The dress that would never end...the psychology of sewing your own wedding dress

After thinking about and planning this next step in the wedding dress--the lace bodice overlay with half sleeves--once I began this no-pattern-just-go-for-it process I realized I am losing steam (with the dress in general), and possibly all my patience.  I've never really sewn anything that demanded this much detail (and attention to detail), not to mention all the hand sewing.

After this weekend, I'm feeling a little like, "And when will I see the light at the end of the tunnel?"

Because I'm working without a pattern, the placement of the lace all comes down to draping, pinning, editing out fabric, and just doing what looks best.  Problem is, I'm doing this alone.  My sewing buddy, Denise, wasn't able to make it to help me this weekend...but I forged ahead without her.  Might not have been my best move.

I think I took the dress on and off (lacing, unlacing myself, shifting the lace, repinning, getting back into the damned thing) about 10 times before I got the lace placement anywhere NEAR where I wanted it.  About the 10th time of doing this hokey pokey I just started unpinning my work while I was IN the dress and yanking it around to where it needed to go. HA!  I win.  (So what if my boobs are now slightly squished by lace that refuses to stretch horizontally?  I couldn't bare to unpin and repin ONE MORE TIME.  Just...couldn't.)

I had one hell of a time getting the lace flower motif perfectly centered over the front of the bodice, and when I was done I really questioned my centering--not that it was off, but that the lace floral motif really lent itself to a different centering strategy altogether.  However, by this point I was SO tired (and just getting started!) of this process that I decided to let that be a secret that went with me to the grave.  I'm moving on with "good enough for government work," folks.  Don't think too much less of me, alrighty?

So here's the 10th attempt at getting the lace positioned correctly onto the bodice.  I pinned the lace to the bodice while it was on me, and I'm surprised at the number of times I poked myself and did NOT bleed on the dress!  Here it is, pinned:

 Here's a close-up of the neckline in the front.

And here's a close-up of my pinning job.

So, here's what happens when you work without a pattern.  Because women are not straight-up-and-down tubes of flesh--instead we dare to curve(!)--a mid-level seamstress (did I just give myself too much credit?) can never really predict where that extra, unwanted material will fall.

See that bunching fold of extra, unwanted fabric there?  I could have put in a dart, but that would have looked strange going right through the floral motif and would have been an obvious seam.  And as luck would have it, I did not experience this same "extra lace" phenomenon symmetrically (as darts would be experienced!).

Did I care?  No.  (See first paragraph:  Patience; losing it.)

Instead of a seam, I decided to snip the motif free from the netting so I could lay it flat again and just sew that whole sucker down (a couture technique I saw on YouTube for sewing seams in lace).  Voila.  Problem solved.  Another secret that will go to my grave.  If you find that spot on my dress during our wedding day, I will buy you a drink (just kidding, it's an open bar).

I have hated Joanne's fabrics for as long as I remember...or right about the time they cut their fabric inventory by half, doubled the price on the remaining stock (of the shittiest quality), and turned half of their store into a Michael's.

However, I was there (don't you dare tell anyone) looking for trim and I came across this really sweet, tiny trim that was made from the same type of cording that's incorporated into my lace.  I couldn't believe that it was an exact match on color, too (the dress more of an eggshell off-white and not a true cream which is the color most off-white trims seem to come in these days...bleck!).

I was so glad I found this trim because, up until that moment, I had no idea how I was going to finish off the lace, either at the waist of the dress or at the hem of the sleeves.  Here's the bodice with the Joanne's corded trim sewn into place, joining the bodice with the skirt.












Finding the corded trim also allowed me to sew the lace right up to the lacing detail on the back of the dress (right side).  Left side is just pinned in place with no trim attached.

Not only that, but this corded trim is so surprisingly strong that I decided I could take it all the way up past the back of the dress to secure the lace so I can eventually install the off-the-shoulder half-sleeves--which we will not discuss during this post because: 1) they aren't made yet; and 2) I tried one version of a sleeve (of course, also without a pattern) and failed miserably.  So we will not be discussing those sleeves just yet. 

I have WAY too much hand sewing to do on this bodice, tacking the lace overlay to the bodice in strategic places, to worry about sleeves just yet.  Suffice it to say, I have enough lace to do a few more sleeves, so this all might turn out okay in the end.  I just don't know yet.  No pressure here, either, just because the lace was half the cost of the entire dress.

Still left to do:
1)  finish sewing lace to bodice
2)  hem the dress to desired length
3)  insert zipper
4)  the "S" word

Yes, yes, Dear Reader...the list IS getting shorter.  But, why do I feel no closer to done?