Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I did a lot of reading in my book today as I was at the eye surgeon with dad for his cataract surgery for most of the day. I read about the characteristics of the different types of fabrics and laces. I am still trying to figure out what kind of lace is on the front of the dress. It looks like it could be a chantilly lace, but I also talked to Anna tonight about using some silk organza as the background fabric and appliquéing the Alencon Lace border around the bottom then appliquéing the Alencon motifs more densely toward the bottom and dwindling off as we get higher. I will look for this type of lace when I make the trip to Asheville, probably sometime next week. I also did a little more sketching of the back of the dress tonight. I think I have come close to an option. I like the look of it; I just need to experiment with the fabric once I have the muslin for the outer dress cut out. I also began to write out the directions for the construction of the dress. Without a pattern, I have no directions so I am having to go through it step by step so I don’t forget something and have to go back and rip it out to fix it. This is a time consuming exercise, but worth it in the end! I also did a little straightening up. I have so many patterns pulled out of my folders and files so I need to get all the pieces put back into their envelopes and refile them all. It is a good system that I have but only if I put things back. I have all my pattern sleeves with the directions in individual clear plastic pockets and organized by dresses, skirts, evening etc. Then I have all the pattern pieces in clasp envelopes and I put a copy of the front of the pattern sleeve picture on the front of the clasp envelope and file them in numerical order in big plastic bins. That way I can look through my big binders, find the pattern I am looking for then find the pattern pieces in the clasp envelope that is filed by number. I don't separate pattern companies, I just group them together but all in numerical order. It works great, we used this method at school in the costume department. (Not an original idea but it works, that's all that matters!)