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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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Inspiration: Cut Out Detail in Midriff

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I’ve been obsessed with this vintage beach bra pattern ever since I saw it on Anna (Paunnet)’s circle (I like this new etsy function!). It is a PDF pattern and is only $5.

Image via Mrsdepuw

I got even more obsessed after seeing the girl from tick tock vintage using a bra top with the pattern.

I like how she paired the bra top with a high waist waisted midi length skirt to balance out the visible skin. But, I’m not sure if I can pull off wearing this style. Even if I could, I don’t know if I would be comfortable wearing it.

While I was thinking of how to wear this bra top without embarrassing myself, it came to mind that perhaps I can make a dress with a small key hole/cut out somewhere in the midriff area. That way, I can control how much or little skin I want to show. I love cut out details (I’m sure you know!), and have incorporated it in the back and front, so why not incorporate in the midriff area?! Perhaps something like this Carven dress.

Image source: Left: Vogue magazine via Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing, middle and right: Carven

What do you think? Would you wear a dress with a cut out in midriff? Or would it be too much?

 

Sewing Studio Makeover

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I’m not the most organized person, and I really wish I were when it comes to my sewing room. I’m so ashamed to share this picture with you all, but I think revealing this mess will motivate me to make changes in my sewing room:

Ugh, what a mess! I hate that patterns are all over the place. I work on several projects simultaneously, because of that I do not want to put away the patterns, but am not sure where to store them without interrupting my progress. My chair is not stylish – I like the fact I can roll over to my sewing machine, to surger and to ironing board, but it looks like one you would see in a collage dorm. My threads are all thrown in a make-up bag that was given to me as a souvenir from China, and every time I need to find  thread, I get frustrated.

So finally I got sick of my Chinese make-up bag enough to organize my thread. I bought this rack from the 300 yen shop the other day:

Much better! But, I need two more of this rack these because I have a ton of more threads. I don’t know how I accumulated so many *things*. When I first started sewing, I had nothing. Even my sewing machine was borrowed from my friend. Now I have way too many small things..they are necessary, but it’s so hard to organize them all!

Along with the rack, I bought this jewelry hanger as well.

My sewing room is still messy, but these baby step improvements really brighten up the mood and are little spots of light in my dark messiness. I hope to make it better in the near future!! How do you keep your sewing area neat? Any tips?

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 🙂