‘I, (Heather Case of Herringbone & Heather), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’16. I endeavour to wear something I made each day for the duration of May 2016’ I will also endeavour to make at least one new item of clothing each week during the month.
I’m participating in me-made-may this year! I just learned about this fun challenge! Click the pic for the link.
memento |məˈmenˌtō| noun ( pl. -tos or -toes)an object kept as a reminder or souvenir of a person or event
A wedding is a big deal. There is so much thought and emotion involved in all the large and little details leading up to and occurring on that day. Weddings make us think about the people we love in our lives, some who are still with us and some who are gone.
One way to honour someone on your wedding day is to add a memento or heirloom to your wedding dress! I’ve been asked to do this in a few creative ways and so I’m sharing here a list of some of the ways you can incorporate jewelry or fabric into your ensemble.
JEWELRY – Wearing heirloom jewelry on your wedding day is a no-brainer. Whether it’s earrings or a necklace etc. But maybe it doesn’t go with your dress? Or your vision for your look that day. Adding pieces of jewelry directly onto your dress is a great way to have it all.
Adding an antique brooch is a simple way to add some glitz to your gown. If you are a traditional gal it’s also a great way to add your something old!
A pearl necklace can be taken apart and sewn directly onto the dress as a pretty embellishment.
FABRIC – You can do so many creative things when it comes to adding fabric to your dress. Incorporate trim or lace from your mom or grandmothers gown into details on your own dress or have a handkerchief or another piece of fabric stitched into the lining of your dress or right on the outside.
If someone is really set on you wearing their dress on your wedding day but it really isn’t your thing you could have part of it made into an accessory instead like a garter or these lace fingerless gloves!
Have some special dates embroidered into the hem of your dress. Use blue thread and you also have your something blue!
And last but not least have some fabric roses made and fashioned into a belt. Or a bit of vintage velvet is very pretty too!
If it’s your wedding day the world is your oyster. The scope of your imagination is the only limit for making your vision of that perfect day come to life. This was the case for Crystal and Buzza and this neon and zebra print rock n’ roll wedding was one of the coolest weddings I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on!
I’ll start with my favourite part. I thought this was such an original idea and I loved the versatility of these removable tulle BUSTLES!!
Crystal, the bride, wanted her bridesmaids to wear a fitted black strapless dress of their choice. My job was to make each of them a layered tulle bustle in a shade of neon that matched the colour of the shirt the groomsman they were walking with was wearing.The skirt tied around the waist with a satin ribbon. The ladies then had the option of removing the skirts later for the party!
I made all the guys a zebra print tie to match the ladies shoes.
And the junior bridesmaids and flower girl dresses were to die for! How cute is that!? It was so fun working with all these crazy colours!!
What is your unique vision for your wedding day?
In today’s world the lines of friendship and gender are no longer firmly drawn. Many women have male best friends and many men have great friends who are women and they want them included in their special day. This was one wedding that proves just that!
Working on Cristy’s tuxedo was so much fun. The girl has so much style and stood up to the challenge of looking fantastic and fashionable in her suit right down to her Jimmy Choos.
For Cristy’s outfit we took the sleeves off of her dress shirt, saving the cuffs for wearing. When she had the jacket on you would never know there were no sleeves underneath.
A few more alterations to the shirt and jacket to make them more flattering and feminine, adding some curve, then we cropped those pants!
The results were awesome!!
Prom season is just around the corner so I thought I would share some of the prom designs I’ve made and altered.
This is Katie. Katie was so fun to work with on her prom dress, she was so excited for this big event in her life and she knew she had to have the right dress!
A short, full skirt with a strapless bodice was a popular dress style with girls that year. Katie’s dress was no exception but she knew how to make it unique to her vision. She wanted a sweetheart neckline, the beautiful satin bow situated on her natural waist as well as all the sequins (hand-glued!! by yours truly) on the top layer of tulle and cascading down the skirt.
What a fun and pretty dress!
I loved everything about making Katie’s wedding gown. The design of her dream dress was so graceful and elegant from the halter style neck to the small train trailing in the back. So perfect for a beach wedding!
I started with a muslin fitting for Katie’s gown so we could get the drop waist in the back just right and adjust the the length of the train. When you are having a dress custom designed your seamstress will usually make the dress out of a cotton “practice” fabric called muslin in order to make all the necessary changes to the pattern before cutting into the actual dress fabric.
Here is Katie on her wedding day!
Working with Cathy on her wedding dress was such a pleasure. Cathy wanted to wear her mother’s wedding dress on her big day but needed to give it a bit of a modern twist! What a great idea!
Here is the before dress. Beautiful lace but the full sleeves and shoulders had to go for Cathy’s vision of what her dress needed to look like!
Here’s Cathy showing her mom the dress! She didn’t even recognize it!
If you’ve inherited your mom’s or your grandmother’s dress why not consider wearing it on your big day? The possibilities are endless! Having a vintage dress revamped or remade is such a personal and dear way of breathing new life into a family heirloom. It also reduces the number of beautiful gowns going to rags in closets and second-hand stores!
A client came into the shop last week needing an outfit for a work event. Lesley does not like her legs and was set against a dress but was armed with photographs of jumpsuits. We put our heads together to come up with the design details she was looking for and voila! Totally custom made jumpsuit for Lesley. Fits her perfectly and looks great!
I am totally hopping on the jumpsuit bandwagon this spring! Jumpsuits are flattering to the figure and well….fun!!
I had the immense pleasure of creating Catherine’s gorgeous and original wedding gown for her special day in August 2015.
Catherine knew she didn’t want to go through the stress of shopping for and trying to fit the dresses available in the shops and decided that having her dress custom made was the way to go.
She knew the style of dress that she wanted, bringing me a photo of a dress from a magazine that had a unique layered skirt with a pointed hem! So fun!
Every woman knows her body and Catherine was no exception! Together we designed her dress to accentuate the parts of her body she loved and downplay the parts she doesn’t so she could feel her most beautiful on her big day. She even added a little extra bling here and there and a family momento – the butterfly broach at centre waist. So pretty.
Here is her beautiful dress!
bellevilleseamstress 