Apologies for being so quiet over the past few months it has been a very busy time, but rest assured I am still designing and making away!
I have been commissioned to design and make two dresses for a local company, a 'princess' dress in specific colours chosen by the company, and a Snow Queen dress. For this I have had company head Diana with me every step of the way. I began designing a few months ago, and after a very productive sourcing trip around some local fabric suppliers - I cannot recommend Hansons in Sturminster Newton highly enough, they have an the best range of fabrics that I have found outside of London and incredibly helpful, friendly staff - we sourced the fabric that we wanted.
The first to be made is the princess dress, and we have gone with a lilac tinted silver crepe back satin, to have organza gathered cap sleeves that sweep across the front, to be decorated with clear hot fix rhinestones. The deadline for this dress is in flux and is currently not required until early next year.
While I am fast at hand stitching, it will never be as fast as machine stitching! However, the best way to get the pleats in the skirt accurate and stable before stitching to the bodice was hand stitching them in place and so that is what I did. The other hand sewing was slip stitching the bias binding - yes, once again it is the return of the slip stitching!
In the mean time, here is a photo of the dress as it stands now - please bear in mind that it will have embellishment, the sleeves and the neckline have to wait until the dress has had at least its first fitting. The skirt will also have structuring under it to give it more volume!
