SHANNON'Sdresses
CURRENT PROJECTSjournal
1 March 2010
Yeah, so, not doing that course anymore. It's a long story, I won't bore you with it. So on the one hand my life is back to square one, but the sense of freedom kind of makes up for it. Sweet, sweet, terrifying freedom. But I'll have more time for dresses! And I SWEAR my Georgian dress with the embroidery is not far away. I really should buy a thimble though. The middle finger of my right hand is starting to look rather mutant-ish.
7 February 2010
Well, I finished the purple 1950s dress, a couple of weeks ago actually, but I'm afraid you're not going to see it. It's too much of a disappointment. This is probably the first time I've censored a finished project from the site, but there's really no point in putting it up. I did ok copying the pattern from that other dress, but I just didn't execute it well enough. Not enough for my standards, anyway. What a disappointment for a design that I thought up near-on five years ago!! But at least now I'll know what to change if I ever try that pattern again, as I really do like the style. For now though, the "Coming Soon" graphic that's sitting under "1950s" on the Past Projects page can just stay there - I'm sure I'll make something else 1950s at some point.
What I have left to finish at the moment is the brown wool 1940s skirt suit, and the maroon Georgian dress, for which the embroidery on the stomacher is taking ages. Don't know when I'll get round to finishing them either, as I'm a very busy bee these days. I've just started my uni course, so I have to get back into the swing of being a diligent student. Therefore sewing will not be a priority activity anymore. But I'll do my best.
16 January 2010
It is the start of a very rainy and horrid weekend, so I really have no excuse not to get onto some sewing and get some projects finished. As you may have seen I did manage to get the cream Regency dress and the 18th century pocket posted up, but that still leaves three half-finished projects. And as I will be working full time as well as studying part time in a few weeks, I would like to get as much done now as possible. Then after that I think I would like to work on only one project at a time, so I can give it my full attention. And because of the projects I have in mind for the near future, I will need to.
I have bought four genuine 1940s dress patterns recently - two authentic vintage, so I will need to be very careful with the pattern paper! - and I also want to attempt some patterns from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. As I have never really worked with authentic vintage or historic patterns before, I would like to work on only one at a time so I can devote my full attention to constructing them accurately. An authentic historic pattern deserves that.
30 December 2009
I know I haven't updated in a while, but it's because I've got - let me count...FIVE - projects underway at the moment, and I just can't seem to finish a one of them to get it on the site! It doesn't help not having a haberdashery store anywhere near me though. I have one dress a breath away from being finished, but it needs one small vital ingredient that unfortunately I can't get from my local fabric store. Hopefully in the new year I will have some finished projects to show off - otherwise I'll just post pictures of my progress so far. My 5 projects are: a cream regency dress, a purple 1950s style dress, a brown suit from an authentic vintage 1940s pattern, a maroon coloured georgian dress with embroidered stomacher, and an embroidered 18th century hanging pocket. So I have been busy, just haven't got much to show for it!
23 October 2009
Here is a pic of most of what I plan to do on the dress. I just have to finish twisting that piece of ribbon you see hanging off it all the way down the ruffles, and decorate the stomacher somehow. I think I'll just do a similar thing to what's going on down the sides, but with wavy lines instead of straight ones. And beads. Lots of beads. Still have to add a modestly panel behind the lacing at the back too. Or maybe my corset didn't shrink me enough to fit in the dress last time I tried it on because I'd only just had dinner. I'll try it on on an empty stomach next time :)
26 September 2009
The green Atonement dress is finished, and the 21st is tonight, so there will be some photos up tomorrow. Kymberley picked it up this morning and tried it on one last time and she looked HAWT!
So now that I have that dress done, I can complete my almost-finished Georgian corset, and finally get around to putting the trimmings on my peach dress. I took a photo of all the embellishments I could find that would suit it. So I guess now the next you'll see is what I ended up doing with them.
30 August 2009
I felt very onto it this morning and completed the whole underskirt within about an hour and a half. So now I have the base of the dress all ready for embellishment. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do, but it's going to involve lots of ribbons and bows and lace and ruffles. Can't wait to get into this thing! I love this style so much!!
29 August 2009
The green Atonement dress is coming along nicely - I just have to get a zip and we'll be ready for another fitting. I hesitate at putting a photo up, because it doesn't really look like much when it's just on a hanger. Plus Kymberley is decidedly smaller than my dressform, so the dress doesn't really fit over it properly. I'm quite jealous actually, I want to keep it for myself!!
I've also been doing continuing work on the peach-coloured Georgian dress. Once I've made the underskirt I'll pop it on the dressform ready to be decorated and take a photo of it. I've also recently acquired a large amount of strong cardboard, so I've decided to finally make a pair of Georgian stays, and use strips of cardboard for the boning. The result of which will hopefully help give a better silhouette than my Elizabethan corset.
15 August 2009
With 6 weeks to go and counting, I have finally gotten around to cutting out the pattern pieces for Kymberley's Atonement dress - and it turned out there was JUST enough for all the pieces I needed. So big sigh of relief there. The changes I've made to the pattern are that I've made the skirt a bit fuller, and there are going to be two long ties attached to the centre back which can be brought round the front to form the knot at the waist. The colour of the fabric didn't come out well in the photo though - it's much more of a bright emerald green. Man I love working with satin.
19 July 2009
I'm a good way through a peach coloured pouffy-lacy-with-bows-on-it Georgian dress worthy of Marie Antoinette herself. Can't wait.
I've also finished the mock-up for the green Atonement dress that I'm going to have a fitting on Kymberley with before I start cutting up the precious green satin. But with a couple of my own modifications, it already looks very much like the movie version. Awesomeness!
28 June 2009
My bustle dress is finished!! So, weather permitting, next weekend I hope to have some pictures taken of it. I hope it fits me, I haven't actually tried it on yet!
My friend Kymberley recently asked me if I could make her a reproduction of the green Atonement dress to wear at her 21st in September- and I jumped at the chance. Today we went pattern and fabric shopping for it, but only came home with fabric, as neither of the fabric stores we went to had the pattern we wanted in stock - Vogue #7635. We have one more place to try during the week, otherwise we might have to order it off the internet or somehow find an alternative. But this is going to be so awesome to make, and Kymberley is going to look the absolute hotness.
In other news, I found my unpicking tool - the day after I bought a new one. Epic fail.
16 June 2009
My Victorian dress should be done soon...but as I'm now working full-time and the weather's getting colder and darker things have slowed down a bit. It's looking real awesome though!
In other news, I can't find my unpicking tool, and I'm real bummed about it
26 May 2009
My dressform arrived! Wasn't that quick?! I got it straight out of the box and assembled it and immediately started dressing it in my latest project - so along with the photo of the dressform, I'm giving away a sneak peak of my new dress - a Victorian bustle, which I've never made before, so I'm crossing my fingers with it, as it's one of those tiny-waist-big-bum dresses. Wish me luck!!
23 May 2009
Hey everyone, I've decided to scrap the original idea of the 'Current Projects' page, where I used to keep an ongoing diary of dresses still under construction. It just got too fiddly and I usually don't take long enough on one project to warrant regular updates on it anyway. So, instead, I've simply decided to keep a journal/blog type thing giving news updates on the realm of ShannonsDresses. Much easier, and much less time-consuming. Once I get a new camera there might even be pictures! So, here goes...and oh what some news we have to kick off this shindig!
- I have bought an adjustable dressform!! I just won the auction on trademe last night, so it's yet to arrive, but it's going to be so cool and make everything much easier and much more accurate and I can set the form to my size so I don't have to keep trying stuff on all the time...and most of all, I can take photos of the finished costumes on the dressform instead of modelling them myself, so you don't have to see my ugly mug all the time :). Can't wait for it to arrive! I'm halfway through a Victorian bustle dress that REALLY needs some dressform action. It's too bitsy and piecy for me to be confident fitting everything without it.
- And, and it's a big AND...I'm putting this out to the universe and letting everyone know so it makes it more real - I've decided to make a goal to have an entry ready for the 2010 World of WearableArt Awards. I have an idea for a project in mind, it just needs to be fleshed out. And I'm sure in the next 12 months or so that will be perfectly manageable. I have tickets to see this year's awards in October, and since I've never actually seen the show live, I'm really looking forward to it! So there you go, you all know about it now, so I can't not do it!
Until next time,
xxx