Wedding Dress #2

Our second wedding of the summer was in Topeka, KS, where my sister-in-law grew up. It was a fantastic wedding, with all kinds of touching details, like outrageous "Bride" and "Groom" sunglasses, gift bags with tasty snacks in the hotel rooms (S knows our family too well already), and a wonderful "Welcome to Kansas" family barbecue, complete with tornado! I was very excited--I haven't been in a tornado since I was very young. It consisted mostly of everyone convening in the basement for snacks and cards. Good times.

My sister M and I stood on the groom's side, with our other brother K and M's husband S (hmm, too many initials there, I think). It isn't exactly traditional, but I like it better that way. Plus I had fun escorting one of the bridesmaid's down the aisle. The bridesmaids wore fantastic black dresses, but since we were on the grooom's side, Mer and I just found our own dresses. Well, she bought hers and I made mine. It was one of my better efforts, too--just the right length, cute but still chic, and the zipper only bubbled a little in the back. I still need to work on that a bit. I used New Look 6749 (the version pictured below, in raspberry). I really like this pattern--it is sweet without being cloying. I think I'd like to make this one again sometime in another color--a rose colored dress, with a cream ribbon would be pretty. I used crepe backed satin, which was perfect. The bodice is lined, but the skirt isn't. The satin was heavy enough, though, that it wasn't a problem. Also, I had to use pink lining (I stupidly forgot to buy black, oh well), but honestly, I like it better this way. A little surprise for anyone staring at my armpits!

New Look 6749. I have to find a pair of black heels like hers--perfect.

Actually, my heels were cute, too, and not as high. Ha!

Yeah, I know--I need to redo the hem.

Wedding Dresses (In which I struggle with Invisible Zippers)

J! and I have been to three weddings so far this year. A friend of mine from high school was married at the lovely Dana Power House in May, my younger brother Arrr! married his wonderful wife S in Kansas on June 14th, and we just celebrated T and Y's marriage two weeks ago in Malibu. We've still got one wedding to go: J!'s lovely sister M! is getting married on Nov. 1st in Massachusetts.

All these weddings meant lots of dressmaking. I don't wear dresses a lot, although I make quite a few of them. I don't wear dresses too often mostly because I work from home, and so changing out of my pjs is more or less optional. I guess I could have just made one dress and worn it four times, but that sounded rather boring. Plus, it would have given me fewer excuses to have J! drive me to the fabric store.

WD #1 was a bit of . . . . an experiment? I used Vogue 8085, which is a pattern I like very much. I'm not even going to discuss how I finally managed to get the zipper in place. This particular fabric was a bit unravelly, which didn't help, and the dress pattern doesn't include a lining, so I had to improvise. Improvising when learning to sew isn't exactly something I would recommend to others, but I find it very difficult to avoid. After all, if I'm going to all the trouble of making myself a dress, I want the finished product to be exactly* the way I imagine it. Anyway, as I've posted elsewhere, I've made other versions of Vogue 8085, so it should have been a cinch to add in a lining. Ha! It all eventually worked out, though, and here's the final version.

Wedding Dress #1. The ribbon on this dress definitely needs to perk up a bit.

Detail of the matching trim on the jacket sleeve. Last minute addition!

*Within reason, of course. For WD #1, I was happy that the dress ended up with an invisible zipper. Said zipper was not entirely "invisible" as such, but my cute little jacket neatly covered it up. Close enough.

Do the Polka . . . Dot!

So, back when I first got interested in sewing (sometime last summer), I went on a fabulous shopping spree at my favorite fabric store, Osgood's. Unfortunately, Osgood's is in Chicopee, MA and I live in Davis, CA, so the 2,950 mile commute is a bit rough. On the flip side, my boyfriend's parents are lucky enough to live right down the street from Osgood's, so I make it out there at least once a year.

During my first trip to Osgood's I picked up some great blue and white polka dot fabric. Some kind of slinky polyester, I know, but look how perfect it is! Diagonally arranged polka dots, with some neat extra trim of small white lines with tiny blue dots. It's the trim that did it for me--I wouldn't have bought this fabric if it had just been blue and white dots.

I saved this fabric for quite a while--I wanted to make a really cute dress that I would actually wear. I finally picked out a Very Easy Vogue (V8025) dress that I liked. The final result looks pretty good, although I can never get the ribbon to stay tied.

Vogue 8025

A few thoughts about this dress and pattern:

1. I've made two dresses using this pattern now. I like the dress style a lot--it follows the waist naturally and it drapes nicely when you use the right fabric. It can cling, though, so the dress should either be lined or worn with a slip.

2. Lining this dress would be difficult, I think, because of the casing for the ribbon.

3. I think I need to shorten the skirt just a bit. It hits right at the knee, but I have oddly short calves, so shortening the skirt would make my legs look more proportional. (I have a feeling that four inch heels would produce similar results, but that sounds more painful than ripping out the hem. Also, I think this dress would be cute with ballet flats, my personal shoe solution for everything.)

4. A few months later I made a tank top using the same fabric, but with a different neckline. I wear it all the time. Looking back on this now, I think I'd get rid of the ribbon casing and redo the neckline using the tanktop pattern. I bet it is still possible, but I don't know if I have the energy for it now. Bummer.