I was shopping at my usual (Spotlight), when I found on the clearance racks spider satin fabric! It was in the $3/m section and they were having a sale that if you purchased 3 meters from the clearance racks, then you would get it half price. So I bought 3 meters of spider satin fabric for $1.50/m! This was AGES ago, so I was well prepared for Halloween.
Cut to now - 3 days to Halloween. I have just finished making 2 spider dresses for the girls.
Now, I have learned that when you sew with satin, you need to zig zag around the edges before attempting to sew the dress together! I didn't and that stuff frays like nothing else. It was clogging up everything and I even broke a needle from all the frayed threads wrapping around the needle. The worst was that it all got static and was sticking to everything. My little pile of cut off threads was levitating to my hands whenever I got near.
I made the usual (Simplicity 2377) for both girls - a size 3 and a size 5. The size 3 I made dress C, and the size 5 I did dress B. I made the size 3 first. It would have to be the 'harder' one to make because of the frilly bits. This is when I realised that all must be zig zagged (surged?) before even attempting to sew together.
Dress C for the size 5 was quicker and easier to make because of the zig zagging. Unfortunately, it just didn't look any good.
One of Miss 5's little friends from school is the same size, so I gave her the option of keeping the dress or giving it away. Because she already had a Halloween dress, she choose to give it away. The little girl loved it, but one of the teachers was concerned that her mother was against Halloween. Oh well, I did speak to the head of infants/primary afterwards and she thought it was great and very kind of me.
I gave a Rapunzel dress away to one of Miss 5's friends once. It was a size 8 from a sale that fell through. I contacted the girls mum by email first (in case she wanted it for Book Week) and explained it to her and told her it was a size 8. She accepted it and I took it to school on Book Week day. Turns out that the kid was a size 12. She was wearing it at pickup and I don't know how she was breathing, it was so tight. I don't know why the mother accepted it in the first place. To top it off, she gave me some rotten chocolates as thanks. In her defence, she may not have known they were rotten (they had previously been melted and some had exploded and were making chocolate spiderwebs).
Anyway, Miss 5 wanted to give it away because previously she had asked me for a vampire dress. She wanted something slinky with spaghetti straps, but instead I made her the usual (Simplicity 2377) in dress C size 6. Looks fantastic and she loves it. I used black ribbon for trim and a wide dark red organza ribbon for along the bottom of the dress. I really like it, but I do think it is missing something up top.
Now to work on my next project - Christmas decorations!
Cut to now - 3 days to Halloween. I have just finished making 2 spider dresses for the girls.
Now, I have learned that when you sew with satin, you need to zig zag around the edges before attempting to sew the dress together! I didn't and that stuff frays like nothing else. It was clogging up everything and I even broke a needle from all the frayed threads wrapping around the needle. The worst was that it all got static and was sticking to everything. My little pile of cut off threads was levitating to my hands whenever I got near.
I made the usual (Simplicity 2377) for both girls - a size 3 and a size 5. The size 3 I made dress C, and the size 5 I did dress B. I made the size 3 first. It would have to be the 'harder' one to make because of the frilly bits. This is when I realised that all must be zig zagged (surged?) before even attempting to sew together.
Dress C for the size 5 was quicker and easier to make because of the zig zagging. Unfortunately, it just didn't look any good.
One of Miss 5's little friends from school is the same size, so I gave her the option of keeping the dress or giving it away. Because she already had a Halloween dress, she choose to give it away. The little girl loved it, but one of the teachers was concerned that her mother was against Halloween. Oh well, I did speak to the head of infants/primary afterwards and she thought it was great and very kind of me.
I gave a Rapunzel dress away to one of Miss 5's friends once. It was a size 8 from a sale that fell through. I contacted the girls mum by email first (in case she wanted it for Book Week) and explained it to her and told her it was a size 8. She accepted it and I took it to school on Book Week day. Turns out that the kid was a size 12. She was wearing it at pickup and I don't know how she was breathing, it was so tight. I don't know why the mother accepted it in the first place. To top it off, she gave me some rotten chocolates as thanks. In her defence, she may not have known they were rotten (they had previously been melted and some had exploded and were making chocolate spiderwebs).
Anyway, Miss 5 wanted to give it away because previously she had asked me for a vampire dress. She wanted something slinky with spaghetti straps, but instead I made her the usual (Simplicity 2377) in dress C size 6. Looks fantastic and she loves it. I used black ribbon for trim and a wide dark red organza ribbon for along the bottom of the dress. I really like it, but I do think it is missing something up top.
Now to work on my next project - Christmas decorations!
