Craft Rage

I have all the pieces cut out for two test dresses, but I just can't seem to get it together. Mentally, I mean.

Several times this weekend, I sat in my sewing room, looking at all the carefully folded stacks of pieces, in two colors of taffeta, and got intimidated.

I don't know why it just happened now. Why NOW? The hard part is over. Granted, I made it up as I went along, but all the seams are measured and double-measured, and will match up fine; all I need to do is sew everything together and try it on, and make adjustments if necessary.

I know that part of it is the fact that I can't keep my needle from railroading my taffeta like crazy. I can't seem to find microtex needles in any of the local sewing stores, although I have one more to check this afternoon.

These are only test dresses, and I really shouldn't spend so much time worrying about a defect that nobody will ever see, but still; if I can't keep THIS taffeta from railroading, what's to say I'm going to be able to keep the fabric of my ACTUAL dress from doing the same? Part of this whole test thing is not only to test the pattern pieces, but also my equipment.

Gah! I'm not really a person who spends a great deal of time being full of angst and worry, so it's really frustrating to look at those two partly-finished garments and be unable to force myself to proceed. I actually sat at my sewing machine for TWO HOURS on Sunday, and didn't sew a stitch. I walked away and made lunch, then returned and sat for ANOTHER hour before I finally picked up a pair of dress pants that needed to be let down, and did that instead.

Sometimes I feel better after a good rant. Hopefully, this was it. Thanks for listening. Or whatever.

Labels: rant, wedding dress

I've been tacking together the taffeta version of my wedding dress muslin, but have run into a problem that's driving me NUTS.

I bought Microfibre needles and Microtex needles, and have tried both, but no matter what I do, I'm getting some pretty serious railroading in my taffeta. Since The Hotness has the camera at work today, I had to borrow a picture from the internet to explain what I mean, in case "railroaded" isn't the correct term.See how the stitches have created little pulls in the fabric? I understand WHY this is happening, but I don't know what to do to fix it. I've tried ball-point needles, sharps, skinny ones, fat ones, and nothing is working.

Can anyone tell me what the right kind/size of needle to use to machine-sew taffeta?

It's a medium-weight polyester taffeta, prewashed and with a very soft hand.

I know it's just a muslin, so I'm not terribly worried about fixing the problem on THIS garment, but the fabric for my actual dress may end up being taffeta, so...please save me from a nervous breakdown!

Labels: stupid mistakes, wedding dress

I'd better sleep lightly tonight, because if cats are vengeful creatures, Boobah and Dinger are probably going to make their move tonight. They'll need the cover of darkness, though; I'm fat, but I move pretty fast when I'm scared.

I made an appointment to bring everyone but Smooshy to the vet - Bonzo and Dinger need checkups, and Boobah has...well, he has ongoing tail and head problems.

When the time came, Bonzo managed to hide so completely that I ended up leaving without her, and just took Boobah and Dinger to the vet. Unfortunately, when I was trying to load them into their cat carrier, the door came off, and I was forced to improvise a cat carrier.

Nothing screams white trash like walking into a veterinary office with a laundry basket full of cats with their harnesses tied together with string. Luckily my vets and their assistants have wonderful senses of humor!

There were shots all around, vaccinations and whatnot, and we got some pain medication for Boobah - I hate to medicate my animals, but I'm not willing to leave them hurting just to save the skin on my hands. And arms. And neck. Bygones.

On the way home I stopped and picked up a couple of extra-special cat massaging combs, and gave Boobah the royal treatment when we got home - poor dude has been in his collar for a week, now. Hopefully the shot he got will clear up any problems, and give him a bit of relief.

Along with that, I managed to get a bit of sewing done. I did a lot of staring at this skirt over the weekend, so that I could figure out what to do to make a similar skirt of my own.
After much staring, I made a paper model. I do this with pretty much everything I make, because I'm pattern challenged. Stupid lines everywhere. Don't cut here, do cut here, try not to cut off your fingertips, ha ha, you cut yourself! Stupid patterns. Yeah, yeah, a poor craftsman blames his tools. I hear you. :)

Anyway, since I'm pattern challenged, I tend to be less intimidated by just sketching out what I think the pieces should look like. I just use regular notepaper, sketch my pieces in miniature, then tape them together to see how the pieces fit. Everything ends up Barbie-sized, but at least I can tell if I'm on the right track.

Sometimes, I take my mini-pattern pieces and cut them out of my test fabric, to see if they hang properly; I did this with these pieces, and if I had a Barbie, she'd have a cute little blue taffeta fit-and-flare skirt to wear. Unfortunately, my Barbie and Ken dolls had an accident when I was 12, shortly after my mom rented The Fly.

Somehow, Barbie ended up with Ken's head and left arm, and a right leg made of twigs, and Ken ended up with Barbie's left arm and right leg, and a head made out of cheese. Then my dog ate his head. And the steering wheel out of the Barbie Corvette. Which is okay, since neither Barbie nor Ken could work the pedals anymore.

Anyway, back to the skirt. Since it seemed like I WAS on the right track, I cut out my four pieces, and this is what I ended up with;
I did a bit of retouching for color, because in real life, the bottom of the skirt is the same brown you see in the photo, but the top of the skirt is a bright, screaming teal color, so it's a bit distracting.

The skirt definitely needs some crinoline, and maybe a little bit less fullness, but I'm comfortable with the general shape. Once I get the crinoline under it, I can tweak the fullness as necessary. Also, I cut the skirt too long on purpose; I wasn't sure how much room to leave for the crinoline, so I figured that if I left a lot of extra fabric, I'd be able to figure out my hem length once the underskirt is sorted out.

I put in an invisible zipper so that I could test the size of my darts - the ones on the front are fine, but one of the back darts is pretty crooked, which is why the fabric is pulling on the left side. Oopsie! Once I have that worked out, and the hem length worked out, I'll be able to mark everything up, take the pieces apart, and I'll have pattern pieces with which to cut my real dress fabric.

Then I'll be working on the corset top. At least I only need to do one of those, not two, since the corset will actually be the same regardless of the skirt design I go for.

Next time, I'll show you the mock-up for the ballgown skirt. It was 20 minutes well spent!

Labels: cats, wedding dress

Okay.

Yesterday, I went and tried on a couple more wedding dresses. With the idea that I wasn't going to just randomly try stuff on, I tried on two silhouettes I'd previously thought were my favorites, decided I wasn't really much of a fan, and left.

This doesn't sound like a successful outing, but in fact, it was exactly what I needed.

Since the beginning, I've had this dress stuck in my head;
Specifically, I LOVE the color, I liked the pickups in the skirt, and the fact that it's got a corset top. I don't like the bodice shown in the picture, but basically, this is the overall look I've had in my head.

Lately, I've been getting more of this vibe;
I like that the more simple skirt, but dislike the crossed/ruched bust detail.

I had originally looked at a couple of halter patterns, specifically these ones;
I still love them from the bustline down, but the simple fact is that halter style dresses aren't flattering on me.

Again, part of my choice rests with what color I decide to go with, and also whether I've made up my mind about lace or no lace.

I've finally settled on gold. Just gold. All gold, all the time. Because as Marjie said, I've written about it over and over; why am I second-guessing myself?

Plans for the Small Dress are complete. It will be beaded lace over a gold stretch satin, and will be the same dress you've already seen, although I will likely either add sleeves, or make a small lace shrug to go over top.

The Big Dress will be one of two silhouettes.

It will either be shaped like this;
or like this:

Whichever silhouette I land on, I think I might have the fabric for the dress in my stash already!

The first dress, the ball gown, might be made with two layers of fabric; an ivory crinkle burnout chiffon over a light, shimmery gold chiffon. The top picture is a little dark; the bottom picture shows the two fabrics layered, and is pretty much what I see in real life.
For the second dress, the fit-and-flare, I'm not sure whether this same fabric would work. If not, I still have about 12 yards of off-white crinkle taffeta. I'm going to cut a few swatches and attempt to tea-stain it into a dark ivory color. If that doesn't work, I'll just use it as it is, and bead the heck out of it until it turns gold. :)

Either way, at least I'm only making two muslins now, not ten. I've come a long way in two days. Thank goodness. And thank YOU, for your comments!

Labels: wedding dress

I've been working on the muslin for The Big Dress, and honestly, I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels.

I've draped and re-draped the bodice, but no matter what I do, I can't shake the feeling that it's too soon to be making a muslin. This probably explains why I posted about the tragic love affair between my dress dummy and my vacuum cleaner - I am slowly going crazy.

As I work on the muslin, the clear picture I have in my head (of the dress I thought I wanted) keeps changing, and it's driving me mad. It's not that I've forgotten what it looks like, it's just that the picture keeps changing, now, and nothing is sticking, so every time I try to adapt my muslin to the picture, by the time I'm finished, it no longer matches the new picture in my mind.

I have a number of photos I've been using for inspiration, ones that I've gotten from bridal shows, magazines, and websites, and honestly, the dresses I LOVE are all so different that I'm completely stuck. I've been to bridal salons and tried on a number of styles, and while I'm not egotistical enough to say that they all look fabulous on me, they at least, for the most part, all look just fine.

I've tried on about 60 dresses over the past two years (we've been engaged since August 2006), but I've never had that "this is the one" feeling, because it's always been in my heart to make my own dress.

The closest I've come to that feeling was when I tried on the muslin for The Small Dress. That muslin is NOT finished to a high standard (or barely any standard), but it IS the overall correct look and feel; it's simple and comfortable, but with the correct fabric, and the judicious use of sparkly beads, it will become something a little more formal. Admittedly, the picture in that post does make me look like a bit of a bridge troll, but that's due more to the fact that I'm the least photogenic human being on earth than to any failing of the dress itself.

Anyway, I've been watching a lot of Say Yes To The Dress on TLC, reading my nine thousand bridal magazines, and looking at an endless number of dresses online, but while I'm sure it's hurting my ability to make a firm decision, I honestly don't think that quitting is an option at this point.

I think the biggest thing thats hurting me that I can't decide on a color.

I prefer silver over gold, but gold looks better on me. I love dresses in non-traditional colors like red and blue, but I find that if you're not really careful, you end up looking less like a bride and more like a prom queen, which is not a BAD thing, but it's not what I personally want from my Big Dress.

The groomsmen are going to be wearing vests like this one, which is a hunting camo pattern, but there's no way on earth I'm wearing a blaze orange dress, or a camo wedding dress.

Because...yikes. A slender girl could pull it off, but a woman my size would look like the most comfortable sofa in the hunting lodge.

I do have a rather large amount of chocolate brown taffeta with a slight gold sheen to it, which would work perfectly, if I can talk myself into a brown wedding dress. But in ALL of the pictures in my head, my dress is a light color; gold, silver, light bronze, (are you noticing the metallic theme, here?) or taupe, but never navy or brown or red.

The only firm decision I've made is that I won't wear a white or cream dress, partly because white makes me look really washed-out, and partly because I am that kid in the Tide commercial who just can't keep her clothes clean. I'm the Pigpen of the white clothing world. And, of course, pink is out.

I don't know what to do. I already asked if we could elope, and got the big N O. The Hotness is all "Buy a dress, I don't care what it costs" but the idea of making my own dress was never about saving money, so that's not the answer.

At this point, I'm tempted to make ten dresses, and then just pick the one I like best on my wedding day. *sigh* Or maybe I'll just join Mrs. G's Woman's Colony and leave The Hotness to tend the cats and pine for me.

Labels: Big Dress Avoidance, rant, wedding dress

My dress dummy, Clarice, is being a jerk.

I know exactly what's wrong with her, but frankly, I don't care.

It's not appropriate for ME to bring MY personal problems to work, so honestly, I don't understand why it's okay for her.

I know it can be hard to break up with someone, but everyone could see that the vacuum cleaner was just using her for...well... you know. What do all vacuum cleaners want, you know??!! I mean, really, what more can you expect! He sucks up cat dander for a living. He's not exactly the Prince of Wales. Or Colin Firth, who is much hotter than the Prince of Wales.

And anyway, the point is, he's gone now. Gone to be with the cat tree in the living room.

I know, I know. It's hard, knowing that he's just out there, living his life with someone else, but what are you going to do, lay around doing nothing all day? You need to sort yourself out, get over him. I've seen the way the shelf looks at you, like it can see right through your cover and into your plastic innards. That has to make you feel good, even if the shelf isn't quite your type. All I ask is that you don't toy with him.

What's that? You've got a tough life? Yes, yes, anyone can reel off the litany of problems in your life, Clarice.

You're fat. Hey, so am I! You should be glad that at least you've still got a waist, like I am!

You're headless. Well, that does kind of suck, but it's not like you ever had a head before, so that can hardly be an issue now. And no, your lack of a head is NOT what made the vacuum cleaner break up with you, because, hello? The cat tree has no head, either.

You have no arms. Again, suckfest. I get it. But again, the cat tree is in the same boat. And so is that guy from the One video. The point is, we all have to work with the gifts we are given. You have the skinniest leg I have EVER seen! And it's adjustable! How cool is that?! If you want to be tall, you get to be tall. If you want to try short on for size, well, no problem! Although, Clarice, honey, to be honest, short isn't a good look for you. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

Life is about making lemonade out of lemons, and that kind of crap. Not that you'd want to make lemonade out of crap, because then it wouldn't be lemonade, it would be crapade, and who would drink it. You get my point, though. Make the best of what you've got! See the positive!

Just because you FEEL like your life is over doesn't mean it IS over.

Suck it up, Clarice.

Pull up your right boob, and for crying out loud, tuck that sock back up your backside - I need it to make the back of my dress hang right!

When you're miserable, I'm miserable. I'm making my WEDDING DRESS MUSLIN, here, I can't afford to be miserable. Chip in and do YOUR part, why don't you!

Labels: Big Dress Avoidance, rant, wedding dress

I'm not much into astrology (which means that I read my horoscope daily, but for amusement purposes only) but as far as it goes, I'm a fairly typical Leo (which actually got me fired from a job, once - funny story, but we'll get to that later). I'm kinda loud, kinda passionate/emotional, that sort of thing.

The thing is, my personality and my clothing have never really matched - I'm REALLY plain jane in what I wear, so though I'm attracted to things that sparkle, I don't actually wear much of it. That said, I guess for my reception, denim skorts and a t-shirt probably wouldn't be completely appropriate. Still, I really wonder if this might be too much sparkle for a reception dress;I found this at Anna's Bridal Lace & Fabrics on Ebay, and was immediately smitten. With it, I could avoid sequins altogether. That would be nice, since the thought of sewing even one more sequin on lace makes me want to weep. And angers the finger puppets. Well, not the Vulcan one, because he's pretty even-tempered, but the other one is quite wrathful.

Which reminds me, I never posted the pictures of the beadwork I completed before deciding to change the color of my dress from green to gold.

I'm in the process of removing the beads and sequins, but here's part of one flower and the scalloped border. Please remember that I'm new to beading, and if I recall correctly, this is one of the first flowers I did.Originally, it had silver seed beads and swarovski crystals in the middle of the flowers, but they've since been removed, so you can only see them on the scalloped edge.

In any case, I do have a huge glut of a light gold crepe-back satin (about 20m - it's shiny, I'm a crow, ergo, when it went on sale for $1.99, I bought what was left on the bolt), so all I really have left to purchase is the lace. I need about 3.5m (about 4 yards) and then I'll be ready to get to work.

The lace isn't my only problem, though.

Stupid, stupid, stupid cat. This is Boobah.Uh, yeah. He's dressed for Hallowe'en. He's SpiderCat. Don't laugh. Okay, laugh.

Anyway, every time I deep-clean the house, Boobah rips off part of his face. No exaggeration - he peels off flesh. If gross pictures make you queasy, feel free to stop reading here - picture to follow.

In the spring, he removed the hair and a few layers of flesh from around his mouth, and last week, while I was preparing to have the in-laws over for the weekend, he did this;That collar is Boobah's personal version of hell - he backed up for a full day before finally realizing that no amount of backwards motion was going to free him.

I hate that I did this to him - obviously when I clean the house, it stresses him out. I know it's not the cleansers - I use the same things all the time, and unless I vaccum behind the furniture, pull out the stove and fridge, and catch up all of the laundry, he doesn't appear to be bothered in any way.

WTF? Seriously!?

I realize that cats' brains are about the size of walnuts, and that euclidean geometry is largely lost on them, but for a cat, Boobah is pretty smart. If he had opposable thumbs, I think he could easily handle some of the grocery shopping. Well, he can't read or drive, but...anyway, why isn't he smart enough NOT to flay himself when I clean the house?

Stupid, stupid cat.

He's sitting here staring at me, and I'm pretty sure he's thinking "Why don't you stop typing and go use your opposable thumbs to open a can of tuna, jerk?" I guess it's the least I can do.

Labels: cats, smooshy, wedding dress

I've gotten a great deal of beading and be-spangling done on the lace for the bodice of my wedding dress, and have come to a few preliminary conclusions.

One, I am a crow - shiny things make me very, very happy. This has led to a certain amount of possible overkill. I'm not totally sure, but I think I've just plain gone too far. I think I've gone from wedding sparkly to circus sparkly. I'll post a picture later, to illustrate my point.

And two, I've begun waffling on the color for my dress, so this all may be a terrible waste of time.

I saw some of this same kind of lace in a warm, non-sparkly gold, and I just happen to have a whole BUNCH of heavyweight, light gold, crepe-back satin in my stash. Gold is still a little nontraditional for a wedding dress, but it's much more traditional than, say, green. Plus, it's on sale, and I only need four metres of it. Well, three, really, but it's nice to have a bit extra.

Plus, I find myself further waffling over the dress itself.

My original plan was, in fact, to have two wedding dresses - one for the aisle, and one for the reception. The one I've been posting about was to be the reception dress.

Then, I decided that all I really want is one dress, and again, that's the one I've been making muslins for. But the thing is, all these stupid bridal magazines make me feel unsure of myself - like maybe I'm missing out if I don't have a giant poof of a dress.

Then, like a dork, I went and tried on a few poofy dresses, and man, did I LOVE swishing around in all that taffeta and crinoline. Since we're having an August wedding in a venue with no A/C, I wouldn't want to spend a bunch of time in such a large dress, but I do rather enjoy the idea of making a spectacle of myself that way.

Anyway, when the original plan was in effect, I bought a whole schwack of taffeta in a number of different colors, plus white, and a crinoline (well, hoop-skirt, actually), so I've got everything I need to MAKE two dresses. I also picked up a few patterns to choose from:
although that last one, M5321, got pretty badly panned on PR. Plus, as you've probably noticed, I'm kind of a fan of a more vintage look, so that last one's probably out, though it's my mom's favorite.

Meh. It's unlike me to waffle around and be indecisive, particularly about clothing. I suppose there's a case to be made for the idea that it's normal to obsess a bit about a dress that will be forever immortalized in pictures, but really, if I'm going to worry about something, I should be worried about the size of my rear end. Strangely, all I seem to care about is the dress.

I guess the best way to answer this question is to make a muslin of the poofy dress - if I do it and hate it, then I won't have to duplicate it. If I do it and I love it, then I guess I'm going back to plan A - two dresses.

Labels: wedding dress

It's been a little while since I posted - my apologies. I've been in hand-beading hell, and trust me, that's not a good place for a clumsy accountant.

I've caught myself counting the f-ing sequins as I attach them, and from my calculations, each sequin itself costs .001 cents (yes, that's one hundredth of a cent), and the time to attach each sequin, at my regular hourly rate, costs about 52 cents, both because I am slow AND because I am expensive.

I've figured out that by the time I'm done beading the fabric for the bodice, I will have invested $2.00 in sequins, $8.00 in Swarovski crystals (thank you, Ebay!) and other beads, and $6000.00 of my time. I will have also lost two pints of blood, and most of my sanity. Needle, meet fingertip. Needle, meet fingertip. Needle, meet fingertip. Why don't you two get a room, already!

Is it still called finger puppets if there are no actual puppets on the ends of your fingers? Is it wrong that I have different voices for the index fingers of each hand? Is it wrong that one of those fingers swears in Japanese, which I'm pretty sure I personally never learned? The other one appears to be Mr. Spock, so it doesn't swear much at all, but have you ever seen a finger try to raise a disbelieving eyebrow?

Oh, sweet sanity, how I miss thee!

I've made a few other garage sale scores, which I'll post in detail about later (I know, will you be able to sleep tonight, knowing that I've bought more vintage patterns but haven't told you which ones?) but for now, I'll just say this; remember the giveaway a couple of months back? Where I gave away a ruffler foot because I had four of them, and four is too many?

Well apparently, God or the universe, or fate, intends me to own four ruffler feet, because I bought another box of antique Singer attachments sight unseen - the lady told me I could have the box for $2.00, but only if I didn't open it first - and lo and behold, there was another ruffler foot, in perfect condition.

There's also a gathering foot, a roller foot, a bias binder foot, a zipper foot, a rolled hem foot, and an adjustable hemmer foot, which made me emit a high-pitched manic giggle when I recognized it after opening the box. I sort of wish I'd at least made it to my car before opening the box, because I'm pretty sure that a few people actually left the garage sale because I started doing the squealing happy dance in this woman's driveway.

Anyway, I'll post pictures of my beading progress when the effects of the blood loss die down. Until then, the left hand finger puppet hopes that you will live long and prosper. The right hand finger puppet says "kusu o taberu na!" but I'm pretty sure it's talking to me.

Labels: craft rage, wedding dress

As I suspected, it took me longer to baste the lace to the fabric than it took me to put the dress together.  I basted over the weekend, and finished assembly this morning. Here it is, in all it's glory. Okay, glory is a really big exaggeration. But here it is, at any rate;

The cream lace over the blue fabric is NOT the look I'm going for - my actual dress fabric (unless I change my mind) is this silvery green, tone-on-tone bridal satin and lace;

The lace and fabric I used on this test dress were truly the crappiest fabrics I've worked with so far - both are from the $1.47 bin at Wal-Mart, and I'm pretty sure green fabric is some kind of super-cheap lining stuff that frays if you give it a hard glance.

Just as a reminder, here's the redrafted bodice, in the original pink version.  The last time I showed this, it was held together with binder clips, and not actually attached to the skirt of the dress in any way.  I've now basted everything together, just to double-check the fit, and doing so has taken care of some of the gaping that was happening - apparently, binder clips are simply not up to the task of carrying "the girls" around.

It's a huge improvement from the monoboob, but it's really... Well, it sort of magnifies everything with it's shininess. Plus - does that look right to you?  For some reason, that crossover in the front looks strange to me, like there's too much fabric.  But then when I look at similar pictures on the internet, I see the same effect.  Maybe I'm just being hypercritical.  Anyway, here's a close-up of the new dress, with the lace overlay.

I'm still torn between leaving the bodice in just the satin - the silver green satin isn't nearly as shiny, so it won't look so dramatic, but I really love scalloped edges of the lace on this version.

One thing that troubles me, though, is that if I use the scalloped edges on the bodice, it does funny things to the orientation of the flowers; is this something only people who sew will notice, or is it just glaringly obvious to all and sundry? Oh yes, and that reminds me - I am aware of the fact that I have had a small accident with the way I've positioned the flowers over my bust.  Don't worry, it's just the test dress. In the real dress, this won't happen. Probably.

The wider skirt is a HUGE plus - the original pink dress had a more close-fitting skirt, with no flow to it, which was pretty unflattering. I was going to use the original pattern, but really, it was just cut on the fold, and was basically a rectangle, so the top seam that runs under the bust was just a straight seam. You can really see that from the pattern on the picture;

I ended up not using the pattern at all for the skirt - I cut the back skirt as a very rough rectangle, with a narrower top than bottom, and I originally cut the front skirt as a rectangle, then folded it in half and took a big, curved scoop out of the top so that I'd get that sort of bias-cut, flowy look.  That also eliminated the need for the darts at the front, although the back still needs them.

In reality, I only used one piece of the original pattern to make this dress - the single piece of the back bodice - the rest is so drastically different that if I compare the pattern pieces to the pieces of the dress, they're nowhere near a match. And since neither of the sewn versions actually require me to use a zipper to put the dress on and take it off, I'll likely just cut the back bodice of the third version out on the fold, instead of cutting two separate pieces and joining them with a zipper.

I still have to cut about 1/4" off the armhole at the back of the arm - the fabric kind of binds up there, and I'll likely draft a couple of tiny darts at the neck, because there's a little bit of extra fabric across the top of the piece, but all in all, I think I'm on the right track.

Labels: wedding dress

I finished hand-tacking the Pink Abomination together last night and tried it on.

It fits, it's fine, it's over.

Since it was the first test dress for the wedding dress I plan to make, originally, I had thought to finish the whole dress, including embellishment and whatnot. What a dumb idea - why spend hours on beading I'll never wear? What was I thinking?

Anyway, further work on that dress is unnecessary - it's pink and I'll never wear it in public. Gee, do I sound like I'm still trying to convince myself? Anyway, I started the second test dress last night, in slightly less intimidating fabric. Since it's still a lace overlaying something moderately slippery, though, it means that, once again, I find myself hand basting the lace to the fabric on all of the pattern pieces. Is this what interlining is? Where you take two pieces of fabric and use them as though they were one?

Well, in any case, the new dress has the new bodice front, as well as a much wider skirt. It's such a simple dress to put together; just six pieces; the front skirt and back skirt, the right and left back bodices, and the right and left front redrafted pieces.

I'm not kidding when I say it's going to take me longer to tack the lace and the fabric together than it's going to take for me to assemble the dress to a wearable state - the actual assembly is about five minutes to install the invisible zip, and fifteen to pin and machine tack the rest together.

With luck, I'll have pictures later today!

Labels: pink abomination, wedding dress

As I promised in my last post, here are pictures of the pink abomination!

The front isn't quite done - the dress is supposed to be cut higher in the front than the back, but because I decided to leave myself lots of room for error, I didn't cut the whole front out yet. I figured I should concentrate on the top, and leave the easy part to the last.

A close-up of the front. The gathers are wonky, but the front is just tacked together at the waist seam, so I'll be able to pull it and redo them with minimal effort.

I'm especially proud of the back - the darts line up perfectly. Yay me! Also, there's an invisible zipper, which I bought a special foot for. Worked like a charm!

Here's a closeup of the back. I haven't ironed anything yet, so it's not as crisp as it should be.

Labels: pink abomination, wedding dress

The fabric I bought last year is two tones of light, silvery green - a bridal lace and a stretch satin.

I actually bought more than double what I need, because my original intent was to make my test dress out of the same fabric as my real dress. But because I actually like what I chose, I was always hesitant to waste any of it, even though I bought extra just for that purpose.

So the fabric I bought yesterday had to be the same fabric, only ugly. This is what I bought;

Labels: pink abomination, the colour pink, wedding dress

I know myself pretty well. I know that I will put off going to the hospital unless some part of me is spurting blood, but that I will rush one of my cats to the vet if they cough twice in one day. I know that when I slip on a patch of ice, my first instinct, even before I've taken a second to see if I'm hurt, is to look around and see if anyone saw me go down. I also know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I should never, under any circumstances, wear white.

Wearing white is like begging the cosmos to poke fun at me. I end up covered in condiments, or ink, or baby vomit, or, on one memorable occasion, just plain old water. Cotton t-shirt + water = wet t-shirt. Cotton t-shirt + water - a bra = embarrasing day at the office. Suffice it to say, there is no way on earth that I'm wearing white at my wedding.

And that, my friends, was the long way of saying that I started to make my non-white crinoline tonight, and this is how far I've gotten;

It stands up on it's own, which I guess is a good thing. The top ribbon sits right at my hips, so I still need to make the top part and the waistband, and attach the ruffle at the bottom to give the bottom layer a bit more body, but honestly, I'm feeling pretty good about this so far.

It was simple to make, though I'm a bit ashamed to say that I didn't actually measure anything - I laid a length of ribbon in a circle on the floor in the approximate circumference that I thought I needed, and a smaller circle in the middle to accomodate my hips, then trimmed and started stitching. When it's all finished, I'll post more, and show some close-ups of the method I used to attach everything - I made it up as I went along, so no doubt I've done it all wrong, but que sera sera!

Labels: wedding dress