I do really want to have a go at making something properly tailored either for me or for The Boyfriend – I did promise to make him a coat! I like your use of the engineering word Marina, that is exactly what it is like – building a gown on the body! I’ve set up a separate page so you can access this to be able to listen to her inspiring SewOver50 guests every week. I won’t always also do a blog post about things I’m going to make videos about, but in this case I took loads of photos so I wanted to share some of them here! It’s not quite the same quality of finish you will see on RTW clothes though which uses a specific machine to blind stitch the hem.

Overlock the edge first using three (or even two) threads then carefully turn it once and then again so that the overlocking is enclosed inside.Or do we take the view that the money we pay for it is a donation to a charity in need of the cash, especially if it’s going to end up in landfill otherwise? There are many other ways you can honour or remember a friend or loved one in this way too by sewing articles like soft toys, cushions, patchwork quilts or rugs for example using garments that once belonged to them. Before lockdown started I had been commissioned to make a dress for a work colleague of my daughter Katie. In my opinion, couture techniques exist in context and are the best way to do something in combination with a whole range of other factors.

Haute couture to me means one of a kind things ( unless two people or more want the same thing) made by hand, it can be made by other source than a french or italian fashion house, as long as it is made into perfection and done by hand. Definitely getting some tips for next year’s Dressmaker’s Ball dress, assuming they run it again next year! There are great artists(Rembrandt) and there are artists(local fair art), haute couture is a label which represents the former. Followers have certainly embraced this style and the account shared just a small selection of them on August 11 th. It was part of my job to get everything out of the fabric as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible so I always spent time working this out like pattern Tetris before going near it with the scissors!Whilst the result is wider than pin hemming it is narrower, and possibly quicker and more accurate, than a simple turned hem. that in Europe where they still have guilds to designate quality of craftsmanship “haute couture” only goes to a select few design houses, such as Dior, and only for their made to measure couture line.

I agree with Lynn, applying “couture” techniques won't make us “la petite main” = hand worker who executes the garment sewing in the atelier. From blog reading and library books I have a general idea, but I am hesitant to use the term without knowing what the true definition is – and is there one? In all honesty I hated how I looked in this dress because I had piled on weight and felt very self-conscious in a fitted dress.

Originally I’d wanted to be a costume designer but during my college course I realised that going into bridal or evening wear was a very good alternative. Sometimes the best method for a hem might be a blind herringbone stitch, sometimes it might be just gluing it! I felt that the length of the dress would probably be too long for me so I took some of the length out of the skirt pieces before I cut them out in fabric.

One of the regular sewing highlights of the last 4 years for me has been the Sewing Weekender which generally takes place in Cambridge, UK in August. When I worked for bridal designer David Fielden many years ago we would cut the selvedges off the silk habutai linings for the seamstresses to use on necklines. I find the next couture/tailoring technique very useful on sleeves as well as coat, jacket or dress hems.

It’s been such a tough time for so many and being a part of the wider sewing community has been a very real lifeline for many people. hehe, those French words you mention are ingrained into English now, just shows how language does change! For me, as self-taught hobbyist, couture means techniques used by professionals to produce high end custom garments. I also realized that it is very possible to make very beautiful clothes without any fancy machines save a very good straight stitch .