My Cambie Bridesmaids Dresses

For background, here is everyone helping me choose the fabric from four choices. I ended up going with a celery green silk dupioni from Fishman's Fabrics here in Chicago. The lining is Nude Bemberg rayon. The fabric came out to about $75 per dress, which is way nicer and still less money than a David's Bridal anything!

I decided on the Cambie dress long before; actually, I let Stephanie and Vicky choose between that and the Lonsdale and that's what they wanted. Oh, I am so democratic. 

Here are some under construction photos when the dress was almost complete: here. 

My mom made Vicky's dress, as they live near each other. It looked wonderful! 

Vicky

 I made Stephanie's a sewed in the zipper the morning of the wedding, thereby forcing my mom to sew the lining to the zipper. Both dresses had to have the lining shorted a bit; the silk poofs out because it is crisp, but the lining falls straight so it was handing out a little. Mom fixed that as well. Thanks, Mom!

Steph

Steph reading my poem selection by ee cummings

Nice side view

before the ceremony. What great bridesmaids!

They looked great and the dresses turned out exactly as I wanted! Yay!

Sewing for Stephanie's Wedding

Now, this is a little behind the times, since Stephanie got married the weekend after I did. MMMhhhmmm, such a copy cat. :) So we stayed with them in New Orleans for the week in between, which was great. Andrew and I got to hang out with all of our parents before they headed home and enjoy the New Orleans sunshine.

I did do one productive thing that week though! Stephanie had a St. Patrick's Day themed wedding reception during the Irish Channel Parade, so she wanted two green sashes made: one for the wedding the night before and one for the party. A friend from work was supposed to make it for her, but didn't, with no explanation  So I looked around online and found a sewing studio where you could rent a machine by the hour, called Sew Fabulous in the Riverbend. I called and left a message and both ladies called me back really promptly and I was able to go the next morning and make the sashes with the fabric Steph had.

It was super cute inside

 Maybe I've been in Chicago too long, but I was expecting an hour to be like 30 bucks or so. Wrong, it was only 10! And the owner came by and was super friendly and helped me with the second sash. It was fun! The also do classes for all levels and then open studio time, too. It was really cute and the sashes turned out fine.

The owner helped me with one sash and I was out the door in less than an hour!

The ceremony was at Steven's parents house for a small group and then there was a big crawfish boil to celebrate with everyone. Stepahnie bought her dress the day before my wedding when we stopped in Trashy Diva (a vintage-style clothing store) the day before my wedding. I bought my rehearsal dinner dress and she bought her wedding dress! We made this sash more like a cummerbund to match the shape of the midriff of the dress. It turned out a little bit big, because Stephanie and Steven were at the ceremony where he found out where they are going for his residency(!) so she couldn't be there to try it on.

 At the ceremony, where we all cried.

 Crawfish boil fun! Andrew destroyed his shirt, but Stephanie kept her dress nice, which is a feat!

The parade wedding party was the next day and she had a different dress, so it got its own sash. This one was more like a long ribbon-type sash in a brighter green. Steven had an awesome green suit, as well!

So cute!

See, it matches the wig!

Their cat clawed up Steven's face the day before the wedding, which we just covered with a little makeup. However, there was a face-painter there, so Steven had some wolverine claw marks painted on. So funny!

rawr

It was a super fun weekend! Congrats to Steph and Steven! Yay!

April Giveaway

Here is April's giveaway!

While these are pretty tiny, they all have very simple lines and would be easy to grade up, I think!

Winner gets all four patterns and I will mail them anywhere.

 McCalls 5129 pattern for making costume bonnets, one size. Would anyone like to be Laura Ingalls Wilder for a day? lol. Also, McCalls 7662 (30-32 bust)for a simple A-line dress with patch pockets.

We also have Simplicity 9526 (28 bust) and 9521(22 waist 28 hips): a dress/tunic in an A-line or an A-line shorts/skirt that can also be overalls. Haha.

Leave a comment to enter by Monday night at midnight! I also listed some more patterns on my etsy shop, too.

A Trench-coat for Spring! Robson patten testing

While I was hard-core procrastinating on my wedding dress, I received an email about pattern testing from Tasia at Sewaholic Patterns. I have done pattern testing a few times and it is always super fun: knowing a secret before everyone else, being helpful, making something cute, a free pattern...etc. So I was like "aww yeah." In the past I did pattern testing for the Minoru jacket, Cambie dress, Alma blouse one and two, and Thurlow shorts. Those were all fairly simple and came together quickly. It's important to note at this point: it was mid-January, about 5 weeks out from my wedding with the dress not started, and you don't know what the pattern is until you are chosen. 

So I get my email and find out its for a trench coat. Hmm. I might be a procrastinator, but I am not a quitter, and thus I continued on. I made Andrew that birthday trench a few year ago, so I fully understood the time commitment needed. (Note: that is the only thing I have ever made that made it to Burda's best of the month thing.)

 Here is the sketch for the Robson coat:

Buy it here!

So I proceed to make the coat, which is made from a cheetah print quilter's cotton and underlined with beige polka dot flannel. Since it is unlined, like any true trench, the seams are bound with beige binding, and then hot pink after I ran out. It is quite a coat... very flashy and yet neutral. I have yet to wear it out of the house and not have someone comment on it!

I think I am going to hem it a bit shorter, but other than that I really like it. Sewing it was exactly as predicted and I didn't really have many changes to suggest; her instructions keep it simple and are infinitely better than the Vogue one from Andrew's coat.

 Back:

 Cuff details:

 It's double breasted and has rain flaps, not that you can see them.

 Wearing it open feels a little too creepy-flasher:

 However, I did have to flash you once to see the inside, which is the fuzzy flannel. The arms are the only part bound in hot pink. I bought three or four packages, but I should have got one more.

 Belt loops, belt, inseam faux-welt pockets:

 The back has the trench flat and a button and epaulet shoulder tabs.

 Collar and front flaps. My buttons are beige and disappear magically.

It is not a difficult pattern. I think an advanced beginner could do it. It just takes more time. You just need to be able to do buttonholes, top-stitching and binding seams. If you can do those, then you're golden! I would say it cost about $60 because I underlined it, so that was twice as much fabric. It used about 4 yards. I finished it during pattern testing by making myself sit down and sew an hour each day. It probably took about 10 hours and then it took me a month to sit down and sew on all the buttons. OH hand sewing, so easy to procrastinate!

Overall, it was a fun coat to make and now I have another jacket to wear for the in-between-ness of Spring weather!

Sewing My Wedding Dress: the Skirt

 Finally, here is the construction of my skirt! My final inspiration was a mermaid style skirt, which is the look I wanted with the vintage McCalls pattern that I just could get. Finally, I gave up on that waste of time and I pulled out the pieces to Vogue 1183, that I had recently used to make a wool dress. The skirt was about right for the waist and hips: seams, not darts and it fit decently, if I added a bit of room.

So I made a muslin, adding about an inch at the center front and back so that it wasn't as tight as the wool dress (duh I am not a 6!). Then I tapered the pieces in at the knee and flared them out into a fan shape at the bottom. Then I added a godet to the center front. As you can see below, since it was cut on the fold, it lacked the flare of the other points. The godet gave it the same shaping, while also eliminating the need for a center seam. 

BG: before godet

Masterful iphone pic

At that point, I had about 2 weeks until the wedding so it was like "Let's go!"

The skirt is three distinct layers. China silk lining, silk charmeuse underlining with the shiny side in, and then of course my top layer of lace. After some internet snooping, I decided all the layers needed to be distinct to give the best floatyness. 

Here you can see the flare of the final skirt and the center godet. 

Here is a close-up of the joint. I did a really wonky job on the two lower layers, so for the lace I did french seams on one side and then top-stitched down the left side to be sure there would be no puckers or bumps.

I made french seams on the lace skirt, but did not finish the seams on the underskirts because they are hidden. Lol, I never finish seams, why would my wedding dress be any different?

french seams

Somehow I miscalculated on the French seams, though and it ended up being too snug. The lace was tighter than the silk layers beneath. It was really only tight over the widest part of my his, just below where the zipper ends. I would have just left it as is, since time was getting short, but I felt like it was distorting the lace and might tear it. I ended up adding a tiny insert to the center back seam below the zipper, which you can see between the red pins in the picture below. Very hard to see, and no one would even notice.

I was able to use the scallops on the hem, which turned out to be the perfect way to hem the lace. It gave a very nice finish and I am really happy with the final look. The underskirts are both machine hemmed in a shoddy and molly-like way. Aka, no one can see them! ;)

Underskirts.

I hemmed it at just the right length where it looked nice with the heels I bought for the ceremony and then still didn't drag on the ground after I switched to flats. Bam, genius!

See, works with flats too!

Nice swish when I walked

Overall, I would say it cost about $300 and I am not even going to guess how long it took if you count all the muslins and fittings. I am super proud of myself and am happy to say "I made my own wedding dress!!!"

Sewing my Wedding Dress: the Bodice

First of all, thank you for all of your sweet comments about my dress and wedding. It is really sweet. If I'm ever feeling sad, I can read all of those comments to make me smile!

Recaps:
Wedding Dress Inspiration & Muslins
Pictures of my Finished Dress

I did not do a very thorough job of documenting my sewing of the dress. Most of my "in-progress" pictures are awful selfie cell phone pics that I text-ed to my mom so she could see my progress.

I made the first muslin of the bodice at the end of October 2012. Click on the link for the original post with my sketches and the muslin muslin. The pattern used (for parts) is McCall's 5321 for a strapless wedding dress with a giant poof skirt. I bought it on sale for 99 cents to use the bodice pieces only, as I wanted princess seams and had my own ideas for the straps and back. I drafted a rough idea of the back and straps myself and knew that would be adjusted later depending on the lace.

Making muslin 2 out of a sheer fabric gave me some more time to see what I needed to adjust. It helped me realize I did not want the point at the waist and instead just made it straight across, which is easier too. I also noted that the bodice neckline was too high, especially under the armpits, so I adjusted all of that. That was in November.
                                                     
Then I procrastinated through January and then worked on my skirt. Finally, towards the end of February (and yes, the wedding was March 10) I got it together and sewed up the bodice.

The bodice has five layers of fabric: lace, silk charmeuse underlining, two layers of muslin to give support and encase the bra pads, and a china silk lining on the inside. So the front is three layers, bra pads in the middle and the muslin/lining is third layer. While there is a waist seam, the layers are joined individually. This turned out to be very wise as I was very displeased with the first set of bra pads. They looked very fake and awkward and creepy. Of course, no pictures, but take my word for it.

In progress, with the pads I later removed.

 The dress was at this point (below) when I finally made up my mind to remove and replace them. I monkeyed my way up between the layers and ripped them out and put in different padding. These were the cut up bras that worked so well for the muslin. The second, while different, also looked like shit. After getting cranky and angry, I was stumped for a while and then I tried the separate ones from Jo-Ann that had never looked right in any other dress and of course, they worked. I pinned them in and sewed them down very last after the zipper and hem and straps were complete, to make sure they were positioned correctly..

Straps are pinned and not yet hemmed. 

 While pinning it and trying it on, I realized that when all four edges of the back/strap piece were sewn down, there was no way to get into my dress. The narrow part at the knees makes it impossible to pull over your head; not that you want to do that anyways after you have paid someone to do your hair...

 In the end, I added hooks and eyes to close the right side under my arm. Since I am right handed, I could hook it myself, and that gave me enough leeway to slip it over my hair.

 Originally, I had meant for the pads to only be sewn to the muslin, and thus, be invisible. After all the drama with three sets of pads, I just whip-stitched them the the lining. It is still seamless on the outside. Plus, this was literally days before we left for New Orleans...

Hooks and eyes to hold it shut.

 I handpicked the zipper and while it is not quite perfect (like all of my sewing) it is fine and didn't pull apart and show while the dress is on. There is also a hook at the top, but there's not enough stress on it to make it want to unzip itself.

 As for the straps and the back piece, I had originally thought about trimming it with scallops. I made a version with them, but the scallops are too big and it looked ridiculous. I tried another version and ended up destroying it by trying to do a narrow hem. Hint: it looked awful. I had purchased some tulle for the skirt and I ended up not needing it, so I basically sandwiched the lace and tulle, sewed it, trimmed the edges, turned it right-side out and then top-stitched it, so it didn't immediately fall apart. While that is probably not "best," it was barely noticeable.

The straps are top-stitched to the bodice. I am a lazy hand-sewer and I didn't want any wardrobe malfunctions at my wedding. It's hardly visible to me, and I made it, so I am guessing no one else would even notice. Except perhaps for you ladies. 

I will leave you with two real life pictures:

                                 

and if you read all that, thanks for reading! :)