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Custom Wedding Dress & Kimono Upcycled Clothes | オーダーメイドウェディングドレス&着物ドレス

/ Archives for Chie

Chie

Making Wedding Dress Pt.2 – Muslin

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Read Part 1 – Fabric shopping here.

Last week, I worked on my friend’s wedding dress muslin. Previous to this muslin, I made three muslins just for the top part. I wanted to make sure that the bust line fit her exactly, and it took four tries. It is partly because we live in different parts of the country, and we had to mail each other the muslin back and forth. Also for the first two tries, she (for some strange reason) was not wearing underwear, so I needed to adjust it again once she bought a corset which she would be wearing for her wedding. The forth time, I made the skirt and installed a zipper in the center of the back, just as I will do for the real wedding dress.

You might be wondering why the fabric is so wrinkly?! Well, I pre-washed the fabric, and it wrinkled terribly. I ironed it twice, but it is still wrinkled..I was so frustrated! I actually wanted to turn the muslin into a “get away dress” (thanks Zhing for inspiration!), but it might not be happening because the fabric is quite bad. I read in one of the Japanese handmade wedding dress books that you are supposed to make muslin in seething fabric, so I followed that direction. Is all seething fabric this wrinkly? Or is it just mine?

Here is the back view – Since this wedding dress is for her after party, we kept the design simple and mobile. She wanted to avoid lugging a long dramatic train around, which worked out for my benefit, since I have not yet made a dress with a train. The skirt part is a simple half circle skirt. I will add an organza bow in the back when I make the the real one.

I sent the dress to her and next day she emailed me to tell me she already received it! God bless the efficiency of Japanese postal services 🙂

 

Shop Update & Free Shipping!

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Top: Strawberry Milk and Chocolate Ruffle Dress,
Bottom: Strawberry Milk and Chocolate Back V Dress

Hello! My shop is updated with two new dresses, both in pink and brown color combinations. I love these two colors together, and the fabric is very soft and comfortable to wear. I might have written in the past that I was not a big fan of ruffles. I’m afraid that I would look like a clown with too many ruffles, but I added just a small ruffle for the dress on the top. I like it, although I’m not sure what Andy would say because he detests ruffles… 🙁  I recently worked on some bridesmaid dresses in the bottom design, and after working on them, I wanted to incorporate the same design into my shop items, so I made a version in pink and brown.

I’m going away next week for vacation to Korea, so the orders placed from 7/23 to 7/28 will be shipped on 7/29. Sorry for the inconvenience! To make up for it, I’m offering FREE SHIPPING (both domestic and international) with the coupon code, “KOREATRIP“. The code is valid until 7/28 5pm JP time! Enjoy 🙂

P.S. Orient watch giveaway is still open! Enter here.

Mommy’s Diary 13

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Hello everyone! I thought it might be interesting to capture my day with baby..as three months have passed since the baby’s birth, we got in to a somewhat regular schedule.

6:00am: Baby gets up..I hear her from the next room, so I get up, change her diaper and feed her. After the feeding, I put Kiko back in her crib, sometimes she falls back to sleep, and other times, she plays by herself. She stares at the elephant mobile on her crib, and yells at the elephants if they don’t move :p

Then I take a shower and dress. Even when I’m home all day (which is rare though), I make it a rule that I get changed in the morning, and never spend entire day in pajamas. I love the idea of “staying in PJ’s all day”, but I always find myself disgusted for wearing PJ’s and keeping messy hair all day long. Today I’m wearing forever 21 body con skirt as a tube top with white lace shorts that I made myself. After getting dressed, if I’m good I have a devotional time. I’m reading through the Gospel of  Luke now.

7:30am: Andy makes breakfast 🙂 We always have the same thing: brown rice, fried egg and coffee. I love coffee and can’t start my day without one (or two!)!

8:00am: After breakfast, I check emails, respond to etsy convos etc. Around this time, Kiko gets up again so I feed her. Andy and I play with her as she is in a good mood after a nice long sleep 🙂

9:00am: I start sewing, today I’m worked on bridesmaid dresses for a customer who is having her wedding in November. I sew till about 11:30am. Usually listen to J wave radio while I sew.  Kiko takes her morning nap during this time.

11:30am: I get Kiko up, feed her again and put her in her  stroller. Then we head to Andy’s kick boxing gym.  It’s about a 10 minutes walk from our house. Today I did 5 rounds of three minutes. 3 rounds of punch mits and 2 rounds on the heavy bag.

After the work out, we stop by at the grocery store to pick up food for dinner.

12:30pm: Shower, and then lunch time! I made myself  tom yum noodle soup with egg in it. After this, I relaxed a bit, read a book and had another cup of coffee.

2:00pm: I start sewing again. Kiko does not sleep much in the afternoon, so I stop often to feed her, change her diaper and play with her 🙂

She loves to be on her back, and look at and grab the curtain as it blows over the top of her propelled by the wind…she is not a big fan of the bumbo chair pictured, but I put her in it anyway :p

6:00pm: I usually stop sewing at this time to bath Kiko. I put water in the tub, and have our little “swimming lesson”. My friend gave me the swimba (pictured in the middle), where you can use from 1 month old. I think it helps her sleep better at night, giving her some exercise to do 🙂 After about a 15 minutes lesson, I wash her up and change her. Then do another feeding time.

7:00pm: 7 is her bed time. When we first put her on a set schedule, she did not like it at all and cried a lot. But I didn’t give in 🙂 Now she knows 7pm is her bed time, and goes to sleep without fussing or crying, as long as she is well fed.

7:30pm: Dinner time! Today I made a vegetable soup with string beans, tomato, onions, mushrooms, cabbage and egg plants.

8:30-10:30pm: Relax! Since I don’t have to feed Kiko till next morning, sometimes I have a drink or two..
I write a blog post, paint my nails tomato red, read or watch Gossip Girl 🙂 Before going to bed, I pump so that I won’t wake up in pain because of overly full breasts. Good night!