Wear Your Heart On Your Sleeve

With Valentine's Day coming up in less than a month I thought I would do some pre-Valentine's wardrobe prep. Most of us girls look forward to this day with anticipation . This is one of those days that retailers take advantage of consumers selling the concept of love and romance. If I am like most girls, we look forward to dressing up and having a night on the town with our sweetie.

When I was in high school I was on an allowance that didn't always allow me extras for special occasions like Homecoming dances or white glove parties. I felt lucky I had learned how to sew at a very early age. I used my allowance to buy fabric and patterns to make the expensive fancy dresses for these special nights.

I made a few poor choices when combining pattern to fabric. I didn't always pay attention to the fabric recommendations on the label. I learned the hard way.

In the 70s and 80s Gunne Sax clothing was rather popular. 

1970's Original Gunne Sax Coton and Lace Dress

Typically, the Gunne Sax styled dresses were made of cottons and calicos and trimmed in thin satin ribbon and lace. The Gunne Sax pattern I chose was a very 80s styled dress, big billowy sleeves and all.

I picked out a pink taffeta fabric, similar to the fabrics of special occasion dresses I saw in the stores at the mall. I was very excited to embark on my sewing project.

The laying out of the pattern, cutting and preparing to sew was the easy part. Let me first say, that taking on a Gunne Sax dress is ambitious. The dress contains many pieces, many ruffles and many tiny buttons holes. Things were going pretty good at the start, but once I got to the bottom ruffle(which was approximately 2 yards all on its own) I began having difficulty. The taffeta fabric I thought would make me a Cinderella type gown was letting me down. The edges of the fabric began fraying and I had to double stitch seams, which were possibly going to open once I was wearing it. The double seams worked but they did not solve the overall problem. There was also a problem trying to create tiny little loops for buttons down the front of the bodice, ugh!

I spent hours and hours on the dress- perhaps a good week and half of hours at night (after all my homework was done of course) prior to the dance- I even remember doing last minute stitching on the dress just a few hours before wearing it.

Here is the end result and yours truly at 15

Valentine's Day Dance 1983

I strongly suggest to you my readers to match your project to the proper fabric- There is a reason for the suggested fabrics. As you see in the photo- the end result was lovely and I had a lovely evening with my date; but unfortunately it did not store well and fraying continued and eventually it was given away.

I learned a lot from this project and think it helped me become a better seamstress.

Find That Fabric!

I have been accumulating patterns over the past year for many of my projects. One thing I like to do is take a part of one pattern and combine it with part of another to get the desired look I am after. I know this is not a new idea at all but I like to think that it is and after all is said and done I have an OOAK finished product. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/one-of-a-kind  (Even after all these years on the internet and learning how to chat and text with less and less symbols; I still had to look this abbreviation up!)

After I have my project drafted by its design and color; I pursue the fabric. I don't know if anyone else ishaving a similar problem finding fabric and notions but all of the  fabric stores in my area are closing up. Blame it on the economy, blame it on lack of interest in the old fashioned art of sewing but needless to say- I can hardly find any fabric OR decent fabric in my neighborhood. Hancock Fabrics and Jo Ann stores were the 2 that I shopped at, AT least bi-monthly and during holiday season- almost weekly. Sad to say they are both gone and the only other fabric store close by is a remnants store which, in my opinion, is getting worse and worse each time I go in.

You know the saying "necessity is the mother of invention"? I have had to use it and become creative in ways to find fabric. My solution: sheets! Yes, I said sheets. Why you ask? Well first of all the twin size sheet is almost 4 yards of material, second you can find all colors, deigns, weights of cotton and or sizes (for more material). Third, and my favorite reason, you can buy sheets at thrift stores for mere pennies! There are thrift stores in my neighborhood that have half off day sales so you can get a complete set of sheets including pillowcases, flat and fitted sheets for less than $3.00!

I have been using sheets and pillowcases for some of my projects lately. I prefer the vintage percale sheets because they are a 50/50 blend of cotton and polyester and tend to wash and dry well without ironing or worry of shrinkage. I made this apron with a vintage Strawberry Shortcake pillowcase. It cost me $1.49 at Goodwill. The coordinating fabric was also found at another local thrift store as a fabric remnant for about $1.00. I already had the pink ric rac trim; so after about 2 hours of my time and a bobbin full of thread this apron cost me less than $4.00!

I have also found other ways to acquire material for my projects. I have been scouring websites day and night for Doctor Who themed fabric. I thought it had been commercially manufactured but evidently there never was any. I did find Doctor Who "inspired" fabric on this really cool website called Spoonflower.com      http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome It allows you to offer up a design for fabric and you can have it made and you can sell it to others in fat quarters, yards or bolts. However, because of the customization the by the yard price is rather steep, sometimes in the $30/per range.