The making begins!!! Rose and I looked through my patterns, mainly for me to get an idea about shapes she liked, but she ending up picking one! I had every intention of taking her pattern shopping among the "bridal" selections - but she insisted she was set - so we were off!!!
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| It started with the veil that dear Kay contributed. It was attached to a strange plastic and lace "crown" which was not what Roo envisioned at all, so I removed it and covered the edges in a satin ribbon. Later... |
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| ...a bit of the ribbon used for her dress was hand stitched on. |
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| Two combs like this one were hand stitched, side-by-side, to the inner aspect to keep it in place. |
This old Butterick pattern was Roo's pick. However, instead of the sash, she requested a corset look. With some yellow cotton sateen that had a bit of stretch, from Fine Fabrics in Atlanta - we were off!!!
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| While not usually one for making a toile, this was not my usual sewing circumstance!! And it was a good decision!!! My first invisible zip ever! Not bad, not perfect. Though the zip was cream not yellow, cause that's what I had! I made a larger size (12) than I thought we needed - on purpose - so I could learn where to tweak it. And then there was the 'corset'! The first trick was deciding where to place and space the loops. Not too difficult. Then, what to use. I hit upon the idea of tiny elastic cord. The sort you might use to loop over a button for a closure. I hand stitched them to the seam and used tape to hold them in place for machine stitching the side seams. |
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| Seems okay! |
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| Here they are. Pretty cute. Hand stitched. Then the seam was machine stitched and serged. |
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| And here we are! Hmm.... Poor Roo touched one of the loops and was horrified that she had ruined her dress when it popped out completely. Apparently the processing of serging/trimming the seams had done away with my hand sewing in which I had carefully punctured the elastic and the round little buggers had just rolled away from the needle during machine stitching. Further, the few that remained intact did not work at all!!! Elastic is stretchy - DUH!!! So NOT a good idea for a corset. The dress was WAY too big - it is much pinned here in a fitting, but that was what I expected. AND ~ I learned that I had misunderstood the length Roo wanted for THE dress!!! She wanted above the knee and I had envisioned tea length. Not to worry! That's what a toile is all about, right? In the end, I removed all the elastics and fitted this dress, with a length just below the knee for this version resulting in a very wearable cute yellow dress!! |
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| The veil was perfect and this is where we decided to add the purple ribbon. |
Back to the drawing board for those loops!!! I had plenty of 3/8 inch, white satin ribbon. SEW! I folded it in half and carefully stitched it together. Then stitched along the folded side at the same distance for a balanced appearance and strength.
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| I love Neena so much!!!! |
The "toil" and benefits of a learning curve...
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| Voila! Better invisible zip installation! And more hopeful about the result of the ribbon loops, hand basted in place in this pic. |
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| YES! Much better. They look neat. Stay in place. (A rather simple but important requirement!!) And ~ they work!!! Fabric is a Rosie selected material from JoAnn's - categorized as a stretch denim by them but seems more like a stretch cotton sateen to me with it's sleek and semi-glossy finish. It is completely opaque which is good as she wanted neither a lining nor a slip! And while it is thick enough to have a nice structure, it drapes very nicely. |
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| I ended up making a straight 10 and still had to take in the sides a bit to get the perfect fit. Mannie is not quite the same size as Roo, but you get the idea! |
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| I added a few sweet details. And there was a use for a bit of that elastic! HA! |
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| Despite reading grey in this photo...a little 'something blue' was embroidered at the hem. |
In the end...
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| ...sew perfect!!!! |
It was such a lovely experience to create this dress with and for my Rosie. While it certainly isn't for everyone, I am really glad I did it. I also made it several months ahead. Which meant I didn't have a time crunch and knew we could go buy her something lovely if this process didn't work out!
Next up, runners for her tables:
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| Using a variety of paints we had on hand (some for fabric and some not) B and I did as we were directed by the artist bride and had great fun painting away on jute burlap in smoke/charcoal that I cut in strips to fit the tables from Fabric.com. We thought about finishing the edges with a hem or some such, but in the end left them raw. |
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| They turned out pretty, didn't they? |
With all that out of the way, I had time to consider what the MOB was to wear! HA! Jamie's peeps were partial to green and Roo's to purple with a background of grey for both.
I considered wearing this dress,
The Bristol Dress by Orageuse , but I had long been thinking of a pattern hack based on this inspo:
Orageuse even provides the deets in
a tutorial!
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| Armed with this perfectly purple sateen from JoAnn's, (no stretch in this one) I made this! The fabric had a lovely sheen, though in truth it was a little too stiff for this application to be its best, but it worked! I will definitely be making another one in a material with more drape. |
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| I paired my new Bristol top with some much worn, but never blogged, Flint Pants from Megan Nielsen in a lovely grey crepe. They started out full length and were worn that way for about a year until I decided they would be more versatile with a bit of a chop. Since then they have gone on dates with dressy heels and to the grocery with tennies! |
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| For fun, with just a smidge of fabric left over, I made ANOTHER Tate Top, from Workroom Social, to wear when we decorated the venue and got ready at home. (I know, I have a strange addiction to Tates!) |
There you have it!!!
Being a maker is fun! The DRESS, the decor, the MOB outfit! Oh!! And, I did play a pretty substantial role in making the bride! HA!!! It was all so lovely! Ever so blessed to get to share in the making of this special day! May the coming year bring more fun adventures to all of us!
Sew and LIVE chaotically! Much love ~ les
I considered wearing this dress, The Bristol Dress by Orageuse , but I had long been thinking of a pattern hack based on this inspo:
