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