Danielson

Easter Lamb, The Final Photo Shoot

Rachel — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:36:53 GMT

Love, Rachel

Sewing the Easter Lamb Dress Together, Day 7

Rachel — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:23:40 GMT

WARNING! THIS IS A LONG POST!

I promised to be a bit more detailed in the construction process on my Purple Easter Lamb Dress. So here we go!

The Lamb is embroidered and all of our dress pieces are cut so we can begin to put the bodice together.

I sew the two back pieces to the front and I do the same to the bodice lining pieces.

Time to put in the zipper. I decided that I want to do a "hidden" zipper. They are kind of fun to put in.

The white lines represent center back. Stitch the right side close to the zipper.

Now we iron over the other side and lap it so the center back lines meet. We are going to stitch the left side and catch the other side of the zipper underneath.

Zipper all tucked in there.

I'm sewing the lining to the bodice now. Right sides together!

I like to under-stitch the neckline of the bodice. This is when you stitch on the lining side with the seam faced towards the lining. When you press the neckline seam, it will be very crisp.

Trim the neck seam away to get rid of the bulk.

This is the neckline seam from the lining side. Crispy!

I line up and sew the lining along the zipper.

Our bodice is ready for our sleeves!

This sleeve pattern is very cool. Watch how it comes together.

Fold in half and sew the seam.

Press seam open.

Fold sleeve in half. How awesome! Instant hem!

Sew your basting lines on the sleeves for gathering.

Line up your seams and pull gathers to match sleeve placement to the dress.

Stitch sleeve on.

Serge and tuck in extra threads. Must have a clean inside!!!

Believe it or not, we are almost finished! It's time to gather and stitch the skirt to the bodice and hem.

I sprayed the bodice and rubbed off the white chalk placement lines.

Here it is! Our Purple Lamb! (Notice the bodice is still a bit damp from my spraying!)

Ahhh!!!! I'm very excited. This week I'm getting together with my models to shoot the dresses. I will share the results with you when I get them! Come get your Easter Lamb!

Love, Rachel

Easter Lamb Dress, Day 6

Rachel — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:35:53 GMT

Today is the day we will finish one of our samples. I am going to put together the teal size 8 sample first. I want to keep this design very classic and simple because the lamb is the focus of the garment. Even though the dress will have very clean lines, I also want to add some soft details to keep the flow of femininity. I am going to do this with a small white piping which will separate the bodice from the skirt and also through the sleeve.

I am inspired by the sleeve on this vintage dress. It has a nice curve to it and is very pretty.

Here is our finished product. I had my daughter Rosemary try it on for you to get a glimpse, but it really is too big for her. This sample is a size 8 and she is really a solid 6. In this photo you can still see the white cross lines from the centering of the lamb.

And here is our Teal Easter Lamb!

I know that was a quick post and I didn't really go through the process of sewing it together. I hope to be a bit more detailed in the construction process with our Purple Easter Lamb. I just wanted to get this one done! Finally!

Love, Rachel

Easter Lamb Dress, Day 5

Rachel — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:19:31 GMT

I feel like I can name this post "Day 5" because even though my last post was technically progress, now I actually feel like I'm making progress. What a crazy whirlwind of back and forth. I'm so very pleased with how things have turned out after all. The truth is that I love it much better than the version I was struggling to create and I never would have come to this conclusion without going through all the frustration that I did. Before I share with you our Easter Lamb, let's see the ridiculous amount of trials I had to do for this project:

When looking at the white lamb on the dark fabric I realized that there really isn't a need to have black outlining. It already looks sharp. The trouble is that I need to have defining lines to separate the legs and tail. I am able to get a "shadow" effect by using a gray color. I also chose to change the stitching style on these parts from a thick "outline" stitch to an softer more subtle "satin" stitch. I really like the result. You can still see all the detail in the lamb, but it looks softer, sweeter with the more subdued lines.

Let's see it close-up.

I enlarged the halo a bit so that the purple accents stand out a bit more. I also used a metallic gold thread which really pops from the fabric. I tightened up the shadow lines within the body and I'm really pleased with the outcome. This is very exciting and I leave on this note...

FINALLY!!!!! Time to start sewing the dresses together!

Love, Rachel

Trial and Disappointment in the Easter Lamb

Rachel — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:49:48 GMT

"Why haven't you posted Rachel?" you may ask. I have been bummed. In my last post I was very excited to have "perfected" the Easter Lamb art work. I cut out my two bodices and was determined to have perfect lambs embroidered on them by the end of the evening. This is what transpired instead.

I set up the two bodices in the real fabric for the "perfect" lamb embroidery. I was very excited to see the real colors on the fabric. I set things up very carefully and walked away while it was embroidering the white body. This is what it looked like when I came back.

This lamb is definitely extra fluffy. Here's a close-up.

For some unknown reason to me, the tension was completely off. When something is set to "auto tension" and works perfectly for a couple years and in one sitting looks like this, I get so very frustrated. I messed around with it for awhile and I don't know what I did or didn't do but somehow it was fixed again. Well, okay. At least the purple one will be perfect.

Except is wasn't. The outlining that I had so carefully fixed and proved that it could be perfect with a sample decided all on it's own to get off track again. Guess what I did at this point? I went to bed and started to think. I'll let you know what I came up with tomorrow.

Love, Rachel

Easter Lamb Dress, Day 4

Rachel — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 06:55:31 GMT

Well, I'm going back to the art program like I talked about in my last post. Not too excited about it. I need to see what's really going on.

Okay, it's a disaster. I'll admit it, but only this once. I'M WRONG! Whew. That was painful. It's a relief as well because now I know how to fix it. If it was perfect, then I wouldn't know what to do. Time to get to work.

I got rid of the entire outline and decided to start over. It's easier in the long run than trying to fix all those points.

Okay! That's a much better looking bum if you ask me!

Okay, here is the vector image. I think it looks pretty good. Let's see the 3-D version again.

Nice. I think it's really going to work this time! Of course the colors shown aren't the real colors. I was having a hard time with the "white" for the lamb. The little points kept getting lost. I thought I would be nicer on my eyes and use orange.

Okay, now is the true test! I'm going to try this using the second method of stabilization (Sulky Sticky). Let's see how this works out.

You know, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. The outlining around the tail is still a bit off and there are tons of puckers around the image.

You can see how it's still off.

I went back to the art program to see if I had been careless, but unfortunately, it was perfect. I had to make the image "imperfect" on the program in hopes that when it stitched out it would look good. My last try on the stabilization is with the spray and the tear off. Let's see.

I think we are pretty close here. The outlining is now perfect and there are some slight puckers, but I think part of that is due to the thinness of my cotton fabric. Whew. That was exhausting. So before I sign off, I'll let you sneak a peak at something pretty cool that I know you have all been waiting for! The fabric colors for this awesome dress! "Colors?" you say? Yes! Two! Now you are twice as excited as you were just a minute ago.

Ahhhh.........Easter!

Love, Rachel

Easter Lamb Dress, Day 3

Rachel — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:18:07 GMT

Well, I'm excited to see how this goes. I went to an embroidery store and stocked up on all kinds of stabilizers. The woman there was very kind (and very bored) and showed me a lot of different stabilizer products and how they work. Check this out:

I have got to have something in this pile to make it work. I am determined. Now, yesterday I linked you to a site that had a recommendation to use the Sulky Sticky, but when I went to the embroidery store the lady there steered me away from it. She said you would use that for heavier fabrics like towels or denim. I still bought some, but I'm going to start with the all purpose iron-on stabilizer which will tear away when I'm done with it.

And here it is.

This is the back of the project. I just sewed the lamb and did the outlining in black and the base of the halo in black just to see how things lined up. I'm bummed and I'll tell you why.

Here is the front with the backside ripped off. There is still definite puckering. That could be my fault for not making the work tight enough in the hoop. I do like how it feels...it's still soft enough so the image won't be a board on a child's chest. The biggest problem I see is that the outlining still doesn't line up. This means that I'm going to have to go back to the art program and mess around with it. This is a huge bummer because according to the program, it looks pretty perfect.

You can see how the back tail and legs are off. I don't mind if it's slight, but this is obvious and it just doesn't look good.

The front isn't so hot either. I'm going back to the art program to try and tighten things up a bit. My next trial on the machine will be with the Sulky Sticky. Maybe I shouldn't have listened to the bored lady in the embroidery store. Maybe there is a reason that the lady on the Internet gives advice. Ahhhh.......so frustrating.

Love, Rachel

Sewing The Easter Lamb Dress, Day 2

Rachel — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:49:01 GMT

I'm so happy with how the image looks on my computer program! Let's remind ourselves what it looks like so we can move on.

Awesome. The next step we need to do is to see how well the machine does stitching out the image. Don't be afraid, the red fabric and threads I am using are just to test out the design. I haven't shown you the fabric yet!

You can see the digitized image on the screen, all the colors, and how they break down. The entire process should take about 35 minutes. Let's see!

So far so good. The machine puts down some crazy stitching first to hold the fabric in place before it starts the serious stitching.

Looks pretty good to me.

Okay, I have to stop and not waste any more thread. There are a couple problems here that you can see. First of all, the outlining is completely off. The second problem is the puckering around the lamb. I think that the answer to both of these problems lies in the stabilizer. Obviously the one that I'm using is not doing the job. Something is shifting between color changes and that is not good.

I did a little research on this problem and it brought me to Windstar Embroidery. Read this instructional on how to avoid the problems that I've just encountered. I am going out to buy some Sulky Sticky and see what magic it brings! Ahhhhhhhhhhh......it's all part of making things PERFECT!

Love, Rachel

Sewing & Creating the Easter Lamb Dress, Day 1

Rachel — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:51:04 GMT

It's time! Easter is right around the corner and the Easter Lamb Dress is going to be absolutely spectacular. "Easter Lamb" is a collaboration idea between my brother Daniel and myself. I actually had a dream one night of this dress; on the bodice is an image Daniel had created of the Lamb with seven eyes. The Lamb with seven eyes is a symbol of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Kind of weird, kind of crazy, and completely relevant for Easter! So, hold on to your seats and enjoy the process!

This is the amazing image that Daniel drew and that we are going to use for the dress. The first step to this process is to transform the lines on this image into stitches that my machine can read and sew. I have a Janome Memory Craft 9500 and I LOVE it! Janome is a great brand to look into because the "innards" are made by the same company as Bernina. Bernina sewing machines are beautifully made, easy to use, extremely high quality, and very expensive. They have an amazing reputation--the insides are still all metal as opposed to plastic which a lot of sewing machine companies are going for to lessen expenses. So, pretty cool that Janome's insides are the same. Anyways.....

I load the picture into a computer program called Embird. Usually when you buy an embroidery machine, they make you buy all the software that "goes along with it" and you end up spending thousands of dollars because you don't know any better. Fortunately, I am married to a computer nerd (said with love, Jon!) and he informed me that there are plenty of programs out there that will do the same exact thing for a lot cheaper. Sometimes it's really hard for me to understand that cheaper (or less expensive) doesn't necessarily mean poor quality or crap as I exclaim to Jon on several occasions over "less expensive" items. I paid only around $200 for the program with the plug-ins that I need instead of $1500. Gotta love the nerd. Moving on....

Here is a close-up of the head of the lamb on the program and you can see that I am outlining the entire lamb which I will then fill in with stitches.

I've outlined the lamb, the eyes, and the halo. There is still a lot of work to do.

The program shows you how it will stitch up. The dotted lines going from point to point show where the thread will stop and restart a new stitching pattern.

The 3-D version of the work I did so far. Still more to do.

Now I am back to the drawing board. I need to highlight some of the details around the lamb's head.

The halo with the details. I think the eyes look a bit naked so I'm going to outline them as well with the black. Let's see how that looks.

Much better, but I'm going to go around the pupils as well.

I think this is going to work. Let's see it in 3-D.

I like it! And here is our lamb! Thanks Daniel!

Love, Rachel

A Familyre Christmas Album is Complete!

Rachel — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 20:35:46 GMT

Okay everyone! You can download all of the songs and print out a cover for FREE and own your very own "A Familyre Christmas Volume 1!" Here are the artists: Danielson, Lenny Smith, Half-Handed Cloud, Soul Junk, Leopulde, Dan Zimmerman, The Singing Mechanic, Sufjan Stevens, Rachel and Jon Galaxy, Woven Hand, Ben + Vesper, Joshua Stamper, and Elin. Since you have been reading about the process of my song with Jon, here is instant gratification :

Love, Rachel