Look what came in the mail today!

It's still unhemmed and unpressed, so more shots to come!

Dress 1 - Almost done!

We made some great progress this weekend! We're working with 2 Colette patterns, making 'practice' dresses out of each of them, comparing and tweaking the designs/lengths/fit... and then picking the winner for the real deal. I love Colette because they're gorgeous vintage-style dresses with some funk, room for creativity, and such tailored fits. She really makes beautiful patterns!
Dress 1 is Eclair, a strapless little cutie with a big sash that goes from the front side waist. The bodice is pieced together with 6 panels, meaning great tailored fit. Especially with Courtney's careful sewing!
She put the bodice together, we fit it to me and realized we could probably cut the bodice about 2 sizes smaller! But with the seams re-done, it was perfect. Then Courtney put the skirt together. Last up is putting them together, which is on tap for the next few weeks. The question with this dress is whether we would need to boning in the bodice. We'll see how strong it is with the lining once it's all done.

Next is up is Dress 2, i.e. Chantilly. I have to say, I'm a little enamored with Chantilly, mainly because it just has such a classic style and looks so flattering and comfortable. While Courtney was sewing away, I pressed the main and lining fabric for the practice dress, cut the pattern pieces and the main fabric pieces. This time, we cut the bodice smaller, so everything is to measurement on this one. It should work out since the pieces are joined by gathers at the midsection.
Once we have both practice dresses done (which I can't wait to wear!), it really comes down to fit and comfort. We'll try to imagine each dress in a calf or floor length (maybe?), in a creamy billowy fabric, dancing around at a bbq joint in NYC...

Grecian Style

I seem to be falling for Grecian style...

Audrey Hepburn - What a Gal

We all know Audrey Hepburn's got style, yet there's nothing I particularly love about her wedding dress. What I do love is the story around it, what a drama!

Thinking About Fabric

Things are busy on all fronts here, but don't worry, we're still making the dress! I came across this wedding today, and the bride wore a gorgeous dress that her friend made! What I really love is the fabric... tissue-y, billowy, goddess-y, like it's made of angel's wings.

In something like this, I could sweat and you wouldn't even know! Nice.

Everyone wish Courtney luck in her half-marathon this Sunday!!!

More on Making Dresses

This post by soon-to-be-practically-wed blogger reminded me of why I have yet to (and hopefully will never) set foot in a bridal store. I've heard the horror stories, and it's just not my style. I've known all along that we would make the dress. And I'm pretty sure it will come out just right. As Meg mentions, things can go wrong, something about the dress can come out not quite right, it happens. But we've still got a year to get it right, and to be honest, I'm not superbly picky, so I'd probably even wear a dress that had stains or busted zippers or fallen hems...

But that won't happen. It'll be just right, however it is.

Meet Bea

(Hi. I'm Beatrice. Bea for short.)

Bea is my body double, or more technically, my dress form! It's pretty cool having a body double. At least the trunk of one. Courtney will use her for fittings since we live 2 hours apart. Then after the wedding, I'll get Bea for my own sewing fun!

Court will give more details on the process and getting the right fit. But long story short, it took about 1 1/2 hours, involved a trash bag and 1 grocery bag, a roll of paper tape, a bowl of water, and keeping the cats away. Speaking of the cats. They reeeallly liked Bea.

So it was a productive weekend. We finished the dress form and took every measurement you can imagine. We looked at fabrics to get an idea of what kind of cream color we'll want. Who knew there were so many different kinds of creams!

JoMar served us well, and we found lots of goodies. At $1-$2/yd, it was a steal. We also picked up some fabrics for Court to start work on the two Collette patterns, now that she has Bea. We got a blue lightweight shirting for the sleeveless eclair dress, and cute green and brown floral for the chantilly. These will be practice runs to check out the fitting and shape of these dressees, see if either of them will work before we add length and details. That chantilly dress looks oh so much like the vintage ebay dress from the previous post, that I LOVE. Looking forward to see how that comes out... In the meantime, Courtney is taking care of Bea, and I will miss our special bond...

Oh Heaven!

Closest to perfect I've seen yet.

Pretty, but not too modest. A vintage find from etsy|wedding. Imagine it more like ankle-length, with some of Court's detail ideas mentioned previously... Maybe more of a v neckline. But I love the sheer band, adds just enough interest while keeping it simple.

It's soooo pretty.

details...

Bex and I are getting started next weekend and I'm caught up in the fun details-

Like pleated necklines:


via: http://shoesandpie.com/2009/06/18/vintage-sewing-part-five/

And fabric flowers (in clusters, but not at the neckline):


via: http://katiedid.squarespace.com/katie-did-journal/2009/5/1/tutorial-flower-collar.html

And pretty skirts:


via: http://www.theflashdance.com/index.cfm

Hammer Pants Take Over

Totally unrelated? Or am I hinting at the not-so-subtle fact that I want to wear gold hammer pants at my wedding. And have a choreographed dance. You decide.

Really, you must watch it.

Hair Accessories

I know this blog is about the dress, but it doesn't hurt to consider hair and accessories, right? I found this back in February, and I'm pretty sure I love them all.

I love wearing hats and hair stuff. I have short curly hair, and hair accessories make me look very 20s (the time period, not just my age, though I hope I still look like I'm in my 20s...). I don't plan on having a veil, so something like this would be a perfect way to kind of fancy everything up a bit. I really love the #6 fascinator, and the whole bottom row of headbands. And the whole cage veil thing is really cute too.

Or I could always go obnoxiously over the top. In this one, I wouldn't even have to bother paying attention to my hair.

Upcycling

I've thought about 'upcycling' my mom's dress and other family heirlooms into a wedding dress, but I'd hate to cut everything up like that...  This one was done beautifully, a friend of photographer Carina Romano of Love Me Do. 

 

Flowy, filled with family and love, comfortable... So well done!  

Necklines

Court sent this to me this morning, posted from paperpony.  I love the wrap waist and the v-neck, though maybe not THAT much V.  And I love the mandarin style collar.  Take out some of the ruffles (maybe just 1 row?) and the sleeves though.  I'm a swimmer, I certainly don't need my shoulders to look wider than they are.  But a simple sleeveless style, that looks nice.  Try it, put your fingers up on the picture covering the sleeves.  Nice, right?

Swoon

I think I am in love. With a pattern maker and her patterns! Colette Patterns is a Portland, OR based business that creates beautiful patterns of dresses and skirts with a decidedly vintage influence.

Bex has shown interest in two of the patterns, either of which could be easily lengthened to create her wedding dress:

The Chantilly has beautiful folds and a gracefully swooping neckline



The Eclair is a strapless gem with a back tie and pockets!



I can't wait to add these patterns to my stash!

Petals

From this spectacular wedding, where FYI, the bride decorated her dress from Target (center, white/black dress).  I'm actually interested in the girl on the right in the pinkish flower petal dress.  Pretty?  Too obvious?  Makes for awkward arm positioning?  What do you think?

Pockets

One thing I think Bex' dress will need?

Pockets.

Some Inspiration

This is my mom. The day she married my dad. Isn't she lovely? You can't see the dress very well, but it's a pistachio green sleeveless v-neck, with a matching cape (yes, cape) with big tie-dyed looking sunbursts (yes, sunbursts). Handmade by someone. 1976. We lost the cape years ago, but I still have the dress, and here she is today.I've always loved the general fit and shape of the dress. Sadly, pistachio green has never been my color, and the fit is not quite perfect. But this is the dress that started it all. I told my mom that Courtney and I would be copying this dress, and she said oh so tenderly, "Oh honey, I'm sure you can find something better than that. That was just my choir dress." So that's the plan. Keep aspects of this style in mind, and build from there. Here are some other dresses that caught my eye for some reason or another...

(clockwise from top left: unknown, SHIHAR, Aida Coronado, Neiman Marcus, JCrew, Neiman, Aida, an Etsy sketch I can't find now)

So you can see some ideas taking shape. More to come...

Really? You're Making the Dress?

I wanted to back it up a little bit here, and answer a common question.  Who designs and sews dresses these days anyways?  Well for anyone that knows me or Court, this isn't a shocking turn of events.  But this is a very busy metro area, with lots and lots of stores, and with all the dresses on all the racks out there, I'm sure I could find one that I love.  But that's not the point.  Court and I have been friends for, ohhh, about 20 years.  We both come from crafty families.  Our idea of a girl's weekend is going to fabric stores, flipping through patterns, gossiping about the latest sewing and knitting blogs and how-to's, and admiring each other's fashion sense.  Seriously.  We do this. 

We both love to sew, and creating something from scratch, with your hands and effort, and then wearing it, and getting to say "I made this"... it's one of the most rewarding experiences.  So to do this together, and to be able to wear this dress for such a joyful occasion, what a gift!  For her and for me!  So this is why we're making the dress, and why I recommend handmade clothes or crafting for anyone else.  Because it's just oh so special.  

Seams

If you can't tell from my last post, I find a lot of inspiration and information on the web- in blogs especially! Until we start making our dress form, I'll be posting regularly about the great things I find that are guiding the work we'll do when I start sewing!

I wish I'd been able to follow this from the beginning, but thank goodness for archives! Hippo Bumpo recently had a 9-week seam-along and gave some great how-to's and pictures. French seams intrigue me and would be a potential choice for finishing the inside of Bex' dress, but she is a lucky duck because I also happen to own an overlocker!

It's important to think about seams from the beginning because I certainly don't want to 1) purchase too little fabric (seam allowances need to be factored in) and 2) can't forget about them when I'm sewing!

The Requirements

I'm a simple down-to-earth gal, and by no means fancy.  Though I've had visions of what I'd want my wedding dress to be, I've never felt strongly about any particular style.  Here are the requirements and thoughts that are going into the dress:

1. It should be pretty.
2. The length must work with my 5'2" height, and the fact that I will NOT be wearing heels, and more likely be barefoot the whole time.
3. It will be in August/September, a pretty informal affair, outdoors hopefully.  It will likely be hot, and nobody wants to see a bride with sweat stains.
4. And I'll be dancing, excessively.  Maybe even doing cartwheels.  I want it to bounce and flow.
5. I'm a pretty traditional curvy hourglass.  I'm ok with accentuating (think v-neck).  I'm not OK with revealing (think halter top).
6. Very limited or no decoration, beads, trim, lace, whatever.  I'd love the dress to be simple and have a nice shape and drape.  The fabric should accent itself.
7. I'm not really into white, but I think cream or champagne, something along those lines would be flattering.  Maybe a color accent, maybe not.

Those are the main requirements, otherwise, just about anything goes.  Which means Courtney has lots of freedom and can show off her creative wit!