Quick Note

My host just sent me an email and they are doing some server maintenance, so some of the pictures may go down for a bit but it shouldn't be long, probably an hour or so.

Ang Katapusan - The End

It turned out a lot different and the same then I had originally planned. As I was working on the actual dress I ran through several issues, one of them being that our sewing machine kept screwing up on me so I ended up having to hand sew a lot of the dress. And of course getting the pictures on there was a challenge in itself. I had originally intended to make them 8.5x11 but when I started printing and comparing the size to the dress I didn't like it. So I ended up doing a wallet size format, which meant cutting the images out and making sure I got them as straight as possible. All in all, I guess I'm pleased. I learned a lot about myself, what I can and cannot do, what my limits are, and even some about my family... And that was really what I wanted... the journey. :)

Closer

Getting There

Here is the dress so far. It's just loosely hand stitched to show me how I should sew it together on the sewing machine. It'll be shorter than that as I haven't hemmed it at the bottom.

Pictures

Attempt II

I talked to a friend of my mother's this weekend about how to make a pattern for my dress and she offered to make one for me (after attempting to teach me quickly with newspapers and rulers), along with a backup dress base in case my attempts at sewing the dress together don't pan out. I'm still feeling out of my element, but I knew I would when I started this. However, I feel the need to keep trying. I knew from the start that it wasn't going to be easy but I like the challenge and I also know when it's time to step back for a second and ask for help. I know that I am in some way getting close to what my initial goal was because I'm slowly but surely finding out more and more stuff about my mom and her family that I wouldn't have known prior to doing this project. It's nothing big... but the little things really make all the difference.

Attempt I

I went to the fabric store yesterday with my sister to look at fabric and hopefully find a pattern to work with but I came out empty handed. I'm going to do a bit more research online so hopefully I won't feel like I'm so over my head. I've attained a sewing machine so I don't have to attempt this by hand (thank goodness!).

Possibilities

I still have to look for the fabric that I'll be using to sew the base of the dress. I'm not sure if I should go with a solid black, white, beige, or grey... or if I should go for a patterned fabric. I don't want it to be too busy because I want most of the focus to be on the bottom half where the pages are going to be. I have a sketch below of what I'm seeing everything will look like in the end.

Pages will be printed out to full page on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. I will be using a mixture of paper from glossy to standard printing paper.

I also had a question... would it be cheating if I found a ready made dress to sew everything on in case my attempts at making one from scratch doesn't pan out?

Questions Answered - Pictures

I wanted to answer a few questions on the sketch first:

"The dress sketch is really nice! I think it will work out very well. I would really like to see the skirt part of the dress be made out of paper instead of fabric. I think it would add some great texture to the dress. I am really glad that you are adding in pictures of your mom in the dresses. This really looks like it is becoming a great experience for you.

Danielle"

That is exactly what I had in mind!

"The images you have posted convey a "quilt" theme; something old, something new. I would use pictures of your mom to adhere the new pictures to the old. Will you be adding any narration?

Elaine"

I probably won't be adding any narration. I would really like the images to speak for themselves.

Once again this is a great idea! Please add photos of your mom in the dress in the book as well as the other photos. The photo of the dress
you took is very strong and the lighting is very soft. Keep it up!! -sky

Thanks sky. I was definitely thinking about it.

Scratch

I've drawn up a sketch of what I'd like my "dress" book to look like. I'm sure things will change as time goes by and I start to really work on trying to sew it together but here it is.

I've also found some pictures of my mom in two of her dresses. I want to dig for more and I hope I find some. Here is the picture of the blue and purple dress:

And this is the dark brown dress:

In Progress

Two Hands

The Idea

The following are all dresses that were made by my grandmother/lola for my mother. My goal is to restore these dresses, pick one or all, and take pictures. I will take pictures of the restoration process, the dress, and the act of wearing the dress. I will use these pictures to create a physical "dress" book of my journey to connect with my mother and her family through an article(s) of clothing.