The Style of Princess Grace

The last week or so, I've been spending too much time on Ebay. I've been on the hunt for vintage sewing patterns. Mostly for children. But I have been peeking at some of the 1950's evening wear. Was there ever such a glamorous and elegant era? If I could go back in time, I would chose to to live in the Victorian era or the 1950's. Oh to go to the tea's and the parties that the Vanderbilt's put on. I'm guessing that had I lived in this era, I probably wouldn't have been a guest. I more than likely would have been a laundress or a worker in a shirt factory.

My second favorite era is the 1950's. Don't think sock hop 1950's. Think Frank Sinatra, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly dinner parties 1950's. The fashion designers knew how to dress a woman. The women themselves knew how to dress. In addition to the perfect dress, women needed to wear the perfect foundation or undergarments to help carry out the look. The women and the industry understood this. Now in 2010, unfortunately our fashion sense is reduced to peopleofwalmart.com.

When I'm on Ebay, I always try to take a peak to see if there are any vintage bridal gowns. After looking at a few this weekend, I started to think back to Princess Grace of Monaco. In my mind, there has never been a bridal gown that so epitomized elegance and style. This is my favorite bridal gown of all time.

Grace Kelly's gown was a wedding gift to her from MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) studio. Her gown was designed by Helen Rose who was one of the studio's top designers. In addition to Helen Rose, a staff of 36 seamstresses worked under top-secret conditions for six weeks on the bridal gown. The bridal gown was made up of silk peau de soie, 100 yards of silk tulle, 25 yards of silk taffeta and 125 year old Valenciennes lace that was purchased from a museum. I wish I could find better pictures to showcase the gown.

Her silk tulle veil consisted of thirty 9x4 appliqued lace flowers. On the bottom of the veil were two lace love birds. Is that not totally romantic or what? The headpiece was decorated also with the rose point Valenciennes lace and a wreath of orange blossoms. Orange blossoms were very popular with Victorian brides. Orange blossoms symbolize eternal love, marriage and fertility. Speaking of eternal love, do you remember what a heartbroken man Prince Rainer was at Grace's funeral. It still leaves sadness in my heart thinking about how he looked.

Princess Grace of Monaco's bridal gown was donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art just a few months after her wedding to Prince Rainer. The silk veil had started to disintegrate and crumble and had to be restored. The bridal ensemble is rarely on display due to color changes of the fabric and lace. As far as I know, the bridal gown and accessories were last on display in 2006 in what would have been Grace and Rainer's 50th wedding anniversary. I hope that someday I will be able to view this magnificent gown the next time it goes on display.

Luscious. No, Not Chocolate, The Fabric

It's finally here. Whitney's 11 yards of Italian silk peau de soie. It just takes my breath away looking and touching it. It took a while for the decision to be made. At first, she was not real interested in silk taffeta, dupioni or satin. That pretty much left me with the choice of silk polar fleece, silk flannel or silk sweatshirt material. HaHa! She had issues with each fabric and I understood her concerns. So to help her out, I ordered fabric swatches from Vogue Fabrics in Chicago. I also ordered 1/4 yard of the silk peau de soie from Buttons-n-Bolts in Tucson. After the swatches arrived, she could see that the quality was indeed better than the local fabric stores. The local shops carry fabric that is made of acetate or polyester. There is a difference in look and performance. I think Whitney will be glad that we were able to score the silk. Because of the silk being a natural fiber, it will be able to breath and to keep her cool throughout her wedding day. I still need to purchase the silk lining and silk organza interlining for the gown. We're slowly getting there but at least the important stuff is under my roof now.

When I went to Hancock's over the weekend to order the dress form, I asked one of the gals if per chance they dispose of the fabric tubes. She said that they reused them. She asked my why I wanted a tube and I told her that I needed for some bridal silk. She told me she would go get one for me. What a great employee. She always is so friendly and customer oriented when I'm there. I'm truly thankful for her kindness.

I now had to roll up the fabric. The silk satin arrived in a mailing envelope. I was surprised that the 11 yards could fit in there but it did. I needed to unfold the fabric and try to get it flat. The importance of this is to keep as few of wrinkles as possible. Wrinkles can be hard to press out of satin. Another important reason is that I want to keep the iron away as much as possible. I don't want to run the risk of my iron spitting out water. Even though I have a Rowenta, it spits like crazy. I don't want any water stains on the gown fabric so once again, I want to try and minimize creases and wrinkles.

I honestly don't know if I've ever worked with Italian silk satin. I'm thinking my sister Brenda's gown was silk satin but that was so long ago, I don't remember what we bought. When I feel this fabric, I think about all the French and Italian seamstresses in the workrooms of Paris and Rome. To be a part of their world just gives me shivers. Make no mistake, I do not pretend to be of their league, that of couture sewing. I do hope that when I'm finished, Whitney will be thrilled to wear it and that I do the European seamstresses proud. My sweet, sweet husband has asked me on several occasions if I should go to Paris, NYC or North Carolina to shop for the materials. I told him years ago that when the girls married, I would be headed off to Paris to search for lace. Luckily (and realistically) I was able to purchase the fabric here at a close-out price. Whit and I are happy with what we have so far. I won't rule out a trip to Paris or the Alencon region in the future though!

After the bridal gown has been cut out, I'm going to save the selvedge that says "Made in Italy". Long after Whitney has moved and taken the gown with her, I can remember what a priveledge and thrill it was to work work on this gown.

30 Years of Wanting (lusting)

I have been wanting a pattern cabinet for 30 years. Last Friday, I went to Hancock Fabrics to order a dress form. Low and behold, they were selling their cabinets because of remodeling. Of course, I'm always a day late and a dollar short. The Vogue cabinets were already taken and those were really nice. I ended up with a Simplicity that has seen better days. It still is in great working order though. It will certainly do the trick. I really, really wanted a Vogue cabinet. The Simplicity cabinet makes me feel, well, simple. Anyway, Jeff and Nathen were impressed with how sturdy and well made the cabinet was and the cost. I paid $35.00 for it. I called Jeff from the fabric store. Before I even went into my spiel, he's like "ok, what's up. I can tell by the sound of your voice that you are wanting something". Am I really that transparent??? Anyway, he succombed since he knew I've been wanting one forever. This sucker is extremely heavy. We had to purchase a hand truck/dolly to move it out of the store. We also had to call Nathen to help Jeff get it on and off the truck.

As you can see, it still needs to be cleaned up. I thought it was going into the garage but Jeff said the two of us could never get it into the house ourselves. So with Nathen there, they put it right into the room. Jeff asked where I wanted it to go. How can I think in a split second for the perfect spot? So he suggested the corner. Of course as soon as Nathen left, I got to thinking......maybe.......

I've been MIA

I haven't done much sewing for the past month. Sometimes I get a case of sewing burnout after the Christmas season. There's been lots of reasons why I haven't blogged.

My health. I'm slowly getting back to my former self. I haven't been sleeping well for over a year. In December I had to undergo a sleep study. I thought I had RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) but when I would research the symptoms, mine didn't quite match. Well, the study showed that I did indeed have RLS. In addition, the probable cause is extremely low ferritin levels. Normal can range up to 200, I'm sitting at 8 right now. Ferritin is used to store iron in the cells. This test isn't one that is given very often. I've had my iron test done a twice in the last couple of years because I didn't feel quite right but the iron test always came back normal. Once RLS was diagnosed, the Physician's Assistant decided to run a ferritin test. So right now, I'm on a drug used for Parkinson's patients. I'm hoping that as my ferritin level returns to normal, I can discontinue this drug. Iron is needed to produce dopamine and I don't have enough of that either! That is why there is so much muscle activity during the night. The study showed that I had over 350 measurable muscle movements, other than normal movement in the night. So hopefully, the increased iron storage will be my saving grace.

Research, research, research. What haven't I researched in the last two months? Here's what I'm working on:

Refinancing our mortgage. Ended up switching companies.
Life insurance. Ended up switching companies.
hardwood flooring. Still working on this one. Have two bids. Can I possibly get this lower than 13K?
Whit's Wedding. Need I say more. Luckily, she is doing most of the work. I'm still on the computer though searching ideas. She's changed the wedding colors three times now. I think I'll hold off until the bridesmaid gowns have been ordered. Then I'll start thinking about things again.
The bridal gown. How many hours have I racked up looking up gowns on the internet? I've purchased two books on bridal couture. I keep researching the making of a gown. So far, I've purchased the lace, purchased several patterns and have the silk peau de soie on order. I still need to purchase silk organza for the interlining and silk for the bodice lining. I got so lucky. There is a online fabric store that was closing shop due to retirement. I have purchase everything at 75% off. The bridal silk satin sells for $70/yard. I purchased it for $17.50/yard. The swatch was gorgeous. I can't wait to get the fabric. Should be any day now. I've gotten a few pieces of alencon lace also from Buttons-n-Bolts. $150 yard down to $43 maybe. Clearly, the bridal gown would have cost over $3000 if materials were purchased at full cost. Right now, I've spent under $800 but I will have some lace for at least two other bodices. I also purchased 5 yards of silk dupoini and some of that will be used for the flower girl dress.
The dress form. Who would have thought so much research would be needed for a dress form. The dress forms can range form $150-$800. The professional forms fit one standard size. I really didn't want to spend $500 for one size. I really wanted to have the flexibility to use this for the other girls. I ended up ordering the Dritz My Double Deluxe. Hopefully, I'll be able to pick this up in three weeks time. Considerable research has been done about making the dress form match the body. So, what I'm doing is to have the dress form a small size than Whit, then using quilt batting to pad to where I need it. This hopefully will get us a more accurate shape.
The dress form cover. I'm sure that by now you are wondering about my mental state and my obsessive tendencies. Yes even internet hours on the cover. I do so much research because I'm not an expert and I need help to make things correctly. I finally decided on purchasing a pattern and making my own dress form cover. The cover is actually a Butterick fitting pattern. So I need to purchase the muslin and get this made before the dress form comes in.

A Few More Christmas Projects

These are just a few items that I worked on over/for Christmas. The knitting needle roll-up I used the vintage McCall's fabric. I made this for my boss. I made a roll-up for Taylor and it goes together pretty quickly and easily so I thought Connie might like one for when she travels.

The pillowcases were for my history major daughter Whitney. During the last retreat, I went to the quilt shop in Sister's Bay and saw this fabric. Actually, Laurie Ceesay saw it first and I decided that it might work for a present for Whitney. Laurie probably had her pillowcases made immediately. I had to get up at 5 on Christmas morning to finish making them and then wrap them.

The polar fleece blankets were made for friends of Lauren. She needed a little gift to bring back so we thought the embroidered blankets would be quick and easy. The stitch out for the names took a while because I think the font was about 3 inches high.

My Lucky Week

Last week as I was pumping gas in the bitter cold, for some reason, a visit to the thrift store popped into my mind. I was about a half a block away for a store. My rationale was that since it is the end of the year, I was hoping that people had cleaned out their closets (um, sewing rooms) so they could get a tax benefit. I'm always in the market for vintage sewing patterns. The last two visits have not produced any children's patterns. I think someone stalks the thrift stores then sells them on Ebay. Nasty people. After feeling despondent over the lack of patterns I was getting ready to leave, I then spied this cute little poodle flannel. Good score. $1.80 for two yards of this cute little print in great condition. I then moved onward to St. Vinnie's. Didn't score much except zippers for a quarter each.

My second really great thing of the week involved my zipper foot. I have been missing a zipper foot for at least 6 months. This foot goes to my Viking 105. My first Viking. I would use that zipper foot on my new machine because that foot can get into tighter spots. I racked my brain out. I looked under every piece of furniture. I tore the laundry room apart, the new sewing room apart, every bag that I ever took to retreat or class. My beloved zipper foot was never found. I slowly had to resolve myself into understanding that I would need to fall in love with my new zipper foot. Forget that presser feet are a pricey deal. My guess is that the little foot would cost at least $20.00. The real trauma is that Viking does not make that zipper foot anymore. I've gone onto Ebay a few times with the hope of buying an older Viking foot. I had determined that I must have lost the foot either at retreat or class. My machines have been in so many places this past year. Well, on Monday, I thought I would see if my walking foot would fit Taylor's machine. For those of you who don't quilt, a walking foot is really expensive. I think I paid about $85.00 for mine. It doesn't fit my new machine so I was hoping I could use it on Taylor's. I pulled the box out and was stunned to see my zipper foot. WTH is it doing in there??? I also found the little magnetic guide that I sometimes use. That little zipper foot really made my day. From the picture, you can clearly see the difference between my old narrow foot and the new zipper foot. I can't wait to see what the rest of my week is like!

Listen Up Kids, This is Why You Should Stay in School

I come from a business family. I think if you have a head for business, you probably have a head for numbers. I wasn't cut from the same cloth. My father was an accountant, my sisters and brother all involved in business careers. None of my dad's math skills was passed on to me. Math and phonics were my worst subjects in school. I would sit and daydream while the teachers were droning on and on. Well, didn't that come back to bite me in the rear. You see, as a teenager I sat there in class and thought, when will I ever need to know this outside of the classroom. Well, here is an example of maybe a geometry problem.

I saw a simple fabric bucket on the internet. I immediately thought this would be a quick, fun gift for so many people. Well, the pattern was not an online pattern, I couldn't download it. The pattern was only available through mail order and the pattern was out of stock. Rats, I really wanted to make a few over the weekend. How hard can one little bucket be? I mean, after all, it is a rectangle and a circle. Sweet. I can do it. Well, 4 days later and countless redo's I finally had a bucket to give to my boss. My goal was to complete 4 bucket over the weekend. I completed one bucket in 4 days. I decided to use a 7 inch basket from Ikea that I got from quilt retreat as my inspiration. I wanted my bucket to be 7 inches high. Useful as a little sewing trash can. I started out with my measurements plus additional inches to account for trimming. I somehow forgot to trim extra fabric under the embroidery so the basket ended up to be 9 inches tall. I don't think it's very useful. I think I re-cut the bottom of the bucket four to five times to make it fit. The lining was recut and re-sewn at least three times to make it fit.

My husband would die if he knew that I gave this bucket to my boss. He wouldn't think the embroidery design is an appropriate thing to put on there. Well, my boss had a good laugh. She told me that at the last board meeting she was at, she was called "Barbie" since she is always so put together.

So kiddos, pay attention in math class. I'm a fine example of needing math skills to complete simple projects. As you can see, engineering was not in my future.