May 19, 2011

ballaro by "hand"

this is a step by step tutorial of my bolero jacket
for our wedding reception

this particular pattern i made with a paper grocery bag 
then proceeded with the following steps:

cut pattern out of muslin 
front view

back view (notice the princess seems)

pressed it

and pinned the under arms down


cut about 1 yard by 5.5" strip of fabric

ironed it - in half - long ways

pleated

and ironed

"measured" by sight to see if the pleat was wide enough

 pinned on the front

 and bottom

ironed the princess seams

then tried on the pattern.
soon as i knew this was going to work i abandoned the pattern all-together and started the "real thing"

 laid out pattern in pistachio dupioni silk

pinned

cut out

pretty

 then cut the pleats - all 3+ yards of it!

 pleated... 

 and pleated....

 and pleated!

picked out some matching thread

and sewed the pleats together

then sewed the pleats to the jacket

ironed


 pinned in antique lace trim to cover the inner seam

gave a finishing seam

which really held the pleats nicely and gave the jacket a professional finishing look.

and this is the completed jacket on wedding day

fit beautiful with my flower and gown! what do you think?

2 comments:

  1. HA! and you ask me how I could hand-cut the doilies for my Prince Valiant page?! I can stitch straight lines but it's an entire different story actually cutting into beautiful fabric as this dupion and then pleat 3 yeards nice and even aaaand sew the whole thing into this apparation!! you're totally crazy woman, but oh man oh man what a gorgeous result! Me thinks you look absolutely stunning Bekah!! xoxoxo

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  2. oh how silly you are!! hahah you put everything into perspective but still i would sew a half a dozen of these before i would cut doilies! bravo! and thanks for the HUGE compliment!! you're such a sweetie!

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