The Wedding Dress that Never Happened

It was with great excitement and anticipation that I began the planning of my wedding dress, several months ago. After hours of trawling pinterest, pattern review and endless google searches, I decided I really wanted to stretch my sewing skills and create a very special dress for such a special event.

I took advantage of the pattern sales on at the time and purchased several contenders. 

Initially, I was set on making Vogue 1030. After I ordered the pattern, but before it arrived, this post from Poppykettle popped up. She had used this very pattern for her bridesmaids dresses. This post was quite enlightening as she shared the whole process of creating this dress twice, and it wasn't without considerable drama along the way...I think she scared me off using this pattern, even though her dresses turned out beautifully in the end.

So I went on to plan B, consulting my mother for advice. The next pattern I considered was Simplicity 1909 view C. When I showed my mother she so tactfully pointed out that it did look lovely on the very slim model (but maybe not on so good on a middle aged woman with a thickening waist) Don't you just love Mothers...but she was right.

Finally I settled on Simplicity 2253, a Jessica McClintock design.

I loved the seamlines in the bodice and the elegant skirt with a slight train. I decided to make a muslin to try it out and get the fit right. I used a cheap poly suiting that I had in the stash, which had a lovely drape, and I underlined it with an old flannelette sheet.

Tuck pinned out at neckline, ready to transfer to the paper pattern.

Roughly pinned on the dress form after being shoved aside for weeks.

I only needed to make a few minor tweaks to get the fit right. The next drama was sourcing suitable fabric. I agonised over what colour to get. I had something pastel in mind in cool green/aqua like tones. I live in an area that is a complete dressmaking fabric void. Therefore, I had to resort to online shopping, and from experience, this is always a bit of a gamble. 

After having no success in Australia, I decided I would be brave and try Mood Fabrics. I love their website. It is so easy to navigate with great pictures of so many beautiful fabrics. I decided on a beautiful Silk Crepe Back satin called Dewkist, with a matching China Silk lining. I ordered it and my credit card was debited almost immediately. I stipulated on my order that I required it three weeks from the time of order. And so began the wait. Well to cut a long story short, after several emails were exchanged and almost five weeks had passed since I had placed the order, my fabric had still not been shipped. I was getting extremely stressed as my sewing time was disappearing fast, as our Wedding date was approaching quickly. I suddenly realised this was ridiculous. This was supposed to be a happy and exciting time leading up to our marriage, and it was turning into a nightmare. That's when I decided I was not going to let it ruin my special day. I cancelled my fabric order and was reimbursed in full, no questions asked.

Then, I am sad to say, I broke my RTW fast. I went on a wedding shopping day trip to Canberra, taking my mother with me for her invaluable advice. We had a great day and I found a suitable dress and got a bargain as it was half price. In fact, it cost less than half of what I was paying for the fabric from Mood. As soon as I had settled on the dress, everything else just fell into place.

I did do a little wedding related sewing. I made my own wedding garter which was a bit of fun. There are loads of tutorials on the internet with various ways of going about doing this. I got the general idea and then adapted it to suit the lace and ribbon that I had.

I ordered silk flowers from Bloom Room Designs as we were travelling away to get married, and it was difficult to organise fresh flowers where we were going. So I had to work out how to pack the flowers for our trip. The box they came in was too big for the suitcase, so I decided to make a large tote bag that the box would fit into. They were very lightweight, so carrying them wasn't a problem. I was able to take the tote on our flight as carry on luggage and it just fitted into the overhead compartment in the plane perfectly. The fabric I used to make the tote was actually a lovely brocade bed valance that had been sitting in my linen cupboard for the past ten years, unused. I was very pleased that I had finally found a use for it, and the colours toned in beautifully with our wedding theme. I even lined it with the cotton fabric part of the valance that is usually sandwiched between the mattress and the bed base.

Brocade fabric from unused bed valance.

Handles made from purchased cotton webbing.

This is how the box containing our silk wedding bouquet and buttonniere fitted in the bag.

I will leave you with a few wedding photos, even though the dress was purchased from Events Clothing, not made by me. 

(Greg and I took all the wedding photos ourselves using a tripod, remote control and the 30 second timer. Not too bad for selfies!!!)

All's well that ends well.

Happy Sewing

The Perfect Fit ( a work in progress)

My nephew is tying the knot in September and I have been told it will be a formal affair. I have been thinking and planning my outfit over the last month or so. Recently I took a class on Craftsy Sew The Perfect Fit with Lynda Maynard. I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to try out my newly gained skills or see if I actually learned anything at all. I really can't recommend this class enough. Lynda Maynard has a wonderful teaching style. She is organised and methodical in her teaching method, which makes the class very easy to follow. She clearly demonstrates different fitting woes and the way to correct them, on real life models (and they are not all Barbie doll shapes). She then, very methodically demonstrates how to transfer these changes to the paper pattern. It's almost magical.  The pattern used for this class is Vogue 8766.

I had a few patterns that I liked certain bits of. So I thought I would combine three different patterns to create my outfit. These are:

I love the princess seams and the shaped peplum of View C and the neckline of View A.

VOGUE 8766: I love the 3/4 sleeves. They have 3 small darts at the sleeve cap to shape them.

BHL Charlotte Skirt: I love the highwaisted skirt and the shaping and length.

I started off making a calico muslin of the bodice. The only drawback is that you really need someone to help you with identifying your fitting issues, once you have made up the muslin. My dear partner struggles to pin two pieces of fabric together without the pins falling out two seconds later, so I had to rope my Mum in to help. She really struggled with the idea of slashing the muslin and adding in strips of fabric to correct the fit. It took me quite a lot of convincing that it was only a muslin (never intended to ever be worn), and it was ok to cut holes in it. She was very worried that she would ruin it.

My slashed muslin with strips of fabric added.

There was quite a bit of slashing to do, to get this pattern to fit my body. I am quite rectangular, not much waist definition. I am really hoping that the peplum is going to give the illusion of a waist.

Here are the changes added to the paper pattern.

Using my altered pattern I created a second muslin of the bodice to double check that my alterations were correct. I included the sleeve this time. I had to add more circumference to the sleeve head, tapering to the sleeve hem, to fit the bodice armscye. This worked out surprisingly well.

Notice the small darts in the sleeve head.

I decided that I wanted to use a brocade fabric to construct my outfit. I had either a royal blue or an emerald green colour in mind. I should have learned by now, that the fabric shop will never have what I have in mind. It would eliminate the inevitable disappointment. Anyway, after a two hour trip to the nearest Spotlight (on route to return my daughter to the airport), I emerged from the shop with this Purple Rose Brocade.

Purple Rose Brocade purchased from Spotlight ( the colour is deeper in reality...hard to photograph)

I suspect this is 100% polyester. It is quite stiff and frays like crazy when cut. I paid $19.99 per metre which I thought was quite expensive, but I had little choice. I guess I am starting to warm to it.

Stay tuned for the next progress report.


Happy Sewing.