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!