2 questions...

[lovetriangle]

1) I'm gettin' ready to get to work on the PDSvN dress again and I'm squeaking by on barely enough fabric for some parts so I can't screw it up. I am leery of pinking and slashing the lining of the pendant sleeves because I'm using dupioni. Any tips? I want to avoid using something like a fusabel interfacing just because I'm not sure I want to add that much stiffness or weight. I don't know... Exacto? Chisel? Pizza dough poker wheel? Any ideas?

2) The new/used laptop looks like it may actually become mine this week and I want to revamp my website - I have some to update on the individual dress diaries. What do y'all want to see? What would make it useful/enteratining/not want to gouge you own eyes out?

Comments

[lizcostumes.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of the exacto. I just used a plain #11. Make sure to change your blade ridiculously often. About 15 minutes of cutting can dull one remarkably fast, but htere's nothing like a fresh blade to fix up your speed and accuracy in cutting. Buy like 50 blades before you start and you'll be fine :)

I foudn that using the buttonhole cutter was a bad idea because i dulled it and (obviously) couldn't just throw in a new blade as with a knife.

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

Have you done this on dupioni? Did you back it with anything? I'm not sure if I'll duplicate the pattern exactly from the PDSvN dress but will cuts that small show any color behind them, like the interlining?

I saw a pic of one of Joseph's costumes with pinked sleeves (the green & gold one) that looked like dupioni - did you do that or Kelly? It came out very nice.

[lizcostumes.livejournal.com]

I've only played with cutting dupioni minimally. But yes, I would be concerned about its durability. however, an option is pinking the fabric, flatlining it to whatever lining you want to show, and then flatlining that whole piece again to something else to give it stability. if you can't get the inside color to peek through, then you're going to want to make I shaped cuts - one long one for the cut like you planned, and then two smaller ones at each end. this should allow the sides to be peeled back or fray to reveal the lining. If that's not enough, put some thick, tacky glue on those frayed strands, and once it dries, you should be able to peel back the frayed part and it will stay much better.

That's Kelly's work - pretty, aint it?

[sewphisticate.livejournal.com]

If it's dupioni, I'd use one of the crimped-edge hammer-blades that one would usually use for 18th c ruffle edges, and then instead of a straight slash I'd futz it more like this: () (because those blades are mostly curved.) Although there's always the careful application of Fray Check, which might solve the problem. But DooD! Dupioni!

[love3angle.livejournal.com]

Alas, fray check permanently darkens the edges of thin silk like dupioni or taffetta. :-(

hmmmmmmm, curved chisel... I see it...

At my old job I was near to a Sally's fabrics in a really horrible mall (Fox Hills) that carried almost nothing but cheap yarn and african prints, but they always had a silk remnants table for $4-$6/yd (almost always dupioni - never taffetta). I always had the best/weirdest luck finding really odd colors of stuff since these would be the bolt ends of what they carried - mustard yellows, oranges, hot pinks, and really odd greens. I've got a collection of odd greens in this dress and I think it will turn out very pretty. It may end up being a little too matchy-matchy but I think the silver braid will offset that. I hope.

[lizcostumes.livejournal.com]

I use a thicker glue like "jewel-it" (used for rhinestones) because its so thick it sits at the surface of the fabric, wont bleed through, and dries clear anyway.