Summerdaystudio

Little Miss Sunshine: Embroidering On a Bodice Piece

[NOTE: This project was made and photographed in March 2012]

        Hullo, world! As always, much has happened in between posts and I just have to go and start it off with posting a project I made 2 years ago! Yes, the photos were always ready.. but knowing me and my concept of time which is that of another planet..meaning 2 years seems like 2 days and vice versa for people like me. Well, enough of this dallying and let us go on, shall we?

        This dress was made for a friend when she joined the local pageant in our little barrio. Challenging myself to use only fabric I already had on hand, and to practic  vintage silhouettes and pattern cutting methods, I found myself staring at the blankness of it all.

        Most times I make a dress, I find myself incorporating different fabrics into the pattern, cutting out and filling it in with something else. At this point I am not sure if it is habit or creativity that leads me this direction. Or maybe I just enjoy it.

        I had many options to throw in elements, but none of which I had materials for on-hand (like fabric paint or silkscreen). Thus, trusty Embroidery to the rescue! Never fails. Time-consuming, but always reliable. This dress was made in just a few days, I wished I could have covered it all in embroidery haha but maybe I'll save such a consuming task when my dressmaking skills have progressed to a point of worthiness. As you can see there is much still to be desired with my dressmaking skills at this point in my seamstress career lol. So much wonkiness going on! It kills me. But I must share with you all, because we all must strive for progress not perfection (I learned that in fitness frenzy). 

        But if we can just forgive my ever learning curve that I shamelessly show the real world all the time.. do keep scrolling down to see how it was done and where the wonderful free embroidery pattern came from!

    

    First, I drafted and cut out all my patterns using a combination of many vintage books found online from the 1940's and 1950's.

    The design of the dress itself is most likely a result of me wanting to try out a hundred things in one go but could only settle for three haha as the part I enjoy the most is figuring out the mathematics of it all in turning drawing to pattern. 

    Here are the patterns and the fabrics all cut out and ready to be sewn. When I do two or more layers of different fabrics on some pattern pieces, I make a little info card beforehand so I make sure I don't forget.

   The first thing I did to prepare was to do an OVERCAST STITCH (check out this post by Miss Sews-it-All on creating a nice sampler of important stitches to know in my books, overcast is no. 4 on the list) on all the edges of the piece I was going to work on. We absolutely do not want them to unravel before we are done! (As a little trivia, I first learned to use this stitch the when I made dresses for my Blythes, there was no way I could zigzag such tiny dresses on my machine!)

    Now once that is taken care of, we can continue to the fun part...Embroidering the motif! Since I did not have much time, I chose the middle bodice piece to work on, that way I can go for a balanced design even if that was all I had on there lol.

    Waaaaiiitt! Before we embroider, we have to baste interfacing to the the bodice piece, to make it stronger and so the embroidery will not go wonky or mess up our not so thick fabric. (This year, 2 years after this, I learned to use interfacing always on my dresses, regardless of embroidery or no embroidery). Here I used a fusible interfacing, but basted it on since it did not really stick well (maybe co'z I have had it in my box for a couple years haha).

    And ofcourse! Do not forget to have a pattern to transfer!

    Where does one go to find free vintage embroidery patterns before Pinterest got big? Flickr!. This one is from Flickr user Mo, and was simply titled "vintage embroidery motif-swallows". I use transparent paper when I do my tracing with carbon, that way I can see the placement of the motif clearly.

    I would also like to share with you my favorite Flickr group for vintage patterns, HOOP LOVE VINTAGE TRANSFERS. This is a wonderland of a collection. If you are like me, then this page is your big black hole. Everytime I look for a pattern I get lost and I want to sew them all, or tattoo them on my body, or color them like a coloring book, or wallpaper my house with them. Thank you to all the wonderful people in this group who share their finds with everyone else, thank you Internet truly.

    The stitches I used were: stem/outline stitch, chain stitch, and some beadwork to fill in. These stitches were easy and quick to finish, thank heavens.

    In no time, our little miss sashayed down the disco-lighted stage and won some awards that night. She has the cutest smile and I was so greatful co'z she made the dress look good.. with her easy confidence and gracious, beauty-queen style. 

    Our little embroidered dress was so simple beside all the glittering, shining, shimmering, splendid gowns. Still, this seamstress gave it her all 2 years ago and truly, at the end of the day (or night), it is the person wearing the dress that makes everything about her beautiful. It will always be about your inner light. 

     And light she had! Our little miss sunshine! 

     Hope you all enjoyed this little throwback. I have more in storage. If I ever get around to it. I have sewed many more dresses since then as well, and I always plan on blogging about all the things made. I painstakingly take photos. I never just get to post them :-( Ahhh that parallel universe called real life is always holding me with arms tight.

    Except tonight. Tonight I got to post something haha. Goodnight ya'll! Till next time. Whenever that may be!    

 

Peace. Love. Dream. SMILE.

Why hello there, 2014!

        2013 was quite the year, so much had happened that there really was no time to blog. Overwhelming is an understatement. At first, I wanted to post a recap of last year to begin this blog year, but up to now, I am still at a lost for words to describe exactly the year that has passed.

        I tried to look into my photo albums to help guide me figure it out, but even that was lacking, for I hardly really had photos from my trusty little Rebel. All that were there were many cryptic phone camera photos trying to chronicle a time that went by really fast. So, thank heavens for Instagram, I kindda have a visual diary of 2013. I guess if you can't blog, you 'gram.

        This year, I promised myself I would go back to spending more time doing creative work as 2013 was pretty much devoted to working the family farm, working other peoples farms, and starting a new business with my whole family. There is still much to be done with that day job :-), but I am learning to relax, schedule well, and delegate. At which there is much to be learned with "letting go".

        Dear Husband has been a gem of a supporter of my creative life throughout our marriage, and even more now as I seem to have hit a wall with being a "grown-up". So last weekend, when I said I need to make a little space where I can plan, dream and create..he helped rearrange whatever furniture was in the little entry to our room and made me my own little cubicle! :-)

        And on that note, I am sitting here during lunch break and dreaming of many wonderful things ahead. To tell you honestly, when I was sifting thru my photos, I found many images for blog posts that never came to be, so I do have some to share, albeit throwback it is :-)

        Happy New Year everyone! May this year bring us closer to where we want to be!

Peace. Love. Dream. Start Again.

Gone Bananas

         You know the frozen-banana-just-like-icecream craze going around? :-) Well, I have been bitten by that bug too since I started my whole fitness frenzy and eating clean this year. But why stop with it looking like ice cream? Go the whole nine yards until you hit cute!

        1. Freeze about 1 1/2 cup of sliced bananas. 2. Take 'em out of the freezer. 3. Stick 'em in a blender with 1 tbsp. peanut butter and blend it till the consistency of ice cream. You may eat it now OR 4. At this point I throw in about 1/2 cup of milk co'z I NEED IT (using MyFitnessPal app has made me realize that I had been hardly getting any calcium!).  5. You can drink it like a smoothie now OR 6. Cutify the bananas out of it by pouring it into adorable popsicle molds and stick em' in the freezer. 7. Unmold and enjoy!

       

        VOILA! Banana Pops. Yummy and gives me my pottassium, calcium, fiber and protein. Although next time I would definitely love to try coating this in dark chocolate and coating it with granola. Hmmm... texture. I like texture. 

Peace. Love. Dream. Trip healthy!

Took some time at the watering hole

        Guess who's back? The horse. Okay, I am back. I hope. I think. Nah. I really am. My life is a work in progress, and so far it is progressing.

        The real world had beckoned, and as much as I enjoyed this parallel universe, it could not get a schedule in. 

        Starting January, I slowly began on a fitness and self-discipline challenge (you may laugh) to accomodate all the jumble of everything that needed my daily attention, dedication and work. And daily dousing of fairy dust. Life has seen better days in the farming industry, and the rope is looking short. We are slowly but surely changing our direction to where the horse's ear flicks to, hanging on tight, eyes on the Almighty, and going for a long ride to a brighter horizon.

        And now that I finally know when my work ends, and personal life begins (up at 5:30 am to prepare the Eldest Son for school, work starts at 7 and ends at 5:00 pm, M-F and 7-12noon for Saturdays). I never use to know that. Being a farm manager means you are on call, all the time. A line had to be drawn somewhere. 

        So, this is it. I have been looking forward to returning to this little corner, revisiting all the other little corners that I love on the web, and enjoying this parallel universe again. 

        To all those who have visited while I was gone, and those who continue to support this little blog, thank you so much for sharing your time! Hope you will continue to enjoy reading about the never-ending evolution of Summerday Studio.

Peace. Love. Dream. Evolve.

Show your (Embroidery Hoop) Stripes!

Hullo! Just when you thought I was never coming back, well, here I am again haha. In order to celebrate the sudden re-appearance, I will share with you a little tutorial on sprucing up your plain 'ol embroidery hoop. For whatever purposes it may serve.

To begin, you will need an... embroidery hoop! and 3 solid colored washi tapes (oh and scissors):

Next, you cut them up and place them like so:

Then, you fold 'em under and smooth it over with you fingers to make sure it sticks well:

Repeat until done (I trimmed the tape around the part where the hoop meets to make it look clean):

There you go, yet another use for those washi tapes! I would have loved some floral hoops or a hot pink one. But alas! All I had were these 3 rolls, so stripes it is.

Now, I must confess that I actually still have been blogging, and after I tell you, you will understand why the sudden tutorial on embroidery hoops and such.

For you see, you can now find me over at the Feeling Stitchy blog on Mondays!! Sewing up little projects from public domain ebooks and what-have-yous. With much gratitude to Floresita for the spot, I am learning something new every week from others and have challenged myself immensely with every new project. Do drop by!

So sorry dear blog for the neglect, I shall try my bestest to have time for you too. 

Peace. Love. Dream. Make Time.