More Wedding Madness

I took a few more pics yesterday with a friend of the ceremony dress, since I wore it so little at the wedding.

You can see here, I went with the embroidered buttons. And now looking at it I wonder if the red ones would have been better. And holy cow, why didn't someone tell me it wrinkled so badly in back. Although folks tell me that it didn't look that wrinkled during the actual ceremony. Hmmm. But this shows the train nicely.


Photo by Rosemary

Studio shot of me and Trey.

Photo by Rosemary


Looking at all the wedding photos for pictures that show's Trey's suit, I realize how very bride focused weddings are. Not that I am complaining. But here are a few that show Trey's suit in part at least. As you can see, the time constraints bit me in the butt and it became a two piece rather than a three piece suit. I finished the jacket about midnight the night before the wedding, so there was no way I was going to try to do a vest then. I made the jacket, pants, and the tie.



Photos by Rosemary

I will try to convince Trey to do a few sewing room photos to show some of the construction details. I think he is getting tired of being a groom/model though. :-)

I'm Married!!!

Here is a slideshow sneak peak of my wedding photos from my wedding photographer....

Wedding Slideshow

I have LOTS to catch up on, but since this is the first day back at work from the honeymoon, no time to blog now. But I will be giving all the nitty-gritty in the upcoming week, never fear. :-)

Practicality wins

So as much as I would have loved a gorgeously hand-sewn hem on my reception dress, the fullness of the skirt beat me over the head with the impracticallity of doing that with so much to do and so little time. So I cheated and just did a rolled hem on my serger.

Does it look fabulous and is it what I wanted/dreamed of? No.

Is it passable and unnoticeable to 99 percent of the people that will see it? Yes.

Sometimes you just have to go with what is easy.

So the reception dress is almost done. I brought it to work today to do the finishing details, so hopefully it will be done when I get home and just need a good pressing. Work proceeds on the suit, but I have so little time left it might just be a two piece rather than a three piece.

But in the meantime, I am soothing myself with these pictures of the Cutest Cake Topper EVER!! Yes I made it. Yes those are tiny replicas of us and the cats in clay, dressed in real live scraps of fabric. The little paw prints represent my kitty Joe who passed away last year. The kitty poses represent the personalities of the kitties (George is saying Mommy Mommy look at me while Fred goes straight for the cake) while the humans are in a swing dance pose that even ended up vaguely heart shaped. AWWWWWWWWW.



Yes, I am a crazy person. :-) I will try to get better pictures, including ones that show the kitty faces because they turned out really cute.

I won't be naked!!

Ceremony dress is DONE!!! YAYYYYYYY!!! *Krazy Kermit Arm Dance*

OK, almost done. I somehow only ended up with 19 covered buttons instead of 20 and no little baby snaps for the lingerie straps, so technically I have to cover and sew on one button and two little snaps.

But close enough!! I will be dropping it off with my friend on Monday so she can finish the beading and will give it back to me on Saturday (one day before the wedding!).

The reception dress is baby steps from finishing. Just armhole finishing and hemming--although with that super full skirt, it takes a loooooong time to hem because I do it by hand. But still, absolutely do-able. I would love to have time to add some sparkle, just a bit of beading inside those great box pleats, but I don't think I will. I also have to finish up the petticoat to wear under this one, but it is about halfway done.

Unfortunately, I have to go up to Philadelphia this weekend for work, so I won't be able to stitch on it until Monday when I return. But it is funny, more than half of my suitcase is filled with portable sewing tasks that I can do in the hotel in the evenings. I brought all of the suit fabric and interfacing for The Boy's jacket and hope to have it all cut out this weekend--his pants are finished, but I still have the jacket, vest and tie to make for his suit. I also packed my shoes and some fabric to cover them.

A lot of work ahead, but at least neither of us will be naked at the wedding anymore! Much to the relief of all involved. :-) I won't have internet access again until Monday, but I will post pics of everything then.

Button, Button, Who's got the Button

As promised, here are some pics of the ceremony dress in progress with the two button options. I only had a few buttons done---in the final look the buttons will go all the way up the back. Ok, so the red ones are just scraps of fabric cut in circles, but it gives you the idea.


Sunburst



Red


I like the red more than I thought I would, but am still a bit torn over which to do. Plain ivory ones just disappeared into the fabric, so those are definitely out of the running. But I like both of these and am still open to suggestions. I need to get hopping on a decision though.

ETA: There will be 20 buttons going from the point of the red train up to the neckline of the dress.

A separate issue.....anyone out there know how to make the train keep that pretty pretty circle shape even as I walk down the aisle in it? The beaded edging definitely helps some, but it does collapse a bit as I walk.

AAAHHHHH!!!! Less than two weeks!!!

Getting Better....

Here are the latest pics of the reception dress. With a regular bra and a bit of fiddling around the bust area, the fit was instantly better. I also cut some of the excess fabric out from under the arms. As you can see, the fit is MUCH better than before.







There are still some wrinkles that I can't seem to fix. Releasing the side seams didn't help at all. Maybe take more off the back underarm? I don't know if adding a bit of boning would help? Or if this is as good as it gets? I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I would love the fit to be PERFECT, but I think this is at least livable.

Looking for my Inner Tim Gunn

So when I first started working on my dress design, I keep hearing Tim Gunn in my head, telling me to edit my look. Thus the conglomeration of every idea I ever had for a wedding smooshed into one dress eventually got edited down to what I think is a pretty classy design.

But this one detail I am working on now, I am not sure if Tim would exclaim "Fabulous" or tell me I have "too much look".

I am so inspired by the gorgeous beading detail my friend is doing on my train. She started with the beaded edging I loved so much from Summerset's Midnight Garden outfit. Then she did a sort of sunburst pattern with bugle and seed beads, and now she is doing some scatter beading in several shades of red in the panels.



I loved the sunburst idea and it really went along with the art deco-ish feel I have for the wedding in general. So I thought I would introduce the idea in the covered buttons I am doing all down the back to the point where the red train starts.

I have really struggled with the buttons. Red ones were too harsh against the ivory. Ivory ones I thought might look a little plain against the magnificence of the train. So I embroidered a sunburst pattern in red on some buttons and came up with this.



Of course these aren't attached to the back of the dress yet, just laid down on some ivory fabric to see how it would look. But now I am not sure if this is too much or if this makes the look. If these enhance the train idea or distract from it (I am getting the train back this weekend, so maybe once I see them together that will tell me). I asked my Tim Gunn, but he ain't talking.

At least the train looks good.....

The reception dress is now mostly put together. And of course now I am seeing all kinds of problems.

Here are some pics as is. The facings are not in and the red bit at the top is just tucked in so I could see how it would look. The side pleats in the skirt are also not pressed. I am planning on hemming it just below the knee. And I will eventually have a petticoat to wear under it as well.



I obviously need to do a bit more pressing of the princess seams, but what is really bad is all those wrinkles/pulling all over the bodice, especially on the back. I am wondering what I did wrong, as the muslin did not do this. Maybe a waist stay would help some, keep the heavy skirts from dragging down the bodice so much? Any other suggestions out there? Particularly any thoughts on how to fix it WITHOUT starting over?

Sigh. One step forward, two steps back.

As far as the ceremony dress, here is a picture of the ginormous red train, inside and out. This is based on the back pieces of the Truly Victorian Fantail Skirt pattern, although I lengthened it a bit. The white strip on the inside is where the ties will be inserted to gather it in the back.



I dropped it off last weekend with a fellow costuming buddy who very kindly offered to do some beading on it as her wedding gift to me. I can't wait to see the results! Now I just need a dress to attach it to......

Parting shot:
Fred has been getting all the attention lately, so I thought I would shine the spotlight on his brother George for once. George is missing his friend and consequently is very wild and crazy playful. Here he is in one of his rare moments of rest.

Almost a dress

Front of reception dress is done! And the back is done too!! Now all I have to do is put the halves together and do the facings and I will actually have at least one dress to wear!

Yay!!!

One thing that is already bugging me is the invisible zipper pull that shows in the back. I should have moved the zipper to the side where it would be less noticeable. But I am certainly NOT going to change it now. Maybe I could come up with a way to emphasize it, since I can't hide it at this point. Add some red beads or something and make it a little feature. Hmmm.

Another thing that is bugging me is despite getting a heavier cotton to underline, you can still see the pleat folds through the skirt. The seam allowances are less noticable, but still somewhat visible. ARGH!!! No wonder I never sew with light colored fabrics!!!! This might be another thing to try to deal with if I have time, but for now I need to just let it go. I don't even know what I would do about it I had the time at this point, because I am absolutely not taking it apart and/or starting over, and short of that I don't know if there is any way to hide the show through in the ivory fabric.

These are things that probably only another sewing person would notice anyways. So maybe I need to just relax about it......Easier said than done!!

I should have pictures tomorrow.

Underlining

Would underlining a dress in cotton muslin (rather than cotton batiste) be horribly tragic?

The dress is an ivory peau de soie--a high quality poly blend, not the real deal silk. With many many seams that show through to the other side which is not attractive.

I have silk organza and china silk, but with my experiments with both of those, the seam allowances still show through. And I don't have enough of either of those to do a double layer.

Plus this is the dress I am dancing in and not planning to line, so cotton might be better against my sweaty skin than silk would be anyways.

Cotton muslin is cheap and readily available locally.
Cotton batiste is more expensive and would need to be ordered so would put me behind deadline.

Any thoughts?

Proof!

I did some work this weekend! Muslins for both dresses are done and fitted, The Boy's pants are started, and the petticoat for my reception dress is about halfway completed. Here are some pictures of the ceremony muslin.

Me in Muslin



It was interesting to fit the bodice of this dress. It is constructed in two layers and I decided to make the underlayer red and have it peak out above the overlay. I raised the neckline of the underlayer about 1.5 inches, both to show more of the red and because it was a little too low cut. I did the usual FBA for princess seams on the underlayer, and it was good to go.

The overlayer was more of a challenge. I didn't want to change it too much, because the fun pleats are a main element of the design--but the B cup pattern was not going to fit me right out of the envelope. what I ended up doing is making the pattern pieces with no alterations and just pinning them in place over the underlayer in whatever way they fit. I ended up taking out a fair amount at the side seams, especially on the bottom so it would fit nicely over my bust. I took a tiny little dart out in the side to make the armhole lay better, but I don't think that took anything away from the design. It worked out in the end I think. It would have been MUCH harder if I hadn't wanted the underlayer to show, but since I did, I didn't have to worry about raising the line of the overlayer or anything like that.

Back Train



This is a horrible shot of the back with the train, but you can get the general idea. I split the vogue pattern and the red bit is the fantail skirt which will cascade out the back split. I am going to have buttons down the back to the point of the split. There will be a slight bustle effect in the back, all the better to hide my natural bustle (i.e. Big Butt) a little better.

The Boy's pants are not finished, but the most time consuming parts are done--i.e. the pockets! I never thought before just how much time the pockets take, since most of the pants I make for myself either don't have pockets or aren't made under a deadline. Here is a little shot of the back welt, which still need a little more pressing.



Tomorrow I will try to post about a shirt I made last week for an office bowling party....my first Jalie disappointment. Sigh.

No more procrastinating.

Work proceeds on the wedding clothes. I have settled on designs for and made muslins of everything. Some final tweaking for fit and I will start cutting the "real" fabric this weekend.

The Plan for the ceremony dress is a combination of these two patterns, an OOP Vogue pattern and the fantail skirt from Truly Victorian.



It will have red fabric around the neckline in the front and a loooong red train, which if I have time will be beaded. I have pictures of the muslin of this, I will try to post them tomorrow.


The reception dress is based on this vintage Vogue.



I am dropping the sleeves because they restrict movement too much and this dress is specifically for dancing. I could probably do something with a gusset if I was bent on keeping them, but frankly I don't have the time to mess with it at this point. Plus if it is sleeveless it connects back to the ceremony dress more, which is a nice bonus. The trim around the neckline is again the red fabric. And I have some fabulous red netting with a little bit of silver sparkles to make the petticoat.

I am also covering a pair of shoes in the red fabric. If I have time. :-)

The Boy's suit is moving along ok. I actually have the real fabric prepped and cut out for the pants. The jacket muslin has been approved so I can move forward on that. I still need to muslin and make the vest, but if it comes down to the line, he says I can drop the vest, so that might be the last thing I work on. I am also making him a tie out of the red fabric from my dress.

Shew!!

I love Summerset's Parting Shots, so here is one of my own. Orange kitty Fred with his leg in a cast. Awwwwww!

Flashback Friday, the second

Another flashback friday wedding (I think I have weddings on the brain). About 7 years ago, my lovely friend Abi got married in July. Which is very warm here in VA. But her reception hall was very very very air conditioned, so she wanted a Jane Austen-ish coat to wear over her wedding dress to stay warm. There was a jacket that Kate Winslet wears in the Sense and Sensibility movie that she wanted to model it after--I paused my way through that scene about 20 times to see as much detail on it as I could. And here is the final result.




I started with the Spencer Jacket pattern from Sense and Sensibility Patterns's Regency collection. We made a few alterations--took out the poofyness of the sleeves and changed the front opening--to make it more like the movie jacket.

She chose a lovely blue and silver dragon brocade as her fabric, and we decided to line it in a blue cotton since the lining would show a bit. I love the way it turned out--I have always loved that style of jacket, and it really suits both Abi's figure and her personality perfectly.

Tick tock

Holy crap. When did it get to be January? And almost the end of January?!?!?

I am getting married in October. And have as yet to start making my dress or the groom's suit. Even though I have had a year to get started. It always seemed soooooo far away and I had plenty of time.

And oh yeah, all that weight I was going to lose before the wedding (which served as one excuse to put off making the dress yet)....Well, in the past year I have lost a grand total of maybe 5 pounds.

Yeah.

*thwunk* goes my head on my desk.

Flashback Friday, the first.

I love the flashback fridays that Sharon does, so I am going to try to do them myself.

This flashback is from about 6 years ago, when I was talked into making the wedding dress for one of my swing dancing friends. Her wedding in general had a 1940s swing feel to it. She talked me into making zoot suits for the groom and best man. Then somehow her mom--who was supposed to make the bridesmaid dresses and hats--couldn't handle it, so I made them too. And then made an outfit and hat for myself as well. All over a period of two months. I never called in sick to work as much as I did during those two months---simply from pure exhaustion from staying up the night before and sewing. But it all turned out lovely. (I'm the one in red).



This week I am focusing on the hat and dress I made for myself--I will prolly talk about the other outfits in the pics (I made them ALL) some other week.




My dress is the now OOP vintage vogue pattern 2610. The fabric is a polyester with a really nice hand--I actually thought it was mismarked at the store because it didn't have that weird synthetic fabric feel. I made several alterations to the dress to make it fit me. I had to take it in a lot at the waist (oh how I wish I still needed to do this kind of alteration!), changed the snaps to a side zipper, and I attached the skirt in a different spot. I added back darts to the bodice and skirt for a more fitted look. I also made the skirt fuller for better twirlyness when dancing.



The hat was loosely based on a Vogue hat pattern--I can't find the number right now--but there were so many problems with the pattern that I ended up just fiddling with it and ignoring the pattern until it looked like the picture.



I dated the best man for a while and he was my dance partner. He is the one we all refer to as The Devil because he was eeeevvvviiillll. I am friends with him now and he makes a MUCH better friend than boyfriend. But then again, if he hadn't broken me and if The Boy hadn't been around to cuddle and console me through it, The Boy and I might never have broken that friendship barrier and be getting married ourselves in (GULP) nine months. Everything happens for a reason.

If I weren't already engaged......

New fabric arrived in the mail yesterday and all I can say is droooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!

Backstory: I am making this suit for The Boy for our wedding next year.



And I bought this wool fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics (among others, but I took them out of the box and hid them before The Boy could see and fuss at me about it. teeheehee).

Ever since it arrived yesterday, I have been resisting the urge to continually pet it. I want to make a nest out of it and live in it forever and ever. It is some seriously nice fabric.

And such a relief because we have been searching for fabric FOREVER and this was the first one under 80 bucks a yard that meets his (dark grey) and my (high quality wool of appropriate weight for mens suit) requirements.

I just hope there is enought left over to make something for me!