Joy and Sorrow, with Hope.

I have been asked to make a few items recently which seem to fit into the cycle of life.

A gift set to send to Australia, for a new, much longed for baby, not quite yet delivered!

The gift-giver was quite specific in what he wanted, something "Traditional" in white, but not to look as though it were for a Baptism... hence the touches of green, with elephants marching across the bib. The set is made from a very fine cotton lawn with satin weave and embroidery details, and touches of antique insertion lace, all lined in cotton lawn (apparently, it will be hot in Australia when the baby gets to be old enough to wear it!)

The next project completed was for a Polish wedding, soon to take place, but as it hasn't yet, I can't really reveal "The Dress". It's for a lovely Welsh Lassie, who's marrying a dashing Polish Gentleman! Suffice to say, it involved a lot of piecing of extremely pretty lace, and swathes of silk satin, lots of buttons and a bow!

Sneak preview! Two different laces have been invisibly joined prior to piecing the back part of the bodice. 

The back after completion!

The last item is of a more sorrowful nature. It made me reflect on how fleeting life is, and how we should all prepare for death. A widow-to-be is expecting her terminally ill husband to die soon, and wanted a special mantilla to wear at his funeral. She had a specific idea of what she wanted. As I looked at the image she had in mind, I realised I would have to cut, shape and piece together lace. It was a time-consuming project, involving a lot of hand-stitching, all around the edges of the inset pieces of lace. But I found it a very moving task to sit quietly sewing the pieces together, and pray for her and her husband and family, and contemplate my own mortality too.

The first stage of shaping the lace edging around the dotted net. It was coming out bigger than the recipient wanted, so I had to bring the edging in more.

After completion.

When I started Zelie's Roses, I had little patience for hand sewing, wanting to get things finished speedily. The more I force myself to spend time creating things by hand stitching, the more I appreciate what Zelie Martin used to do in her lace-making! I hope I'm now of a level for her to have employed me as someone who pieces the lace together, since I still don't have the patience, or skills, to actually make lace!!

I like to add all the people I sew for to my prayers; a safe delivery for the baby and mother, a joyous and Christ-filled marriage for the happy couple, and the consolations of St. Joseph and Mary to be with the dying man and his family.

Lenten Array

Haven't had much time for posting lately, as I've just finished a wedding dress, and then was asked to make a Lenten Chasuble and Dalmatic in time for Ash Wednesday. I didn't get a single photo of the wedding dress, so I'm hoping I'll get some from the Bride once she's settled in to married life!

I made sure I got some of the Lenten Array. It is quite unusual in Catholic Churches these days, but apparently it was an old English tradition to have very plain vestments from the beginning of Lent, then changing to violet for Passiontide.

I availed myself of my new "studio" cutting floor. It's great to have a large space to lay out swathes of pure Irish linen, and wonderful silk when making large items.

Although the linen is plain, with the red lining, and orphrey bands it does look quite striking.

Maniple burse and veil.

 Father asked for a Gothic style Chasuble, which is appropriate to the architectural style of his Church. This is the Church interior with its Lenten hangings for Altar and Tabernacle in place.

As Father offers Mass in both the Usus Antiquior, and the Novus Ordo, he needed a Dalmatic for the Deacon who assists on Sundays.

It was quite a tall order, since I only had about 3 weeks to get the fabric ordered, and make everything up - the hardest thing being that I needed to make up all the orphrey bands by cutting strips from the red silk lining fabric, and attaching the dice braid down each side - very time-consuming! Needless to say I was hand-finishing the items right up to Shrove Tuesday evening!

  Father Reads the Gospel on Ash Wednesday

Father descends the Altar at the end of Mass.

Now I've just got 2 chasubles to restore/make, three altar frontals, and two tabernacle veils, plus another wedding dress ... won't have much time to post for the near future!

Working Wonders with a Wedding Dress!

A few months ago, I was rather surprised when the postman delivered such an odd-looking parcel, I wondered what on earth it could contain

When I undid it I found this inside

I had forgotten that a young lady had offered to send me her Wedding dress if I could use it for something.  I had said that I knew someone from Ecuador who had told me that a lot of the children there are so poor they can't afford First Communion dresses.  I suggested to the lady with the Wedding dress that I could make a First Communion dress from it, and so that was why it had turned up on my doorstep!

The bodice and chiffon over layers have been removed
and the lining separated from the skirt.

What a lot of lovely fabric!

I realised once I had de-constructed it, that there was enough there to make two First Communion dresses, and they are now having the finishing touches sewn on (some of the beads removed from the bodice) and will soon be ready to fly to Ecuador with my friend whose daughter is soon to be married there!

This one has a chiffon over skirt,

and uses the beaded straps of the
original dress around the waist
and sleeves

This one has chiffon cuffs with a
few beads sewn round the top of them,

and a chiffon cummerbund which
will have some beads sewn down
the centre. 

Thank you Mrs F. for donating such lovely fabric!

Close up of the most recently made Modest Wedding Dress.

Here are some close-up photos of Patricia's dress that were taken in the garden prior to delivery to the bride. Made from a pure silk satin under layer, with gorgeous Chantilly lace on top, hanging in three tiers over the skirt, and a waistband and bow of matching silk satin.

This photo shows how light and floaty
the layers of fabric are.

Detail of the beautiful lace layers.

Modest Long-Sleeved Wedding Dresses can be beautiful!

The latest from the Wedding Dress studio!

The last couple of  months around Christmas I had two wedding dresses to make for one bride. This is because she is Malaysian, so whilst having an English church wedding over here, she also had a "do" in Malaysia afterwards. It was nice to be able to make a white one for England, and a bright red one for the Chinese part. (Which was a tea ceremony, and an evening meal.)
The white dress is pure silk Duchesse satin, with a pure silk organza overlay, and the red one is pure silk georgette, with a silk chiffon overlay, and gold bead and embroidery details.
 I am hoping eventually to be able to post a few more photos that show off the actual dresses a bit better, but she does look lovely!

Second Official Wedding Dress!

The scene of the cutting of the duchesse satin!



I am glad to say that since my first official wedding dress (my own! a mere almost 17 years ago) I have now successfully completed a second one, and the wedding day went well, with no catastrophes. I admit to having spent a restless night before the big day, dreaming of the things that could go wrong, no doubt inspired by this wonderfully funny passage from Anthony Trollope's "Barchester Towers" which I had just been reading, whereby a sofa in a crowded room is given a hefty shove, with the following result -

The sofa rushed from its moorings and ran half-way into the middle of the room [where] Mrs. Proudie was standing..
... She was beginning to be stately, stiff, and offended,
when unfortunately the castor of the sofa caught itself in her lace train, and carried away there is no saying how much of her garniture.
Gathers were heard to go, stitches to crack, plaits to fly open,flounces were seen to fall, and breadths to expose themselves; a long ruin of rent lace disfigured the carpet, and still clung to the vile wheel on which the sofa moved.

I feared that the chiffon overlay which I had hand-stitched in place might somehow get stepped upon and a Trollopian disaster would ensue! But I need not have feared, and the Bride looked very beautiful and radiant, which just goes to show that there's no need for the modern bride to succumb to the immodest bridal fashions of today.

May they be richly blessed in their marriage.