The wedding dress and bouquet I made! I did not make the corset, however.

To cover the naked lights.

My vision of the decorations realized.

A sari

 

I have a sari I got at the Maua artisan fair a few years ago.  It is one of the most comfortable things I own to wear.  It's also very very easy to make.  I started out with three yards of fabric here.

 

Cut it in half - each half will be a drapey side of the sari.

 

This fabric frays like crazy, so I ran a zig zag stitch along the raw edges.

zig zaged.

 

I also hemmed up the bottom, using the salvage to my advantage.

 

Then I put right sides together and sewed up the raw edge side about 3/4 of the way up, leaving it open at the top for arm holes.

At this point, you should drape it over yourself and see if the armpit is too low.  In this shot it is a bit too low.  Please forgive the fact that the shot got uploaded sideways.  Blogger is so remedial that there is no photo editing allowed within the blog post, which I find utterly ridiculous, along with the fact that it took over an hour to upload the shots featured in this post.  But back to the sari - pinch the top corner together to simulate the the seam so you can get a better measure of the armpit level - if it is too low, when you lean over everyone can see your tatas.

Also check the length - the seam side will hang higher, obviously.  This is a good length for the seam side.

 

This is actually a bit too long for the drapey side, but I'll make due.  Ideally, it should be just to your feet.  I added small tucks in the folds to make it shorter and it still looked okay, but  I had to lift up the sides of this in order to walk and dance in it.  

As long as you are mostly satisfied with it at this point, it's time to measure your arm holes and cut your corners off.  I left a space of 35 cm for my arms, but your lengths will vary depending on how short you are, how busty, and how much weight you have been lifting (triceps, you know).

 

Chop off the corner - this will be the seam that goes over your shoulder.  Don't worry too much about how wide it is (it may end up wider than your shoulder) because it can be gathered later if need be.

Again, zig zag the raw edge.

 

Right sides together and sew a strait stitch down, then iron flat out.

 

Then I tried it on again and found the shoulders to be way too wide for me, so I gathered them.

 

Then fold over the selvage edge on the top part of the drape and sew a strait stitch all the way around.  I finished the armholes with a strait stitch also.

Drape both pieces over your body, one over the other.  Let them fall naturally to see where a comfortable center is, pin and tack it down.  Do the same for the back.

Again, double check the armpit - mine is still too low here.  Adjust as needed.  

That's it!  Oh, and....

Allow sleepy cat to nap on finished sari.

I do not have a good picture of myself in the sari, maybe I can add that later.  

Move over, cat, next project!

Using up some silk

 Beginning supplies: some rick racks and trims, tape measure, thread, scissors, large scrap of silk, jacket fabric, pins.

 

My sogro gave me some sort of fabric that is usually made into suit jackets.  It's pretty old and rather discolored in some spaces.  I thought it might make a simple skirt. This is a ruff rectangle that I thought would cover my butt.

 

Measuring the size I will need to pull it up over my butt without buttons or zippers because I don't feel like tackling that for this project.

 

I had to fight Pila for the scrap of silk: she thought it was a special space for her to sleep.

 

I'm not sure how long this piece was, but if I had to guess I would say about three yards.

 

Since this jacket fabric frays like a mofo, I ran a zig zag up the raw edge before folding over and hemming.

  

 Pin and hem.

 Elastic for the waist line.

I also cut a 20cm by 20cm square for a pocket because pockets are important.

 I thought it would be fun to add rick rack details, but later I decided to sort of cover them up.  I also added a small loop for my pocket watch to hook on.

 Zig zag the elastic on the top, about 3 cm overlap..

 ...then fold over and strait stitch for the waistline.  Stretch as you go.

 Three yards of silk got ruffled down to 100 cm of skirt.

 Pin it all down, sort of covering the rick rack - if you pull down the ruff edge, you will still see it.  I like the look of ruff edges.

Pin the skirt down the back, right sides together...

.... one strait stitch down the back.

Then I did a short strait stitch folding the seam out.

And here we have a finished skirt.  Not sure how much I like the fit, it's a bit "bubbly" on the top part, probably because the jacket fabric is not made to have elastic in it.  Also, I think I would have left the pocket on the inside, or made it a bit smaller.  

Redoing this project, I would have made the top band smaller and cut off a small layer of the silk to add a band on the top to encase the elastic instead.  

On to the next project!

Some time ago...

...I made a dress that was too short.  There were no pictures taken during the making of the dress.  I believe to this date I have worn it 3 times.  It has state birds on it, and state flowers - looks like it should be a curtain at a bed and breakfast up in the U.P. somewhere.