down the middle and pulled to gather. Once it was gathered how I wanted it I sewed in in place to secure.

Here is the gather sewn in place a few times.

Then I sewed the strap to the dress. I pleated the strap as I sewed it in place. Since this dress had a lining I was sure to sew to the lining and not through the front so you could not see the stitch from the front. (yes I did that by hand) 

(sorry the picture is so blurry)
Then I did the same to the back pleating the straps in place. I moved them pretty far over to the side so it still had a fairly open back and so the straps had more of a flowing feel to them.

That's it. Now the dress is ready for prom.
Next I will share the broach I made to add to the dress.

Enjoy!

We have a winner!!

The exciting day has arrived! We have ourselves a winner of the Photoshop Suite!!

Random.org choose #196 which happened to be lucky Miss Bear who said:

See liking us on facebook pays off :) 

I will be in contact with you Miss Bear, so you can claim your prize!

Thanks to all of you who played along this was a fun first giveaway and we have many more coming up! 

Oh and we thoroughly enjoyed learning more about you all! Thanks so much for sharing! 

Last day for Photoshop Giveaway, and some inspiration

Did you all have a fantastic Easter? We enjoyed an amazing getaway for a nice LONG weekend! Great times with family and a very special white dress that I had been working on in all my "spare" time got unveiled and worn this past weekend! (and it fit!) I tell you there is nothing more nerve wracking then making something for someone who is not in front of you. More on that special white dress later. (with a few mini tutorials included) For now we are unpacking, unwinding and finding it so nice to be back home. 

So I thought I would take the time to remind you that the Photoshop giveaway closes tonight at midnight! So if you haven't already entered to win, you should tomorrow could just be your lucky day! 

Oh and although I have 6 bridesmaids dresses to finish up this week, and a prom dress (look at me sewing for someone who is not 2) I am actually taking a small break since inspiration struck... April from wildflowers and Whimsy shared this picture:

I am pretty much in love and well I have to make a skirt now... or a shirt... I am waiting to see what the fabric store says to me :) 

See you back here tomorrow for the winner!

Easter Flower

So easter is now just a few short days away. So I guess it would be about that time for last min me to post a simple and cute little easter flower that can jazz up any skirt, basket, or head for Easter. Not that this has to be just for Easter, it's just a puffy and full fabric flower, for any reason you have to wear one. 

Start by cutting out some petals, as many and as large as you want the flower to be. 

Then cut out the same amount in a smaller size.

Then take your larger petals first and stitch back and forth along the bottom of the petal.

Then pull it tight to gather the petal.

Continue adding petals.

When you are done with the large petals you should have a circle of petals.

Then do the same with the smaller petals. Creating a circle of petals on top of the other.

next cut a strip of fabric.

fold it in half several times and then cut the top into a petal shape.

unfold it and it should look like this.

Then wrap it around the flower petals

next I cut out some "stem" like shapes.

spread out the petals and then sew the stem pieces in the center, fanned out. Then I glues I rhinestone to the center.

lastly I glued a small circle with elastic sewn to it to the back of the flower. You could use a safety pin, brooch pin, snap, anything you like really.

Now what to do with your new flower? Well I used the elastic to wrap around the button of the pleated skirt. Or you could add it to an Easter basket like I did for the prop in the Easter Tea Skirt. Either way you have a little something something to spruce things up.

Enjoy!