MISS TEEN COLORADO PAGEANT 2013

In March, I was lucky enough to do 2 dresses for a contestant in the Miss Teen Colorado Pageant.  The "locals" portion of the pageant was in April, and she WON the title of "Miss Parker Outstanding Teen"!  How very exciting for her (and for me)!

There were 2 dresses that needed me.  Dress #1 was for her Talent competition.  She danced!  And she wanted something flow-y and retro-looking.

Her mother found this original dress at this source, but they had none in stock to purchase - so of course I got the call to custom-make it for her daughter.

Note the ruching details and underbust/ shoulder strap.  

And the beautiful chiffon ruching.

We got to work taking measurements and ordering fabric.

I always make custom garments in a muslin first.  I just use extra random fabric for this - this was 80s home decor fabric - ugly I know! - but it didn't matter because it's just the pattern lines and fit that I need to get right - BEFORE  I cut into the real fabric!

When fit and design lines are correct, I cut into the black satin underskirt, lining, and chiffon overskirt.  This skirt was definitely not gathered - to keep the waist nice and slim - I made circular skirt pieces - 6 of each layer.  Nice and full for dancing!

A few fittings later, the bodice (minus the long underbust shoulder strap) and all ruching layers are pinned in place.  Hem is tentatively marked and relaxing so the  bias grain can do it's thing.  

Final fitting:  making sure everything is in place, securing last-minute ruching, she even did some practice dance moves - it's great - just what she wanted!

On pickup day, we try on more time and check one  more detail - I want to  make sure she  is 100% happy before she takes this baby home - and we adjust the strap one more tiny time.

Perfection?  Good enough for Miss Teen Colorado, I would say  :)


(Note: Her mother told me she was too nervous to take pictures during her dance, but she will send me the photographer's pics, so I will hopefully get those up and posted soon!)

Dress #2 was her evening gown.  Her mother had ordered it online and it came too big (better than too small!) so I altered it to fit perfectly.

The neck strap was too long, so it needed to be shortened, that was easy enough.  Also, it needed a good hem.  I did a narrow rolled hem and left a slight train in the back, evening gown style.  But the bodice was also too large in the bust area so that would require me taking it in, BUT do you see the back?  Cool details but tricky to access the side seams with all those horizontal strap pieces.  Luckily it was a side-zip, so most was taken care of by bringing that seam in.  The rest was done by hand.  

Here is the zipper side seam taken apart - more ruching details on this dress, too.  

Here she is, in all her pageant glory!  Congrats!

She will next compete at the state level of the pageant, at the end of June, in downtown Denver.  I am sure she will do wonderfully!  (Stay tuned...)



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PROM: Bodice Redo & "Yule Ball" Sleeves

Ready for prom?  Ohhhh yeeeaaaahhh...!

This dress was the 4th of this particular group I got to fix up and get ready for the big night!  Would you like to hear it's story?

Here was my client's inspiration.  Hermione's dress at the Yule Ball - sleeves in particular.    She liked the pieced bodice , too.  But the sleeves - oh my!  Very dramatic and breathtaking - this is what we are going for!

This dress has an amazing story actually...she found it at a thrift store.  It was the perfect length for this tall, lovely girl.  She knew it had great potential and she trusted me to bring it out.  It was a simple princess-lined bodice that just needed to fit properly.  And, the straps.  Just skinny, boring straps.  (But - the beading there is pretty).   She just wanted something with much more excitement and flare to suit her, and a little more coverage, too.

First, we needed to address the fit.  The bodice needed taken in a bit and the center front was not left out in this operation.  (Refer to the inspiration above).  

And that beading detail was not just a trim that was laid on, by the way.  It was all hand-stitched individually, so it could not just be removed as one piece of trim and re-laid.  It had a running stitch through all of it, so the beads could not just be cut out, they had to be cracked at the new seams, so they would lay flat.  (Sorry for the details, but you should know it was not as easy as it may look ;)

Now, I need to prepare you for the next picture.  I already explained how this dress needed sleeves.  I am going to add them underneath the straps and make them look like they were "born there".  But one needs matching fabric to do this!  So...

This dress had 3 layers to it!  One lining of course and 2 skirt layers!  2!  No, this is not unheard of, but, not that common.   It was probably to create more fullness and drape, or to act like a second "lining".  But most of these types of dresses have a lining and a skirt layer - that's it!  So she bought this dress with the thought that somehow that extra layer of fabric could be used for the sleeves - which is exactly what I did!

Here I am, cutting out the middle layer of the skirt.  (And holding my breath just a bit ;)  So the lining stays and the main skirt layer stays!  And you won't even be able to tell...

Ta-da!  Now I have fabric to work with! 

So I measured the straps, and determined how long the sleeve should be.  Then I made a pattern draft for a circular sleeve.  This will make that ruffly flowy shape we wanted. The inside circle of the sleeve will go along the length of the strap.  We can press later ;)  

Here she is at our first fitting.  One strap and one sleeve being fitted.  Do you recognize this beautiful girl?

A couple views of the work in progress - yes it photographed two different reds. The left is most accurate.

Do you love how it's laying so far?  Don't look at the wrinkles - those will steam out later ;)  I  shifted the sleeve angle slightly to raise it up in the front a bit more.  All pinned and ready to go.

So the shape of the pattern changed slightly.  I adjusted everything to be pretty again and mirrored the second sleeve.  Pressed.   Serged where it will attach under the strap.

I finished the sleeve edges with a perfect narrow rolled hem.  

Hem close up.  Don't be shy now.

Final fitting.  It is just what she wanted!  All fluttery and covers just right!

Back view.  I could faint, it's so pretty the way it hangs and flows down all ripply like that.  It's crazy how one piece can transform the dress's personality!

I think we nailed it, don't you?  How fun was this alteration?!

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PROM: Adding Tulle Straps and a Circular Ruffle Hem

These cute kids!!!  Do you recognize him?

If you have not been following yet, I had one group of girls that were all going to Prom together with their dates and they all asked me to do their alterations!  Lucky me, seriously!

She came to me with needs for a hem and a full strap addition.  And the ribbon was not laying very nicely or very secure at the waist.  

Isn't it such a cute dress?   

The skirt is full of vertical rows of tulle circular ruffles.  I love these!!!

The hem needed to come up 3".  Tulle does not need sewing so I just cut it off at 3".  (The lining was hemmed shorter at  3" also - just a regular double hem.) But what about the end of the ruffles at the bottom of the hem?  The original hem is curved and finished nice but when I cut it off, it goes all straight and looks unfinished...

I needed to move the ruffle curve down and cut off the point so that it was flush to the new hemline.  

Here it is cut off like I said above.

Now I cut the curve round again, tapering at the new hemline.

Now those seams where the ruffles are attached have to be reinforced, because when the new hemline was cut, the backstitching was cut off that held it secure.

Here is the new hem, all pretty and perfect again!

Now on to the straps.  Her mom brought me black tulle as I requested her, and I fashioned them into straps.  These were basically tubes of tulle pieces long enough to fit over her shoulders from front to back bodice, and very wide!  So I could gather the ends in really tight to fit in their places right above the bust.  (Sorry no pics of this - hopefully your imagination can picture them for you).

We fit everything just right and pins held everything in place until I could secure it properly inside the lining.  

Closeup of the strap placement.  And the ribbon looks much better, as you can see.  Nothing too good for prom.  ;)

Now, we had to try it on with the shoes.  She had these darling shoes with a large ruffly bow on them that we did not want to catch in the hem.  So this length is perfect!

And it's even great without shoes - should she want to kick them off and dance!  It's a Hem Miracle!

Finished views of the new straps  - front and back.  

Final try on and pickup!  

I love this new addition and she looks so pretty in it!  See that stitch across the shoulder?  That is to hold all that unruly tulle in place so it does not flop down over her arms.  

Beautiful from all angles!

Ok, after pickup, she wanted to make one more teensy alteration:  just make the straps a little bit narrower, please!  You bet - and it looks very delicate now against her neck area.  

Prom pictures outside!  Good times in a great dress!

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