Beth Smith's Blog, page 3

Every Day or Special Occasion?

I bought the fabric for this outfit a few months ago when Maggie, My Mom and I went on a little road trip to check out a fabric store in Grand Rapids that is almost 2 hours from m house. I heard about the store from a lady who makes super intricate cosplay costumes when I was waiting in line to get fabric cut at Joann Fabrics.

Anyway, it’s lovely and honestly it has felt like ages since I made anything pink for myself that even though I have a million other things on my list to make I just had to bring it to the front of the line. I wanted a two piece set that consisted of a long circle skirt that could be bustled and a cropped jacket with cut on sleeves.

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The jacket pattern I used is from Vogue 8999. I want to make that dress eventually too but the jacket without the collar was perfect for this project.

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I love the skirt with a crinoline under it but it looks pretty without the extra volume too…take my word for it because I never got any photos without the underskirt. If you are wondering, the underskirt is called Jennifer from Malco Modes.

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This skirt and jacket are finished just like all of my clothes. Hand stitched waistband, bias binding to finish the hem edge and serged or enclosed seam allowances.

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The bustle ties on this skirt are at the same level all the way around with three ties in the front, three in the back and one on each side seam. They are easy to tie up and take down to change the look or even change the hem length to make it longer or have a high low look.

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This outfit looks cute and fun with a t shirt but I can also see myself wearing it to a wedding or other special even with a dressier top and fancy jewelry.

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Ankara Fabric Meets Gertie

I’ve been making Gertie Night and Day dresses. I wrote a post about my plan back in March. Things haven’t been going as smoothly as I expected and also, even though the pattern has the opportunity to make 72 different dresses I’ve been focusing on the same bodice pattern with short sleeves and a self drafted circle skirt.

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This green dress is my most recent one. It’s made from Ankara fabric from a company called Ankara and Lace. This company imports fabric from African Women Artists who use a Dutch Wax process to get the beautiful designs.

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I’m focused on this one bodice at the moment because I am working on getting better at fitting and how making small changes can make a big difference with fit.

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For this dress I used the square neck version of the bodice but I narrowed the neck a bit. The arm holes and the sleeves are bit tighter than I want for all day wearing comfort but I think I got the bust and waist correct on this try.

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This month I am going to make another version for my upcoming trip to Disney World in December and so I definitely want it to fit comfortable for all of the character hugging I’ll be doing.

#30DaysofDresses

I’m kind of excited about the Instagram Challenge for the month of July that I’m going to take part in. It’s called 30 Days of Dresses and it is being hosted by @thestitchsistersUK

There are two reasons that I’m excited. One, I have to get some work done and a daily challenge is a way for me to get caught up on some work while still participating in a community or two on Instagram which is the online place I love to be at the moment. The second reason is because I actually don’t know how many dresses I actually have.

I’ve been spending my time mostly focusing on skirts with a dress thrown in for good measure. Plus the challenge says they can be store bought or home made so I might actually be able to get to 2 full weeks if I can mix in the ones that are not made by me.

So, here is the Youtube Video that explains the challenge if you want to play along. And you don’t have to wear a dress everyday. Just tag and hashtag them when you do. Also, tag me too so I can see what’s happening over on your Instagram page.

Disney Bound

In December we are going to Disney World. I’m a huge fan. And actually today I need to be making my dinner reservations for the week we will be there.

I have plenty of Disney themed clothing. A couple of skirts that I made which have princesses and some t-shirts I have collected and a dress with the seven dwarves that I sewed last year. I have never done
Disneybounding though.

If you aren’t familiar with Disneybounds, it is when you dress in a way that reminds you of a character or that is similar to that character in some way. You cannot dress exactly like the characters or make exact costume replicas to wear in the parks because it is against Disney rules for good reason.

We will be in the parks for 6 days and in a perfect world I will have 6 outfits to wear which are appropriately themed. I don’t know which parks we will visit on each day yet but my spreadsheet has already been started. If you want, I’ll show it to you as it gets more information and we figure out what we are doing. Don’t worry, I don’t overplan but I do like to have an outline of the week so we make sure we get our favorite things in.

Anyway, I have some ideas for the outfits I want to make but I am second guessing myself for some of them.

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Cinderella is blue and I thought it might be fun to make a shirt dress that is maxi length with buttons only to the waist so I could wear it open over pants like in the picture above. I bought some fabric for the narrow legged pants I wanted to make but it has sequins and Amy and Maggie think that is a bad idea based on comfort and having to wear the outfit for at least 12 hours. So, now I don’t know what to do.

By the way, Brianamatopeia on Instagram does some awesome Disneybounds.

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Bo Peep has an awesome outfit in the new Toy Story movie. narrow legged pants with a polka dot wrap that can be used as a cape or a skirt. I have some polka dot satin in my Spoonflower cart right now.

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Also in my Spoonflower cart is a fabric that is printed to look like Spaceship Earth and I was thinking a fitted bodice with a full skirt and crinoline would be fun out of that to wear on one of the Epcot days.

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I also was thinking of using the yellow bustle skirt as a sort of Belle skirt with a white t-shirt and yellow lace jacket. I need to find a red rose pin or hair accessory I think.

That’s 4. I need 2 more…

Tie Bustles – Not just for brides

One of my favorite ways to bustle a wedding gown is with ties. This is often called a French Bustle, Victorian Bustle or Under Bustle. It doesn’t work with every style of dress but if you want a poof of fabric that falls over the bottom of the dress this is a beautiful way to bustle.

It’s the kind of bustle I had on my wedding dress that my mom made for me all of those years ago. Let me show you the dress:

[image error]Here is the dress with the train in place. This is me 24 years ago, June 1995.



[image error]That’s me and my dad. But you can see the bustle tied up there.



[image error]Here’s the underneath. I just have my dress hanging in my closet so it was easy to take it out to show you. This has three tie ups in the center and then a couple of ties at lower levels on each side to even out the hem

A few weeks ago I started thinking about bustling (it might have been because I was looking at my wedding album) and I remembered a skirt I wore until I wore it out that had a similar bustling option but it went all around the bottom of the skirt to make a drapey effect. There were some draw backs to how this skirt was made so I started pondering some better ways to do it.

There came a point last week where I decided to stop wondering about things and just do it.

I began with my favorite skirt of all. A full circle skirt, maxi length, with a waist band with a finished width of 4 inches.

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I decide to use a clear button to strengthen the spot where the ties would be holding the skirt up.

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I used 1/4 inch plastic rings from the drapery section of the fabric store at the lower part of the bustle. Often there is a tie at the top and the bottom but I wanted to have the bustle stay in place for a long time and not have to be retied over a day of wearing and so I thought a ring would be a better choice with both ends of the ties at the upper part of the bustle.

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I alternated the levels of the bustles so they were higher and lower around the legs but I made the rings and ties the same distance from each other so that the lowest part of the hem, when tied all around, would be mostly even.

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But I also love the high low look when just the front is tied up.

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So, of course, as with all of my projects, I have new ideas and questions. What if I tie the bottom of the hem up evenly around rather than alternating? What if I do this with a gathered skirt rather than a circle skirt? What if I use a few loops and pull the ribbon through – what would be the effect?

Believe

I saw a quote a while back and then I went a found a meme on Pinterest.

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I have gone back to that quote several times over the past few months to remind me.

When I left home at 18 years old and moved to California with $300 in my pocket thinking I was rich I had no idea what I was going to do other than find a job, establish residency and go to college to study…something having to do with science. I wanted to be a researcher.

It was harder than I thought it would be and $300 was way less money than I thought it was. I never did end up going to school but I got jobs that built on each other. I first worked in an engineering office where they designed intraocular lenses. Then I worked in a place where they made optical devices for machines and high tech windows for jets and highly polished mirrors for medical equipment. I worked my way up there until I was working on the quality control area of the company.

When I left California I continued to work in QC but at a video tape manufacturing company called High Speed Video. Yes, I watched movies for a living. After that I went to work at a pharmaceutical company and I started as an assistant in the research labs and worked my way up there until I was designing and performing experiments and even writing the research papers about those experiments. Without a degree I wasn’t named but still it was pretty fun and interesting.

After that I went to work for my parents who owned a bed and breakfast in Linfield, PA called Shearer Elegance. We also catered private parties and weddings and special events. I was the customer service person, booking agent, wedding consultant, advertising manager and tour guide. We would host lunches and dinners and tours all through November and December when my mom would put up and decorate at least 35 Christmas trees throughout the house. It was nuts!

At the same time as I was working there I was also making wedding gowns and other dresses and doing alterations for people who needed sewing done.

Then we moved to Michigan and I learned to quilt and smock and knit and then came spinning and owning the spinning loft and writing two books and teaching spinning.

And now there are some days when I question this small pivot. This change of focus. I haven’t given up spinning. I still love wool. But right now sewing is bringing me joy. And the feeling of accomplishment and the new questions I have that I want to answer are swirling around me.

But then I wonder if this is right or good or smart. And then I go back and look at that quote. I want to get even better with a sewing machine and a needle and thread than I ever was, and I can surely do it. Even at 54 years old.

Sewing Success – Graduation Dress

Ok. So that grey dress was awful. But the dress/outfit that happened in the end was a super success and I am so happy the grey dress was a terrible mistake.

I had a pattern for a t-shirt type top that has a lot of sleeve variations. It is McCall’s 7542.

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Maggie loves a dramatic sleeve. Because of her shape she can sometimes be hard to fit with certain styles and so separates or a dress with an open hip is easier. She also is very short waisted and so everything needs to be altered in the length more than seems possible. LOL

So, I showed her this pattern and said I could make a top and a skirt that would overlap a bit at the waist and look similar to a dress but then she could also wear the pieces separately at school. She jumped at it.

I had this pretty light blue plaid stretch cotton that had been laying around for years and I was just looking for the right outfit for it.

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The top is cropped in the pattern but I still had to take another 3 inches off to get it to hit right at the top of her hip.

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I used bias tape to finish the hems on the skirt, top and sleeves. It was particularly important to have a nice looking finish on the sleeves since it is often visible.

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In the end she wore it for her final recital with Mikat Music Studios It’s her final recital with them since she’ll be headed to college and a new voice teacher in just a couple of months. And it looked great with her graduation cap and gown.

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Look out Ball State University Music School!

Sewing Fail – Graduation Dress

I asked Maggie if she wanted a new dress for graduation an she said she really did but was hesitant to ask me to make one. I asked what kind of dress she was thinking about and she said she would love a wrap dress. I asked what kind of fabric she was thinking and she said she wanted something shiny.

So, I had a pattern in my stash that’s I’ve been wanting to make. It’s McCall’s 7627. I bought this pattern last year but hadn’t gotten around to making it yet.

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So, pattern, check. She liked it. Then I dug around in the fabric stash a bit and found a few shiny options. One of them was a metallic grey that is made out of Rayon I believe. It was one that I bought at a discount and it wasn’t on a bolt when I picked it up so I’m not actually sure of the fiber content.

Here’s the thing. It was completely opposite of all of the fabrics that were recommended on the pattern envelope. It called for gingham and cotton and crepe back satin. Fabrics with some body built in.

I should have known it was not going to be great right off the bat when I was having trouble lining up the selvedges and keeping the fabric on grain. I actually ended up cutting the pattern out on the living room floor so that I could pin the edges into the carpeting.

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I did sew just the bodie together for a fitting and after I took about 2 inches out of the shoulders we were feeling pretty confident that all would be well.

But….

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There are a ton of problems here and they became more obvious when Maggie tried it on. Some were because she is short waisted. Some were because the fabric lacked any body – it would be great for a dress cut on the bias though. Some of the problems, I think, are from a giant cutting line being on the bias and possibly that the pattern piece wasn’t truly on grain when I cut it.

We both hated it. Although it took Maggie a little bit of time to get the courage to tell me. I’m not scary. I promise.

So here’s the plan. Eventually I will get back to this dress. I’ll remove the skirt and the ties, add a waist band and make it a wrap skirt. I think it would be great as just the skirt. But we’ll see.

In the meantime, I cut out a new dress. Stay tuned. I’l be showing it off in the next couple of days.

Dressing Up in Pearls

Amy King and I have started doing a thing on Instagram where we are wearing our jewelry everyday. We aren’t waiting for special occasions to do it. We are doing it for ourselves to feel good and boost our confidence every day.

We are using the following Hashtags if you want to join in and play along.

#SelfCareWithAmyNBeth

#WearYourJewelry

#BeAsExtraAsYouWant

In 2004 a movie was released called De Lovely. It was a movie about the life of Cole Porter. Ashley Judd plays Cole Porter’s wife. And the clothes are beautiful But the first time I watched it I only noticed that in almost every scene where there was a new costume there was a different pearl necklace. I was astounded.

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When I was young I loved pearls and my dad knew it. If my parents came across vintage pearl necklaces I often got to have them. In my senior photo I wore a beautiful strand of graduated pearls. All of my pearls were of the faux variety but I didn’t care.

I still love pearls and in 2004 when I saw that movie I decided that I wanted to have different pearls for every day and every outfit. I’m not close but I have collected more than the average woman.

But let’s look at all of my pearly role models

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Queen Victoria is famous for her pearls. And you thought it was the whole queen thing.

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Queen Elizabeth has worn a double or triple strand of pearls her whole life unless they make her take them off and wear those dumb old diamonds.

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Princess Kate Middleton is no slouch at choosing pearls for lots of occasions.

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Michelle Obama.

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And this is a goal on my bucket list. Rhianna is a girl after my own heart.

The jewelry wearing will continue and I will continue to look for pearl inspiration. What is your favorite kind of jewelry?

Take a Class

I have been a big advocate of taking classes in whatever it is you want to learn my whole adult life. I know they can feel expensive but yarn, fabric, fiber all gets used up. The money you invest in knowledge never goes away.

When I learned to spin almost a million years ago I took classes regularly from one local teacher for at least 18 months.  We got to the point where I felt like she couldn’t answer the questions I had which were becoming more and more technical so I began looking for new teachers. Not long after that I bought the spinning shop and in order to continue my spinning education I began hiring teachers to come and teach so that I could learn new things or develop skills further. It was awesome.

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At the same time I was teaching classes. I started with beginning spinning classes and continued adding more and more classes to my list of available classes until it became 18 pages long including descriptions. But I still was learning, hiring teachers, sneaking into classrooms of other teachers between classes and asking a lot of questions.

All of this knowledge is still with me even though the fiber I bought during those years might be gone.

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Now I’ve swung back to sewing and I am joyful about it. I love it. I have gigantic plans for things to make and things to learn. Stuff I was afraid of before doesn’t seem scary now but I need some teachers.

My mom is always my first choice of who to go to. She has been sewing a huge range of things since before I was born and has a lot of tricks up her sleeve. She also loves hand sewing just like I do.

The easiest place to go next for help is Youtube videos. I rely on them for a  quick tip. But I still love an in person class. A teacher in person can see how you might change your hand position by one centimeter and it makes a big difference. They might be able to see that the thread you are using isn;t the best choice or that, even though you think you are messing something up, you just need to change your drive band or brake band or sewing machine needle. Tiny little things you won’t get from an online class.

I have several people from whom, and places where, I want to take sewing classes. I’m going to tell you mine and then I want you to tell me yours so I can add them to my list too because I know there are a lot of great teachers out there and I just don’t know them yet.

Kenneth D King – I would love to take a fitting class from him.

Gretchen Hirsch – I’m actually going to take a class with her in September

Susan Khalje Couture Sewing School – 6 full days!!!

Kathy McMakin – A teacher of heirloom sewing techniques particularly using a sewing machine for French sewing techniques.

Laura Volpintesta – Pattern Making, Drawing and Design

And there’s a Sewing Expo that comes to Novi Michigan each November that I’m going to try to get to this year.

So there. Now you tell me yours.