The fall brings cooler temps, warmer colours and, for me, rich memories of organizing the Ottawa Browncoats fundraising events for about 6 years with an awesome crew.
Having retired from that a couple of years back, I now choose my volunteer efforts carefully and try to make sure they still touch my heart, without breaking my body!
This year, TAV Creations will be donating to two October events and I’m making artisan pieces with reclaimed textiles for these events.
I had the pleasure of helping two young ladies feel their best this prom – and that is fine.
Altering one dress to give it more support – there are a LOT of knit lined dresses out there, which is a mixed blessing – there is some flexibility provided by the knit linings and thin boning, but the support is just not the same as a woven inner structure.
Adding extra boning, take in the dress to follow the curves more closely and she’s a statuesque goddess ready to take on the night!
And then there’s the custom dress I began while working with Norde Bridal. Thanks to Meg who found the beautiful beaded fabric for this lucky young woman!
I’ve been posting teaser shots over the past few months:
The fabric laid out for me to percolate
closeup of those lovely beads and sequins
the pieces and beads after I had to do the final internal trimming
the join from the body into the upper straps – as seamless and smooth of a transition as possible!
And then I finished it, after 5 fittings, many small and large adjustments in the process…
Boning on the interlining helps add structure to the inner layers
Soooo many beads…
the inner works…
– how wide should the straps be?
-how deep can the neckline be and still provide a secure fit?
-how much interlining and boning will give the right support without feeling too constricting?
Checking the visual on the strap width while making the dress
Yes, there’s a TAV Creations label in there!
Looking pretty good on the table!
And I had to use a single flap zipper, with added hooks to keep it secure and and smooth.
And then I waited until her prom was over – and her mom started sending me shots right away – which was amazing!
close up of back view – fitting her curves!Back viewAn amazing young woman on her way in the world!
And then she sent me these lovely shots the night of her prom!!
I love the energy and spirit of this woman who came through my studio with such clear ideas of what she wanted! She’ll go far, no matter what she chooses to do!
Costume styling is also one of my things – or even just inflicting my costume visions upon friends and having them be talented enough to do their parts!
And TAV Creations helped dress everyone – with assistance from a few awesome sources and the members of Meowvellous themselves!
All of the members assisted in personalizing the pieces they wore, with 2 dresses from the now closed Norde bridal, my own corset having been made by my student/ friend Letitia; embellishments added and the skirt made by TAV Creations < me> and the crinoline from the now closed Luxe bridal salon.
Some causal clothing from my personal closet topped things off for our sexy dude, along with her own fabulous pieces!
And…drum roll please…. I give you…
2nd place winners of the 3rd annual Pete’s Lip-Sync Battle on May 5th.
And today, I returned the key to the adorable little bridal store on Cumberland AKA Norde bridal, Formerly the Handmade Bride, as the owner’s own journey is taking her focus to her ArrohandBow business < congrats and all the best to you Meg!>
In the den of my wonderful apartment are 3 garment racks.
Filled with costumes that I am transitioning through as I retire from teaching belly dance classes after this spring session, the realization that some of my Bollywood costumes will never fit me unless I work really hard and give up certain foods I really like < still deciding on that>, and an assortment of TAV Creations original clientele pieces and previously Norde, now TAV Creations client pieces.
In my studio is another 72 inch high rack that has this week’s dresses on, and the calendar is filling up.
I am super grateful to have met and worked with Meg, Erin, Tegan and Victoria, as well as the original crew that were at the Handmade bride when I started with them back in December of 2016 – Jenna, Chelsea, Amalia, and Kessia < am I forgetting anyone?>.
It has been a pleasure and an adventure, and I have worked with some amazing brides, and look forward to continuing on the journey with this still in progress and those I am to meet in the future.
So, this weekend being a very powerful one for folks of religious persuasion, it also marks a wonderful transition for me.
You need some work done? Head over to my contact page then drop me an email!
Happy Chocolate Consuming weekend – I’ve got dresses to go sort, and fabrics to store!
I have been redesigning/ designing toppers and boleros/ and doing major alterations throughout the past year and a few months working with Norde < formerly The Handmade Bride> and starting this year with the following gorgeous piece was a full on adventure that ended beautifully!
Nothing like using wordpress itself to along your single photos into the correct layout!
Sorry – about my new art piece…
As I was preparing to get together with friends on a Sunday afternoon of creativity – with a plan for everyone to assemble the supplies and energies to create personal multi-media pieces, I was not inspired.
I helped purchase supplies and and gathered my own bits slowly as the day approached, but I really only knew I wanted to keep it small.
TAV wall of Art
I have a wall of art already in our apartment, just outside my studio:
And I had added one more piece a few months ago:
I don’t have a lot more space to add much more art so I knew I needed to keep it small.
I saw a video post about button tree art that has since been taken down, but it was very inspiring. I knew buttons were not my key addition…#sequins and #beads and #rhinestones would be!
So, I chose my 4 5×7 inch mini canvas tiles and set out to painting my background.
Our Colourful Rainbow of backgrounds…
It became a rainbow of sorts…
Then I painted the tree…a heavy trunked many branched tree….
Our strong tree of life….
Then I added some faintly glittering metallic muted gold paint – that spark of life…
And then I took it home.
I found the sequins and beads I wanted to use and finished it off.
With much of my social media feed filled with stories of such amazing journeys of people from many diverse walks of life,…
this piece is my gift to the world.
Each panel is connected by that strong tree, but each shows a different potential – different colours, different degrees of sparkle, different directions of growing.
But they all fit together.
There is so much more I feel about this piece, but I am not in the right mindset to articulate it clearly.
How about this for a final thought:
Let’s embrace ” All The Things” that make us the same, that make us different, that make us unique and that bring us together.
As part of my Summer break, I like to take some of the time to do things around the house/ studio. And as my machines are in the shop for their annual tune up, those things involve organizing, purging and / or repairs and updates.
So this afternoon project resulted in 2 great new looking chairs, which were put to use right away last night as we had some company over to help sort our DVD collection.
Note – found out at the end of th evening that teenagers do actually think differently – even really well behaved, polite, articulate ones. While they put all the DVD titles starting with each respective letter together, they chose to not sort within that subset. So, we will be taking some time/bribing someone else who is as OCD as we are, to finish the job at some point in the future:-) …Pad Thai, anyone?
Okay, back to earlier in the day…
I began with looking at the chairs I have been suing and turning a blond eye to all of the cracks in the vinyl for a drew years now. While they are good folding chairs, it was time to either donate or recover.
I took a few minutes to search online for techniques and scanned a few other posts, which were much more succinct than this one, and realized how easy it would be. Quick journey into the fabric bins to find some options, and narrowed it down to two. One of each was the final choice!
and so it began:
Tools:
screw drivers – one to remove screws, flat head to remove staples
pliers to assist in removing staples
scissors to cut your fabric
fabric – enough to cover your pieces, extra if using a print / design that needs matching
interfacing or muslin if you want an in between layer
staple gun and ¼ inch staples
1 – Unscrew the sections to be recovered. If there is a finish layer, mine had a thin layer of vinyl stapled on, remove it carefully too.
2- to contain the rips, I used a “primer” layer of stiff interfacing – it was handy.
3-decide on fabric placement – prints look best centred , stripes/squares and al other fabrics, pay attention to the straight of grain – use it as your guide whether placing square with it or on the bias.
4- start in the centres and work your way out to the corners. Practice with the in between layer to see how the curves will work etc.
5-Mark the screwholes to help later reassembling and trim excess fabric as needed.
6 – replace liner, or fins a nice way to hide the fabric edges
in 2016 I was finishing off a number of clients from Luxe Bridal, and Christine was an amazing woman who wanted her dress to have sleeves that matched, and there were some bodice and hem adjustments that happened too.
I do not take “before” photos as who wants to have photos of themselves posted in a dress that does not fit – I like people to look their best!
So thank you to Christine for sending me this lovely selection of photos from her big day!
posted with permission!
And I had used her dress on my instagram feed as well, I was so pleased with how the addition of the sleeves looked!
