Now that the veil was all hemmed, it was time to move on to getting it to stay on Shelby's head! When Shelby first sent me the fabric and I was draping it on my head to kinda get a feel for how it was going to lay and flow, I quickly realized that I had a problem. Chiffon naturally, is a very light weight fabric, but when there are YARDS upon YARDS of it trailing behind you, it can get pretty heavy. So whenever I walked around the house (I may or may not have been singing "Here Comes the Bride" very loudly) the long train kept pulling the veil off my head! So I sat down and had a little talk with this fabric (yes, I really do talk to the materials I'm working with and it really does help. So deal with it) and told it that we couldn't have this kind of behavior. It was going to have to stay on Shelby's head throughout the whole ceremony. So I came up with a solution. Since the part on the veil that had the most drag on it (and the part that kept falling down) was the section that laid on top of my head, I figured it needed something to keep it in place. Smart cookie ain't I? So my wonderful Mommy found this long clear comb that you see below at Wal-Mart to attach to the top of the veil to help keep it in place... ...along with some 1/4 inch wide organza ribbon (Hobby Lobby). To start off, I took Shelby's head measurement (from ear to ear over the top of her head) and cut a piece of ribbon that size tapering the ends a bit. Then I added some no-fray to the ends. (me like no-fray) I did all the below steps to a practice piece of fabric the same length of the chiffon Shelby sent me. (just in case I messed up) So all of the pictures are of the veil itself, not the practice one (because I forgot to take pictures of the practice piece :). So after I measured and cut the ribbon, I hand sewed the long comb to the piece of ribbon. I took the top part of the veil and folded it in half and put a pin in the center. Next I measured the comb's length and marked the center of it. Then I matched the two up placing the comb underneath the fabric right next to the hem with the ribbon side against the wrong side of the fabric (the side that would go against her head). Since I couldn't really pin the comb in place because of all the teeth, I held it in place with my hand and whipped stitched around the edges of the ribbon. I tried to keep my stitches close enough to hold everything securely, but far enough apart that the stitches weren't that noticeable. Make sense? My idea worked! the comb kept the veil in place as I walked around the house and (just as an extra precaution) danced down the imaginary isle (aka the living room). Yeah...
the jif movie thing wasn't my idea. But anyway... *NOTE* If you prefer to cover the top part just over where the comb is sewed with ribbon (like Kate's) to try to cover your previous stitching do so now. So there you have it! Next up, creating the gathers and poof in the back. Love, Susan
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Finally, after weeks of procrastinating, I got off my lazy bum and started working on my cousin's veil. It's not that I didn't want to do it, it's just that in order to round off the edges for the front and back/train I basically needed the whole dining room floor for a cutting table. (or cutting floor :) When your family is a homeschooling family like mine, that needs the dinner table for school work, it can be quite difficult to access. So when I finally got my hands on it, the first thing Mom and I did was round off the edges that would be next to the bride's face. That way there will be no hard, sharp, pointy edges (very unattractive). We did this using a french curve. (sorry forgot to get a picture :( ) Next came probably the hardest part: shaping the train. (dum dum dum!) To be honest, I had NO CLUE as to how to do this! So I turned to my second secret weapon that never fails to help sort out all my sewing dilemmas.... The internet. This is where I found out how to do what I was wanting to do. I love you. Start off by measuring the width of you fabric and dividing that number in half. My fabric was 57 and 3/4 inches so half was 28 and 1/4 inches. Wrap a long piece of string around a fabric safe disappearing marker and measure whatever half of your fabric was then cut the string. It MUST be a DISAPPEARING FABRIC SAFE marker because you will not be washing this fabric! (The fabric layed out on a flannal quilt to help keep it in place while we worked) Fold your fabric in half long ways making sure the edges match up perfectly. Check every so often while you work to see if the fabric has moved (because trust me IT WILLL!!!!) and correct if need be. Hold the pen at the center edge (where the fold of your fabric is) and then have someone pull the string towards the center of your fabric to form a 90 degree angle with the bottom edge of the fabric. The string needs to be taunt. Move the pen around in an arc to mark the cutting line. Cut. When you open your fabric it should look something like this. Just imagine that trailing down a church aisle! *dreamy sigh* Now that the veil was cut out, I could move on to hemming! Shelby wanted what is called a shell hem around the outside of her veil. You can achieve this by ether hand or machine sewing. If you want to do this by machine, (which is what I did) you will need a rolled hemmer foot (mine is 3 mm) that looks like this: Of course the way the foot looks like will vary depending on what kind a machine you have. I have a Huskvarna Sapphire Quilt 875 and I got my foot from My Sewing Machine Parts for about $25. Attach the hemmer foot to your machine and thread your machine with some fine thread used for light weight fabrics like chiffon to match your fabric. (I used Coats & Clark Dual Duty) Set your machine to do a shell edge stitch. (#18 on my machine) If you notice in the picture above there is a tiny strip of metal in the center of the foot. Your fabric will wrap around this piece of metal causing the fabric to fold over creating a hem. So this is what it looks like as you're sewing. (the finished look) One phone conversation with Shelby and 3 1/2 yards of chiffon later...(which is really 7 yards of hemming!) ... the veil is completely hemmed!!!! Of course, this isn't exactly how it will be placed on her head, but you get the point for now. (And yes, I am well aware of the fact that there is a hand on top of my head. Please ignore it. That is just my brother being helpful. Just imagine it is a halo or crown or something.)
I CAN'T WAIT to see how this turns out!!! Shelby is going to be one BEA-U-TI-FUL bride(even with no veil!) and I can't wait to see it on her! Love, Susan 9/24/2013 0 Comments Baby Bath ApronA lady at a bible study I go to on Saturday mornings is pregnant with her third child. So, the other women of the bible study group decided to give her a baby shower. My Mom decided that it would be cute for us to make something for her. You know how a hand made present can mean much more to a person than when you just go to the store and buy something typical. It shows that you really thought about the person receiving the gift and what would be most beneficial to them. (at least that's my family's mindset :) But when my mom thinks "we" can make something, it usually means "me". So that is why one day I come home from work to find a pattern for an apron and a pile of fabric laying on my bed. A typical day in the life of Susan The Seamstress. Now, before I make my Mom sound bad, I DID know about the shower beforehand, and she DID cut it out, and Mom DID offer to help me, but my Stewart pride got in the way and I was determined to make this all by myself! Now back to the apron: The basic idea Mom had was to make an apron that the mother could wear whenever she was washing her baby yet keep herself dry. Mom found some gorgeous deep purple terry cloth and a coordinating flannel that we (I) could trace letters out of for the front to add a little extra something. It's amazing what you can find in the back of your closet! (shhhh! Don't tell!) So the first thing to do was to make the actual apron; then apply the letters. (please excuse the sloppy bed) We (I) used McCall's pattern 5551 view C, but instead of lining it, I just hemmed the raw edges and used bias tape for the neck strap and ties, omitting the pockets. For the letters, I cut a strip of flannel big enough for the ones my Mom printed out, plus a *slightly* smaller strip of Wonder Under and fused the two together. After that, using transfer paper and a pen, I transferred the letters onto the paper side of the Wonder Under, (also the wrong side of the fabric) then I cut them out. I had to trace the letters out backwards so when I flipped it around so the right side of the fabric showed, the letters would be right too. Next, I peeled the paper backing off the letters, centered them up on my apron, pressed into place... ... and sewed a narrow zig-zag stitch around the edges. Here is the final result! A big high five goes out to my bro Christopher for taking pictures of the finished product. (It is quite difficult to take pictures of yourself when you're the model :) And there you have it! A terry cloth apron just right for giving a darling newborn a bath! I really hope the mother likes it and I can't wait to welcome this wonderful bundle of joy into this great big world!
For you fashioned my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank you because I am awesomely made, wonderfully; your works are wonders -- I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes could see me as an embryo, but in your book all my days were already written; my days had been shaped before any of them existed. Psalms 139: 13-16 Complete Jewish Bible Love, Susan (Shelby and I 2009) A few months ago, I was sitting at the computer desk when I received a phone call from my newly engaged cousin Shelby. (Shelby and her fiance Joe, aren't they cute?) She said that she had been looking around for a veil when she came across a picture of the one Kate Moss wore for her second wedding. Needless to say, Shelby fell in love with that veil and told her mom, my aunt, that this was the one that she wanted to say her vows in. (Isn't it pretty?) But there was one small problem... Shelby couldn't find a veil that looked like this ANYWHERE that she could afford. So she called to see if I thought I could make her a veil to resemble Kate Moss's. She wants me to make her wedding veil. HER. WEDDING. VEIL. I almost cried right there on the phone. So, of course I said yes! I mean, how many chances do you get to sew a veil for someone, especially someone who is practically like your big sister? The first thing we did was order some supplies. Shelby when to her local fabric store and bought 4 yards of beautiful white chiffon. After that, she went online and started hunting for something to place above her ears to cover up all of the fabric that will need to be gathered there. (see picture above) Her search was finally rewarded and these lovely pearl and jeweled pieces from Etsy soon arrived at my front door. The second step was to figure out how in the world we were going to get that thing to stay on her head! I began to closely study pictures of Kate's veil to try and see how it attached. And I learned that, even on the great mac computer, you can only zoom in so far on a picture before it starts to pixelate. I became very frustrated, so I decided to pull out my secret weapon that never fails to help me sort out all my sewing dilemmas.... My mother. She thought that a long comb, or series of small combs, should be attached to the upper part of the veil that runs along the top of the head between the ears, and an alligator clip needed to be under each jeweled piece. My mom is AWESOME. So, we purchased a few alligator clips and this long clear comb that you see here for attaching the veil. The clips come from Hobby Lobby and the clear comb from Wal-mart. Thus, the amazing veil journey began! Shelby has kindly given me permission to document how I made this on my website so you all can know how I did it! (because I could find nothin' folks when I began researching. Nothin'. Zilch. Nada.) I hope that maybe this will help anyone out there (like me) looking for some pointers on making a veil like the one I'm making. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to leave them it the comment box below. I could use all the help I can get!
Oh, one more thing. Everyone who reads this and all the post to come documenting the construction on this veil must SWEAR an oath never to tell Joe anything you see. Or I'm toast. Love, Susan |
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October 2019
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