Coming together: Wedding dress update & first snow!

Folks, we had our first (baby) snow this Saturday.  It was just a dusting, but it was beautiful.  This coming Saturday we are supposed to get absolutely hammered (9 inches to a foot!).  I'm looking forward to it.










Sunday, I worked on the dress a bit; it's really starting to take shape!  First, I adjusted the skirt pattern to account for the additional inches Denise and I added to the girth of the bodice.

Up until this point, I'd barely touched my fashion fabric--the bodice doesn't take much material.  But the skirt...well, the skirt is what eats up fabric.  And so cutting out the skirt felt like I was gambling with the rent money, but it HAD to be done!  I used ALL the fabric I had cutting out the skirt pieces.  If something goes wrong from here, it's back to buying more fabric on-line and hoping the dye lots are similar!  :)

Once I cut the skirt out, I realized I had to back up a step...I had to sew the loops into the back of the bodice that would hold the lacing.  So I started on that.  These are the 16 pieces of 2 inch ribbon that would make up the loops.

And here the loops are sewn into the back of the bodice.

Here's the skirt, all sewn up, and it was roughly big enough for me to fit into it...success! 

I really wanted pockets in my dress to hold essentials like tissues, lip gloss, and mints.  I'm not sure why I thought sticking a colored pencil in the pocket would show you guys that I'd actually installed a pocket.  But, there ya go.  That's the best photo I have of the pocket.

And here's where things get real; sewing the bottom half of the dress to the top half.  EEEEEKKKKKKK!

Sewing, sewing, sewing here.  Only had to seam-rip once to remove an accidentally sewn in wrinkle I created!

And suddenly, there's a dress!  (Ignore pyrex dish full of teal pattern weights...merely using those to keep the dress from sliding off my cutting table).














Look, how shiny!

The back of the dress, before laces (or zipper) are installed.














 

The back of the dress laced in the bi-directional method.

 Here's the whole dress, after I installed the silk lining slip and teal tulle that I conquered last weekend.   I'm still deciding how much it bothers me that I can see the teal color through the cream dress towards the bottom.  I'd have to cut out a silk lining layer, gather it, and sew it to the slip in order for that color not to bleed through.

Here's the dress from the back (with my teal shoes!).

Here's a parting shot with the lace, to remind you that Denise and I will be making some kind of lace overlay for the bodice that is off the shoulder and includes lace half sleeves.  Pretty, huh?












So, taking stock of what's left to be done:

1.  Seam rip where the bodice meets the skirt at each side hip area and pull up the skirt fabric, as it's bunching up around my hips in a slightly bothersome and unattractive fashion.

2.  Hem to appropriate length (it's sweeping the ground right now and I'm aiming for tea length), and allow the teal tulle to peak about an inch below the hem.

3.  Decide whether to augment the slip with more silk lining to hide the teal color and keep it from bleeding through the dress fabric.

4.  Install the zipper.

5.  Install a bra (that'll be interesting).

6.  Put in a waist stay (that's usually a grosgrain ribbon around your waist that is independent of the dress to keep the dress from falling down or moving.

7.  Do some additional hand stitching inside the bodice to help the raw edges lay flat and keep the bodice lining in place.

8.  Make the lace overlay with off the shoulder half sleeves.

Whew.  Still...feels like a lot to do even though I see I've come a VERY long way with this dress so far.  Looks like I may very well be snowed in this coming Friday and Saturday so I'll have plenty of time to tackle some of the items on this list!!!