Sprucing up my Standard gown - sewing questions!

[mindputtee]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the ostrich feather quills, do you have any photos of examples?

 

[sbrnsmith]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the ostrich feather quills, do you have any photos of examples?

I think they are called feather tassels. I'm having a dress made and that's what the designer called them

 

[Lioness]

Express Latin dress! Knocked this one together in about a week!

 

[Sania]

Express Latin dress! Knocked this one together in about a week! View attachment 2997

I'm liking the brunette look on you!

(Great dress too - nice use of color)

 

[Sandra Rutherford]

Hi all I want to add an applique over the velvet body suit and skirt to hide the line between the two. I was wondering if you sew say black spandex to the dress in the shape you want then stone that? Has anyone done that?

 

[mindputtee]

I would actually stone the design I want on the spandex, then cut it out and do a combo of tacking and gluing it on. That's pretty much how I did the sun design on my smooth dress.

 

[Sandra Rutherford]

beautiful -- I like that idea thank you

 

[Sandra Rutherford]

I was wondering mindputtee, do you think the applique should have a backing or interfacing?

 

[mindputtee]

Mine had a stretch net backing, mostly so I could work on it when I didn't want to drag my whole dress out! You could also do a lycra or dance crepe backing for a more solid applique, which I'd definitely recommend if it's a significantly different color than the rest of the dress.

 

[Sandra Rutherford]

So if I understand, some kind of material like lycra but no interfacing or anything that could stiffen it. Correct? Thank you again

 

[mindputtee]

Right, the glue does a good enough job of stiffening it.

 

[Sandra Rutherford]

I wanted to show you all a more inexpensive dress I just finished. I had leftover rhinestones and the glitter stretch material was given to me. The black spandex was also left over from another dress. There are 4 light purple hemmed with horsehair braid underskirts that you can see when I spin. I cut out the little squares and sewed them on. I realize I could have glued them but I wanted to make sure I liked their placement. There are also patches of squares placed on top of the skirt seam to make sure it didn't look like a line. This skirt is a pattern I made by tracing a dress it doesn't have godets but curved panels.

 

[mindputtee]

Wow! I am amazed at your dedication to sew those squares on! It looks great!

 

[Sandra Rutherford]

Thanks mindputtee but the material came with squares already on it. I only cut out the ones that I sewed around the seam to hide it and not make it look like a line and down the leg. I thought the material was cool. It would be interesting to find more like that, that was decorated already but still has 4 way stretch. I don't know where the person who gave it to me got it from.

 

[mindputtee]

Ahh I see. Still, a lot of work! It looks really good! Very professional looking.