Finally... the Wedding!

Well, it finally happened after all that preparation and work!  The wedding took place on the evening of August 31st at 7 pm.  As you all know, I slaved over my dress, which used reclaimed satin from my mother's wedding gown, with new embroidered lace netting.  It was a beautiful evening, a beautiful ceremony and a terrific time with friends and relatives.  Here are a very few highlights, before we return to sewing.  Here's something you'll probably never see again... me without my glasses!

 

We were so lucky to have been gifted by special friends with our lovely cake by Niamh Swan.

 

A spectacular dessert table by Claudia Matthews.

And a killer punch by Randy Schryver.

The setting was Universal Pathways in pastoral upstate New York. 

 

 

We hope that everyone had as wonderful an evening as we did!  We are very grateful to our friends and families. I am also grateful to all of you, who have read along as I've worked on this project, offering advice and encouragement as I put this together on a shoestring budget!

 



Photo credits: Bill Lawrence, Lauren Albright, Maryann Fairman, Sam Simmons, Dee Tocci

Would You Consider Making Your Own Wedding Dress?

I'm sincerely interested in your answers to that question.  You see I'm getting married in August and I assumed I'd be making my own gown.  I've made them for others, so why not for myself?

I want to do it for economic reasons, for environmental reasons, for romantic reasons, and for sentimental reasons. DIY certainly seems to be the choice of most brides today when it comes to the favors, decor, flowers, etc.  At least it seems that way when you look at Pinterest pinboards, or the myriad of wedding sites in the blogosphere.

Then I started reading some other sewing blogs on the subject.  In her recent post, What I Learned While Sewing My Wedding Dress, Kim from Cotton Creek Sewing has some really great advice, including buying extra fabric and being willing to start over.  I plan on using satin from my mother's wedding gown, so extra fabric may not be an option, though I am looking for some look-alike satin just in case. 

I already incorporated my Mother's wedding gown in my daughter's Odette tutu.  To  make the basque, I separated the bodice from the skirts, removed the sleeves, and replaced the zipper with a grommeted lace-up closure.  The tutu was made from scratch, but the top layers were netting and re-embroidered lace from the skirt of my Mother's gown.

I saved all the other bits and pieces, but not with the idea of ever using them for a dress for myself. I never thought I'd get married the first time, let alone remarry!  I like the idea of wearing at least parts of my mother's gown, I like the ecology of refashioning, I like that most of the fabric will be free, and I like that the result will be uniquely me.  I have some vague visions of what the completed dress will look like.

Meg, from A Practical Wedding, started out with a family  (group effort) sewn wedding gown, only to find that the dress, despite a muslin and multiple mailed back and forth fittings,  did not fit properly.  The hand sewn gown was jettisoned in favor of a vintage find.  Though I plan to do all the sewing myself, could I end up needing a "Plan B gown"?

Many sewists do their own gowns.  Examples includes Melissa of FehrTrade, The Curious Kiwi,  and the totally impressive Iowahoodlum of FeatherPetalSilk, who learned to sew by doing her wedding gown! 

Well, would you do it?  Let me know!

The Wedding Gown

So, for the past several weeks, I've been consumed with sewing a wedding gown for a client... the lesson learned in the process was not to try to do such a big project in such a short period of time again (stay tuned to see if I actually learned the lesson, or if it's just the PTSD talking). I had three scant weeks, start to finish, soup to nuts, concept to finished gown! The gown itself was not a problem and the bride was lovely (no bridezillas here), but several aspects of the dress gave me fits. If I had it to do again, the skirt would have been attached differently so that the belt would lie the way I wanted it to. Also, the hand embroidered celtic knot, in the wedding colors of royal blue and emerald green, was WAY more time consuming than I thought it would be - yes, that very simple looking little knot, took hours. My favorite parts of the dress were the chiffon cloak, which took the place of a veil, and the way more chiffon overlaid cotton to make the perfect shade of ivory for the dress.

Now that that project is complete, I'm turning my sights back toward a major project I began over a year ago for a friend. It's a quilt made from discarded baby clothing, and I have to say, it's coming out super! Check back soon for pictures!