Heirloom Sewing

We were commissioned to make a dress for a returning customer, it was to be in black and feature pin tucks and lace which reminded us of old fashioned heirloom sewing.

Heirloom sewing nowadays is mostly worked by machine but it used to be fine hand sewing usually on white cotton which was trimmed with lace, insertion, pin tucks, narrow ribbon and smocking.  The dress we designed would just feature tiny pin tucks, wider pin tucks and lace trim.

This is a quick sketch and you can see that it is really a basic JSK in a plain colour with the interest coming from the texture of the trimming.

Practise the pin tucks before adding to a garment.  They need to be as straight as you can  make them, evenly spaced and the same size.

When you are confident try them out on a piece of the scrap fabric you are using for your garment and below you can see the tiny pin tucks we used on the bodice.

We tried first of all to sew the small pintucks with a twin needle but found that it just looked like two rows of stitching next to each other and not like a tiny tuck.  Therefore it was easiest to mark the actual fold on  bodice  with a tiny cut in the seamline and then press this and then carefully sew.

On large pin tucks you can mark the first one and then use the width of the presser foot to space the pin tucks which is what was done on the skirt.

It is often suggested that you make your pintucks on the fabric and then cut out for example your bodice.  We chose though to pattern draft my pin tucks on the bodice, cut out the shape and then sew the pin tucks.

To make this more like heirloom sewing after sewing the pintucks some lace was added to frame the tucks.

Here you can see that the pintucks are bigger, approx 1 cm wide, on the skirt.

The finished garment looked like this: –

These are  only snapshots, taken during construction as we always like to keep clients up to date with how their garments are progressing, but  you can see that the finished look is a good one.

I am going to make myself one in burgundy and we are offering one of these in colour and size of choice as a raffle price in an upcoming international Lolita meet.

  

‘Victorian’ Weekend House Party

My recent photoshoot at The Cottonwood Boutique Hotel (http://www.thecottonwoodboutique.co.uk/) in Bournemouth (photos by Andy Smith of Poole Portraits, http://www.pooleportraits.co.uk/) told a story of a weekend house party which were popular among the upper classes in Victorian times and here is the story told in photos.

ARRIVAL

WAITING TO BE SHOWN TO ROOM

AFTERNOON WALK IN THE GARDEN

AFTERNOON TEA

SUNDAY BEST

ENTERTAINMENT

COCKTAILS

TIME TO GO HOME

Thank you again to The Cottonwood Boutique Hotel, Poole Portraits and the lovely Anna.

All garments and fascinators are from  ShinkuRose’s winter collection available from Etsy, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ShinkuRose or direct from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shinkurose/593986427294641.

Embellishing with Appliqué

I have been designing a new collection for ShinkuRose https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shinkurose/593986427294641) comprising of an OP, a JSK, blouse, cutsew, coat and two skirts.  I have found it very difficult to get border prints in England which are suitable so I decided to decorate the bottom of the JSK with applique. 

The applique needed to be large so I drew it on a large piece of paper and made a pattern.  I cut this pattern out and then copied it on to Bondaweb. Bondaweb is a strong, heat reactive, sheet of glue which permanently bonds one fabric to another when ironed, it is paper backed and is ironed to the applique, the paper removed and then the applique is ironed onto the garment. 

 

 

 

Before attaching I made sure that the applique was in exactly the right place on the JSK. 

 

 

Because of the glue I used my silk organza to cover the applique whilst pressing it on.  I used a pressing movement, up and down with the iron, rather than an ironing movement so as to completely stick and not move the applique whilst attaching.

I had one or two problems with adding the bondaweb to the bow as I had cut both pieces out separately so when I repeated the process for one of my skirts I found an easier solution. I cut the applique out in bondaweb and pressed these onto one piece of fabric and then cut out the appliques out, this proved to be much easier and quicker.

Once cut out place them on the garment in the correct positions.

Press the appiques on and before sewing them to the garment practice stitching.  You will use a small close together zig zag and I did a few different combinations on a scrap of fabric bondaweb to the main to see which I preferred.

I like to loosen my top tension a bit to give a lovely rounded stitch on the right side therefore the wrong side will look like the sample below.

And here is the finished skirt.

MCM LONDON COMIC CON

We set off bright and early by train on 25th May to visit London Comic Con. I dressed in ‘Bitter Sweet’ Lolita in a casual coordination as I was trialing my sallopettes.

We had bought early entry tickets which I would advise as friends had to queue for over two hours for entry on the Saturday which is very tiring and can make a person grumpy by the time they get in.

My first stop was Nice Ice which I have wanted to try for a long time but have always left it to the end of the day on previous visits when to my great dismay they have sold out. This time we headed straight for their stall and the Nice Ice was delicious, my husband and I had mango and our friend had strawberry which I finished when he had had enough, yum, yum. We liked their face book page and now are the proud owners of key chains with the nice ice logo and anime characters, mine is Princess Mononoke. I am heading straight for their stall if they are at Hyper Japan.

We spent our time walking around all the exhibits but at midday it did become very crowded when all those who had been queuing entered.

I only bought a couple of items this visit one of which was this super kawai necklace from Candy Geisha!

As you can see from my photo this is a versatile necklace it goes well with my civilian clothes but also brilliantly with my Lolita outfits. I really like Candy Geisha’s accessories as they have a unique look and I will definitely buy again on line or at any of their pop up shops.

I also bought a new wig which I love. It is a split wig, black and purple, with twin tails photographed below. I think it enhances the look of my mini tricorns (for sale on my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShinkuRose) and I am looking forward to wearing it to Hyper Japan.

 

My husband bought himself a new T-shirt from fb.com/JoshClarkeDraws which we both really like but he found that due to the size he needs there was not a lot of choice and this is one area I am going to look into in the near future as men like interesting clothes. My motto is that life is too short to wear boring clothes and at the moment his choice is limited. I think this will mean that I will have to buy a cover stitch machine to get the professional finish that is desired and needed on both T-shirts and Hoodies.

I loved wearing my sallopettes, they were both comfortable and pretty so I have now listed them on Etsy and they are also available direct through me on my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shinkurose/593986427294641).

 

 

Toiles

Started my outfit and I have photographed the fitting process:

The start of the blouse

This is in the actual fabric and now just needs the sleeves finishing with a frill, the neckline needs to be completed and pretty buttons bought and buttonholes made

The JSK

Calico pinned to fit

The Back

The shirred back will obviously look neater on the finished dress

The Straps

Now to make the changes to the pattern and cut out.  Here is the lovely fabric I bought in Bath that I am going to use

Etsy Shop

This week I am experimenting with putting an item a day on my Etsy Shop which is Lolita themed.  I am trying to see which day is the best for the most views, whether the end of the month is good when everyone gets paid or if it makes no difference.  This is time consuming and means I start sewing later that I like but is important or otherwise I will be drowning in a sea of accessories.

I was very, very excited last night when the capelet I added was put into a treasury list.  My capelet is a beautiful cherry red and the theme of the list was red.  The capelet is trimmed with broderie anglaise and has a lovely little crocheted cherry brooch.  I want it myself.