A friend's son is getting married and the bridal shower was today. A few weeks ago, my friend asked me if I would make a big heart out of netting with ruffles. Back in the day, we all had aunts who made these for us and we put bows in them at the showers we had. I can't for the life of me remember what we did with the bows OR the hearts after the wedding, but nonetheless, I said, "Sure!"
I could never find the right color of netting but I found some beautiful tulle in a perfect, shimmery shade of pink.
I swear I will never touch the stuff again. It was like trying to build something out of snot.
It was so thin that I had to use a double layer for the front, back and ruffle. It slid all over the place, I ended up basting each layer together and then sewing the ruffle onto the front. I made the back in 2 pieces so they would overlap - we needed a way to get the bows in. Each seam had been sewed 3 times by the time I put it all together. It looked great and was just what my friend wanted.
I tell all of you this story because I knew you would understand. My friend doesn't sew, nobody in my circle sews. They have no idea how much it took out of me. I was frantically finishing it at 1:30 last night.
They think I can do anything. I told my friends daughter that if she wanted one when she got married, she had to borrow Erica's.
My family always do the same thing Pati does. Layer several paper plates and cut a good sized hole in the center. Stick on bows get stuck to the plate and ribbons or curly bows have their long parts threaded through the hole. Take one of the long ends and wrap around the rest of them starting up close to the paper plate. This forms a handle for the bride to hold when using the "bouquet" at the wedding rehearsal. As for tulle, it has a life of its own. When sewing with it, I ALWAYS use long strips of tissue paper and use that behind the tulle along the sewing line. It's the only way to actually make any progress when trying to put that stuff through the sewing machine! I save old tissue paper from gifts and cut that into long 2" wide strips. I keep it folded up in a plastic baggie on the shelf of my sewing table. I also use the tissue paper backing strips when I am sewing anything that is sheer or flimsy. Works great with organza, chiffon, lace, etc. I go through a LOT of it when making bridal gowns, etc. I did an entire wedding party years ago -- Bridal gown plus SIX bridesmaids dresses. fortunately, the bridal gown was simple and made of satin. The bridesmaids dresses were a total nightmare. Taffeta covered with chiffon -- I earned my money on THAT job you can be sure -- LOLOL! CiaoMeow >^;;^<
PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at
OK - new tradition here in Frontenac. Bows get stuck to paper plates to be used as bouquet.
And thank, Tia for the tips for sewing slick stuff. I kept thinking about tissue paper, but didn't think of using strips. I thought of whole sheets and didn't know how I could see the tulle through it. Now I know.
C>> A friend's son is getting married and the bridal shower was today. A few
Take some tape along to help adhere those stick on bows that have lost their stickiness :-). Does anyone else have the tradition where each ribbon on a bridal shower gift that is broken OR cut means a baby for the bride & groom? As a result, we have a LOT of nice loooooong ribbons to put through the hole of the paper plate -- LOLOL! CiaoMeow >^;;^<
PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at
Baste it, first. If you pin baste, put the pins parallel to the seams pointing down...harder to poke yourself that way. Use pliers if you need to to remove the beading by crushing..that way you won't lose beads from a broken thread. Sometimes it helps to have a 'helper' or even a Pro to help take it in as I'm not sure what kind of fabric you are working with. Before the final sewing, try it on with the basting thread seams as there may be a final tweaking when put on right side out.
Crushing the beads with a pliers is a really good idea, I am afraid of removing threads and having a million beads fall off. The background fabric is silk, and it is fully lined, but it's a mock two piece, so only the lining is connected to the skirt. I think that makes it easier. And I will baste carefully and try it on. Thanks so much for your suggestions. felwyn
Is the beading over the seams??? That can be a problem but not a bad one, just takes lots of time.
First, try on the top. Have someone carefully pin the seams to the size you want. Be thorough. And be careful. Point the pins down not up. Carefully remove the top and on the inside mark where the pins are. You can use thread, chalk, whatever can be removed and is easiest for you. (I use tailor's chalk, except on polyester fabrics, then I would probably thread baste, each "layer" separately.) Is there a lining?? If so you will be transferring the markings to the lining, which is okay. The lining is what really needs to be fitted, the outside part will be adjusted appropriately.
Undo the seams. Be careful if the beads are sewn on with threads that may have been cut at the seams. If in doubt, use a bit of Fray Block on the threads of the beads. (Fray Block, by June Taylor stays soft but works.) Baste the lining on the lines marked. Try on, just sort of pin the outside part together, you are really fitting the lining here. When the lining is fitted, then you can adjust the outside part.
If there is only and underlining and the outside you will just do the same thing, but keep the layers (beaded part and underlining) basted together at the seams.
Do not worry about the beads unless they are in the way of the stitching. This is a place where hand basting is probably the way to go until you know you have the fit correct. Sorry, I said it was time consuming.
When you have the fit correct. Then worry about the beads. You can crush glass and some plastic beads with a pair of pliers. I don't like to do that, because inevitably you will end up needing some of those beads to fix the top later on. Or to carry the beading design "across" the seam. I like to actually hand stitch the last few beads before the seam. Depends on how heavily beaded the top is. you can also use a good fabric glue and a toothpick to put just a drop of glue under the bead. The glue will stick the bead in place, and should also help attach the thread to the fabric at that point. (My favorite glue is Beacon FabriTac-is clear and dries flexible. used in the bridal industry for years before being sold retail. Wonderful stuff and you need very little of it to do the job. ) "Fix" each bead at the seam line. Then remove the beads that are within the seam allowance. I like to remove the beads by snipping the thread at the far side and sliding the beads off. This leaves a long thread tail which can be pulled to the back and knotted to prevent the rest of the beads on that thread from pulling off. Even if the thread tail is only a half inch or so, it can be pulled to the back and glued. When the beads are well out of the seam allowance, you can sew the seam. Use a zipper foot to avoid the rest of the beads. It is best to baste, try on again, then stitch over the basting. Much easier to take out the basting if you need to adjust for some reason.
If you need to, add a few beads to fill in empty areas of the beading. Save the rest of the beads for future repairs. Or, to put this on topic- use them on a nice wallhanging. Perhaps your souvenir of the big day???
You can do it, but take your time with it and don't leave it till the last minute.
These instructions are exactly what I need! I will be sure and find the right fit first and concentrate on the beads later. It's a beautiful dress, just a little too big at the armhole, needs to be taken in about and inch (about a half inch seam). the beads are glass, easy to crush with a pliers if one is in the way, good suggestion. I'm going to look for the Fabri-Tac tomorrow. That will make the job easier. If I need to place beads over the seam line, I'll probably sew them on, I think that would be easy to do.
Thanks so much for your help, and for taking the time to respond. felwyn
Baby? That would be no problem at all. Here a broken ribbon means a broken marriage in a number of ways. Some families say each intact ribbon is a year of happy marriage so any broken ones are subtracted from your total. Others say any broken ribbon means the marriage will end in divorce. Some families even claim a year of life is taken from the groom for each broken ribbon. Any way to really make a bride-to-be sweat is fair game around here.
Our paper plate for the bows has two holes on opposite sides. Ribbons are threaded through one or the other of the holes, after all gifts are unwrapped the ribbons are used to tie the "bow bonnet" to the bride's head. If there are too many ribbons for the two holes more are added to the "back" to form a trailing veil of ribbons, but that doesn't happen very often any more since so many people use gift bags rather than boxes with ribbons and bows. Debra in VA See my quilts at
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