Ballgown Progress

Well, here's my little progress report on the 1860s Green Silk Ballgown!

Currently I'm working diligently on the ballgown skirt - lots of hand sewing trim. 1.5" wide strips of silk were cut with a pinked edge rotary cutter and gathered. My mistake - not finishing the edges with Dritz Fray Check! As you can see, it is fraying a lot, even as it is pinned on, and it gets worse. I thought I could get away without Dritz Fray Check, but I was SO wrong! Never, fear, the mistake is being fixed even as we speak. ;) I am now applying Fray Check to the edges after it has been sewn onto the skirt. This is not as simple as it could have been, but it is working fine.

1" strips of Silk Organza were cut with the pinked edge rotary cutter and gathered. Fray Check was not applied and there is no fraying. The Organza strips are applied on top of the green silk trim in a triangular pattern around the skirt.

Purple bugle beads, small round purple beads, and swarovski crystal beads are being sewn on top of this trim. Rosettes of swarovski crystal bugle beads will be sewn at the corners of the triangles. I have 9 yards of the trim to use for this.

And here is the beading process...the swarovski crystal beads

I love this vintage star trinket dish!

And in other news, I've started wrapping Christmas presents!

I'm embarassed to admit that the Christmas wrapping paper and I had a little run in a few weeks ago. It rolled in front of my path for the last time (I had been putting up with it popping up here, there and everywhere since the move), and I trashed it and said 'take that you horrid Christmas wrapping paper'. Pathetic. So...now I feel that it would be silly of me to purchase more, so I am making do with the comic strips and pretty satin bows. I kind of like it. This is my own little effort to rid Christmas of commercialism. ;)