Giselle's dress Part 1

Inspired by the movie Enchanted, I made the Giselle dress for Ada to wear on Halloween.   For the past few days I've been away from the blog, and swimming in a sea of tulle, dupioni silk, duchess satin, organza, ribbon, and lacy trims.  

This was my first attempt at an elaborate dress (or any dress, for that matter!), and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  Okay, really--I'm so happy with it that I'm practically jumping up and down.  Here are some of the highlights:

I used this pattern from Simplicity--8953.  I modified it a bit by incorporating a flouncy slip with tulle, and puffy sleeves.  Oh, and a butterfly on the top of the bodice!

Ada's big requirements were the puffy sleeves, lots of poof in the skirt, and embellishments.  My requirements were that it fits, has nice details (including lining and clean seams), and is modest enough for a seven-year old.  

Here are the results, with some closeup shots to show what I'm talking about.

Here are the sleeves.  This was an entirely new thing for me to try, so I had my fingers crossed the whole time I put it together.  Because I wasn't certain of how to sew the lining with the sleeves, I made the sleeves separately and lined them on their own, sort of as you would a pillowcase.  I hand-stitched them to the finished armholes on the dress after I had lined the bodice.   I loved how these turned out--by happy accident, I got to include an extra ruffle as I sewed them to the bodice, and the finished edges look really nice together.  It's a detail I would repeat again.

The overskirts:

I used duchess satin on these (it seems to be what Giselle actually wore in the movie), and they have a lovely drape and sheen.  I edged them with ribbon, lace, and beaded rosette trims.  Look how they all come together on the edge of the skirt.

The collar:  Again, I used the beaded rosette trim for the collar trim, which accents the silk piping edge that's between the lining and the outer layer.   

The lining.  I don't know if there is a reason clothing doesn't have beautiful lining.  I chanced it and used a pretty white-on-white cotton print for the inside of the bodice.  I really like the way this came out!

More soon! Stay tuned!

I've been away from writing on the blog for a few days, but with good cause:  the dress for Ada's Giselle costume.  Yum!  I am hoping to finish it sometime in the next day, and then post lots of photos.  It's really something, if I do say so myself!!

I've been dreaming of a....

Giselle would say "true love's kiss."  And I have that, lucky me!   

What I'm dreaming of lately is the movie Enchanted, and specifically, Giselle's dress.   If I can manage to gather all of this:

And sew it together here (with some help from our little friend peeperkitty),

Ada will have a Halloween fit for a princess.

I've been stitching this together in bits and pieces, and I am hoping to finish it this weekend. And then it's Esme's costume...just wait until you see what she wants to be!

I've been thinking a lot about poetry lately--have you noticed? Today is the birthday of E.E. Cummings, a poet whose best known for his use of lower case--but he is so much more.  Indulge me again...

Perhaps it's the in-your-face flouting of authority that makes falling in love with his poetry a rite of passage for college students (at least for English majors). E.E. Cummings often eschews convention--grammar, traditional poetical structure of meter and rhyme, topic--all are up for grabs. His poetry always feels fresh and earnest, immediate, as if he just scribbled it down on the nearest piece of paper in a fit of inspiration. As a college student, I loved how he claimed his right to write how he wanted, about things as taboo! as sex and death. I wanted to claim that, myself. He made it look easy.

Of course, what I didn't know then was that Cummings had an education rich in classical studies, and in Latin and Greek.  It was his understanding of these heavily-structured forms allowed him the freedom to use them as a foundation; indeed, many of his poems are actually sonnets and his internal rhyme schemes are amazing. His quirky syntax only works because he knew how syntax functions to create meaning.

One thing I love in particular about so many of his poems is the parenthetical phrasing, the series of asides and further definitions. I am, by nature, a parenthetical speaker/writer. I love how way leads to way, and I think explanations and definitions aren't necessary, but beautiful. Think of the lovely neatness of nested matryoshka dolls, or the tiny interlocking gears of a wristwatch whose face is elegantly plain. These internal intricacies move me. As do the hidden workings of a Cummings poem. Here's one now, number 44, from 73 poems....

Now i lay(with everywhere around)

me(the great dim deep sound

of rain;and of always and of nowhere)and

what a gently welcoming darkestness--

now i lay me down(in a most steep

more than music)feeling that sunlight is

(life and day are)only loaned:whereas

night is given(night and death and the rain

are given;and given is how beautifully snow)

now i lay me down to dream of(nothing

i or any somebody or you

can begin to begin to imagine)

something which nobody may keep.

now i lay me down to dream of Spring

Pumpkin patch

Sometimes it feels as though our town is a throwback to another time.  There are no franchises here, no stoplights, and the farm stand uses an honor system for accepting payment.

A simple pleasure to visit this pumpkin patch on a sunny afternoon.  Here are the girls weighing their options for the best pumpkins.  

Esme finally found her favorite, which is just her size.   

Color and texture

This unexpected combination makes me think that purple, green, and blue are my new favorite colors.

Hydrangea, sedum (Autumn Joy), and rosemary. 

Parting gift--autumn

Autumn has been teasing me for a few weeks now. One minute it's rainy and cold, thick with the kind of fog that chills you to the bone. The next minute, it's crisp and cool, the sun riotously crossing the sky. The leaves on the trees, too, seem undecided about what to wear each day. And so it is at the start of fall when you live in the northeast. I actually like the surprise of it--each day I get to dress for an entirely different season. Of course, this is bound to end soon...fall is truly around the next corner, with no more surprise summery days up her sleeve.

With that, I've had this poem on my mind lately. It's one I wrote years ago when I lived in Chicago, and these sorts of days were more common at the end of September...

Last Days

October

comes wafting in tonight

over the blue and yellow of

an Indian summer afternoon,

over the fumes of

the snaking rush hour.

And shadows creeping from under trees

and viaducts

swallow the last of September.

The sound of a lone cricket

chirping

tonight becomes an apparition 

of July.

Outside my eleven o'clock window

the static white noise 

of the rusting oak

pushes me into

dreams of you

over fields and seas.

K.R.