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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

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Making Wedding Dress Pt.8 – Install a Zipper & Bones

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I tend to use invisible zippers for most of my creations. I think they are easy to install as long as you have the correct zipper foot. Also, I just generally like the clean look of it. So I tried to install an invisible zipper for this dress and ended in utter failure.

First, I used an iron-on interface along the line of where the zipper will be installed to stabilize the fabric. Then I trimmed the seam allowances a bit.

I did manage to install the zipper. However, the zipper did not go up. That’s because of all the gathered fabric from the ruched waist band! I kind of anticipated this to be a problem, but I went ahead to used the invisible zipper anyway hoping to get by. I should have followed my instincts and used a flat knit zipper:(

I ended up having to de-stitch and remove the zipper. I needed to buy a new zipper, so until I was able to make it to the store I worked on making the lining.

For the bodice lining, I used the fashion fabric, instead of the lining fabric which I originally bought. I did this because I wanted to have a bit more structure to the bodice. I cut out the pattern pieces just like I did to make the bodice.

Then I sewed just like I did for the outer bodice. By this time, I was an expert in making this bodice! In  total, I sewed the same thing about 6 times including the multiple muslins I’ve made!

I went to 100 yen shop (like a dollar store in Japan), and bought this white bias strips. I am going to use this to make boning channels.

I sewed the sides of the bias tapes to where I want the bones to go in on lining fabric. Here is the look from the inside:

Then I cut the plastic bones to the appropriate length, put the boning caps and inserted them in the boning channels. The boning caps prevent the bones from poking through the fabric. I bought these from Tomato Notion shop in Nippori, for 25 yen each.

This is what it looks like from outside of the lining bodice. The boning gave a good structure to the bodice.

In retrospect, I did not have to make the boning channels, since I used the plastic boning which can be sewed directly on to the fabric. I guess if you use steel boning, you should make the channels, but for plastic ones, channels are not necessary. But, I do think the channels look prettier and neater! 🙂

Read my progress on sewing wedding dress! :

Part 1 – Fabric shopping
Part 2 – Muslin
Part 3 – Another Muslin
Part 4 – Cutting Fashion Fabric
Part 5 – Sewing the Bust Part
Part 6 – Ruching
Part 7 –  Skirt Part

Shop Update: Black and Creme

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Left top: Black and Creme Herringbone Jumper, Right top: Black and Creme Herringbone Swing Skirt, Bottom: Black and Creme Herringbone Headband

It’s Friday and my shop is updated with these new items! These are the first fall items I made this year. I bought this black and white fabric for 2 meter online the other day, and decided to make three different pieces with it. Since the fabric length is limited, they are one of a kind.  Check out my new items here! 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mommy’s Diary 20 – Guilty

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How was your Labor Day? I planned on going to the beach (even made a bathing suit for the baby for the occasion!), but the weather didn’t look good so we decided against the idea. It turned out that it didn’t rain so we could have gone to the beach, but oh well. We went to a zoo instead. There is a free zoo in Kawasaki, called “Yumemigasaki zoo“. It’s closed to my dad’s office, so we stopped by to say hello to him then head to the zoo.

It was fun, and Kiko really enjoyed the squirrel monkies, the kind that’s yellow, small and jumps around a lot. She was laughing out loud as if that’s the funniest thing she’s ever seen!

I’ve wrote in the past that being a mom makes me feel all kinds of emotions that I had not experienced. I wrote in my diary 15 that I got angry at Kiko. Another emotion that I find myself often experience since becoming a mother is guilt. I had not felt guilty much before having her. But now I often find myself feeling guilty.

I feel guilty for not spending enough time with my baby. I went back to work full time a couple of weeks ago. After working for 8 hours, I’m only left with a couple of hours before Kiko goes to bed at 7pm. I try to make a best of it. I play with her, bath her, feed her and put her to bed. But often I’m left with feeling guilty for not being with her for a whole day.

After a couple of weeks of working and feeling guilty, I felt exhausted. I have all these things that I want to cram into in my to-do list for a day, and there is no way I accomplish all that. I talked to my friend, who is a mother of 5 year old. She goes to school full time and her daughter is in a daycare while she is in school. She has about two hours with her daughter before she goes to bed. I asked her if she ever feels guilty, and she said she doesn’t, she just takes it as it is. I think her answer kind of freed me up… I should take the best of situation that’s given to me.

The other kind of guilt I’ve been feeling is something I would never get over. I love my daughter to death. She is so sweet, she makes me smile and I can’t even think of a life before her or without her. But I love myself much more than I love Kiko, and it was so sad to have realized that. I care so much more about myself than I care about Kiko. Not until I became a mother, had I not realized how sinful and selfish I (or we human beings) am, and I always have to ask forgiveness for that..

Moms, do you ever feel guilty? How do you deal with that kind of emotion?