Month: January 2012

Rate the Dress: Wallflower or wower of 1840

So, last week I made a silly mistake and published two Rate the Dresses. I noticed it a few hours later and withdrew the one I hadn’t meant to publish. So most of you only saw the 1780s pastel polonaised froof that I left up (and most of didn’t particularly care for it and rated it a not-very inspiring 5.2 out of 10). But some of you did get a sneak-peek at this week’s Rate the Dress, so have had all week to think about whether you like it or not.. 1840s dresses can be a bit, well, plain and boring. This dress comes in a typically boring 1840s colour: rust brown, but does include some quite distinctive features: beautifully worked tone-on-tone embroidery (click on the image to go through to a large version), triple puffed sleeves, two rows of hem ruffles, and a cunningly cut and draped bodice. Are all these things enough to raise the dress above the usual 1840s bland curse? Or would this dress be just another wallflower? Rate the Dress …

Tutorial: How to make a simple garment bag

Published by The Dreamstress

I like to make garment bags for my clients, and to keep my own dresses in. It makes garments easy to store and carry, and you can build pockets into the garment bags to hold belts and sashes and other accessories, so that you never spend time trying to remember where you put the rest of the outfit. Here is how to make a simple 22″ wide, 55″ long dress bag with one outside pocket. You will need: 65″ (1.7 yards, 1.5 metres) of 45″ wide fabric. I like to use pre-washed unbleached cotton muslin because it is low-acid. For a shorter bag you will need the length you want the bag to be + 10″ for the pocket. A 50″ zip A 3″ length of cord, or make your own piece of rouleau cording using Steph’s excellent tutorial. Step 1: The pocket Cut 10″ off of the bottom your length of fabric. Cut two 12″ pieces from the 10″ strip. These 10″ x 12″ squares will be your pocket. Place the two 10″ x …

Hawaii & The Descendants

Published by The Dreamstress

I don’t usually blog about movies, but last evening I saw The Descendants, and thought I would say a bit about it. So: 1) It’s a very good film. You don’t need me to say it, or to review it. All the critics have done that. Why I thought it was interesting enough to mention is because of 2: 2) It’s the only remotely mainstream film that I have ever seen that actually captures Hawaii in any capacity. Forget Blue Crush and 50 First Dates and all the other crap that pretends to be Hawaii and is really some weird fantasy land that only exists in the minds of movie directors and the gullible public, The Descendants actually looks like Hawaii. Granted, the Hawaii it shows is a rarefied version: I knew old Missionary families: the elite ‘Cousins’ who had been their for generations but never quite assimilated. And I knew kids who went to Punahou School and HPI. And the world they lived in was far, far from my world. But the neighborhoods? And …