All you need is love

The dress is slowly but surely taking shape. Next steps: attach the over skirt and pleated waistband, finish attaching the linings and handsew the zip. I'm planning to use the couture method of attaching a silk organza lining to the hem and hand sewing it to the upper lining.

I love how this dress has developed. I sewed all weekend and migrated the project to the living room to get this far. There are nearly 1000 handstitches in this garment already...I really love my daughter.

Formally speaking I'm making progress

I'm prepared to concede at this point that the dress will not look like the original design drawing. That design could only be achieved cut straight at the top which my DD didn't want as she was fearful of the "uniboob". DD also decided that strapless is more timeless than the faddish one shoulder look. As for me I'm having fun seeing where the fabric takes me.

Each row is set individually with tiny handstitches which add to the ruffly marshmallow effect. I love the waves that have formed. The other side will run upwards in the other direction.

Next big decision...to embellish the waist band or not? What do you guys think?

Cup glamour

Here are my picks in the satorial stakes at the Melbourne Cup

And remember ladies...no turbans

The Melbourne Cup is the race that stops the nation and a celebration of fashion. Check out this short video history of Cup fashion. I wore this fascinator and frock ensemble to a charity MC luncheon today. As you can see, I'm 'following trend' but very low key. I have a another 2 metres of this fabric which I hope to make into a more casual long dress featuring the spots on the sleeves in a panel down the centre front.

And the cryptic title of this post? Comes from a piece of Cup fashion advice from the early 70s that my friend Di and I still giggle about.

And here are a few more work in progress shots of the formal dress. I am getting faster.

Some skin on the bones

I'm feeling dangerously smug. All is going well. I'm making the garment in stages - front first, then the back. It will be fitted and secured with a hand-picked zip at the side seams.

While I was most worried about the boning and shell, these tasks were relatively simple. The draping is another matter. The little bit shown in the picture is the result of three hours work! I have a whole front and back bodice to do. It is hand stitched onto the upper bodice, being careful not to go the lining. Progress is not helped by Mini-Me becoming agitated that I'm not following her design drawing. Indicative only I tell her. Which is my way of saying, I don't know what I'm doing!

Bones take two

I've restarted the project. Thanks to KBenco's tip off, I've now read Susan Khalje's article in the latest American issue of Threads and have a better idea about boning the undercorset. I also gained useful insights from Gorgeous Fabrics lace bustier tutorial. I'm now using muslin (I didn't have any more fine tuille) and rigalene boning from Tessutis. I've made the casings from biased binding and ribbon that I already had rather than buying anything new. It gets covered anyway. But the major revelation came to me in one of those ah ha moments. If I am connecting the draping from the side seams I need a side zip, not a centre back zip. This required redrafting and reshaping the back. In doing so, I was able to take the excess ease out the of pattern and achieve a much better fit. The skirt muslin is now completed and tomorrow night we cut the silk. I'm terrified and excited!

That darned corset, footloose and Heathcliff

I've completed drafting DD's formal dress, made a muslin and fitted the bodice. Now the work has commenced on a boned corset sewn on very fine tuille that will sit between the lining and the underlining. The rationale for this is that I need to construct the front and back of the bodice separately to enable the draped sections to be secured on the side sides. The separate corset allows me to attach the outer lining and ensure that the draping follows the correct shape - in theory.

The corset fits perfectly on her body (not my dressform). However I am concerned because the boning was bought in readymade casing on a roll and is curling up when not worn. Will this be alright when I attach it to the lining? Or should I start again making my own casings and inserting the boning? I have tried iron it under a rajah cloth.

My Chanel jacket is nearly finished. I am hand stitching the lining and the trims. I had hoped to complete the jacket this weekend, but Mini-Me and I did the Seven Bridges Walk, a 25km saunter around Sydney's beautiful harbour instead. It is an annual event - unfortunately this year the weather conditions were not favourable. For most of the course we walked in heavy tropical rain and thunder but it didn't dampen our spirits. The walk took us through so many foreshore parks and high street villages that we had never visited before. Mini-Me is a good distance runner and she urged me on to complete the course. I was so deliriously weary by the end that all I was up for on Sunday night was a BBC adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Surprisingly I'm not sore, but have a shocking 'wet socks' blister on the sole of my foot.

The day has reignited my lifelong ambition to walk from Sydney to Melbourne. I'll have to buy a copy of Gillian Souter's new book Slow Journeys: the Pleasures of Travelling by Foot while I contemplate about what a silly idea this really is!