Greetings darklings:
I strolled down the nature trail today. The leaves are so gorgeous in their gold, red, and orange fiery colours. I saw deer on the trail. As I walked to the library, I watched the horses at Bengal Lancers. I love horses. I love all animals. I love October. The Wheel of the year turns again, this time landing on Samhain, the Witches New Year. Samhain and October have a totally awesome new meaning for me: the publication of my first horror novel and certainly not the last.
I have been busy lately. I’m sewing a blue and silver Arwen dress. I chose blue and silver which is a nice break from black. I already have a nice Arwen dress in black. But this will be lovely. I worked hard constructing the body of the dress. The seams were twisted and I fixed that. The dress has taken a lot of work but I managed. I am enjoying sewing the collar and sleeves. I love the bright blue embroidered lace fabric for the collar contrasted sharply with this grey sari trim I found on Etsy. The collar is perfect.
I took the time to craft 2 beautiful sleeve caps that I have ever seen. I am so proud of myself. I did the top sleeve cap in the blue chiffon. I added interfacing. I had originally wanted to use this -what I assumed was lining material. I could not get pins through. Scrapped that idea. I had to conceal the interfacing so I used my grey chiffon. I trimmed the seams and marked my notches. Then I treated it all as one fabric piece. I included the blue beaded lace overlay. Prior to all that I marked where I had to do the ease stitches for basting for the sleeve setting. I did it by hand with a different colored thread to the best of my ability and left long thread tails on both sleeve caps. I also tried on the sleeve caps and they both felt good, not too tight or too lose. That was amazing…
But I was not done…..
There was a reason I bought that beautiful grey floral embroidered fabric. I I examined the nice fabric and I figured out that the bottom raw edge of the sleeve cap was 14 inches. I measured 14 inches of the grey chiffon. I cut the embroidered tulle fabric very carefully and I cut the chiffon carefully. Then I overlayed the embroidered fabric on the chiffon. I pinned it all together and put a grey thread in the machine. I stitched them together very very carefully. Sewing needles don’t like sewing over beads. I trimmed the threads. Now I had sewn the sleeve cap ends on one cap. I seam ripped it. It was easier to sew together with the sleeve caps open. Now that they were both open, I put right sides together of the blue lace sleeve cap with the grey embroidered chiffon fabric and stitched them together. I had a few problems like holes in the seams which I will fix and the iron was a huge help to make the seams nice. Some of the seams are a tiny bit uneven but thankfully, it is on the underside of the sleeve cap. That has been corrected. Mercifully this hasn’t needed that much correction.
Ok so I trimmed threads being mindful all the while of the basting threads. It looks so beautiful. Then (I know, there’s more)… I finished the raw edge of the grey chiffon with blue piping. I have to fix 1 or 2 things with the whole extended sleeve cap but wow! I did this?? I did. I have to make the lower sleeves and sew the lining and sew the lining to the outer sleeve. But not today. I have to finish the piping on the sleeve caps. I have more work to do. It’s nothing I can’t handle. I have to add interfacing to the wrong side of the dress at the neckline to strengthen it. I have to finish the sleeve and add the other layer to the collar. I have to add fabric to the hem and sew on the blue lace trim I bought from Etsy. The chiffon and the grey embroidered tulle is so beautiful. I hope I did it justice. The dress already looks like something from a faerie tale. I love it and I am sure it will be beautiful.
I did sew the sleeve. I figured out how to sew the sleeve to the sleeve lining. I wanted to sew the sleeve cap to the sleeve but then I could not turn the sleeve right side out. I removed those stitches and left it open. I turned the sleeve out and ironed it, pressing out the fullness of the lower sleeve. I lined it up with the sleeve cap, matched the seams and hand stitched them together. It was more difficult because of the extended sleeve cap. I have to sew the second sleeve tomorrow. I want to finish the edge of the extended sleeve overlay with a blue velvet ribbon. The seam will look finished. I will finish the second sleeve the way I did the first one.
The lining of the sleeve cap and the extended sleeve overlay is a soft dove grey. The lining of the lower sleeve is a dark heavy grey. The lining is on the inside but the two different shades of grey are intriguing to me. One is a softer shade and on the lower sleeve is a heavier grey. Well the colours that we choose to work with in sewing and crafting are important in some way, I’m sure. The lighter dove grey is where the finer embroidery lace details are and the less detailed lower sleeve (for now) has the darker shade of grey. On a more practical level, as I was sewing the upper sleeve cap with the lace overlay to the lower sleeve and lower sleeve lining, I was fastidiously obsessed about the seams matching up – the seams of the upper section of the sleeve and the lower sleeve section. It paid off because the sleeve is now correct and looks beautiful. The lining adds a fullness and more definition too.
The color of the body of the dress itself – the front and back of the dress is now a purple color and not blue as I once believed. Somehow the colours are cohesive and correspond to one another. I was worried but now I think it all blends and works. I am very relieved about that. Today I finished the second sleeve. I am relieved that they both turned out to be so pretty! I’m ordering a dress form off of Amazon and I can’t wait to have it. That will really help with my dress. All that remains is a few details such as the interfacing to add strength to the garment, edge the sleeve lace overlay with the blue velvet ribbon, fix the hem, sew in the sleeves and the zipper.
I have to prepare for Samhain. My book is published on Amazon on the 25th. I have so much to do and so little time. I want to clean up and tidy my place in time for Samhain. I may do some baking too such as pumpkin bread, roast pumpkin seeds, bake cookies, maybe the black candy apples I saw, the herbal lollipops. Yeah that all sounds good.
I will have my bonfire ritual, ancestral supper, a Samhain ritual, leave offerings to the spirits that roam the mortal plane. Samhain is a time when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest.
Blessings, Spiderwitch
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