Dress Making Report: Oh my Lace

Who doesn't just LOVE lace?! It is definitely one of my favourite fabric, it comes in all different textures, weights and colours. You can use it to dress up any dress, top, skirt, or even jean shorts. When your a designer fabric shopping is your happy place. Where you can find that perfect one to create something basically out of nothing.

Every single time I shop for a client and I find that exact fabric I was looking for, O-M-G such an awesome feeling! I know she's going to love it and it gets us so much closer to making all her dress dreams come true. Now, some clients can be very vague when it comes to the fabric, colour etc and others can be so specific, I may have to dig through piles and bins to find that needle in a hay stack. BUT, when finding that exact colour in the lace overlay and lets say a satin underlay, it's like the universe knew I would go crazy if I don't get exactly what I am looking.

That's when this amazing dress for a Momma on her baby's baptism day was born! I love the uniqueness of this dress and oh that keyhole back. My client loved it oh so much.

"Getting my custom dress from Amanda was great. The dress was made for my daughters baptism and I received a lot of compliments on it! Having two kids doesn't leave me with a lot of time but Amanda was accommodating knowing this. She also altered and changed the bow on my older daughters dress to match my dress. My whole family matched :) The Dress made me feel pretty and it was very comfy. What's great is, it can be altered if I ever need because it's custom! Love it!" 
- Catherine Spagnuolo

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Dress Making Report: De-constructed Wedding Dress

Last year, a friend of mine gave me her wedding dress from the 90's and told me to use it to my hearts content. I completely changed the entire look of it! A client came to my house to discuss, the dress for two weddings, and fell in love with what I had started doing with it. I have now finished the dress and will be having our final fitting today, she will be able to take it home and wear it where ever she thinks it will be perfect for.  We will be doing a photo shoot with 'Michelle Liane Photography', including the hat I created last July in the shoot, so stay tuned for those lovely photos. 

 

Fabrics: Charmeuse

Charmeuse is a light weight, satin woven fabric, with a satin finish on the front and a dull finish on the back. It is typically made of silk, but can be made with synthetic fibers like polyester. Silk-Charmeuse is expensive, very delicate, soft and a better insulator. Where as Polyester-Charmeuse, is cheaper, machine washable and doesn't breathe well. So I think the choice of which you would choose to make clothing is already made for you.

Uses for women's wear would be lingerie, evening gowns, blouses etc., and men's wear would be pieces more like jackets and slacks, handkerchiefs, ties and boxer shorts.  Charmeuse does not work well for tailored sewing as it does not hold its shape well, but it is great for flowing dresses.  However, the wedding dress I recently made with this fabric worked well as an over-lay, which I then tailored.

This fabric is very challenging and is not recommended for beginners, because it is extremely slippery and tends to move around a lot through the presser foot of a sewing machine.  At the seams, Charmeuse puckers and pulls but I found finer thread minimizes this.  Some other challenges I went through while working with the sheer Charmeuse fabric were the pins would leave holes and marks where the fabric was pinned. Recently, I found out that a sizing product can be sprayed on before cutting and can be washed when the garment is complete.  At the end of the day, my client was very pleased with the finished dress, and that makes all the little frustrations of working with this fabric worth it.

A few years ago I made my sister's wedding dress with Charmeuse and it was very easy to work with, as it was much thicker then the sheer of its kind.  I had no problems with it then, but it was also a completely different structure and draped very nicely, my sister was incredibly happy with the outcome and so was I. Overall I would say the look and feel of this fabric is amazing!


My Sisters A-Line, Empire Waist Wedding Gown

photograph taken by Lee Sperduti

My Clients 2 in 1 Wedding Dress