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A Dress for Bianca

2/5/2018

3 Comments

 
I've been struggling with how to make address for Bianca out of the old pink sari that I draped around her the day she arrived. She looked so beautiful the way I'd draped her, but I couldn't figure out how to create something similar in an actual dress....
Picture
I washed the sari, and it shrank, just like the really thin ones usually do, but we steamed it back into shape. Then I set to work trying to redesign the bodice pattern that I'd made for Miho, so that I could place the edge of the sari along the top edges....and made another test sample.....
Picture
The bodice was looking good, but then when i tried to cut the top skirt layer out of the sari, I realized that the edging of the sari was going to be far more difficult to work with than I had imagined. The beads were sewn on, and I knew I could remove those and resew them back on later. But there were a LOT of tiny jewels, and they were tightly glued on.  When I tried to pull them off, the fabric just came with them, leaving a hole. So that wasn't going to work. And there were way too many jewels in the border to fit the bodice patterns in-between. ...
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Which basically leaves me just two options; to make the bodice and embroider the entire matching design on it by hand; or make the bodice, hand sew one of the 'medallions' to the front, and embroider just the top edge to match. So now I have to find some silver embroidery thread and some tiny silver sequins. Very tiny sequins, about half as wide as the regular smallest ones.
3 Comments
Renate
2/5/2018 10:18:42 am

Hi Martha,
As for the glued-on jewels : try to heat them to remove. Put the iron on it (maybe from the left side and/or with a thin cloth between iron and jewel. Try moderate heat first, and if it doesen't work, increase heat as much as the fabric allows. Then remove the iron and immediately try to remove the jewel as long as it ist still warm. If there's still a trace of glue left, repeat heating to soften it, and then carefully remove the rest of the glue. Test the technique on a piece of the sari which you may not need.

As for tiny jewels you want to ad : google for hot fix crystals, rhinestones etc ;) They come in very very small sizes, and are applied the same way you removed the other ones : place it on the fabric, heat with iron, let it cool, and it will stick safely.

Thank you for your wonderful blog of inspiration and motivation :)

Reply
Martha
3/7/2018 04:45:10 am

Thanks for the tip about removing the jewels. I heated the back of the fabric with my iron (with a pressing cloth in between) and the jewels did come off better. Still not super easy, but at least they didn't shred the fabric like before.

Reply
Dorothy
2/5/2018 06:50:54 pm

Martha, the dress looks beautiful, even just pinned. If anyone can find sequins, you can. I can't wait to see the completed outfit.

Reply



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    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
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