Sad News, Good News and My Movie List

I've made some progress on the dress, just no pics yet. My mother's health declined the past few weeks, making me more scatterbrained that usual. We lost her yesterday, Good Friday. She went peacefully for which we are grateful. I suppose the next few weeks will hard, but we've seen this coming for months so we're glad she's with the Lord now and out of her troubled physical body.

Anyway, I watch movies on my laptop while I sew. I've included a list on the side of what I've watched so far in this process, including my rating. * = a star. I watched one (Descent) that was pretty awful--over done sexually violent scenes, and I decided after that I need to keep the content mostly upbeat and good quality to keep good energy going into The Dress.

Trouble is I can't watch foreign movies while working-can't sew AND look at subtitles!

I'll try to get my most recent progress posted soon.

But great news! The bride herself will be here for 4 days starting on Friday. I wanted to have the mock up fo the skirt ready, but that won't be happening, unless I pull an all-nighter, which is unlikely...

Feel free to recommend movies of great content and quality in the comments.

Blasted Bodice 3/17/13

 The bodice came back. The one without the boning and bra cups fit much better than the one with, so that's the one I'm using for the pattern.

 Sarah and Courtney marked the sweetheart shape. Obviously, Sarah wants a deep one.

 They also, per my request, marked the  side and back lines. The dotted line on the bottom is wear the beads will stop. There will be a ribbon between the beads and the skirt.

I took it apart...

And made a new pattern, including the new lines. Now, much to my chagrin and frustration, I'm having a hard time getting it to fit right again with the new pieces. They ended up too big. And they have to be just right, because I will be cutting the silk for the beading and it's backing with that.

 (There was a huge disruption in my family's force today. Actually the entire week was hard that way. And sometimes that makes it hard to focus on the needful, doesn't it?)


Don't tell Sarah this, but I'm still working on the bead design. However, visions of paisley are dancing in my head and on my desktop. Pastor Ron's shirt gave me some inspiration this morning.

Goal: Get the pattern finalized, the silk and backing cut and basted together by 3/19. Start beading by 1/21.
Next week: make the muslin skirt.

The Bodice Mock-up and Beading Sample 3/3/13

On Friday, I sent out the mock-up of the bodice and a sample of a beaded dinosaur. Sarah should get the package tomorrow.

 

The back, obviously. You may not be able to see the suggest line for the lower back she wants. She and her maid of honor, Courtney a fellow sewist, can figure it out.

  

The side.front. I suggested the shape of the sweetheart neck line, once again, they can suggest another one if they wish.

 

The bodice with bra cups attached. Definitely increase the bust size,  but the mock up fit it pretty well.

 

The boning attached. We got plenty of it from sewtrue.com along with the bra cups, some marling materials and a bridal gown bag. Thank God for online shopping. I could run all over Phoenix and still not find what we got here.

 

This took about 5 movies to do. It's a sampler to show Sarah the beads, sequins and crystals we have now and practice for me. It's not complete, but I wanted to get the bodice off to her. Can you see the dinosaur outline and some surrounding design?

My next step is to design and plan the bead work. It might be the most challenging part of the process for me. Then, I think I'll work on the beading by bodice piece, leaving areas along the seam lines free. I'm afraid if I did it as a whole, it would become soiled.

I have to get my butt in gear!