Zippers, lace problems, and finishing the dress

Friends,

This will be the last blog post about the making of my wedding dress; and it's kind of bumming me out.  I mean, I've wanted to finish this project for some time (mainly, so I can worry about other things), but now that it's done...I'll miss showing you all my progress and crying over my sewing issues.

Sigh.

Well, the show must go on (at least for this one post)!

The dress was just about complete; I needed to install the zipper and address an issue with the lace in the back (let's talk about that in a sec).

I chose an "invisible" zipper in a cream color so the zipper installment wouldn't be so noticeable.

Here I am sewing it into the back of the dress.




Here's a shot of the zipper installed, and you can see part of the detail of the dress is that the bodice does not fully meet up in the back.  Instead, you get a lovely view of the crisscross of the lacing detail.










The zipper didn't come all the way up to the top of the skirt, so I added a hook and eye to fasten it right at the top.  Not my best work, but I'm hoping folks' eyeballs won't linger there.  Plus, the laces/bow will fall down my back and likely cover this up, so it won't be noticeable.








Once the zipper was installed, all that was left to do was neaten up and sew down the lining so that it wouldn't get caught in the zipper. 











And here's the finished product, pressed and ready for action!

Please excuse the crumby lace-up job; I did it myself by wiggling and pulling on the laces--so they appear a LITTLE jacked up.  But, the point of this exercise was to illustrate how the lace ABOVE the bodice in the back is slouching down. 

You can see it in this photo (and I've mentioned this problem in an earlier post--where I feared I might have to revert to straps on this dress to fix the problem).

The lace that sticks up beyond the bodice in back should come up about 4 inches.  Here it is slouched down to about 2 inches, making me very grumbly.

(Pardon the very fuzzy photo.)  This was my attempt to get that darned lace to stand up and salute! 

I used grosgrain ribbon (non-stretchy...the same ribbon I used for the waist stay) to make a boning case (yes, Denise...more PLASTIC boning) right along the outer edge of the lace where it meets the laces.

And I sewed a piece of boning in there, all snug-like.

This is what it looks like from the inside of the dress.  Pretty visible.



And...here's what it looks like from the outside of the dress.  Barely visible!  It helps that the grosgrain ribbon was the exact same color as the dress and the lace.  It just kind of blends right in. 

Plus, I plan to wear my hair half-up/half-down for the wedding so my hair will hide some of this jerry-rigging.





And here's the entire dress on a hanger.  :)

I did try it on to make sure this method would work, and sure enough that lace is standing 4 inches above the bodice of the dress and flat as a board.  BEAUTIFUL.

It was at this point that I realized all the sewing fun was over, and the wedding must begin. 

I pressed the skirt and put this little booger in the wedding dress bag, where I won't see it again until it's time to actually wear it.

Denise asked me at lunch today if it was comfortable, and I said "maybe for an hour."  I'm really not sure, because I've only had it on for a few minutes at a time over the last 3 months.

I decided I'd bring a white pant suit in the car, just in case...

Well, folks.  That's it!  You'll have to wait until after the wedding to see proper photos of me IN the dress.  Thanks for tuning in, and see you in a few weeks!!!

What's left to do:
1)  on the dress?  nothing.  :(
2)  in life?  get married!  :)