Ding Dong the Bells are going to Chime - Home Made Dress for a Wedding

My little brother got married a couple of weeks ago in VEGAS! We all had the most amazing holiday and I couldn't be happier for them but before I write my post with all the crafty things I made for their wedding I wanted to ease myself back in with a simple post about the dress I made myself for their big day

note: the back picture was taking before I painted the diamonds on the dress

So the pattern I used is a Vogue Pattern and I picked mine up at Remnant Kings but you can get yours on sites like Ebay if you don't have the same store near by

I also bought my material at remnant kings - 5 meters of this Light Mint Cotton (although think I only used about 4 meters for the dress). This pattern isn't easy peasy but I have very limited sewing machine skills and managed to knock it up in a day so it can't be too bad!

Once I finished the dress, I made a diamond shape with my Cricut software (check out my cricut projcets page for the diamond template) and then I printed out 3 different sizes of the diamond on vinyl and laid it onto lino blocks to make a stamp like this tutorial

I then used my white fabric paint on the lino block and then printed diamonds in a triangle formation at the bottom of the dress, largest at bottom getting smaller as they go up. In retrospect the white paint didn't work very well with the lino block and I had to go over a lot of it with a paint brush - so I'd probably use proper lino paint if you have time to buy some. I also took the smallest diamond and placed one near the top of my dress, painting two lines out of it so it looked like a diamond necklace.


To finish of the dress, I look a piece of lace and hand-sewed it round the middle of the dress.



I love the final result and I hope you do to - it just shows that you should judge a pattern based on the image you see on the front, there is so much you can do to it if you use a little imagination!!!

I'll be back,

Material Malarkey

The lovely women at Material Malarkey (Julie and Ali) got in touch with me last week to tell me all about the wonderful craft classes they do in Edinburgh and as luck has it they had an open evening coming up so I popped along to find out more about what they do...

The girls were celebrating the end of their 6 week Dress making course which had just finished the week before! Those who took part in the course turned up in their dresses and the rest of us admired their skills while drinking wine and eating lovely cakes!

You have to admit these dresses are gorgeous and look completely different but both are made from the same pattern. It just shows that from doing this one course you can learn the skills you need to make those few extra summer dresses you wanted this year but without the worry that you'll end up in the same one as your friend!

However if you are a newbie to using a sewing machine they have lots of beginners classes you can take as well and the girls I spoke to which did that one explained to me that as well as getting lots of support in the class, once you have learned the basics, you are all encouraged to do your own thing! I love this - there is nothing worse that coming out of a class with the exact same thing as everyone else as it's no longer one of a kind so it's great they give you that bit of extra freedom.

The venue itself is a nice location if you are toward the Leith end of town. It's at Johns Place so close to some bars if you want a wee drink with your friends after or if you are lucky enough to have the day off work, you can nip in to Mimi's bakery for some great sweet treats or dinner before hand.

The room inside of the building was a tight fit for the number of people we had in that night but most classes hold around 6 people so plenty of room to get that material spread out and get creative. They had pushed all the tables to the side so we had room to walk around but normally the are in the centre of the room with a sewing machine area as well. I have been to some free sewing classes in Edinburgh but you had to bring your own machine, so if you are just starting out and not sure if you want to buy a machine or not, then this is a good option to try before you buy!

So check out their website and see if one of their classes works for you! Also both Julie and Ali are lovely so if you have any question or would like some one on one classes then get in touch as I'm sure they would love to hear from you.

http://www.materialmalarkey.co.uk/ 

I'll be back,