Fringe

I finally got hold of a fringe dress to practice in! I was very scepticle about me being able to dance in fringe, I've heard some awful stories about the weight of the dress and making a person look fat.

I was pleasantly surprised by this dress that I bought online (One size really does not fit all!). I got to wear it for the Vaudeville Circus show a few weeks ago. In the process I learnt a lot. Fringe on a diagonal are rather flattering, thin fringe is very light, and you need a lot of it to get the full effect.

Thanks AM Photography for the awesome photos :)

Adeventures in Sewing: Batwing Top

For the UCT Vaudeville Circus, one of the dances I did was a Tango to fit into a medley of the Phantom of the Opera music. The colours were red and black, a colour I don't own in a ballgown.

Thankfully I had some red fabric stashed away for a rainy day and red stretch lace, the result, a batwing top with lace insert in the back and lace basque. I paired it with my ballroom practice skirt and a some improvised floats made from the scraps. The best part was it only took an hour and 4 seams!

I now have a batwing top to practice in for Latin while my new dress takes shape :) 

Adventures in Sewing: Bunting

In the near future we are throwing a baby shower for a friend. With Spring approaching, the vibrant colours have inspired a rainbow/colourful theme of sorts.

To capture that Spring-time feel I thought I would make some bunting to add to the decor. Having never made bunting I consulted the internet, which gave a variety of answers, many time-consuming, involving doubling the fabric, hemming it, etc.

The material I used comes from Kolnick's Linen, who produce linen for a number of department stores in South Africa. Their factory shop regularly sells off their off-cuts in bundles for R2. I used half a bundle to make all the flags (all 60 triangles), the other half went to Barbie clothes for my young cousins.

I am taking the lazy approach to this sewing whim. I drew a shape of 20 cm for the based of the triangle and 25 cm for the height. Make a few templates and cut out the shapes roughly. Take Pinking Shears and add that beautiful zigzag edge to the sides of the triangle and presto, a flag is made.

I'm all for cheap and easy. I inherited a lot of my gran's sewing supplies, including rolls (and I do mean rolls) of bias binding in a multitude of bright colours. Instead of getting ribbon and folding in half and then pinning etc., I merely slipped the short edge into one flap on the bias binding and zigzagged over it to hold the flag in place.

Now that all the bunting is made, I might be able to get back to the sewing project lurking beneath of the bunting

Leave a little sparkle wherever you go

When I look around the sewing machine at the moment, all I see are sequins and more sequins and some rhinestones to complete the sparkle. Later when I go somewhere else I seem to be leaving a trail of them behind, which reminded me of this:

This is the material I am attempting to sew with, sequinned mesh, its not nearly as easy as I thought it would be. The mesh is also see through, so a lining is next on the list. Let us hope it works!

Adventures in Sewing: Horse-hair Braid

In my adventures into sewing a dancesport dress, I have come across are variety of sewing items that can make an outfit flounce, curl and create volume, the latest of which is Horse-hair Braid or in South Africa: Mesh Tape.

The pictures below are of the tape that you can buy at material shops that sell bridal haberdashery. This one is an inch thick.

While exploring the various tutorials I came across this tutorial that showed how to sew the tape to the bottom of the skirt. This their case, they folded it up again to create a hem, but in my case I left it exposed to add to the effect.

Unlike the tutorial, I did not pin it before sewing, as I stretched the Lycra as I hemmed it.

Each ruffle is two full circles to make the many curls needed to create volume in the skirt. In my case I could only get hold of white mesh tape, so the dress is decorated in silver crystals to match.

Adventures in Sewing: Crystal Designs

Every Latin outfit needs to be bling, the word opulent springs to mind, and the best way to do so is to apply a LARGE number of rhinestones to a dress, but cleverly, to suit your design.

I have a Hotfix applicator wand that heats the crystals and the glue on the back of them. Each crystal is applied by hand, following a design of some description.




Some advice I followed for the large crystals  "Make sure you glue AND sew your large sew-on stones! The larger Swarovski stones are now available in a wonderful variety of shapes and colours, and they can really add a great look to your stone design on your dress. But be sure to remember that these stones will stick the best if you glue AND sew them."


My dress half way through stoning:

Chiffon Flowers

Chiffon flowers are great items to add as a flower in the hair, added to a dress as a strap (about 6 make a single strap) or as a brooch.

• Cut out circles of chiffon and fold into quarters.
• Start with four sewn together into a base, then add another folded up circle layoured until you get the volume you want.
• You may want to decrease the size of the circles are to get to the top layer or add beads in the centre for 'pollen'.

If you are looking for a tutorial, try the Ideas Magazine.

Studio 47 House of Fashion Fabric

I got a chance to explore Studio 47 House of Fashion Fabrics in Woodstock this weekend and its large stock of fabric. I found spandex for R20 cheaper than the rest of Cape Town and a couple of other awesome stretch fabrics. They also have some wonderful lace and a large selection of stretch satin. You must however be prepared to browse and hunt down what you want!

New material, lots of ideas

New material! I love shopping for new material. All those lovely bolts of fabric just waiting to be turned into items. I spent the morning digging through appliques and satins for ideas for a new Latin American dress.

The Sewing Centre in Cape Town has a multiple of haberdashery items to make any sewer lose track of time as they browse their bounty.

Fabric City has four (4!) floors of fabric that you could spend days wandering through the bridal section, upholstery section, suiting, haberdashery and stretch materials. Warning: you will end up spending money in that store!

The result of my shopping adventure includes a sort of pinky purple satin and black applique roses and leaves to play around with.

I shall post photos as the work progresses.

Guess what my Easter weekend will be spent doing?

Draped Silk

Draping silk is not as easy as it looks on those sewing tutorials. I have pieces of left over silk from a previous ballgown that I decided to finagle into a ruched bodice to add to a ballgown skirt.

I started this project fairly optimistically. I mean how hard can it be, the chiffon worked out well. The silk however has a mind of its own. Note the number of pins just to make it behave.

Adding the top and bottom pieces together took a bit of re-draping to accommodate the full circle skirt and align the zipper seams.

Eggplant Sequins

Don't you just love a bargain. I've been looking for sequin material to make a Latin dress and its about R150/m. Now I need about 2 metres in total and guess what I find on a random pop into the Hip Hop Factory Store... The material I want on a dress about 4 times my size for R150. Its 2 metres of fabric and half the price of what the raw fabric would have cost :)