Crafting for Dia De Los Muertos

 

My husband and I were invited to a "Dia De Los Muertos" party at a friend's place. She mentioned that everyone dresses up for it, so Guy and I decided to have a bit of fun.

My husband wanted to dress as "Juan Diego". I sewed his shirt from Simplicity 3519, a "poet" shirt pattern. I also made the Tilma (the tabard) from the same fabric as the shirt.

For myself, I made a Mexican peasant dress. I combined multiple flower designs into several larger designs and embroidered them on my dress using my Redline 1501. The dress is based off of a pattern I spotted on Pinterest. It's a very simple pattern, consisting of several rectangles sewn together. I used some teal blue linen that has been in my stash for many years. The body rectangles are gathered above the bustline to provide minimal shaping. I also added pockets, as you can see in the photo above (my hand is in my pocket). The pattern didn't indicate whether the traditional Mexican peasant dresses had pockets or not, but I hate not having pockets, so I added them anyway.

Redline machine embroidering the neckline design. This was about 55,000 stitches and took over an hour to embroider. 

The completed neckline embroidery. The color is "off" because apparently my sewing room's lights are somewhat yellow tinted. The true colors match the "embroidering on the Redline" photo. 

Close up view of the stitching to show details. I picked the embroidery designs that most closely resembled the traditional hand-stitching. 

Close up view of the middle section of the neckline. 

Close up view of the right side of the neckline. I totally forgot to photograph the embroidery on the back and the embroideries further down on the front. 

I was told to "Show some attitude". OK.... how's that? At least you can see the ric-rack that adorns the seamlines across the shoulders and across the front. 

Close up of us. Aren't we cute? 

HAPPY SEWING!!