Crafty Corner | “Briar Rose,” Part Three

BriarRose, Part One
BriarRose, Part Two

Admittedly, my enthusiasm for this project fizzled out after a while. Part of it was due to being sick of the whole quarantine malarkey (heh, me and everyone else in the wonky world, I daresay), but another part was an odd reluctance to tackle re-drafting my princess-seam pattern.

It didn’t make sense that I’d have kept my bodice pattern, but not the full-length dress. And what about all the different-shaped neckline supplements I’d labored over? Had I tossed them, too? ’Cos I sure couldn’t find them, either, despite looking through both supply closets in the sewing room. It irked me, to be honest, that I’d have (apparently) been stupid enough to toss a pattern made specifically for my somewhat odd proportions. As my Elven characters are so fond of saying, it is not wisdom.

Fast-forward to sometime in mid-May. Mom and I were sorting through our various pillow-forms in one of said supply closets—determining just how many pillows we really need in this house—when what should come crashing down on Mom’s head but…my princess-seam dress pattern! Complete with neckline supplements!
Quoth I: “Where was this six months ago, when I searched every inch of these closets for it?!” (Well, obviously not *every* inch, LOL)

That’s the good news.

The bad news is…I just don’t enjoy sewing that much. I love the design process—possibly my favorite part of any creative endeavor, TBH—and it’s exciting when the construction phase gets to that “hey, it’s starting to look like something!” point.

However, cutting out fabric (especially in complex shapes) has always scared me, and frankly, my skills just aren’t on the same level as my vision. I can do basic sewing pretty well, but the more formal garments I’ve made myself always turned out looking like a fifth grade Home Ec project (back when schools actually taught sewing classes, oy).

And of course, once you’ve cut a piece of fabric, there’s no going back. It’s not like yarnwork or beaded jewelry, where you can just disassemble the thing if it doesn’t work out. I mean, you could re-cut the fabric into something smaller, but…yeah. I decided I didn’t need that kind of stress in my already stressful life.

Another fact I had to admit was that I’m not as fond of pink as I once was (haven’t been for the last decade, really), and a solid-pink dress just seemed like a bit much. A bit too girly and floofy, especially with white lace trim.

We’d toyed with the idea of putting the roses on a white dress—even thought of refashioning Mom’s 1970’s-style wedding gown!—but vetoed the idea, as white is hard to keep clean, and frankly…who wears white dresses these days, save brides?

Fast-forward again to this past Wednesday, when Mom and I spotted this white tunic/short dress at the local Goodwill.

It’s made of an interesting knit fabric, which we thought would go well with the crocheted roses. While it’s too short to wear as a dress (for my taste, anyhow), it’s a graceful length for a tunic with fitted trousers, or even a flared A-line skirt. I may even wear my old pink mock-up (featured in Part One) under it.
It’s fitted, but not skin-tight, and the material is soft and stretchy enough that it’s easy to move around in. I love this flared style, and the vertical lines are quite flattering on me. Really, my only beef is that the “stripes” aren’t quite centered. *ERGLE* Aw well, can’t have everything. :-P

Imagine vines between the blossoms,
and more leaves and flowers, and....

I played around with what colored motifs I had, and I must say, I’m quite in love with it, overall. The pink and green on the white background is so fresh and clean-looking.
I’m not 100% sold on the lower arm design; the Rosebud and Half-open Rose don’t quite feel right, and the Full-blown Rose seems a bit much. I may work up a miniature version of the hem border….

Also, the area between the hem and the waist looks a bit bare, and I’m not sure I want an actual “belt”/girdle at the waist.

That said, I love the large rose and cascading leaf design at the sleeve-head and neckline, and the Rosebud at the shoulder. Will probably tweak the Half-open Rose and leaf placement once I get the Vine made and sewn down.
I’m also debating whether to decorate the back of the tunic or leave it relatively plain.

So yeah; I still have a bit of work to do on this project—mainly crocheting a few more flowers, and lots more leaflets—but not nearly as much as when this was going to be a full-on party-frock! >_< I think this approach will be more realistically achievable, and be more comfortable to wear in Real Life. Let’s face it; the long dress would only have been suitable for square dances—which I didn’t attend very often even when they were still a thing (darn you, COVID!). A tunic is still elegant and feminine, but less formal and potentially costumey.

I am so looking forward to finishing this project!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,
God bless,

~ℛ~

Crafty Corner: "Briar Rose" Dress | Part Two

Briar Rose, Part One

As Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) once said, “Like the Pilgrims, we’re making a little progress.” (Name that line!)

This afternoon, I dug out my bodice mock-up for this project and laid out the motifs...quickly realizing my original design wasn’t going to work. See, the dress mock-up I used before is Empire-waisted, whereas the actual dress will be princess-seamed, which made placement a bit difficult. I felt that having two lines of trim down the center-front panel would look too busy with the vines covering the seams, but leaving it out made the middle look bare:

So I played around with a couple different options, once again adding white leaves as place-holders, since I ran out of greens. I also ran out of whites eventually, as you’ll see. But it gives a general idea of the new designs...and how many more leaves I’ll need to make....

Option 1: V-neck and pointed waist trimmed with Irish crochet beading; rose-vines all-over, w/most embellishment in center-front.

I think my idea here was to have a vine running more or less up the middle, snaking its way between the main flowers, then branching off at the Full-blown Rose at the point of the neckline, ending with a Rosebut at the top of each shoulder, and one vine branching off along the side where those random white leaves are. I was trying to keep that large leaf grouping that went along the French dart on the dress mock-up. The Full-blown Roses at the waist will just have a small stem running up between the leaflets.

Option 2: Similar to #1, but with Beading along neckline and princess-seams (the latter extending to hem, perpendicular to hem-trim). Leaf groupings at sides and shoulder-seams.

As you can see, I ran out of leaves and trim, so you’ll just have to imagine the design on the right side of the bodice being mirrored on the left.

This of course means making more leaflets, and one more Rosebud. Which is fine...only I’m running low on the bright-pink thread for the scalloped edge, and I can’t seem to find it online (and of course I can’t go thrifting, either).

I’ll keep looking....

Initially, I thought this incarnation to be my favorite, as it certainly fills up the blank spaces on the sides...but looking at the simplicity of the first picture, this one feels a bit too crowded. On the plus side, having the trim run vertically all the way down will be potentially more flattering than adding a false waist. So I’ll have to play with it some more....

Crafty Corner: “Briar Rose” Dress | Part One

If anything good has come of this madness sweeping the world these days, and the subsequent “stay home” orders of one sort or another...it’s that people now have more time to do those “fun little extra” things they’ve always wanted (or been meaning) to do, but never had the time before. Many people are seeing this as an opportunity to be creative, and do something positive and beautiful (or at least enjoyable) during these crazy times.

Today, I’m going to share with you one of my pet projects, which up until recently, I’ve only been able (or motivated) to work on once a week, at best: A pink dress embellished with Irish crochet lace motifs. But first, a little history....

Back in ’03, my mother bought me a copy of Irish Crochet (originally published as Priscilla Irish Crochet Book in 1909) as a graduation present, and ever since, I’ve had a dream to make up some of the beautiful motifs within its pages.

It should come as no surprise that I chose the “Wild Rose Design” as the project of choice when I finally decided to fulfill that dream. 😊

Over the years since then, I’ve dabbled with various projects in the book, but never really finished anything (surprise, surprise :-P). After a few false starts in 2017-18, I began working up the various components of the Wild Rose, along with a dainty beading-lace to use as trim. Mind you, the directions are a bit vague in places, and my rose-petals ended up with a big gap between the first and last. Additionally, I wasn’t satisfied with the look of the half-open roses and rosebuds in the original, so I’ve developed my own method of working them, which I’ll share in a separate post.

My plan (Lord willing) is to sew these motifs and trims onto a seven-paneled princess seam dress, with a V neckline and bishop-sleeves, to wear in the Spring and possibly early Summer. I had hoped to have it ready for the annual Square Dance Festival during Boatnik this year...but what with the madness going on in the world, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was canceled along with everything else. ☹

On the plus side, that would give me a whole ’nuther year to get it ready... which is good, considering I ended up needing almost 500 leaflets for the skirt alone, if I’m doing my math right.... O.O

This is not the actual dress, BTW—just an old, old mock-up I had kicking around (which will probably end up as lining for the dress), and the sleeve mock-up I made to see if I’d like the puffy bishop-sleeve look (which I do). I just laid these out to get a feel for how the motifs would look on a garment, and to help finalize the designs.

I’m in the process of re-drafting my own pattern, as I seem to have stupidly tossed my original. *Facepalm* Thankfully, I still have my princess-seam bodice pattern, so I can use it as a starting point. Needed tweaking, anyhow, as I made it when I was about five pounds heavier, LOL.

Now you see why I need
so many leaflets, LOL

Each skirt panel will have the design shown at left, only with two of each size of rose, ending with a rosebud at the top.
(Note: All the leaves and vines will be green in the finished product; I just had white ones on hand when I took these pix. And there will be stems connecting the leaves and blossoms to the vines.)

For the sleeves, I plan to use two of this grouping (right), suspended in a fine mesh to make armbands. I’m debating whether to make the mesh white, green, or pink, and whether or not to cut away the fabric under the armband.

CU of armband design

I promise I rotated this in PaintShop.
WHY YOU NO ALIGN PROPERLY?!

These pictures show the two options I was debating on for the bodice embellishment. Personally, I prefer the laced look (will be using a thinner cord; this was just what I had on hand), although the first design is quite dainty and reminds me of traditional German or Scandinavian costumes. Hmmm....
(For the record, the right-hand side of the bodice in the second picture shows the final embellishment design, which of course will be mirrored on the finished dress.) Eventually, there will be more of this pretty little lace trim along all the princess-seams, and at the hem, in addition to the neck, waist, and bodice trimming pictured here. I may put some on the cuffs of the sleeves, unless I choose to elasticate them instead.

This photo (taken several weeks after the others) shows the different options for the vines: Emerald-green, Green Variegated, and Sage-green, with the new Small Leaves in Sage Green. I thought I had a nice honey-brown in the size I’ve been using (#30 crochet thread, for the curious)...but nope! And of course I can’t go thrifting for new thread right now, so...green it is! —of one sort or another....

I’m really looking forward to having this gorgeous frock in my wardrobe. It’s been a long time since I had a pink dress, plus I love the idea of using the creative talents God has given me to make something beautiful.

Now if I could just get over my irrational aversion to finalizing my pattern and cutting out the fabric....

Your opinion matters! Should I make the armband mesh white, green, or pink? Should I cut away the fabric under it or leave it solid underneath?

Which bodice embellishment design do you like better: Decorative lacing, or tiny roses?

Which vine color do you like best: Emerald-green, Green Variegated, or Sage-green?

Cast your votes in the comments!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

stay safe,

and be well!

~ℛ~