Thursday, April 14, 2011

Catastrophe... Averted!

I am slowly (but, surely) making progress on the Communion Dress.  Had a near catastrophe the other night involving a leaky black pen... but thankfully, Facebook came to the rescue!!! I didn't realize that I had the ink all over my hands when I turned the dress inside out, and just about fainted when it occured to me.  There were black smudges across both shoulder backs, leaving me with no clue how to proceed.  Somewhere between depression, rage, and confusion, I posted my problem on Facebook, and was ready to rip the back pieces out and re-cut them... and re-sew them.... when faithful reader (and lovely lady) Leslie commented that RUBBING ALCOHOL WORKS MAGIC ON INK.  With nothing to lose, I grabbed some cotton balls and started dabbing and blotting, keeping a clean layer underneath, and I'll be darned... it came clean!!! Major crisis averted, and lesson learned! Leslie: I can't thank you enough!!!  And look, you'd never know (if I didn't tell you myself):
Last night the zipper went in, and I attached the lining to the dress at the neckline.  With the netting/tulle ruffle gathered and attached to the lining, the dress has this very lovely poofiness to it, that is so absolutely sweet that I now want ruffles inside all of my dresses!

Here's the back view:

Next step is attaching the sleeves, and then attaching the beaded lace trim at the hemline.  Oh, and that veil thingy... no problem! ;)

16 comments:

Marybeth said...

Oh my goodness, she is going to be beautiful! What a lucky little girl!!!

Irene said...

Looking good! Hope that all goes smoothly from hereon in. Nobody needs such crises during the sewing of very important dresses!

Leslie in Austin said...

Hooray! I'm so excited to have contributed (even if it's just the teeniest tiniest bit) to that precious dress!!

Meg said...

Phew!! I was worried for you there. But it looks like everything is going to be perfect. Looking forward to the modeling session.

JoanneM said...

So lovely Kristine.
What great memories.

I made my oldest a communion dress and then her sister 7 years younger wore it 7 years later. She was little "larger" than her older sister and I remember praying that she would fit into it......

Today it sits hanging in the closet.

Cindy said...

Beautiful! Such a talented little Sis! When is the 1st communion?

a little sewing said...

oh thank goodness! I did not know that about alcohol.
whew! Looks good.

Sharon Sews said...

Yay for Facebook friends with great advice! The dress is turning out lovely and she's going to treasure it. I just pulled out my daughter's communion dress recently when she was visiting. She had forgotten that I made it for her.

Julia said...

Whew!!!! Thank goodness the ink came out. That dress is going to be gorgeous!

Rebecca said...

Oh my goodness I would have died. The dress is looking great. By the way, I love your blog, I don't think I have ever commented here before. :]

Sara Noemi said...

That's a great tip on ink! I still mark fabric with pens sometimes (slaps hand) so this is good to know!

Big in Japan said...

Your eyes must've popped out of your skull! Great save, the dress now has another intriguing detail to its story.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful dress! Great tip too:)

Summerset said...

Yep - we used to use hairspray in college to remove ink stains. Hairspray has a high alcohol content.

That inside ruffle is one reason I loved that pattern when it fit my daughter. Overall that is a great pattern, not to hard, but looks spectacular.

Michelle said...

Oh, my! That dress is looking beautiful! Gorgeous! And yay for the hint about rubbing alcohol.

Bunny said...

This is looking gorgeous. That skirts flares out so beautifully. Did you do horsehair on the hem? Looks it. Looks great!

Isn't that alcohol trick amazing? Glad you were able to save the day.