Hunter Green Lace

In honor of Father's day, this post is about my dad. Anyone who knows my dad knows he loves to decorate in hunter green. He has a house in Colorado Springs that came with a lace curtain on the glass door that seperates the living room from his bedroom. He thought it looked nice in his old (circa 1890's) house, so he put up lace mini blinds in the rest of the house. When he went to refinish the house in Westcliffe, he added glass doors to his bedroom and planed on putting lace curtains there too. The first attempt by another nameless person resulted in the curtain being way too short. She gave up, so only one of the two doors had a curtain, which as I said was too short. His house stayed this way for years. While I was up there, I suggested that I could do curtains for the door no prob. He said I've hear that before but he said go ahead anyway. I asked what color he would like and he said white or perhaps tea stained. After a little chat about colors of lace I mentioned that he could get lace in hunter green. He was completely shocked at this revelation and told me to go for it. It took a week for the fabric store to get the 5 yard I needed, but it was worth the wait. I sewed them last weekend, and they both are finished and both fit. I did make them a little on the short side so that the lace would stretch and not bag.

This is the bedroom side...


and this is the office side.

Now he needs a quilt for his bed, and this room will be all decorated!

Another Purse

I made this purse for my good friend Teresa. I made a little sack for her to carry her prayer book and beads about a year ago out of this same fabric, so it seemed logical to make a purse too.


For the little bows on the side, I used braided satin cording. It has a great look, but once she started using it, we discovered one big drawback: the satin bows are forever coming undone. Fortunately, another of her friends fixed this problem with 2 small safety pins. In the future, I think I would like to try using ribbon or other materials or the ties, but I do plan on avoiding slippery materials.


The pockets in the purse make it super handy for storing all the necessary things. I wanted to take a picture of the purse full so you can see how much this seemingly little purse carries and organizes.

Karli's Wedding Dress

My friend of almost 5 years now, Karli, is getting married on Sept. 4, 2010. Last year, we spent a bunch of time looking on the internet for a wedding dress with red in it. Through months of searching, nothing was quite right. There was one white dress that was close, but she was really wanting to have some red (and not just a sash). So, I finally said I will just make her one. She wanted a red lace overlay with an A line and empire waist. I am close to finished, but I can't do many of the finishing details until I fly out to see her the week before the wedding (like the hem, getting the shoulder straps the right length and doing the bustle).



Please forgive the white t-shirt on my dress-maker's dummy. My dummy is rather old (it was my grandma's and is at least 50 years old), so I did not want to get the wedding dress dirty.


Here is a detail of the pearls on the bottom of the lace overlay. The bride is wearing a pearl necklace that her brother gave her and several other pearl accents. The straps on the dress are also covered in pearls and beads.



Another feature Karli wanted in her dress was a lace-up back. We are both hoping that this feature will help avoid extra alterations when I arrive the week before the wedding. We live about 2,000 miles apart, so fitting it at the last minute will be interesting!


As long as I was making "The Dress" it seemed fitting to make the flower girl dress to match. The dresses are not quite identical, but really rather close. One difference is the pearl flowers, which add a "little girl" element to the dress. The bridal gown has a more elegant bow in front instead.

I imitated the lacing in the back, but given how young the flower girl is, I did not think it was a good idea to try to lace her in. I put an invisible zipper on the right side so she would look the same, but the dress would be way easier to put on and take off. I also have to wait for the fitting on this dress, so hopefully going out a week early will be enough time. I will post again to show the dresses finished and on the right people.

Purse

Well, I have made several purses now, but I keep neglecting to post them. Here is one I made for my mom using the "Bow Tucks" pattern. She picked the fabric without knowing where each piece would go. I think it turned out to be quite charming.


The inside has a nice retro flower design, many pockets and a stiff teal purse bottom.


This view shows off the little bows on the sides, which is where the "Bow Tucks" pattern gets its name. I did alter the pattern to make the handles longer on this purse because my mom hates having short-handled purses.

This photo shows some of the fancy stitching and quilting the purse has.



My mom also picked out this cool stone button.