A little sewing on the side

Another day, another vintage wedding gown to give myself fits over cutting into.

This time the gown was from 1946, and the customer (daughter of the 1946 bride) wanted 13 drawstring jewelry pouches for members of her daughter's bridal party.

I love the passing down of these gowns into functional things.

There was a small problem, however. The gown had been stored in the basement - in a plastic bag. The mildew streaks on the underside of the satin looked like rust. I told her to take it to the dry cleaner and tell them to clean it as well as they could, not worrying about shrinkage or minor damage, and that faded it somewhat, but the resulting fabric was still somewhat rusty in spots.

I'm calling it part of its sentimental charm, and hopefully they will too.

The brief was for 10 small bags and 3 larger ones, lined with the gown's original slip. That didn't work, either. The numbers, yes. The slip, no. It was some kind of crepe and when I cut into it, it just dissolved into a pile of threads. I used a yard of white handkerchief linen that had been sitting in stash for years, because I'm never going to make a white blouse that will stay white 3 hours into its first wearing.

The last - and worst - complication was that I'd originally planned to embroider the 1946 wedding date by hand. I drew the numbers very carefully with one of those blue washable markets, which I had used recently on the pillows I'd made from another gown. I embroidered 2 pieces, didn't like the look of it, picked out the embroidery and rinsed the satin so I could use my embroidery machine, and while the blue rinsed out, it also took some of the age/stain color of the satin, leaving me with bright, ghostly white numbers that would not fade. I had to cut 13 more pouch fronts.

Consider, if you will, the tantrum. I knew that marker could sometimes stain. I didn't think it could remove color.

Anyway, they're done, they're pressed, they look lovely, and thety're being picked up tomorrow.