Archives for 2017

The Construction of Rental Wedding Dresses in Japan

January 16, 2017 By Chie

I make custom wedding dresses (my recent makes here and here), but occasionally I have a chance to refashion a dress from a rental shop. Renting one’s wedding dress is very popular in Japan. Usually the rental dress shop a given bride uses is associated with wedding ceremony venue so a bride “must” pick a dress from that wedding hall’s dress shop. If they choose an alternate dress rental provider, they will be charged extra fee.
It’s interesting to see the construction of a rental dress as it is different from a custom dress. Because the dress is meant to be used by different brides over and over again, it must be made with more durable fabrics (synthetics) and is far more adjustable. I wanted to show the key features of a rental dress.1. Elastic back panel
I incorporate this element in the recent dress I made.2. Lace up3. Wide waist stay4. Bra cups
5. Built-in tulle under skirt to add volume

Not only is the construction different, but also the style of the dress is unique to rental dresses. You almost never see a relaxed Bohemian style like Grace Loves Lace or Limor Rosen as a rental option. Rather, you see dresses in a Disney princess style with a big puffy skirt and many layers. I wonder if this style difference comes from the nature of renting as it is easier for many people to fit in a puffy skirt than a mermaid style where you have to worry about the exact fit in waist and hip area. My hope is to provide more variety of choice for Japanese brides!Find me elsewhere:

Floral Embroidery Dress

January 7, 2017 By Chie

This is my first completed project of 2017! Embroidery dress. I started on this in late November and it took me (according to my work hour log) about 70 hours. I went through two seasons of the BBC show, Poldark while stitching this together.

I made this dress for a customer and she will use it some kind of performance. She plays some kind of musical instrument. The inspiration comes from this Lilly Brown embroidery dress. I was intimidated at first by the number of embroidery pieces that would be required to complete the dress, but I decided to give it a try.

The dress is made of satin and chiffon. Since it would be difficult to embroider directly on chiffon without causing the fabric to pucker, I embroidered the flowers on satin, cut around the embroidery and applique on chiffon. It might have been possible to embroider directly on chiffon if I use the embroidery machine, but I did not have an access to it this time nor the time to play around with it. Has anyone have experience with embroidery sewing machine?
{Flower pieces embroidered on satin, before being attached to chiffon}{Making sure the back is as pretty as possible}{Boned lining before being attached to the dress. I use white washi tapes to cover the ends of the bones, tip I learned in Tatiana Kozorovitsky’s class.}{Dress in works before the lining is attached.}{Elasticized panel on the right}

The dress has boning in the bodice and padded at bust area. The back has an elasticized panel with invisible zipper inside the lace-up panel so a bit of adjustment is allowed. The customer is smaller than my dress form but because of the elastic back and lace up, the dress still fit the dress form. I waited to hem the chiffon skirt until the very end. I knew with the weight of the embroidery, some parts will be weighted down. I put the dress form on chair and mark the new hem line with erasable marker. Then I cut the chiffon hem and finished it with rolled hem.

Overall, it was a great experience making this dress.

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2016 in Review & What’s Ahead

January 1, 2017 By Chie

2016 is ending soon. Thank you for all the support you’ve given this year. I hope to be able to keep creating beautiful things and sharing things I learn on my blog. To sum up the year, I wanted to recap some highlights from 2016.

Wedding dresses and client worksBridal photoshoot with Tuli Refashioned wedding dress Tulle knee length wedding dress
Lavender wedding dress Ivory lace mini wedding dress
Sparkly costume for J-pop singers Kimono dress More kimono dress

35 Blog posts

I wrote 35 blog posts in the year 2016. That is much less than what I wrote last year, which was 69. There are many unblogged objects which I want to show here in the future. With limited time, writing blog posts was not my top priority and updating Instagram took over the place to showcase what I made. Of the small number of the blog posts, these three posts generated the most page views:

– Bluff-stitched patch pocket tutorial
– How to alter the back of a dress that is too small to zip up
– Realistic look on hours I spent on my handmade business

It’s interesting that these posts are informational posts as opposed to “what I made” posts that were popular last year.

Newsletters

I started a newsletter in 2015. For 2016, I wrote once a month. It is usually a recap of my blog posts of the month, some behind the scenes stuff and links of things I enjoyed reading/watching. If you are interested, sign up here.

What I sewed for myself
I had some opportunities to sew myself new clothes. Here is the roundup:
Transitional Piece Stripes body suit Neutial stripe skirt Khaki wrap dress Merckwaerdigh BHS10 Archer button-up with fly front modification

For Kiko
I sewed some stuff for my daughter. She recently turned five. We started going to Nippori together to choose fabrics. She likes that her opinions are incorporated in her clothes.
Modern Princess Aurora Dress Panda dress Pea coat

Most frequently used patterns
Last but not least, my most used patterns were Carolyn pj from Closet Case Files. It is a great pattern to make it as a gift!
Carolyn pajama in silk satin Aztec Carolyn Carolyn pajama in Pink