178 Days to Go - The Waistband

Adding the Waistband

I've been using a scrap piece of crushed tulle tied in a bow to define my waist when trying on the latest version of my dress. I decided to go ahead and add the waistband to give my dress the shape I have been waiting for. I was loving how everything about the dress fell on me perfectly, but somewhere between recreating the dress and adding the overlay, the waist definition went away. 

As someone who has always had a very defined waist, having one on my wedding dress is a requirement. 

I'm happy with out it ended up turning out! 

 This is the scrap piece I have been using. After lining up the fabric, I used my rotary cutter to even out the ends and rid of rough edges. I double folded it over to make this process go by faster as well. 

After measuring my waist, I evenly gathered the edges by sewing a straight stitch set at the highest width, and then pulled a string to gather it. I then added another straight stitch on top of that one to hold it in place. 

 I had previously used a washable fabric marker to mark where I wanted the waist band to fall, and then pinned the edge to the waist portion of the zipper, between the marks. 

 After sewing a straight stitch across, right above where the gathered straight stitch was, I measured where the edge of the waist band would be sewn on the other end. 

 Again, I used the purple marks as a guide for the waistband, and sewed.

 I have more details to add to the back zipper, and by the looks of it, I need to straighten the left side stitching just a bit, but It fits me so well, and lays on my waist perfectly. :-)

 It is a wide waistband because my torso and waist are relatively small, while my hips are wide, so I wanted my torso & waist to be much more defined than my hips!

 In case you are wondering about my train, below is the disaster I need to fix. 

For some reason, adding the lace the way I did to the train is not working out. 

My solution is the completely take off the lace, and add crushed tulle instead, then add lace appliques to the train, rather than the train be lace itself. It's not falling correctly, and with the rest of the overlay being crushed tulle, I'm not surprised. 

This is all a learning process, and I'm taking my time as I learn something new everyday. 

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

- Philippians 4:8 

180 Days to Go - Save the Dates

Save the Dates

This past weekend, I finally got to print my save the dates. As someone who is going by a strict wedding schedule (i.e. sending save the dates out 6 months from the wedding day), I was kind of anxious to get them sent out. 

I enjoy it when I'm working on something rather monotonous, and I find a way to make it fun. Doesn't everyone? For me, color & a change in perspective can brighten any situation. My choice of the colorful Save the Date pattern (it matches the material from the bridesmaid dresses), magnetic paper, colorful envelopes, and romantic stamps made the experience much more exciting. 

Within the first ten minutes of printing our save the dates out on magnetic paper, I found that when a printer gets hot, it starts to melt the magnet... needless to say, I lost a few good ones.

The only thing I am not excited about is the way the photo printed with a green tint. It blends with the fabric background, but our picture looks more greenish blue than black and white. :-/

In the end, we decided to skip the fate of ruining the printer, and instead just print them on cardstock and glue them to the magnetic sheets. 

After printing 15-20 pages (4 to a page for a total of 80 Save the Dates), I bought a bottle of Elmer's Adhesive Spray glue from the nearby grocery store, took a few pages of newspaper, and sat down to experiment in front of two huge metal closet doors.

The beauty of the magnets is that once I sprayed a layer of the glue to the magnetic sheet, and stuck the cardstock carefully on top, I would put it on my closet door to allow it time to dry, and dry flat. 

Then, I had to slowly cut each page evenly into four separate Save the Dates. 

I started to put a few into the envelopes, and because I wanted to wait to seal them, I decided to stick those to the closet doors as well. :-)

 After assigning each printed envelope a Save the Date magnet, I continued to line them up on my closet door. 

 The wonderful thing about these envelopes: not only were they pastel colors that matched the inner Save the Date decoration, but they also had "Peel to Seel" closures!

  I went down each line of envelopes, peeling each one, then in one fair swoop, closed an entire row at a time. It went by so fast. I'm thankful. 

 Adding the colorful bouquets of stamps to my colorful bouquet of envelopes was not as exciting as the rest, but it went by fairly quickly. 

Save the Dates are officially sent... Less than 6 months to go!!!

182 Days To Go - The Actual Dress: Part 2

The Dress (Part 2)

Last night, I came home and made another big step in the wedding dress creation! 

So far, sewing my own wedding dress has been a big deal to me because once I figured out what I wanted, and actually created it, seeing it on made me tear up a little bit. Most girls have an audience when they try on dresses to "find the perfect one." I haven't really had that since my dress isn't quite done, and I don't want too many people to see it before it is done. So when I'm imagining, measuring, cutting, pinning, sewing, seam ripping, repinning, and sewing again, it's a strangely satisfying feeling. It's a different experience to try it on once I've completed another step. It's a scary experience to see it one step closer to what I see in my head. I have this idea in my head, imagining what I want myself to look like on our wedding day, and trying to not only create it, but make it my own real image is an intense experience. It's a strangely, scary, satisfying experience that makes me tear up... Not quite overwhelming yet!

Adding the Crushed Tulle Overlay:

As a seamstress who has never worked well with tulle, I've fallen in love. Crushed tulle is soft, and flowly as a cloud. It's a dream to work with, though a little tricky. 

Because I sewed the dress patterns together before deciding on an overlay, I had to change things up from how I would normally do it. It ended up being simple. 

I draped the crushed tulle over my bodyform, and pinned it at the waist first. 

I had to work slowly from the back around to the front to make sure the fabric gathered correctly. 

Thank goodness for my dressform! This process would not have been possible without it. 

I pinned at the waist, but ended up sewing in the order below:

1. arm holes

2. waist 

3. neck

This made it possible to determine how much fabric I had to work with and where it needed to fall.

 There were a few frustrating moments where I questioned whether this would end up turning out correctly, but it did. 

 After I sewed the overlay to the bodice, I started working on the skirt. 

I knew I wanted to have lace on the train, draped from the top of the skirt, and so I folded the lace in half and pinned it to where the lace would fall right at the bottom of the train. 

I drew a line with the washable marker I have and cut it at a diagonal on my cutting board. 

This made both sides even, and gave me some extra lace to use later. 

 I went back to the crushed tulle after figuring out the lace and draped it over the dressform again. 

This time, I pinned at the neckline and waist so it would fall evenly to the floor. 

 I cut the extra crushed tulle after pinning around the waist. 

I evenly distributed again after cutting the extra fabric to make sure it wasn't bunched too much in one place. 

 Sewing this was surprisingly simple. I did one straight stitch around the waist, right at the seamline.

The extra tufts of crushed tulle that are sitting at the right of the this picture were cut down to the seamline. Once I was finished, you couldn't even really see the seam line or the extra fabric that I trimmed down. I was satisfied, so I moved on. 

 The last part of this step is sewing the crushed tulle to the lace. 

I had already gathered and straight stitched the top of the lace to the bottom of the zipper/ skirt. 

 I'm thinking about stitching these two together by hand, because they are both so delicate, and I don't want my dress to tear... I love how even with four pins sticking randomly in the fabric, it looks like a dreamy cloud of fabric. :-) I think it's wonderful!

 I wrapped some extra crushed tulle around the waist, and I'm thinking about sewing it like that as a waistband. Above is another step done, and I'm loving it!

 Though I still have some kinks to work out with the train, I think it will turn out quite well. 

Next step is working on the detail, hemming the bottom, and figuring out the bustle. 

Still the most interesting art project I've ever encountered!

184 Days To Go - The Actual Dress: Part 1

The Actual Dress (Part 1)

This wouldn't be a process if I didn't have to make major changes. 

This past weekend was busy for the dress... After resewing the ceremony skirt, sewing in the zipper, trying on my dress again, and hearing input from my mom, I decided to head in a different direction.

A few things to mention:

1. My dress is being made with Broadcloth Cotton in Eggshell. Why? Because it is an inexpensive fabric that I have experience sewing with, it's easy to work it, and I know what to expect. Not to mention it is soft and lightweight. 
2. I am adding a lot of details so I wanted my dress to be simple because the details will bring it together. 
3. My mom's input was that it was missing something. She was right. It is missing texture, which is wonderful because it brought out a whole new onset of creativity. :-)
4. Criticism is hard to take sometimes, but when it comes to something like your wedding dress, it's expected, and necessary in order to progress. I cried when I received it, but I'm so happy I got it. I don't have a board of women watching me try on dresses.  

A few more hours of sewing, and I feel much better. 

In the end, I am still right on track for where I am expecting myself to be, and overall, much happier with how it turned out. 

Basically, I created a whole new dress:

THE CEREMONY SKIRT:

I picked out a pattern for the skirt this time, because I wanted to ensure that everything would look as I intend. I chose Butterick 5325:

I wanted my ceremony skirt to be paneled, with a train that wasn't too overbearing, but circular and just long enough. 

The pattern was really long, so I ended up having to use my floor instead of my table to keep everything flat. 

 
Lots of drawing and cutting....


And a lot of pinning as well. Luckily, everything was pretty even with the pattern. Connecting was a little tricky because the panels looked the same, and it was like pieces of a puzzle.

 Without a serger, I did my double line to keep everything from fraying.

(this is the skirt fabric, but I also made one with the lining).

LOVE this skirt way more than the first one. Though it took patience, it was worth it.

 I especially love the train because it circles around the bottom, and turned out to be the perfect length.

THE BODICE:

First, I should say that the above bodice was wonderful. I was proud because I drafted it without a pattern, but it was lowcut, thick, and wasn't fitting quite right once I added the zipper. The sleeves were also a little off once I had everything else finished, and so I decided it would be best to redo this as well...

This is the pattern I found and decided to use because it is much more modest, and the bodice can be a separate pattern (i.e. attaching it to my ceremony skirt won't be a problem). I went with C, and I am still deciding on whether to add the sleeves from F. 

It was pretty simple once I got all of the patterns out. 

Everything I needed was on the same page which was so nice!

 I used the purple fabric marker that fades after 24 hours to trace the pattern and mark everything.

 After sewing the bodice pieces together, I ironed the seams down so that when it was sewn, it wouldn't be to one side or the other. 

This makes it line up better with the lining as well.

 Probably the trickiest part is pinning & sewing the lining to the bodice. 

It makes me so nervous because if they don't go together perfectly, there can be issues later. 

 But everything lined up according to plan!

 I added a double line to sew the seams of the lining and bodice together. 

 Gives it a finished and professional look. 

 I had to pin the top of the skirt to the place on the bodice that I wanted the skirt to fall. 

Because I didn't want the skirt to fall at the bottom of the bodice, I put it on, and pinned it.

 It was surprisingly simple to change out the bodice, and in the end, I am really glad that I did, because it is much more modest, and it gives me more room to add creativity to it :-)

 The back is no where near done! Because this is usually the last thing I do, I have been pinning it where it will be sewn instead of adding the zipper. 

Here are the fabrics that I picked out to add over it. 

A soft lace that moves with the material, and a crushed tulle that is so much fun! 

My creativity comes and goes in waves, but this has got to be the most exciting art project I have ever worked on. Everyday, I look forward to adding more. 

189 Days To Go - Pennants!

The Pennants are done!

During the course of the planning, creating, and waiting, Oh my gosh, the waiting!!...

I have been getting so excited about little things...

I asked my mom to sew some pennants for decorations around the lakehouse. 

Like the ones that Pinterest has delightedly opened my mind to below:

My mom finished sewing them today! 

100 yards of colorful, beautiful, lovely triangles that will decorate my wedding day :-)

So excited!! I shall continue to be patient.