June 7, 2019

So this was a really fun wedding for me.  And so full of so many teaching moments I may have to divide this into several parts.

I'm sure you've heard me say before that my sewing turned really professional overnight when I got my first Bernina.  This is the machine my teacher sewed on and what she recommended.  To day I have 5 Berninas.  I don't really give up the old ones unless they are so far gone that they can be  salvaged to fill out kits for other machines that do work.  Out of the 6 Berninas that I have owned in my life, one one has bit the dust - the other 5 I have and use periodically still.

Teaching Moment #1
Get a good machine - your sewing will improve remarkably.  And this is not a Singer - I'm sorry, but if the Singer is after 1950, they really aren't that good.  Before 1950, hold on to what you have - it's a gem.  Also, as well as purchasing a good machine, purchase the dealer.  Here are my go-to guidelines for picking a good dealer
 

1. When you walk into the store, what's it like:  a morgue?...classes going on?....fun?....creative?....dull?... quiet?  All of those will give you indications about the dealership.  Most likely if it's active, fun, creative - you can be guaranteed that you're in the right place.   But someplace that's dull, quiet, boring is probably not a good place. 
2. What sort of selection do they have?  If they have one or two machine - uh - I think I'd walk out the door.  A good selection of machines as well as a good selection of used machines is a good sign that it's an active and successful shop.
3. How much do they know about what they have?  This is as much about the staff as it is about the shop, but it indicates about what they know what a machine will do.  If they aren't trained and know what the machines will do, how in the world can they tell you?
4. How willing are they to show you what you need?  For example, you need a straight stitching machine, not an embroidery machine, but they continue to show you what you don't want or don't need.
5. They allow you to sew some samples that you've brought to the store.  This is a dead giveaway - new sew, no sale!
6. Techs or repair folks - how many, how well staffed, how knowledgeable.  If there is a good tech staff on site not simply a few days a week but there every day, this lets you know that you are going to have support when (and believe me, it's not if but when) something goes wrong - it may not be the machine's fault, but you may not know that. 
7. Guarantees - usually a year is standard, even for used machines.
8. Classes - do they offer classes on how to use the machine.  Even if it's a used one, this is essential.  Also do they offer crafts, dressmaking, quilting classes - this is easy to see usually on their website, but all of those indicate that they have a vibrant sewing community involved and supported by the shop. 

Continuing with the weekend story....so this weekend was really more than simply doing another bride.  Although she was very pleasant, and a blast to work with, as was the family, there was more than this.  For decades I have literally be in debt to my fabulous aunt who made it possible for me to have my first really good sewing machine - my Bernina 930.


She was glamorous, loved fashion, LOVED GREEN (like me), had great style and was a great aunt to me.  So for long time I owed her for the wonderful gift she gave me so that I could develop and earn a living with my talent.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank her and think of her, as much as my mentor who taught me the skills I still use today to work magic with fabric.

I tried in vain to do something for her, and she said there wasn't anything she wanted.  I finally did a little giftie, something very minor, but it really didn't pay back what she had given me. 

Decades later, her eldest great granddaughter comes to me and wants me to do her dress - I'm all over it like bark on a tree, and we had a blast.  Now in my mind all that was left was the only other great granddaughter of that generation, and that  happened this past weekend. 

Finally, I feel as though I've paid my debt to her.  Of course what makes this even more fabulous is that this part of the family is so wonderful to work with.  And this is a chance for me to go whole hog - because all the labor is free, I'm literally free to do everything I know needs to be done.....so let's start!



Well, you can see this is going to be a blast.  Meg is a ton of fun to work with.  So what we started with was a very classic gown, deep sweetheart neckline, nice long train, but there are some problems.  Because I get no holds barred on this dress I get to fix everything the way it should be. 

The first thing is that we have some wrinkling issues in the bodice.  This is because the bodice hasn't been properly constructed.  The truth is that it's hard to get any fabric to fit skin close, but it can give that illusion with proper construction. 

Teaching Moment # 2:
A strapless bodice must be stiff and it must be constructed so that it stands up by itself.  This is not negotiable.  The reason is that in a strapless design, you are losing 66% of your support structure, and the bodice has to make up for that.   A bodice is supported in 3 positions:  1.) right shoulder, 2.) left shoulder and 3.) waist.  That's over half of your support structure gone.  Yes, it's pretty.  Yes, it's elegant, but without that support, there's a myriad of wardrobe malfunctions that can happen and that doesn't even come close to making a great wedding day.  The bride is uncomfortable (worrying whether or not the dress is going to stay up), she's grabbing the front of the dress and hiking it up all the time (nothing drives me nuts faster than this), raising her arms, even when the dress is stationary, can cause the body to literally lift out of the dress and voila - a disaster in the making.  So let's not even go there.

The cure:
The bodice had to be completely removed and backed or interfaced whatever term you like, with coutile which is the fabric that you use to make corsets.  This fabric is really great for this because it's not thick, but it's heavily and closely woven.  It can be shaped into almost anything, but keeps it's shape beautifully.  Coutile with boning can make almost any shape. 

After taking the bodice apart, tracing and cutting the coutile, backing and reassembling the bodice, now it really stays put.  Not only that but those pesky wrinkles in the bodice are gone.  The boning however needed reinforcement because the boning didn't reach from the top to the bottom of the seams.  I'm not sure I understand the logic, reasoning or even the design of this.  The purpose of boning is so that it will keep the seam straight but also support the seam to keep it straight.  This is part of the structure that must be strengthened to replace the 66% support that will be missing in the bodice. 

These are steps that frankly, are simple to determine, but hard to do, and because of that, most of the time clients elect not to do them because it is expensive.  It makes the garment not only feel better on the body, but gives much more security to the garment which is another sort of feel good feeling that is great for a strapless dress.

The Netting For Shoulders and Arms
Next comes the netting that will go over the shoulders and down the sleeves.  At one point I thought I might be able to use the netting to support the bodice, but the truth is that the skirt and the bodice at this point were too heavy for the netting to support.  Instead, it was going to be easier and better to add the netting and not have it support anything.  Ripping and problems with depending upon the netting to support the bodice were way more numerous than having the bodice support itself and adding the netting.

The netting was added for modesty as this was going to be a High Mass in a Catholic church, which required something a little more demure than a strapless dress.  I think what probably happened is that the bride fell in love with the style of this dress and knew that I could make it right and she was right!!!

The idea of the netting was that it was going to be like a second skin and as lovely and beautiful an idea as this is, the truth is that nothing is like a second skin - well, maybe Lycra, but we weren't going to be like Catwoman down the aisle!!!  At the same time, there are limits to stretch netting and that's simply the result of formal wear. 

Teaching Moment #3
Formal wear always fits closer than casual wear.  The more casual you get, the less fitting.  The reason is that we do far less exercising and need far less movement when we're doing active type movements.

Basically in some of the dresses it's even hard to sit down, much less get out of a car.  But it makes my point that formal wear is much closer to the body than active wear or more casual clothes.
 
None of this clothing would be considered in the least bit formal and part of the qualification for that is that it's a lot looser on the body.

So we, the bride and I, both wanted netting that was close to the skin, which  meant it wouldn't have as much ease.  Often, I have to remind the bride about that.  Face it, this is probably the most formal dress that she will have worn to date, and doesn't have much experience wearing formal clothes.  Some brides think that they should and can move anyway possible in their formal wedding gown, but that's not the case. 

There are choices to be made here.

1.  If they want to move like they do everyday, then they can wear some leggings and a stretch top on their wedding day.
2.  If they want to look glamorous and beautiful, they will have to give up some ease and movement.

But the real truth is that very rarely will the bride want to move around like some exercising nut on her wedding day.  Her most strenuous exercise will be dancing with her dad and her new hubby, and that's it.  Dong all that strenuous exercise really isn't needed at the wedding, hence the reason for more closely fitted garments which have less ease and have less freedom of movement.

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that the bride has to be trapped in a dress that doesn't allow her to move.  Hugging everyone (young and old, short and tall), dancing with her dad and her new husband no matter what height, waving to everyone, getting in and out of a car, sitting, and kneeling are all movements that the bride must be free and able to do.  But jumping jacks, stretching lunges, and jumping across the floor are not things that she will need to do and the ease doesn't need to be there to do that. 

OK - so after the netting muslin is made, which is made of muslin which is woven, and therefore has no ease whatsoever, because the netting is going to be stretch, then time to finish the dress, so that the netting can be attached. 

One of the first things toward finishing the dress is anchoring the dress.  This means that the dress has to be in the same place every time it's zipped or button up.  The truth is that there is a tremendous amount of weight in the skirt  - probably around 10 lbs.  That doesn't sound like much, but for a little tiny bodice, albeit it backed ferociously with coutile and double boned, will not be enough to hold up the dress.  The bodice would have to be so tight to make this stable that poor girl, no matter how thin and no matter how little water she is retaining the underarms will flow out of the top of the dress and that is never a good look.


There is no need at all for this look.  Some people may think you have to have this to keep the dress up, and normally you would, except for one thing.  The skirt needs to be supported. 

Remember me saying that a strapless dress has 66% of it's support missing, but that doesn't mean that 100% is gone, only 66%, so that means we can use the other 33% in spades, and that support is the waist.  When we insert an inside supporting waist band, that means that the rest of the dress can fit, but not be so tight that even the thinnest of brides would squeeze out the top of the dress.  This also means that the rib cage part of the bodice (the upper part) is a little looser - not loose, but looser, so that the bride can breathe easily.  We don't want the bride keeling over because she can't breathe. 

Teaching Moment # 4
Do yourself a favor and insert an inside waist band in the inside of the dress.  Anchor it to the stays or boning and that dress won't move, the bride will feel like a dream and be able to move, but feel supported and really comfortable but secure in the dress. 

This technique is great for all strapless dresses whether they are cocktail, ball gown or bridal gown.  But particularly for bridal gowns because they usually have extra heavy skirts, with petticoats and trains and the like involved that other gowns don't have. 

I attach these waist bands by hand with the 4-thread method (with 4 threads through the needle so every time I sew a stitch it's like 4 stitches in one!).  Attaching at side seams, front bust seams (which usually have boning attached to them) and back side seams (which also have boning attached to them) and a good strong skirt hook in the band to make sure that it's secure and stable.  This doesn't pull the dress in on the outside.  This only anchors the dress on the inside.


Now that we have the dress stable, next is checking the hem.  We forget that when we learned to walk, it was and is really a controlled trip.  We have learned to lean forward just a bit and then catch ourselves with our foot out in front, lean forward, catch with the other foot, lean forward and catch with our other foot.  This is so second nature that it's hard to remember that, until you start walking with something at floor level.  If the dress in a standing position is at floor-level, then when you walk and lean forward, what happens?  Yep, the dress drops down a little and just enough to get caught in your shoes, and then the toe of your shoe catches it, it goes under the shoe, and BOOM - you're tripping down the aisle.  Well, that's not good. 

The solution is that you have to shorten the front hem only about ½" from the floor, so that when you're walking down the aisle, you're smiling and no tripping and no grimacing worrying about stepping on your hem.

Teaching Moment #5
If you wear something floor length, you must make it at least ½" shorter, only in front, so that you can walk comfortably, or be prepared to trip!


OK, so the hem, anchoring, netting is all done.  This is the bulk of the dress, but the finishing can make or break a professionally altered dress.  In this case, inserting the netting into the dress was going to be a major huge nightmare.  It was easier to attach it on the inside then run a piece of bias tape on top to cover the raw edges of the netting.  This look is totally professional and it keeps the inside looking net and finished looking.

I also didn't like the way the manufacturer had finished the dress and since I took the bodice off to add the coutile, it was a chance to finish the inside as well.  A lot of bridal dress are all sewn together at the waist.  In this case the skirt, skirt lining, petticoat layer, bodice and bodice lining were all sewn in one seam and the seam left unfinished.  ICK!!!  So when I had to redo the bodice, then I kept the bodice lining out of the skirt/bodice seam, and then whipped that down by hand with all the raw seams folded underneath and voilà the whole inside was finished. 

Finishing off the netting was not that difficult, but I do not like to see the edges these days unfinished - it's old and too Grunge looking, so lately all my edges are purposely finished.  It's an in-your-face sort of way of saying GRUNGE IS DEAD - (thankyouverymuchladiesandgentlemen!!!!!)  So in taking up the hem in front, which was very long, I was able to cut out some bias strips of the hem matching the fabric exactly, I bound the edges with ¼" binding at the edge of the netting.  This just looks really nice and very finished. 

In back, the netting needed some anchoring for the button loops and the buttons, so I simply folded the netting about 4 times over and that provided ample support for the buttons and the thread loops. 

Teaching Moment #6
Don't kid yourself.  Finishing is like a whole other big step.  It's not a stitch here and there and you're done.  There's a lot to do here, and most of the time it's hand work.  It's peaceful and be sure to allow yourself enough time to finish a garment well.  You've spent all this time working on making the garment a well-constructed and assembled garment, don't destroy it with some half-done finishing work.  Truly, finishing can make or break a garment - so take the time to finish it well.  

And this is the end result......


I promise you - it does not get any better than this!!!

 

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