Christening gown II

Apparently you can only post so much on each page? so I am having to finish on this post.

For the lace, I lay the lace on the skirt, straight stitch each side, turn over, cut the material down the center, open each side and iron flat, on top, I zigzag where the fold is about 1/8th in over on the material side, this helps prevert the material from unraveling, and stabilizes the seam, which with voile, you really need it.

I made the dress out of Voile, which is very sheer and of loose weave, I don't normally stabilize buttons on a dress, cause I usually use more sturdy material , so I didn't think about stabilizing the buttons, oops. So I dug put some linen, cut 1/2 in squares out, then I needed to finish off the edges, they were too small for serging, so I used frey check. I used a pin to hold them, worked perfect.

The result.

More pix of details, the skirt has 3 sets of 6 pintucks. 1 puffing strip, and one lace strip, I didn't originally plan on putting riffon in the lace, but someone suggested I "bring" some pink into the skirt, it can be removed or use white instead.

Close-up of bodice.

Close-up of waist, I used the fabric, folded it in half, used a shell stitch from my machine to make the waist trim.

Christening gown

DONE, I won't bore you with all the details that got me here, suffice to say, I have been working on this since Aug of 09, and it finally finished,,

The dress measures from neck, 30 1/2 inches in length, and above the ruffle it is 41 in wide.

Some of the process of making it.

 

Using the hemmer on the ruffle.

Starting the pintucks,, I love pintucks, they are a cheap and easy embellishment, all you need is a double needle and pintuck foot, and two spools of thread. To start the tucks, just mark the fabric, I used a water soluble pen, and marked every few inches, once you get the 1st tuck done, the rest is easy.

The pintuck foot I used has 7 grooves. as you can see, I allign the previous tuck in a groove of the foot, this allows me to keep the other tucks straight using it as a guide,

My 24 hour Dedication Gown

I don't sew for people very often,, but I have a soft spot for Dedication/Christening gowns,, I guess because I love heirloom creations. Well a couple in our church had a little girl on the 19th,, they were going to wait a while to have her dedicted,, but Family came in from out of town,, and it got moved up,, very up, I was told on the 21st, (Sun, night) that it was going to be on the 23rd (Tues),, :-0,,,

The Grandmother, was happy that the in-laws were here,, but didn't think I would be able to make anything that fast,,, niether did I actually, so she was just going to go get something for the baby instead,,, I thought about it for about a minute,, and said,,, I can do it,,(some times I wonder how I get myself into these things),, it won't be what I really had in mind,, but it will be pretty,, she was happy,,,

So I started thinking,, I have SO many designs,,, surely I can find something to use. I found the fabric to use,, a white voile,,, my pattern, Simp 7488, the only baby pattern I have,,(out of print) and started figuring,, I didn't get much done that night,, so Mon, I started experimenting,, after a while I realized I didn't have time for that,, and I went to what i knew,, Heirloom,,

I only used the front, back and sleeve pieces when I make a dress,, I make up my own skirt,, and any embellishments that go on them,, the flowers on the bodice are cuttouts from the lace used on the hem,, that I had on hand.. I love pintucks,, they are quick, cheap,, and easy. there are 4 just above the lace,, then I used a shaping board I got from the Martha Pullen Co,, that has loop shapes on it,, and traced those shapes for the circular pintucks,, then I just echoed the shape once, the trim for the waist is just voile folded in half with a shell stitch giving it a scalloped look...


After all was done,, I was happy, the family loved it,,, and I was glad I did it,, this was the 1st one I have made in about 10 yrs, so I was relieved I managed it,,