Cherish Scrapbooking

Basic Principles and Practice of Dress Fitting
If you have cut and marked your material properly from your dressmaking pattern- you are now ready to proceed in finishing your dressmaking and then have your first dress fitting.

Baste or pin in all darts, tucks, and any other inside design form shaping details.

Stay-stitch all curved and bias edges to prevent stretching material out of shape. Remember to handle your material lightly at all times.

Pin or baste shoulder and side seams of bodice. Baste sleeve seams and put aside. Pin or baste skirt seams.

THE FIRST FITTING

Drape bodice on dress form or living figure. Make any changes necessary in the fit of the garment by removing original pins or basting as you go along and replacing them at proper places.

These changes may be made at constructions seams, or at the darts, or other shaping seams. Don’t make the mistake of over fitting – remember to leave room for action.

When you are satisfied with the fit of this part of your costume, drape the skirt over your form, turn down seam allowance at waistline and attach to bodice at the waistline by matching your side seams, center front and center back, and other markings inherent to your design. Make corresponding alterations in the same manner you followed in fitting the bodice.

CHECK ON YOUR STRAIGHT OF GOODS. MAKE SURE THIS AT CENTER FRONT AND CENTER BACK IS EXACTLY PERPENDICULAR (AT RIGHT ANGLES) TO THE FLOOR. THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT IF YOU EXPECT TO HAVE YOUR GARMENT HANG OR DRAPE PROPERLY.

When your design calls for a bias cut pattern – the exact line of true bias must be perpendicular to the floor in the same manner – either at the center front and back, or at the design center as, for example, the center of each gore or godet.

Mark any changes you have made with chalk. Remove garment from form and take the next step to the finish line. Before you remove any pins, make sure that you have marked all seam allowances and all changes.

Detach skirt from bodice and take apart side and shoulder seams – BUT DO NOT DESTROY OR REMOVE ANY OF YOUR MARKINGS!

Begin with sewing in all your darts and inner lines of design.

Don’t forget to press as you go along.

PRESS EACH DART, SEAM, OR LINE OF SEWING BEFORE ATTACHING ANY CROSS SEAMS OR ASSEMBLING THE ADJOINING PART.

Press darts from the wider part toward the tip. Use your press mitt or tailor’s ham. Press waistline and shoulder darts toward the center of the garment; and bust line or sleeve darts downward. When working with very heavy material or very wide darts – trim dart to about 1″ of sewing line and press open, leaving a triangular fold at the tip of the dart.

In pressing seams – first press them open and then toward the direction desired; or leave them open if this is your intention as a designer. When one edge of seam has to be eased to match the length of the opposite edge as for example the top edges of sleeves or fullness over bust – in order to achieve neat shaping, gather in the fullness with a small running stitch to the length desired and steam shrink to shape by pressing over a curved surface such as your tailor’s ham.

ALWAYS PRESS BIAS SECTION WITH THE GRAIN OF THE MATERIAL TO AVOID STRETCHING OUT OF SHAPE.
TIPS FROM A PROFESSIONAL DRESSMAKER

Time for a second dress fitting.

Complete the bodice in all details except for final finishing. Sew in the interfacing if use of it is necessary to hold and reinforce the shape of your design.

Sew in facings wherever required.

If your design calls for a collar – baste it in.

Set in your sleeves and baste.

Have another fitting to check on collar and sleeves – Do the sleeves fall properly? – Is there enough ease for movement? – Does the collar lay smooth or roll the way you planned it? Measure off the length of the sleeves. Mark any changes necessary.

Now finish the bodice completely.

Remember to press each seam before sewing on a cross seam.

Now you are ready for a fourth dress fitting. Your dress will then be complete and you have learned how to sew a dress.

Art can take numerous diverse forms. Just a small amount of the different kinds of art include original art, modern paintings, and art from the Impressionist era. Art that is original, by definition, is work that is one-of-a-kind and it can be any kind of art, not just a painting as long as the piece is produced by the real artists themselves. Modern art is defined as art “of the present times.” Finally, impressionist artwork is work in which the artist paints the piece like he or she has just viewed something very quickly. Art can be a great method by which you lose yourself in your thoughts, either when creating it or when viewing it.

Original art is the one-of-a-kind painting or unique creation done by an artist. Original art is anything that is produced only by the artists themselves. Imitations of well-known paintings like the Mona Lisa have been created, but it is easy for true art connoisseurs to know the subtle differences between an original and a replica. Most likely, the best form of art is in its original form. Almost all of, the original pieces of famous paintings can be found in museums all around the world. Case in point is the “Mona Lisa” is located at the Louvre in Paris, along with other Da Vinci works.
The contemporary art era can be described as all forms of modern art created from the 1900s to the present. This type of work creates the possibility to call almost anything art. Modern art is also seen as a way to escape from political and social turmoil of the present era. Some of the diverse types of modern art include expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Some examples of contemporary artists are Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keefe, and Pablo Picasso, to name a few. Contemporary art seems to be a form that people either like very much or despise very much. One of the most interesting thing about contemporary art is that it can be anything. Before contemporary art, there were a set of rules about what could and could not be art. After the modern art era, was started there were no more boundaries.

It is interesting that impressionism is a form of contemporary art. Impressionist art was created to be an image of something as if the person had just seen it briefly. The era started in France, during the nineteenth century. Impressionist art characteristics include bright colors and scenes from outside. Impressionist art also usually features real-life images, but it does not focus on the details of painting. Impressionist era painters are made up of famous artists like Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

The types of artwork listed above are only three of numerous different types of artwork. Original and contemporary art have only just become popular, where impressionist art has been almost always popular ever since it’s beginning in France. Anytime you are able to look at amazing art by visiting a museum, you should take advantage of the opportunity. Viewing different kinds of art offers the opportunity to may be some of the best techniques when attempting to lose yourself in your thoughts.

Once you have a basic knowledge of how to draft a simple Dressmaking pattern and how to draft variations of design for any part of the pattern, you can begin to think of how to sew a dress. In choosing your material you must keep several things in mind. Keep the style you have designed in mind. Remember to judge the material for its suitability as far as season, occasion, and the individual who will wear it is concerned.

HOW MUCH MATERIAL WILL YOU NEED?

The dress has been designed, the pattern drafted and cut – every necessary part, facings, bias bindings, pockets, trimmings, etc., have all been cut and marked.

First decide on width of material to be used, then lay all your pattern pieces on the same width muslin or paper exactly as it will be laid out for the final cutting. Make sure to place all your pattern pieces parallel with the straight of the goods. The amount of material you will need is exactly the amount you have used for laying out your pattern.

Special planning is required for stripes, plaids, prints, and material with nap. The additional amount of material needed will depend on the style and amount of matching required, and on the size and spacing of the fabric design. Generally fabrics used for dressmaking with small designs will require 1/8th yard extra.

Medium designs, stripes, and small plaids -1/4 yard extra.

Napped materials, large plaids and large spaced prints will require 1/2 yard or more extra depending on the design and style.

PREPARING MATERIALS FOR CUTTING

Before any cutting is to be done the material must be checked for shrinkage control. It is always best to shrink all cottons and woolens whether they have been preshrunk or not. This is best accomplished by immersion in tepid water and pressing dry through a cloth or by pressing the dry material with a damp cloth and steam iron. When pressing be sure to just press and not push the iron back and forth over the material – the latter will only stretch it out of shape.

Another important thing to know about how to sew a dress is to straighten edges of the material you are going to use. Firm materials can be straightened by clipping selvage and tearing.

Delicate materials require delicate handling. Some materials are impossible to tear – with these you will have to draw a thread across the material and cut along this guide. Determine which side of the material you want to use as the right side: Washable materials usually come with the right side folded out. Silks and wools usually come with the right side folded in to prevent soiling. Some materials may be used either side – use your own judgment as to which side is more attractive in finish, pattern, weave, etc. Straighten grain of material by stretching on the bias from selvage to selvage. Press out all creases and wrinkles.

Pin selvages together to make certain the center fold will be directly on the straight of the material. Always fold your right side in. Extra pinning is required for plaids, checks, stripes, and smooth slippery materials to prevent material from crawling and the design from creeping out of alignment.

When you lay out your material for cutting use a large table. Special cutting boards (folding) are available – these are especially good because they are marked for straight lines and right angles and fabric can be pinned to it to keep it in place.

CUTTING

Have all pattern pieces properly marked for straight of goods and for joining points. Place all pattern pieces on your material making certain that the straight of goods marking matches the grain of the material.

Use sharp, long scissors. Keep material and pattern flat on table. Don’t pick up the material. Let the blade of the scissors lift only enough to enable cutting. Take long, clean strokes.

Before removing pattern from material, make sure that you have transferred all the markings to the material.

The first steps in how to make a dress have been taken. Now begins the actual start of your garment making. Good luck!

Looking at Christmas already and deciding on your lighting and decorations? Of course you are, and that means you need to choose holiday lights and decorations too right? Get some white Christmas lights as well to brighten things up.
If you are anything like most people, you will just trek on down to the store in your area and start buying stuff once it goes on the shelves here in another couple of months right?

Buying your Christmas decorations is a great way to get the decorations that you need, but did you know that buying is not your only option? If you are a parent, you are encouraged to let your children make their own Christmas decorations. You will find that there are, literally, an unlimited number of benefits to doing so.

One of the greatest benefits to letting your children make their own Christmas decorations is the feeling that they will receive with the finished product. No matter what the age of your child or children, there is a good chance that they will be pleased with their final products, whether that final product be a Christmas tree ornament or a Christmas picture. And, since the whole point of Christmas decorations is to decorate, your children may be pleased to see their works of art hanging on your walls or on the Christmas tree. As a parent, that could, hands down, be the biggest reason why you should allow your kids to make their own Christmas decorations.

In addition to the pride that they will feel, you should also let your children make their own Christmas decorations because it should be a relatively easy and fun process. When it comes to making Christmas decorations, you will likely find that you have many of the craft supplies needed, already in your home. If not, you can easily purchase craft supplies, including Christmas supplies, from your local craft store or local dollar store. The supplies that you need to purchase dont even just have to be for Christmas decorations. You can use the leftover supplies for other projects, if you choose to do so. That is one of the many reasons why having your children make their own Christmas decorations is cheaper than buying store bought ones.

Although this article had a focus on letting your children make their own Christmas decorations, you may want to join in the process as well. Not only can you give your children decoration ideas, especially young children, but you can also enjoy some quality time with each other. Christmas is all about family; therefore, by making Christmas decorations with your children, you and your family will be off to the right start, when celebrating Christmas. Whether you help out a little bit or make your own Christmas decorations, you and your children will likely enjoy the time that is being spent together.

Once the Christmas decorations have been made, whether they were made with your assistance or not, they will need to be displayed. Go ahead and ensure that everything properly dries too so you don’t end up with a worse mess than your started with during the holiday season. This extra time will help to ensure that the hard work put into the decorations doesn’t go to waste. When the time is right, you and your child could spend the rest of the day or evening decorating your home for Christmas. Get great info on LED Christmas lights and green LED Christmas lights also.

What better way to end out the perfect day then letting your children help you hang their handmade treasures.

When planning a dressmaking pattern project, the first consideration should be color usage. Following is a basic summary of how the varying colors should be used to create different looks.

SCIENCE OF COLOR

Color comes from light reflected, from the visible spectrum of radiant energy produced by electromagnetic waves. White is the combined reflected light of all the colors of the spectrum; and black is the absence of all reflected light and color.

COLOR IN LIGHTING

The use of colors in lighting differs from pigment colors or paint – and it mixes quite differently. In lighting the primary colors are not red, blue, and yellow – but BLUE, GREEN AND YELLOW RED.

Blue, green, and yellow red light combined produce white light. Blue and green combined produces blue-green light; blue and yellow red produces violet; green and yellow red produces yellow.

Red filters absorb all colors except red, which passes through; green filter absorbs all but green; blue filter absorbs all but blue; and the yellow filter absorbs all but red and green which pass through the filter in combination as yellow.

Green and red filters combined, absorb and stop the passage of all colors. COLOR IN PAINTS

In pigments, the substance we use to paint or color our material, the PRIMARY COLORS are RED, YELLOW, and BLUE. These are the colors with which we can reproduce all the colors of spectrum. COLORS COMBINED

The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.

The secondary colors are midway between each primary color: Mixing yellow with red we get orange. Mixing red with blue we get purple. Mixing blue with yellow we get green.

The tertiary colors are midway between each primary and secondary color:
Yellow and orange produce yellow-orange.
Orange and red produce red-orange.
Red and purple produce red-purple.
Purple and blue produce blue-violet.
Blue and green produce blue-green.
Green and yellow produce yellow-green.

The following pairs of colors are complements to each other:

Red and Green Yellow-Orange and Blue-Violet

Yellow and Purple Red-Purple and Yellow-Green

Blue and Orange Red-Orange and Blue-Green

COLOR SENSE

VALUE expresses the tones tints, or shades of any particular color or hue ranging from very light – almost white but with a slight tinge of color – to very dark or almost black.

INTENSITY represents the purity of a color – color which is not neutralized or softened by mixing with its complement.

DOMINANT HARMONY is self color harmony of different values of the same color.

COLD COLORS: blue violet, blue, blue green, and certain shades of green and purple. In general, receding, silent colors are inconspicuous, such as the less intense, low value shades of secondary and tertiary colors or hues; and, the more intense the hue, the louder or more overpowering it becomes.

Traditionally the colors of spring have been pink and yellow green; of summer – yellow, blue and green; of autumn – orange and brown; and winter – red and black.

In the proper hue, value, and intensity this is the most restful color without being too depressing.

YELLOW and gold colors indicate sunshine, gaiety, honor, loyalty.

DEVELOPING COLOR SENSE

Color should enhance the natural qualities inherent in the color of skin, hair, and eyes.

Light colors appear lighter when placed next to dark colors.

Any color seems brighter when placed next to its complement. In artificial light the same colors will be subdued. Candlelight will soften colors, incandescent light slightly brighten, and fluorescent will change the apparent hue.

BLUE LIGHTS will dull green and yellow, intensify blue, apparently change red to purple.

UNDER A RED LIGHT yellow will seem almost red and both green and blue will appear dull, while red will be very intense.

With these guidelines, those involved with dress designing can gain a good understanding of color and increase their designing ability. By matching colors to the style and use of your garments you can ensure you are always dressing for success.

Perhaps the hobby which has the whole North America in a madness is making memory books. From ordinary cutting of pictures and putting on extras, the craze of scrapbooking has gone outside the easy and advanced into one complex activity. With the growth in popularity of scrapbooking, more and more scrapbook supplies have become available to make the job easier.

Over are the times when you’ve got to dye the paper yourself, cut the graphics and glue the adornment. Most people do not even draw anymore. And certainly, only a couple of even sew their own memory books.

All they need to do now is buy empty memory books which are prepared, pick some beautiful stickers and decorations in the craft stores and they are well on the road to a beautiful memory books.

However, for the newbies, the fundamental scrapbook materials continue to be the best. In reality, when beginning on creating memory books, you might want to continue with the old and indispensable scrapbook materials first just to be ready to experience the feel of how is it to truly do scrapbooking. Though the new trends and scrapbook materials provide huge convenience, it somehow accomplishes all the toil for the scrapbookers, renouncing the essence of creative concepts not needed.

To help get you moving, these are a few of the main scrapbook materials and scrapbook tools which you’ve got to have on hand.

Scrapbook Paper

One of the scrapbook materials a person can not start scrapbooking if they don’t own is a memory book. There are blank memory books which you can locate in your craft stores. Then you may use those to get you moving.

You can also start with pieces of specialized papers, recycled ones, colorful papers, art papers or construction papers that you can access. Some scrapbookers do this as they don’t want to make all the pages the same. After that you can make a title page and then you can stitch all the page and the cover together.

Various Scissors

It is not possible to put together memory books without a reliable old scissors in your box of scrapbook materials. A pair of scissors maybe the most basic of your scrapbooking tools as this is the one which you will be using in cutting graphics and shapes as well as putting designs on the pages itself.

Also you can purchase scissors that cut designed lines and not just your usual straight lines. Very similar to the pinking shears employed in sewing, these specialized scissors can be very helpful when you are cutting graphics and decorations for each of your pages.

Cutters and Cutting Boards

All cuttings cannot be done with scissors. Sometimes, you need a cutter to make your task a little easier.

While using a cutter, ensure that you have a board for cutting beneath to avoid mutilating papers beneath, or even worse, putting scratches on the top of the desk. In addition to the buffer, cutting boards also provide guide lines which will aid you in cutting paper in a line that does not curve.

This will save everyone a lot of effort in sketching and using the ruler solely to be able to cut it even. Cutting boards also have measurements which will help you whenever you need to cut paper at a certain length. Therefore a cutting board is one of the prerequisite scrapbooking tools you will want to have.

Sticky stuff

A glue gun is one of the scrapbooking tools which you cannot do without while making a scrapbook. Most people utilize the glue gun especially while making an attempt to attach ornamentations that are actually massive like buttons or gemstones. When dealing with paper, you may use standard glue and even paste. On paper the glue gun tends to only make it appear bulky and crinkled.

Now you have a basic understanding of the scrapbook materials and scrapbooking tools you will need to get in order to join the many other people who have discovered the fun of scrapbooking.

So lets say you are like most people who want to decorate their home and have it look nice, but you don’t have the time and the money to go shopping at art auctions to bid on large abstract art or to buy oil paintings, but you still want to decorate your house and to do it in a personalized way that says you put more thought into it than just buying someone else’s work that you may or may not understand as a work of art. One thing you can do that will both make your home look pretty, your friends impressed, and leave you with a feeling of pride in the way your house looks and in your hard work is to create your own artwork for the inside of your home.

You may be thinking that you have no creative talent or remembering that you had trouble coloring inside the lines when you were a child playing with coloring books, but you should ignore those negative thoughts and think positively, because there is a technical side to art that allows for it to be picked up by nearly anyone if they put the time and effort into it. Granted there is some level of ambiguity and mystery in each individual person’s creative process, but that is what will make your artwork so uniqueand what we want to focus on here is some technical tips to create some interior furnishings to make your home look great. First think about what you want your artwork to be, that is, do you want it to make a political statement, do you want it to symbolize a situation or an idea, do you want it to talk about some emotion, do you want it to tell a story, and in this you can decide if you want the painting to be about the process that you used to create the painting, or it could be about the finished product and the final effect the painting has on the viewer. Decide what medium you want to use and remember rthat there are connotations to each medium. Drawing will become an important asset no matter what media you are working with as it will allow you to sketch out your possible ideas for a project and to review various different ideas next to one another without making your head hurt too much from the effort, and when you draw, if you are trying for realism, then you will want to make sure to measure and compare ratios of the way things look as you see them so your subject is proportional.

Making a scrapbook is a good way to preserve memories, and selecting a scrapbook theme is the first step in making something to recall a special moment. Here are a few scrapbooking ideas to get you started.

The scrapbook theme can be straightforward or complicated. It could be a special event such as a birthday, a baby shower, a wedding, Christmas, or Halloween. Scrapbook themes may also be customized to the memory book recipient’s individual interests. Themes could involve sports, favourite TV programs, music, the out of doors, or cultural influences.

What is the overall purpose for your memory book?
Who is it for?
Who is the memory book about?

The feedback to these 3 questions are all factors in choosing a suitable memory book theme. For instance, the memory book you are giving your nephew as he graduates from medical college is probably completely different than the grandparent book you send your mom. Your nephew will most likely appreciate a memory book with photos, poems, journals, and more masculine elaborations. The theme of the memory book may be medical. You might create gildings that looked like scalpels and tweezers around various pictures of your nephew during his university years.

Your mother, on the other hand, will appreciate a great number of infant footage fancifully enhanced with flowers, ribbon, and baby fingerprints. This scrapbook theme will generally be your baby. Photographs could include baby and grandmother with the baby. A nice journal about your baby’s birth could also add a pleasant touch

Don’t forget to form a title for your memory book. Though adding a title might appear to be apparent or trivial, a title outlines the entire basis of your memory book. The title instantly tells the spectator what the page is all about. In one word or one short phrase, the title tells the reader the scrapbook theme and point.

Titles can be as basic as the date of an event, the name of an individual, or a specific event. They also might be more interesting and exciting. Titles can entail quotes, sayings, fillers, or straightforward phrases. The best places to go looking for title inspiration are in greeting cards, ads, and commercials.

Color choice is also critical. Color coordination and contrast will accent and highlight your scrapbook theme. A well thought out color palette can help outline the theme of a page, attract attention to explicit items, or detract away from mistakes. Poorly selected color schemes, on the other hand, may cause your memory book page to look unattractive.

Background color can either be matched, coordinated, or contrasted with the colors in your photographs, mementos, or gildings. Matching colors adds to the continuity of the color range. Coordinated colors add depth to memory book pages. Contrasted colors focus the eye. In this way, color may be used to make the effect you wish.

Yet more scrapbooking tips include this: An excellent way to see how colors appear together is to gather and put alongside color wheels from your local paint or hardware store. Paint wheels are usually attainable free for the taking in almost any paint dept.

Almost all scrapbooks will contain photos. Even the most uninvolved reader of your memory book will peek at the pictures. Footage truly are worth a thousand words. Thus , it’s vital to select footage that are of high quality and clearly illustrate your scrapbook theme.

Any photograph may be used in a memory book. Even instant photos may be used in scrapbooking. Just take care the chemicals in the photograph do not spill out on the remainder of your memory book. Digital photographs can simply be outlined right onto lignin-free and acid -free paper.

Always keep in mind that scrapbooking is permanent. , it is perhaps preferable to use copies of your sole image of Great Granny instead of risk destroying the photograph forever. Simply scan the picture on your computer scanner and print the photograph on lignin free and acid free paper.

Scrapbooking is delightful and enjoyable. You are creating a book of special memories that is much more special than a regular photograph album. Look around for some scrapbooking tips, select your scrapbook theme, get the basic scrapbooking supplies, choose some pictures, and get started.