The Wedding Dress Saga

42. I'm Moving

2008-03-20T11:59:00.003-04:00

Now that the wedding is over, it didn't seem right to keep posting under the heading of "The Wedding Dress Saga". So, I've decided to start a new blog for my sewing projects.

I hope you'll join me at: After the dress...

Wishing you all the best in your sewing adventures and lots of beautiful creations!

--Gwen

41. Reflections

2008-03-16T20:21:00.032-04:00

(To see pictures, scroll down to post #40.)

Why?

Some people have expressed amazement that I took on this project and they seem to think that it says something about me. In fact, I think it says just as much about Susan. Obviously she is a dear friend, but I wouldn't have attempted this for "just any" dear friend.

Part of the reason I made this offer to Susan is that she sews too. To me, that means:

(a) being able to pick the pattern, the fabrics, the buttons, etc. and make a lot of design decisions would be important to her,

(b) she would truly understand and appreciate the efffort involved,

(c) she would understand and be interested in the details - where to put french seams, whether or not to underline, etc. and

(d) she would have realistic expectations of the level of quality that I could and (more importantly) could not produce.

But the bigger part of my decision stems from something more fundamental to Susan's makeup. Susan is the kind of person who looks at the dress I made and sees her design vision realized, the beautiful fabrics and lace, and the love I put into it - NOT the hem's tendency to flip up, the left-over wrinkles at the small of her back, or that one stupid bodice lace scallop that doesn't stand up perfectly... She's like that about life in general - she appreciates the good things and doesn't fuss over little imperfections. That makes her a good candidate for a handmade wedding dress, and an even better candidate for a friend! :)

Things I Wish I had Done Differently

I should have started with pattern pieces that were more closely matched to Susan's size. The pieces I started with were not a good match, so I had to do a lot of adjustment, and each time I made an adjustment was an opportunity for error to creep into the product.

I should have done a better job with time management - realizing that one month on the calendar was really only 5 or 6 days in the sewing room... I was rushed at the end - that was not good.
I wish I hadn't washed the silk organza - while I didn't really need the stiffness for the silk satin, I could have used it for the godet and the bodice lace scallops.

I should have stuck with the muslin until it was perfect. I allowed myself to move on to the silk when there was "just one little change" needed to the muslin, figuring that I could incorporate that change into the silk as I worked. That decision led to 2 scary episodes with the real dress fabrics.

Good Decisions I Made

Joining the Pattern Review community! I NEVER could have taken on a project of this magnitude without the resources and support it offered - from the online classes, to Julie's review of Susan's pattern, to the advice and encouragement available through the Message Boards from some of the most skilled and generous people in the world...

Bought high quality fabric.

Bought high quality fabric on sale! ;)

Underlined the fabric.

Thank Yous

My first "thank you" goes to Susan, for believing in me and trusting me with what could arguably be the most important outfit in a woman's life - her wedding dress. She never doubted me - not even when I made stupid mistakes or when I fell behind schedule. It's a pretty wonderful feeling when someone has that kind of faith in you... :)

My second "thank you" goes to my husband, Scott, who supplied an unending stream of support, switching seamlessly between choruses of "Don't worry, baby, it'll be okay..." and "Wow! That's gorgeous!" at the drop of a hat. He also gave up a whole month of Saturday afternoon climbs, so that I would have the extra time to work on the dress.

Next in line are Barbara for her help hand stitching the underlining to the silk satin, and Julie H. and Sarah Veblen - for their technical advice and encouragement via email.

Thanks also go to Scotti, of The Sewing Superstore in Maitland, Florida, who guided us through our first foray into the world of bridal fabrics and laces and helped us pick out the gorgeous fabrics in Susan's dress.

Last but not least, I'd like to say "thank you" to everyone who read my blog and left me comments - if you blog yourself, then you know how much those comments mean! If you don't blog, then you'll just have to take my word for it - they mean a lot!

Bottom Line

I am SO glad that I took on this project! It was a wonderful experience to share with a close friend and I think my sewing skills took a big leap forward!

If you've read my whole blog, then you know that there were some stressful and distressing moments along the journey. But, in hindsight, I wonder if those are just part of the territory when you push yourself?

I had a friend who made his living on the stock market for a few years. I asked him once how much money he could make on a single good day. He said that it depended on how much money you were willing to lose on a single bad day.

Maybe the same is true of other endeavors in life. I could have stayed in my comfort zone and kept sewing easy patterns - I would never have felt as horrible as I did on the day when the lining pieces didn't match up, but I would never have felt as happy or proud as I did when I first saw Susan, on her wedding day, in our dress...

40. Wedding Day Pictures

2008-03-08T23:41:00.022-05:00

Note: While I "took" all of these pictures, the professional photographer, JR Sterling, really deserves the credit for about half of them. He graciously let me follow him around and take advantage of his excellent set-ups. He was really great! If you are looking for a photographer in the Central Florida area, check him out!

39. Miscellaneous Details

2008-03-07T09:22:00.015-05:00

I started this week a bit behind schedule, since I had spent the weekend dealing with the unanticipated waist length issue caused by the back darts. So, I took Wednesday, March 5th, off to work on the dress. It was a productive day during which I focused on a number of relatively small details.

Following advice from Julie, I added straps so that the dress can be hung. I used ribbon with Susan’s wedding colors: yellow, blue and green. It’s kind of wild, but I think she’ll enjoy it. :)

Following more advice from Julie, I attached boning along the back darts. Hopefully this will help the back of the dress to lay flat. I used plastic boning this time, because that was all I could get at our local Joann’s. I used a combination of sand paper and melting with a candle to smooth the cut edges of the boning.

I’ve only hand basted these in for now – I want to see the impact on Susan before committing to them fully. The grey thread you see here (and in other shots) is polyamide button hole twist, which is VERY strong. Sorry for the blurriness of the photo – I’m still trying to learn the special features (like manual focus) of my new camera.

I added button loop tape and the back extension. The button loop tape I used has elasticized loops, which hopefully will make them a bit easier to secure. The loops were too far apart on the original tape, so I folded it over on top of itself and doubled the frequency of the loops.

I added my label and closed up the lining everywhere.

I trimmed the length of the skirt so that it was even all the way around. Once this length was established, I was able to align the lace properly onto the godet, baste it into place and insert the godet into the skirt.

And I finished up the waist stay. Let me spend a minute on this, because this was a detail for which my intuition failed me and I learned a few things from experience. I allowed myself to become confused by two different sets of advice. Most people on PatternReview recommended a waist stay. It’s kind of like a belt, on the inside of the dress, which holds the weight of the skirt so that this weight isn’t all on the strapless bodice, pulling it downwards.

One professional seamstress, however, gave me detailed instructions for making an inner corset to slip between the silk and the lining, and part of those instructions included attaching a grosgrain ribbon to the bottom of this corset (i.e., at the bodice-skirt seam) and using THAT ribbon to hold the weight of the skirt. So I went into this step mentally comparing the imagined advantages and disadvantages of a ribbon around bodice-skirt seam (attached continuously) and a ribbon around the waist (where there isn’t a seam in this dress) attached only in a few spots.

Can you see where I’m going with this? Without experience, the first option seemed to make more sense to me. It seemed like placing the ribbon at an existing seam line and having it connected continuously would be more secure.

But I was wrong. One of the critical things I neglected to take into consideration is that the instructions for the higher ribbon were in the context of incorporating an inner corset into the dress. Without that inner corset, trying to place a ribbon above the waist just doesn’t work. The stay naturally wants to slip to the smallest part of the body – the waist. So, that’s where it should be put.

Also, the dress hung more nicely on Susan the FEWER points at which the waist stay and skirt were attached. I can’t really explain why THAT was true, but it was. In the end, I attached the waist stay at waist level and only at the side seams. I used a bit of elastic at each end of the grosgrain ribbon, where I put the hooks & eyes, so that I could get it really snug.

Julie left small openings in side seams of the lining for her waist stay to come through, but I had cleverly (ha!) used French seams in my lining and they didn’t look like they wanted to come open again. So, instead, I reinforced the lining right by the side seams with interfacing and then made buttonholes. Conveniently, the largest setting on my automatic buttonholer is 1 inch, which is also the width of the waist stay…

So, the only steps that remain are to do the self-facing for the godet (should be quick), add the buttons, hem the dress, remove any leftover basting and a good pressing! :)

Good thing, because the rehearsal dinner is tonight and the wedding is tomorrow!

38. "Final" Fitting: Before, During and After

2008-03-02T09:59:00.018-05:00

After shaping the lace to fit on the bodice (with 2 darts), assembling the major pieces of the dress went smoothly. Following the pattern instructions, I stitched the silk skirt to the silk bodice and then attached the skirt lining at the same seam. (The bodice lining will eventually be slip-stitched at that seam in such a way as to cover all the layers.) Then I put in a "waist stay" - attaching it to the 2 side seams and the 2 darts in the back of the dress. (I'll talk more about this in a later post, and include some pictures.)

Then I was ready for Susan and the "final" fitting. ;)

She made the hour-long drive on Saturday and, for the first time, put on her wedding dress! From the front, it looked beautiful. :)

But there was something seriously wrong in the back... There were a number of horizontal wrinkles along the small of her back, suggesting that the dress waist was too long for her. Here is a picture (brace yourself, it's not pretty...)

I just couldn't understand it. Susan must have tried on the muslin half a dozen times, and then the lining, and I have NEVER seen those wrinkles before. How could the waist all of a sudden be too long?

The obvious, yet painful, fix would be to take apart the side seams, shift the back pieces up and then reattach them. The problem with that route was the length - I was afraid it would shorten the length of the dress enough that Susan wouldn't be able to wear the high heels that she had selected.

But I still couldn't get past the confusion - why would this fitting problem appear now? I slept on it and the next morning, I had a thought. What else, besides the shape of the side seams, contributes to the location and size of the waist of a skirt? Answer: the length and depth of the darts in the back...

As you may remember, the back darts were the ONE bit of the pattern that I didn't completely nail down in the muslin. At our last muslin fitting, I noted the need for one last adjustment and decided that it was small enough that I could transfer the idea to the real fabric. Then I had that difficulty with the lining - the back darts were too wide and I had to let them out again to get the skirt to line up with the bodice. So the darts were still kind of an open question. But, the lining did fit...

So, I compared the length and depth of the darts in the lining to those in the silk and, sure enough, they were longer in the silk - creating a longer waist. I took out the darts and put in shorter ones and Susan, bless her heart, made the drive AGAIN for another "final" fitting.

Did it work? We're still not perfect, but I think it's a major improvement. Take a look:

(Sorry the picture is a bit dark.) I still have some minor issues with the waist stay to work out - I'll talk about those in my next post. Major steps left: buttons up the back and the hem. I'm working on Monday & Tuesday, but I'm going to take Wednesday off and, depending on how that goes, maybe Thursday. (I got permission to take Friday off a while ago.)

Five days and counting! :)

37. There is a Time for Words and a Time for Pictures...

2008-02-27T18:21:00.005-05:00

It's NOT done, but...

36. Finishing Bodice Lace

2008-02-27T18:18:00.012-05:00

On Tuesday I reinforced the lace scallops with organza and attached the lace to the bodice along the top edge. The next step was to get the lace shaped around the curved bodice. I was a bit nervous, because I knew I was going to have to take in a dart or tuck on each side. The thing is, while the dart on the godet lace doesn't show when it is in place (i.e., near the floor), the bodice lace is going to be much closer to eye-level - so I really didn't want the seam to be evident!

I completely lucked out - there were symmetrical open areas in the lace pattern on each side of the bodice. I decided to start the dart at the place where the 2 upper/outer loops come together (right above the top of this picture - sorry!) and completely close up the main loop that is showing in the picture:

I hand-stitched these darts - twice! ;)

And I think it came out great! Even with close observation, I don't think anyone is going to notice my dart...

Finally, I basted the bottom of the lace to the bottom of the bodice and removed the baubles from the lace underneath that basting line. Next up: attaching the skirt to the bodice, inserting the lining, and adding a waist stay! There's still lots of work to be done, but the end is in sight! :)

35. Bodice Lace

2008-02-26T20:13:00.023-05:00

Today was the bodice lace day. In a comment on a previous post, Leslie asked for pictures of Susan in the bodice, to help decide which lace position looked best. That was a good idea (for SEVERAL reasons!), and I wish I had thought of it when Susan was here. Unfortunately, I didn't think of it in time... :(

Susan, however, decided how she would like the lace to go. She asked to have the bottom of the scallops just over the top of the bodice. One of the things I belatedly started worrying about was how the lace would fit under her arms - something we would have known if we had tried it on her, instead of just putting it on the armless dressmaker's dummy. (I tried to tell Susan that we have to make sacrifices for beauty and fashion, but she insists on keeping her arms!)

So, I wrapped it around myself and discovered a different problem. The lace is floppy and doesn't stand up nicely when it is extended above the bodice. One possibility, of course, was to settle for moving it down level with the bodice. But I decided to try and strengthen it by putting some of the silk organza behind it.

Once again, I found myself regretting that I had washed the organza. It would have been stiffer if I hadn't. I called all the fabric stores in Lakeland (that took all of 90 seconds!), but no one stocks silk organza. So I used some of the left-over bits from underlining the dress and, to make up for it being washed & softened, I doubled it.

I only put it behind the scallops, because it would have dimmed the shine of the silk underneath the lace. Here are a couple of shots (front and back) taken partway through the process of applying the organza:

The organza will make the lace a little less transparent on Susan's bare skin, but that doesn't seem like a problem. In fact, I'm not sure how anybody would know (other than by reading this) because there is no place where they can see the lace by itself as a point of comparison - it's always against some fabric.

It took me longer than I expected to get the organza backing on and attach the lace along the top of the bodice. I still need to attach the lace along the vertical seams in the bodice and that's going to require adding tucks to get the flat piece of lace to conform to the shaped bodice...

But it's looking beautiful! I think Susan made a good choice of positioning for the lace. :)

Tomorrow my goals are to finish attaching the lace to the bodice and to attach the skirt to the bodice and insert the waist stay. Thursday it's back to work for me - so wish me a productive sewing day on Wednesday!

34. The Skirt

2008-02-25T18:58:00.008-05:00

Okay, is it just me, or is that wedding countdown starting to freak you out too? As long as the number was over 20 days, I was fine. But 11 days!?!?! I may have to take it off my blog... ;)

I spent the weekend working on the skirt. First, I completed the skirt lining - including french seams and a narrow machine hem (as taught by Susan Khalje in her online class at patternreview.com on "Top 10 Couture Techniques".)

Then I moved on to the silk. I serged all the edges to prevent fraying and started by hand-stitching the folds into the skirt front. Then I put the darts in the back pieces and sewed the side seams. Of course, there is a big gap on one side for the godet...

The fabric needs pressing, but the silk satin is never going to be perfectly smooth - that's just not in its nature... In any event, here are a couple of shots:

First, a view of the whole skirt from the front:

Second, a closer-up shot of the folds:

It truly looks gorgeous! That silk is incredible - it is unbelievably soft and yet it has a weight about it that makes it look and feel very royal. :)

33. Godet Lace

2008-02-25T18:48:00.019-05:00

I spent today working on the lace for the godet. You may remember from way back when I cut it out, that the godet has a curved bottom and thus the finished edge of the lace doesn't naturally line up with the godet's bottom.

When we were measuring the lace in the store, a professional seamstress who makes wedding dresses (among other things) for a living was watching, and she recommended that I put a dart in the lace to get the finished edge to match the godet bottom. She also told me to use tissue paper when sewing the lace, to get it to move smoothly through the feed dogs on my machine. (I've done this before when sewing vinyl - it's a great tip!)

After re-reading the section on lace in Susan Khalje's book, I spent some time studying the lace to see if I could find a way to cut into it that preserved the pattern. I only had a very small left-over piece to experiment with; I tried a couple of different cuts, but couldn't come up with anything that worked.

So I went ahead and tried "brute force" - I just folded the lace over, stitched in a dart, cut away the excess and took a look. When you held it in your hands, you could definitely see the seam. But as soon as I held it up against the wedding dress fabric and stepped back an arm's length, the seam seemed to disappear. So, that's what I did with the godet lace...

Here is a picture that shows the approximate size and location of one of the darts. (I put in one on each side.)

Probably the most difficult step was getting the tissue paper wrapped around the lace and maintaining the location of the stitching line for the dart. Here is a shot at the machine:

Oh, if you are wondering, the answer is - Yes, the more wild and crazy the tissue paper, the better this technique works... ;)

Once the dart has been sewn, the next step is to gather all your courage and cut away the excess lace. I tried to trim very close to the stitching line.

Finally, you peel away the tissue paper...

...and open it out.

The stitching line does show in this picture, but when I hold the godet up to my body, I can't see it in a mirror and my husband can't see it when I stand right in front of him. :)

32. Construction Begins... The Bodice and a Lace Decision

2008-02-23T12:33:00.025-05:00

Due to important meetings and out-of-town visitors on the Tuesday and Wednesday after President’s day, I had to go in to work. But it’s time to get serious about finishing the dress, so I took off from last Thursday through next Wednesday; that’s 6 days to sew and 1 day to attend Expo.

On Thursday, I got to work on the bodice. One big topic I haven’t spent much time on yet in this blog is the boning. Last Fall I envisioned writing a post called “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Boning But Were Afraid to Ask…” – I was completely amused by the word play, as if I was the first to notice it. (Yeah, right.)

Unfortunately, I had to ditch the idea because I can’t even begin to pretend that I know enough about boning to write such a column. I did start a thread on Pattern Review asking for advice (click here to read) and received tons of advice from the knowledgeable and generous community there. Interestingly, I also accidentally started a bit of a (gentle) dispute – it turns out that there is no globally agreed upon answer to the question of what type of boning to use, but there are people with strong opinions… ;)

While it is called “boning” because it used to be made from whale bones, the three main materials in use today are steel, plastic and spiral steel. The main disagreement appeared to be between proponents of plastic and proponents of spiral steel. (Nobody lobbied for steel.)

What I got out of the discussion is that spiral steel moves in more directions than plastic and thus may be more comfortable for the wearer (although plenty of people said that plastic can be perfectly comfortable), but is difficult to snip and cap. Plastic, on the other hand, is relatively easy to snip and the ends just need to be smoothed off with something like emery boards, can be gently shaped with heat over a pressing ham and will hold its shape well, but it doesn’t have any give in the side-to-side direction.

Boning is so cheap that I bought some of both types to play with. But I totally cheated on the spiral steel, and bought a number of different pre-cut and pre-capped lengths that were as close as possible, without going over, the lengths that I would actually need. So I didn’t mess with snipping or capping at all. In the end, I liked the spiral steel better and so I used that. I also bought boning channel tape, so that I didn’t have to make my own. (I got everything from Farthingales in LA [http://www.farthingalesla.com/] and was very happy with their great service!)

As for the actual construction, I began by gently taking apart the lining bodice and then re-sewing it using French Seams (click here for mini-tutorial). As per the pattern instructions, I attached the boning channels to the lining after it was assembled. Because I didn’t snip the bones to the exact lengths of the seams, I did have to adjust the location of some of the bones to a spot where they best fit between the upper and lower seam allowances. I also put in twice as many bones as they indicated. Here’s a picture:

Then I turned to the silk satin and constructed the outer bodice. I worked slowly and carefully, pressing each piece before and after working with it. It came together nicely and looked beautiful! I didn’t use French Seams here, because I expect to press the seams open and hand-stitch the seams to the organza underlining. Finally, I attached the lining and outer bodice. Here are a couple of pictures:

With all that handling, the silk satin started fraying horribly and I sent panicked emails to Julie (the woman who made this dress for her goddaughter’s prom and posted the review click here for her review) and Sarah Veblem (the woman who taught the excellent class on underlining on Pattern Review click here for class description). Both have been graciously helping me with the miscellaneous questions that have been popping up as I work on the dress. Both agreed that I could serge the cut edges. Sarah recommended an alternative as well – encasing the seams in a binding made of organza. I’m pretty much out of organza at the moment (except for my press cloth), and it felt like an emergency, so I serged it before the entire bottom seam allowance frayed away.

I still have some finishing details – pulling out the basting stitches and hand securing the seams open – but the bodice is basically complete!

I particularly wanted the bodice done that day, because Susan came over that evening (to spend the night and attend Expo with me the next day) and I wanted her to consider the big lace decision – how did she want the lace on the bodice aligned? This question could be broken down (primarily) into 2 sub-questions – vertical placement and horizontal placement. These pictures illustrate the options she is currently considering:

What do you think?

One last bit of good news – my new labels arrived! I felt like the labels I usually use when I sew were too casual for a wedding dress. Here is one:

(I get these from Name Maker - http://www.namemaker.com/ .)

So I ordered these from Heirloom Woven Labels (http://www.heirloomlabels.com/):

The next few days are going to be a flurry of sewing – I’ll try to keep my posts up-to-date with pictures of the dress as it comes together.

31. Pre-Planned, Highly Anticipated Diversion

2008-02-23T12:27:00.019-05:00

The Original Sewing and Quilt Expo (http://www.sewingexpo.com) came to Tampa, Florida this week, and Susan and I made our plans and class reservations months ago. We try to get out there for one day every year, and this was our third success in the last four years. We spent the whole day (8:00 am – 6:00 pm) there on Friday. I think we both agreed that this was the best yet!

In the morning we took a 3-hour class entitled “Body Type Pattern Selection” with Cynthia Guffey (http://www.cynthiaguffey.com/). It was our first experience taking a class from Cynthia Guffey, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be our last. Cynthia is a high energy, highly entertaining whirlwind. She cuts right to the heart of things in a matter-of-fact, yet wry way that is funny and compassionate without pulling any punches. While the class wasn’t quite what I expected, it was very interesting and valuable.

On the pattern selection topic, I think her main two points were:
1. To get a proportioned line with your body, you may need to build up smaller areas with your clothes to bring them more in line with your larger areas. This goes against our natural tendency to show off our good areas by wearing fitted clothes on those parts.
2. To make clothes fit well over generously proportioned areas, you need patterns with additional seams in those areas – princess seams in a blouse, gored skirts, etc.

She also touched on fitting, especially tops, and explained two frequently overlooked measurements that, if adjusted for, should ameliorate many fitting problems – the shoulder slope and the back curve. (She has 9 fitting DVDs, if you are interested in learning more.)

She talked a lot about small changes that bring attention to and flatter your face. Her argument was that you should echo 2 aspects of your face – the shape of the features (round versus angular) and the amount of contrast between hair, eyes & skin – in the clothes and accessories that you wear around your face. She gave a powerful example of what she meant by contrast by having us imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Sissy Spacek; two beautiful women who should (and do) dress very, very differently because their natural colorings are on extreme ends of the contrast continuum.

Finally, she had each class attendee come up to the front of the room for a quick assessment. She identified their facial features and contrast, indicated if they were dressing and accessorizing appropriately, and discussed the types of patterns they should select. After asking each person if she would prefer a top or skirt pattern, Cynthia identified a pattern from her line that she thought would be most flattering for that person and noted it to be mailed out after she returns home from the Expo.

Susan and I were among the last to be called to the front of the room, so I spent some time thinking of what she was likely to say about me. I think my face is round and my contrast is low, so I expected kudos for my round glasses and round jewelry and the blouse I was wearing in muted colors. My problem area is a thick middle, so I expected her to recommend a gored skirt.

If there was any thought that I might have psychic abilities, the question has been resolved once and for all, and the answer is no.

I was shocked when she announced that the round glasses had got to go, because of my angular features, I needed a more blunt haircut without the curves, and I was NEVER EVER AGAIN to wear muted colors or floral prints. (I wanted to ask if kitten prints were out too, but didn’t get a chance.) She said I should I go for angles, contrast and drama – in my glasses, hair and clothes. She did warn me that I could be an intimidating presence if I went too far…

She didn’t mention my thick middle. She recommended an A-line skirt and said that I have a cute butt. (She even had me turn around and show it to everyone. Yikes!)

My very first reaction was shock.

My second was something along the lines of, “How can I have lived 45 years and be so wrong about myself?”

With some thought, however, I realized that I haven’t actually been wrong, I was just reacting in the opposite way to what she was recommending. While I may never have used the word “angular”, I’ve always known that I don’t have small, pretty, feminine (i.e., round) features. I deliberately select round frames and round haircuts to try to soften my features – instead of selecting angular accessories to play that up.

And I do enjoy wearing bright colors – even if I hadn’t realized exactly that muted tones were washing me out in such an unattractive way. So, I’ll be more careful with the colors right away, and I guess I’ll spend some time thinking about whether I want to continue to try to soften my features or experiment with repeating them in my accessories and clothes.

We ended up with only 30 minutes to grab a quick lunch before our 3-hour afternoon class, “Super Slick Serger Tricks Workshop” with Diana Cedolia (http://www.simplydianaandkothy.com/). This was a hands-on workshop and it was fantastic! We each a serger to work on and a packet of pre-cut pieces of assorted fabrics in various sizes. Diana walked us through a number of simple techniques with wonderful results! Here are some of my results.

First, a blanket stitch and my first attempt at using a gathering foot.

Second, a crisp serged corner, a tote bag bottom and a piped pillow top (from my first time using a piping foot).

At the very end of the class, Diana demonstrated a few tricks using a machine that can do a cover stitch. The whole class was a blast and I learned a lot! I have 8 specialty feet for my serger that I’ve never used, and I’m really looking forward to doing more than overlocking a seam and coverstitching a hem!

Finally, from 4 to 6 we wandered the exhibit floor. We were both trying to be “good” this year and not spend much money. I only had one item on my shopping list – champagne colored silk thread to attach the lace to the bodice of Susan’s wedding dress. We located that right away, and then worked our way systematically up and down the aisles exploring all the booths. In one booth with lots of quilting fabric, I found this print:

It is perfect for my Mom (a classical musician) and I’ve never seen the print anywhere before, so I bought her a half yard panel. It would make a nice cover for the chalk bag (making a rock climbers chalk bag) I made for her!

I was drawn in at a booth selling patterns for making quilted jackets using a sweatshirt as the pattern pieces and batting. One particular pattern/kit – very bold, wild and dramatic (Cynthia Guffey would have approved) kept calling to me. I turned to Susan and jokingly asked, “Aren’t you supposed to hit me?” and – she did! Right in the arm! Ouch!

Just a cautionary note to everyone – I’d minimize rhetorical-question-asking around Susan. (I’m not blaming her – I DID ask for it…) And, it worked. I put down the pattern and we moved on to the next booth, which happened to be selling patterns and materials for making undergarments – something that Susan has been thinking about getting into for a while. She really liked the products, but eventually put everything down, collected a business card with a website, and we wandered along our way.

The last two aisles of the exhibit hall contain some of the fashion contest winners and the quilts. Talk about inspiration! I’m just a hobby seamstress, but I know Art when I see – and those quilts are Art!

Finally, around 5:45, we decided to head home. We started in on some

** foreshadowing alert **

premature self-congratulations for our shopping restraint. I had only purchased one spool of silk thread and one half-yard panel of cotton fabric for my Mom. Susan hadn’t purchased anything!

But, I think the realization that she hadn’t purchased ONE SINGLE THING was too much for her, and she decided to just nip back to the undergarment booth and pick up one pattern… and maybe some of that elastic in just the right width that isn’t easy to find anywhere else… and maybe…

Of course, as you may remember, the undergarment booth was right across from the quilted - jackets - made - out - of - sweatshirts booth (http://www.moonlightdesignquilts.com/), so I decided to loiter in there while she was making her purchases… That same jacket had gone from murmuring my name to calling out desperately to me! And the proprietress mentioned that it was her very last kit in that particular color & print combination and there wouldn’t be any more because it was from her last year’s collection… I think you can guess what happened.

Here are pictures of the pattern and the fabric that came in the kit. (You supply your own sweatshirt.) I may ask Barbara and her husband Jerry to help me make it.

So, it was a wonderful, wonderful day and we left the way the Fates (or at least the Expo organizers) intended – with less money and more knowledge, inspiration and projects than when we had started... :)

30. The Final Cut!

2008-02-18T17:27:00.006-05:00

It's done! The silk has been cut! All of it! :)

Yes, with Barbara's help, I accomplished my goal for the three-day weekend! We hand-stitched nine organza pieces (cut from the muslin pieces and marked with thread) to the silk and then I cut the silk out around the organza.

I had been nervous about cutting into the (expensive) silk, but by the time we had stitched the organza on, it didn't seem like such a big deal.

Barbara and I did the two back skirt pieces on Saturday. I did the five bodice pieces on Sunday. And Barbara came back on Monday to help me with the front skirt piece. :)

The organza is flimsy and doesn't hold its shape well, so it was REALLY great to have a second person there, assessing everything and helping me figure out how to ensure that the pieces (especially the front skirt piece!) were laid out correctly.

One of the reasons I decided to add an organza underlining was so that I could put the markings on the organza and not have to mark the silk in any way. But I'm not sure that I've really shown the basted thread markings on the organza yet. So, here is a shot of the pattern piece for the skirt front:

Notice all those short lines indicating where the folds are placed? And the grainline? And the two small marks where the princess seams of the bodice should line up? Now, here is the (un-ironed) organza front skirt piece with those same marks indicated by thread basting:

Next up: assembly! :)

29. Surprise Visitor!

2008-02-17T08:26:00.011-05:00

Coming into this 3-day weekend, my goal was to get all of the organza underlining pieces hand-stitched to the silk satin and all of the silk satin pieces cut out. Then I would - finally! - be ready to begin assembling the real dress. :)

I was a bit worried about how long all the hand-stitching would take... As if she could read my mind (although more probably it was because of reading this blog!), Barbara, a very dear and long-time family friend of Susan's fiance, Matt, called me up out of the blue and offered to come and help! As an accomplished quilter, hand-stitching is one of her strengths, and I was all over that offer as quick as a bee to honey! ;)

Well, I did have one concern - letting her see MY hand-stitching... What if she passed out from horror and shock, and, while falling to the floor, hit her head on the corner of my cutting table and had to be rushed to the emergency room? I could just imagine trying to explain it to Matt... "You did WHAT to my Aunt?!?!?"

So, I did warn her ahead of time, and she generously made the almost one hour drive out to our house to spend Saturday afternoon underlining with me. We had never met before, but we clicked instantly and had a delightful afternoon.

When she arrived, I wasn't quite ready to begin attaching the organza to the silk - I had to make sure it was on grain and deal with ironing before we could start pinning.

As you may remember, in order to figure out the grain on the rayon and organza, I began by making a small snip near one cut edge and then ripping the fabric. The silk satin, on the other hand, declined to rip, so I had to use another method - thread tracing. I still started by making a small snip, but I used that openning to access a thread, and then I pulled that thread all the way through the entire width of the fabric.

Once the thread it was out, it left a "cutting line" that indicated the location of the crosswise grain. (Sorry for the blurry pictures - I haven't figured out how to get my camera to focus on close-ups.)

Once I carefully made the cut, we checked the grain. It looked really good! That's the last fabric for the dress and I am so thankful that I didn't have to mess with trying to straighten the grain on anything!

Next up: pressing. It turned out to be incredibly helpful to have a second person there to help with the mechanics of dealing with 6 yards of silk satin. We got it wrapped on the pvc pipe and worked out a nice system of ironing. We ironed on the back of the silk and used a large organza scrap for a press cloth - Barbara managed the fabric and moved the press cloth around and I did the actual ironing.

Then we started the pinning. I had us work on the (large) back skirt pieces, because I figured I could do the (small) bodice pieces pretty easily by myself. Barbara had lots of good advice from her quilting experience - for example, she showed me how to do a special knot and how to use a needle threader.

We got one back skirt piece completely stitched to the silk, and the second back skirt piece pinned and stitched up the middle. I finished stitching it later that evening, so both back skirt pieces are done! Yea! :)

It was a truly delightful afternoon - Barbara brought a small album with pictures of some of the quilts she has made for friends and family and I was just blown away! On top of her technical skill, she puts an incredible amount of love and thought into designing quilts that suit the personality and passions of the person she is quilting for...

And now she has put some of that same love into Susan's wedding dress. That makes two of us, and I'm pretty sure that when two people who care about you put love into your wedding dress, that makes the dress magic... ;)

Thank you, Barbara!

28. Underlining - part 1

2008-02-10T15:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and support over the last week! It really did feel pretty much like the end of the world when those pieces didn't line up, and then it turned out to be no big deal... Go figure... ;)

So, with the lining ready to go, I turned my attention to the underlining - the silk organza. It was too wide for my ironing board, but, luckily, it didn't wrinkle as easily as the rayon, so ironing wasn't too bad. More happiness - it was pretty much on grain.

Of course, after the lining incident, I did double check that my bodice pieces and my skirt pieces would line up. Here is a view of the front:

I was able to cut all of the organza pieces on Saturday. In general, the next step is to transfer the pattern markings to the organza, then pin the organza to the underside of the silk and carefully hand stitch around each piece. Once that is done, I will be able to cut out the silk pieces, and they will already be underlined!

On Sunday, as usual, I started with the cheapest and most easily replaceable fabric - the godet. I had actually already cut out the godet, so I flipped the plan and stitched the godet to the organza before cutting it out. This is one place where it might have been better if I hadn't pre-washed the organza. The godet fabric is polyester and very soft. It probably could have used the stiffness of the organza before washing. But the silk of the dress will be behind the godet in a kind of facing arrangement, so I think it's going to be fine.

Here is a shot of the godet pinned along one edge to the larger sheet of organza, and hand stitched along the other edge.

I've heard that you should stitch up the middle of "large pieces". I'm not sure if the godet qualifies as large or not, but it didn't fit on my cutting table and I knew I'd be shifting it around (which you are not really supposed to do), so I figured stitching it up the middle couldn't hurt.

I didn't know exactly what to expect from the process of hand stitching the 2 pieces together, but it was kind of peaceful. I also spent some time transfering the pattern markings to the organza, but haven't finished yet. I'm staying home from work tomorrow for a memorial service in the afternoon - hopefully in the morning I can finish the markings. Then (gulp) it's the silk satin...

Parting shots: When Jackson's 16-year-old brother and litter mate passed away, he sunk into a deep depression. It lasted for months, so we finally gambled and brought home two kittens, hoping that he would make friends with them. Looks like our gamble paid off!

27. Luck is a Lady...

2008-02-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

and she must care about wedding dresses. :)

I adjusted all the darts to get the center back edges of the bodice and skirt to line up. I basted it all together and basted in a zipper. Susan came over for a fitting.

It worked.

It fits.

Well, I suppose it could still be a smidge tighter (she could breathe), but I think I'll leave that adjustment for the buttons. ;)

It hangs beautifully.

I don't have to re-order & re-cut the lining, and I'll be able to use my existing muslin as pattern pieces to cut the underlining and silk - all I have to do first is adjust the darts.

I'm kind of in shock and still waiting for it to sink in. But I definitely feel a smile growing from deep inside... :)

26. I am an idiot. :(

2008-02-03T21:35:00.000-05:00

What in the world made me think I was good enough to take on this project? Add a few expletives and a hint of despair and you have a good sense of the thoughts and emotions running through my head on Sunday night when I went to bed. I (like to) think I'm reasonably intelligent and I have been trying so diligently to be slow and careful at each step of the process - and yet I can still make a mistake this big and this late in the game… It really makes me doubt myself. :(

Okay, I'll try to get off the self-castigation kick and report what happened. I cut out the pieces for the lining and basted them together - first the bodice and then the skirt. When I went to attach the bodice to the skirt (for another fitting - this isn't the actual assembly process), the bodice extended a total of 6 inches (3 inches per side) beyond the skirt. Six inches! When the muslin was assembled, these pieces lined up correctly. In the process of disassembling it and preparing it to become the pattern pieces for the real fabric, I somehow managed to insert an error of that magnitude… :(

Not surprisingly, I didn't have the heart to take a photo.

I've been trying to figure out what happened and here is the most likely explanation I can generate: At our last fitting, the dress was still a bit big in the bodice. I determined the amount that it needed to be taken in. I had the options of (a) re-doing the muslin yet again and having another "last" fitting or, (b) just making those adjustments "on the fly" as I took apart the muslin and prepared the pattern pieces for the real fabric. I selected option (b). I think that, when making those adjustments, I must have accidentally taken that extra width out of the skirt twice (once at the back seam and once at the back darts), instead of just once. That would account for the discrepancy.

So, what's done is done.

And let's all take a moment for a silent prayer of thanks that I only cut the lining, not the silk!

What are my options for moving forward? I have two, actually. One is to order more rayon and start the lining again. This may very well be where I end up, but it turns out that I do have another choice worth investigating. There are 4 darts in the skirt, taking up a total of 8 inches in width. I can open them, free up 6 of those inches, and then put them back in, distributing the remaining 2 inches between them. This should result in the center back edges of the bodice and the skirt lining up.

In fact, I'm going to try this and have a fitting with Susan, to see if I at least have the size right! Then Susan and I will assess the look of the lining (Do all of the seams line up correctly? What is the impact of making such tiny darts on the way it hangs? Are there too many tiny holes in it? etc.) and decide whether it can be used or I need to get more fabric and start again.

Of course, I also have to figure out how to fix the error in the (muslin) pattern pieces for the underlining and silk satin before I do any cutting there. I really didn't expect to be having problems of this magnitude at this stage. The whole purpose of the muslin was to have all of this worked out before touching the real fabric. What in the world made me think I was good enough to take on this project? :(

25. The Lining - For Real! (part 1)

2008-02-03T21:31:00.001-05:00

I started on the lining today. First up was pressing. The fabric is Ambiance Bemberg Rayon and I wasn’t sure how to set the iron – how hot? Steam or dry? Then I remembered a book that I had bought years ago – More Fabric Savvy by Sandra Betzina.

It is a reference book, organized alphabetically, with 2 pages per fabric. One page has a photo and general information such as how the fabric is produced, common uses and some sewing tips. The second page addresses the same 14 topics for each fabric: pre-shrinking, layout, marking, cutting, interfacing, thread, machine needle, stitch length, presser foot, seam finish, pressing, topstitching, closures and hemming. Sandra recommended pressing rayon with a dry iron set to a medium temperature.

I wish I had remembered this book a bit earlier, as I had already pre-washed both the rayon and the silk organza (the underlining fabric). But a quick check indicated that I hadn’t done much damage. (Of course I had used cold water and the delicate cycle on my machine.) According to Sandra, pre-washing is the right thing to do for rayon, and softens silk organza. Luckily, I’m not depending upon the underlining to stiffen the silk satin, so I don’t think that’s going to be a big deal. Phew! ;)

Oh, one quick tip I picked up on PatternReview for pre-washing. Unfortunately, I can’t remember who recommended it, but someone suggested serging the two cut edges of a piece of fabric before pre-washing it, in order to prevent (or at least minimize) raveling in the washing machine. I tried it, and it worked like a charm! :)

Anyways, back to ironing the rayon. The first time through, I took my time and let each section cool on the ironing board before moving on to iron the next section. Even so, when I finished I noticed that there were wrinkles where it had slowly piled on top of itself on the floor. This may be overkill for lining, but given that I have a lot more pressing to do for this dress, I tried rigging up a solution. I found a long and relatively wide piece of PVC pipe in our garage, cleaned it and quickly sewed up a “sleeve” for it. Then I used existing furniture and a TV tray to hold it about 6 inches below the surface of my ironing board. I attached one end of the lining fabric to the sleeve with a few pins. After I finished ironing a section and let it cool, I rolled the freshly pressed fabric around the tube and was ready to iron the next section! Cool, huh?

I think it would work better if the sleeve (or slipcover) fit more snugly, but overall I really like it, and may try to work up something a bit more permanent than a freestanding TV tray… And I can envision something like this on my cutting table too.

After ironing - the big question: Is it on grain? The answer: Pretty close! :)

Next up – cutting, basting and one final fitting! :)

Parting shot: Sammy snoozing in the Florida sun...

24. Deconstructing the Muslin

2008-01-26T21:00:00.000-05:00

All that work to create a well-fitted muslin version of the dress, and the next step is to take it apart! ;)

See, the idea is that, once you have the muslin fitting exactly the way you want, you turn it into your pattern for the real fabric. Here are the steps I followed:

Mark all the seams on the assembled muslin with pen.
Take apart the muslin and remove ALL old thread (there's a lot of it!).
Baste over all the pen marks with brightly colored thread.
Whenever necessary, trim to a 5/8th seam allowance.
Overlay the original pattern pieces and make sure to mark all symbols on the muslin pieces.

I spent A LOT of time on this - probably 2, 6-hour days. My logic was that the more careful I was at this stage, the less work I would have to do modifying the real dress. You know, "measure twice, cut once"...

One of the things that I tried to be very careful about was working with the pieces that were supposed to match. For example, there were four pieces cut from the same original pattern piece at the back of the bodice - 2 to be cut in the silk and 2 to be cut in the lining. I paired up all 4 pieces, aligned their seams and then trimmed them together.

Here is a shot of all the bodice pieces.

Here is a close-up of one of the bodice pieces, showing how I labeled it, marked the seams with pen (while it was still assembled), and then stitched over the pen with colored thread. This piece still needs to be trimmed in a couple of places to make all of the seam allowances equal to 5/8ths of an inch.

I am so happy to finally be done with this step!

The next step - cutting the real fabric! I'll probably do the lining first. Then the silk organza I got for the underlining. After marking those pieces, I'll hand sew them onto the silk satin and then cut into the silk. There's still a lot of work ahead before I actually start assembling the real dress...

23. Godet: Fabric & Lace

2008-01-23T22:52:00.000-05:00

I cut the godet base fabric first. Why? Well, mostly because it is some of the cheapest and most easily replaceable fabric in this dress. ;)

The first question was, of course, was the fabric grained correctly?

The first answer: not too bad...

Here's the godet pattern on the gold fabric. The straight seam is actually aligned on a fold so that it will open out symmetrically.

The next logical thing to cut was the lace - unfortunately for my nerves, this being a jump from the least expensive and most easily replaceable to the most expensive and least replaceable material in the dress.

The next picture shows the godet pattern laid out on the lace. Right away, you notice a problem. The bottom of the lace has a nicely scalloped, finished edge. The bottom of the godet pattern is rounded and if I were to cut out the pattern exactly, the majority of that nice finishing would be lost.

In a stroke of serendipity, an experienced seamstress happened to be at the store where we bought this lace and noticed this problem when we were measuring it. She recommended the outline of a plan. (There are still a few details that I'm going to have to fill in for myself.) First, she told me to extend the cut down to the edge of the fabric.
Then, somehow (and this is the bit I'm vague on), I am supposed to do a kind of dart in the lace to make the finished edge of the lace line up with the hem of the godet. It's like a dart shape, but of course the extra fabric will be cut away and the resulting raw edges of the lace sewn together.

I know that Susan Khalje talks about this in her wedding dress book, so I'll go back and re-read that section carefully. I can already see one thing that I shouldn't have done - cut the side seam of the lace exactly on top of the side seam of the godet. This limits the extent to which I can fold up the lace along the side. I should have given myself extra width (an inch or two) in the lace along the side of the godet for wiggle room. I'm reasonably certain that I can still make it work (fingers crossed), but I think it would have been easier with that extra width.

22. Time Management Lesson Learned - The Hard Way

2008-01-23T22:31:00.000-05:00

Where did all the time go?

It seems like just yesterday I had months before the wedding, and suddenly here it is - the end of January, with the wedding on March 8th - and I haven't even cut out the pieces in the real fabric! :(

Using 20-20 hindsight, I realize that I made a simple mistake. I was estimating the level of urgency based on the number of calendar days between today and the wedding, when what I should have been using was the number of days I actually have available to work on the dress!

It turns out there is a very big difference in those 2 estimates! Most months have somewhere between 30 and 31 days in them, right? Plenty of time... But between a full time job, some volunteer tutoring, household chores and Saturday afternoons rock climbing with my husband and our friends, I typically only have 3 or 4 days available when I can really devote a reasonable chunk of time to working on the dress. So suddenly my 30 day month becomes the equivalent of only 3 days worth of progress! Yikes! :(

I hope I can remember this lesson for other projects in the future. For now, I just have to commit all of my time to the dress. Obviously, this may include letting some of the above slip a bit. I may even have to take a few days of work off in February. Hmmm... Staying home to sew instead of going into work - it'll be rough, but I'll try to find some way to bear up under the strain... ;)

21. Interlining Indecision

2008-01-20T10:45:00.000-05:00

I've been going back and forth about my decision to not underline (interline) the dress. Originally, I decided not to, because the silk satin can hold the folds by itself and I am inexperienced with this technique and thus was afraid I might mess it up.

More recently, I've come across some things that made me doubt that decision. Several of the blogs I read regularly have talked about underlining their outfits and the benefits - one that grabbed my attention was the ability to mark all of the pattern markings on the underlining, not on the fashion fabric. Another blogger (and I'm so sorry, but I can't remember who) talked about how the underlining fabric helped her control the silk fashion fabric. I haven't worked with silk before, but if it's difficult to control, then I would like all the help I can get!

Finally, the latest issue of Threads magazine (Tauton Press) had an article on underlining/interlining by Kenneth King, and he recommended cutting out the underlining first, hand stitching it to the fashion fabric, and then cutting out the fashion fabric.

Last night I couldn't fall asleep - I just kept wondering what to do. Finally, after 11 pm, I gave up and hopped on the internet, buzzed over to Thai Silks and ordered 7 yards of silk organza. I paid extra for rush delivery - the wedding is March 8th and I'm starting to feel the press of time...

I hope this was the right thing to do.

20. Never mind...

2008-01-19T09:17:00.000-05:00

This is so weird. Susan and I did our "fitting" in the restroom at the climbing gym Wednesday evening. Using pins, I tried taking the extra width out of the bodice in different distributions across different seams - the princess seams (the ones that come up over her bust), the side seams and the back center seam. For each attempt, we checked the alignment of the side seams with my homemade plumb line and Susan evaluated the look, security and comfort.

In the end, she preferred having the entire amount taken out of the back center seam. Of course, that's where I had it originally - but without putting any real thought into it. So I am definitely glad we checked it.

I haven't revisited the actual pattern pieces, but I suspect that this isn't truly "legitimate". (The back center seam probably remains constant across the various sizes and all the adjustments for size probably occur at the side seams.) Still, it does look the most flattering - other options seemed to squeeze her so that she bulged over the top a little bit (one of those things that was much more obvious to her than it would be to anyone else, but she's the bride...) And it didn't really mess up the side seams like I thought it would. So, there you go... :)

I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who has been following this blog and leaving comments for me. First and foremost, of course, is faeriekat - who has been encouraging me from the very beginning! :) Thank you so much!

More recently, some accomplished seamstresses, like Connie, aggietect04, and Emily have stopped by - your interest, encouragement and offers of help really mean a lot to me!

Knowing that at least a couple of experienced seamstresses check in here sometimes, I thought I'd throw out a question. This is my first time working with real silk - what am I in for? I read on one blog that someone leaves a generous seam allowance because silk frays at the edges. I read on another blog that it's difficult to work with, but I've heard lots of people rave about how nice it is to work with high quality fabrics (in general). What should I expect and are there certain techniques that I should consider - for example, would french seams be a good idea?

Thanks in advance for any information and advice you can provide! :)

19. Whoops...

2008-01-16T17:10:00.000-05:00

Did I say "last" muslin fitting? My bad... ;)

So, over the last couple of days it has slowly dawned on me that I did something foolish during our fitting on Sunday. For some reason I took out all of the "slack" in the bodice along the back center seam.

While I think I ended up with an accurate measurement of how much the bodice needs to tighten up, I can't just take it all out of the back center seam without considering how that will impact the location and alignment of the other seams on the dress. For example, that might pull the side seams back so that they no longer fall along the side of Susan's body.

In addition, as I think I mentioned in my last post, the amount to come out along the top of the bodice is larger than it is at the bodice-skirt seam, which could result in (brace yourself!) side seams that aren't perpendicular to the floor.

I'm not sure exactly what horrible things will happen as a result of this, but I'm pretty sure that it can't be good - probably something about the dress not hanging or moving nicely.

So, Susan and I are meeting at the gym tonight to climb, and I'm taking the muslin with me. We will do a quick assessment in the changing room. I even remembered to bring my homemade plumb line - an empty thread spool tied at the end of a long piece of thread. You hold the thread under her arm and let it hang straight to the ground - the goal is to align the side seam with the thread line.

My goal is to figure out how much of the overall slack should be taken out at each of the possible locations (seams and darts), in order to maintain the appropriate locations and positions of all of the seams and darts. THEN I'll be ready to mark these seam lines on the muslin, take the muslin apart, and use the muslin pieces as the pattern pieces for the real fabric.

Thank goodness this occurred to me before it was too late… ;)

18. Last Muslin Fitting!

2008-01-13T17:11:00.000-05:00

Well, we had our last muslin fitting today. Susan came over around 1:30 pm, with her friend Angie and Angie's 2-year-old daughter. The skirt had been fitting well for a while - the real focus of my recent fine tuning has been the bodice. The other big thing that we hadn't resolved was the length, because she hadn't selected her shoes yet.

She finally had some time to go shoe shopping and was able to find a pair that she liked. They are mostly gold and are very dressed-up and fancy looking. I also had a pair (purchased in 1999 for a turn-of-the-millennium New Year's Eve party) that I thought would look good with the dress. They are a bit more subdued, covered in white fabric that matches the dress nicely. The heights were quite similar, and we could come up with pros and cons for each pair, so I suggested she wear each pair around for a while and then choose based on comfort. (I'm not a big shoe person - you can probably tell from that silly advice...)

Regardless of which pair she chooses, it looks like I can trim 4 inches off the pattern pieces and be left with enough for a narrow hem.

As for the bodice, despite taking in almost 4 inches around the bodice-skirt seam (based on our last fitting), it was still a little bit too big! How can that have happened? Clearly, Susan is sneaking around behind my back losing weight! The nerve! This has got to stop! ;)

Actually, most of that extra room was across the top of the bodice, not at the bodice-skirt seam, and I had not made any adjustments up there, so I guess this isn't completely unbelievable... Although it still astounds and aggravates me that I used Susan's measurements and the table on the back of the pattern to pick the size(s) to cut, and I'm now sewing at least 2 sizes smaller on the bodice (and 1 size smaller at the hips). What was the purpose of that table again?

In any event, the adjustments are small enough (and the wedding date close enough) that I've decided to mark them on the muslin pieces, but move on to working with the real fabric. So, today was our last muslin fitting. :)

Angie was a great help! I was so glad that she came. In addition to helping me pin in the necessary adjustments, she encouraged Susan to move around the room, sit down and stand up, etc. Even Angie's daughter helped - running over to give Susan a hug (so that Susan could lean down and pick up a squirmy 2-year-old in the dress) over and over again. Those mini-experiments helped give us all confidence that the fit was going to work and there wouldn't be any "wardrobe malfunctions".

Now to the part that I've been putting off talking about - the undergarment situation. I have lots of information about how to make a kind of corset that is built right into the dress - including detailed instructions generously provided by a professional on the PatternReview website (click here).

But despite several attempts, I just can't seem to get a fit that provides the same shaping and support as Susan's strapless bra. And the bra fits under the dress... The only bit I'm wondering about is whether or not there will be a small ridge visible through the fabric the marks the top of the bra. It does show with the muslin. But the silk is thicker, and there will be boning in it, and it will be covered with lace that has a lot of detail in it...

In the end, I think we all pretty much agreed that the small negative of the ridge (which may not even show in the real dress) doesn't compare to the large positive of the nice shape that it gives her. So we are going to go with that strapless bra.

As long as I'm admitting this, I might as well admit my other big "sin" - I'm not underling the dress. This was another difficult decision. On one hand, I know about all the benefits of underlining. On the other hand, the silk satin will hold the folds by itself, and I don't have any real experience underlining (I don't think 2 half-size garments in an online class really counts as much experience, do you?) - so this is something that I could easily mess up. (Don't believe me? Read some of my earlier posts to see the things I've already managed to mess up!)

So, bottom line - there's a reason that professionals charge thousands of dollars for custom wedding dresses, and I am not a professional. Susan is not getting a couture gown - she is getting a dress made with love by a friend. Luckily, that means more to Susan than a "couture" rating... ;)

17. We Got It!

2008-01-06T14:44:00.000-05:00

For the month of December, as planned, Susan and I stopped into the Sewing Studio Fabric Superstore about once a week to keep an eye on her fabric. Instead of staying up to watch the ball drop, I was in bed by 10 pm on New Year's Eve - all in preparation for: The New Year's Day Sale! On January 1st, I got up at 5 am and was at the store by 6:30 am. I had been hoping to be first in line, but one woman actually beat me - by about 5 minutes. Another woman arrived about 5 minutes later and the 3 of us visited companionably, sitting on our folding chairs in front of the store for about 30 minutes before anyone else showed up. Then, slowly but surely, people starting trickling up to join the line. Susan joined me around 8 am and by the time the store opened, at 9 am, we estimated that there were around 40 people in line.

I had a list with all of our selections (including lining, button loops and 50 little pearl buttons!) and we divided up the list ahead of time, with plans to grab our respective bolts and meet at the cutting counter. Scotti (the person who had been helping us all this time) saw us at the front of the line and so he had the silk satin and lace out and waiting for us as we came in the door! I'm pretty sure that those were 2 of the first pieces of fabric cut that day.

The store had run out of one thing - the lining that we had picked - Ambiance Bemberg rayon. Luckily that's commonly available and I was able to order the exact color we wanted on the Internet that same day. (It's already arrived.) I had a bit of difficulty finding the golden fabric for the godet, but Susan was able to pick out the right bolt from across the room. We were out of the store by 9:30! Pretty amazing!

It's very difficult to get a photograph that accurately reflects the colors, especially the just-off white of the silk satin, but here goes my best effort. The first shot shows the silk satin for the main dress and the gold (polyester) satin for the godet with the champagne lace on top of it.

This second shot shows the silk satin with the champagne lace laid on top, as we have planned for the bodice.

The colors aren't perfectly represented, but the fabrics really look beautiful together and using the same lace for the bodice and godet really makes the whole thing come together.

We're scheduled for our final muslin fitting next Sunday (Jan. 13th) and then... Then I have to find the nerve to cut into the most beautiful (and most expensive!) fabric that I have ever touched in my whole life... ;)

16. Fabric Shopping!

2007-12-03T16:39:00.000-05:00

(Let down alert – no photos yet. Sorry…)

While Susan and I have both been sewing for several years, neither one of us has really ventured into fine fabrics. I mostly stick with cotton prints and flannels, although I have used some knits, linens and bottom-weights. But dupioni silk? Not me…

Thus I think that, at first, we were both a bit overwhelmed by the task of selecting fabric for her dress. I felt like I didn’t even know the set of options that we had to choose from, which was unnerving. Luckily, the instructor from one of the online classes I took at www.patternreview.com, Sarah Veblen, graciously gave me advice via email and even sent me a swatch of the silk satin that she used to make her daughter’s wedding dress. (If you want to see an incredible creation, check out the wedding photos on Sarah’s website: http://www.sarahveblen.com.)

There is, of course, lots of good advice on the pattern review web site, including information about online shops for fine fabrics. And for people with a little bit of experience working with fine fabrics, I think that this is probably an excellent option. But in the end, for us, I think that the brick and mortar store experience was a necessity. We needed to see and touch bolts of fabric side by side – to unroll them on a cutting table and overlay bolts of lace – we just didn’t have enough knowledge in our heads to fill in the details that are missing from web site words and pictures and little swatches that come in the mail…

Luckily, there is a great fabric store in Orlando, The Sewing Studio Fabric Superstore (http://www.sewing.net), that has a large bridal section. A friend at work told me about it, and Susan and I visited it last Tuesday night (our usual rock climbing night.) Even that experience would have been overwhelming, if it wasn’t for the assistance of one of the employees, a knowledgeable young man named Scotti. He encouraged us to unroll bolts of fabric and lace on the cutting table and mix and match to our hearts’ content.

Susan had brought the pattern envelope and her cardstock cut-out of the dress outline. Scotti was able to give us advice about the level of firmness of the various fabrics and how well they matched the requirements of our pattern. (For example, too soft of a fabric wouldn’t hold the [horizontal] pleats in the front of the dress.) We used the cardstock cut-out to help visualize the possible combinations of fabrics and laces distributed across the bodice, body and godet. I can’t say enough about how patient, encouraging, and technically helpful he was!

And the evening was a success! We selected a rich, gorgeous, just-off-white silk satin for the dress, a burnished gold satin for the godet, and the most heart-stoppingly beautiful champagne colored lace to overlay the bodice and the godet. The lace has a distinct top and bottom. Along the bottom there are flowered vines growing upwards. The bottom is the most heavily patterned area of the lace, and the embellishments become sparser the higher up you go. I’ll align the bottom of the lace with the bottom of the godet, so that the flowered vines grow up from the bottom of the dress. I’ll use less detailed pieces of lace (from higher up) to overlay the bodice.

We debated using the gold satin for the bodice as well, but recalled my friend Dorothy’s advice, that adding this distinctive horizontal line under the bust might make Susan look shorter. So, Susan decided to leave the bodice in the same fabric as the rest of the dress, but use the lace overlay to connect it with the godet, so that the godet doesn’t jump out like this bit that is out of place from the rest of the dress. The matching lace should tie everything together nicely.

We also debated not using the gold satin at all, and just highlighting the godet (and/or the bodice) with the lace. That would have been beautiful, but perhaps more traditional. The combination that Susan decided on is, I think, uniquely her. While it will still clearly be a wedding dress, her personality and her voice will sing out in this dress. Just wait until you see it! :)

And that, of course, gets us to the question of time and schedule. Originally we had planned to go back and buy the fabric on Saturday. But it turns out that this store has a huge sale on New Year’s Day – EVERYTHING in the store (including the lace) is 40% off! We’re going to keep a close eye on Susan’s selections – stopping in every week in December to make sure that they aren’t running low on anything. (In fact, I’m going tomorrow night.) I’m not going to let these choices slip away from us, but, if everything goes well, I’ll make the purchases on January 1st, 2008.

15. Last Diversion of 2007

2007-12-01T20:28:00.000-05:00

Okay, ONE last miscellaneous sewing project before Christmas… This is it, I promise. ;)

Speaking of promises, the reason I’m doing this is that I promised to make chalk bags for two rock climbing friends. One friend is Michelle, who climbs up in Ohio with my parents and the other is Alfred, who climbs with his mother at our gym in Orlando. Chalk bags are drawstring pouches that rock climbers wear at their waists. They contain (wait for it….) chalk, which climbers brush on their hands to keep them from getting sweaty and slippery. (Other athletes do this too – you’ve probably seen gymnasts dip their hands in chalk before starting a routine on the uneven parallel bars, for example.)

It looks like it should be something simple to sew, and I started working on coming up with my own pattern a few years ago. After a bunch of experiments and variations, I think I’ve settled on “the one”. Interestingly (and perhaps foolishly) I never did the most obvious thing to do – I never purchased a commercial chalk bag and took it apart. I probably should have done that ages ago. At first, it seemed like it should be easy enough to figure out on my own, and now that I have a working pattern there doesn’t seem to be much point…

My chalk bags have 3 layers – an inner layer of fleece, an outer decorative layer of whatever fabric the climber chooses, and a middle layer of medium-weight canvas, to give it some structure and make it stand up on its own. All three layers are cut from the same pattern and constructed the same way.

My first pattern for the pouch was a rectangle, sewn into a column, with a circular piece stitched in one end to close up the bottom. But I HATED sewing the bottom on, and as I sewed various purses and bags from commercial patterns, I learned other ways to construct a 3-D pouch. Here is the pattern I use now and some shots of the construction:

(Sorry for the poor quality of the photos.)

While there is no single “right” set of dimensions, here are the ones that I use: Both the long side seam and the width of the body are about 8 inches long and the width of the (centered) bottom seam is about 4 inches long. The incut is approximately 2 inches by 2 inches.

And here is the final version, inside and out:

As I said, using this pattern I make 3 identical pouches, out of fleece, canvas and the “fashion” fabric (typically a cotton print).

The next step is to prepare for the drawstring, by putting metal eyelets into the middle (canvas) and outer (cotton) layers. (You can get eyelet kits at Joanns.) I usually put them about 2 inches below the upper rim, and I interface the outer layer first, because the cotton is too flimsy to hold the eyelet on its own.

Here is one I’m working on now - the three pouches and a closer view of the eyelets:

Now, I insert the loops to hold the drawstring into the inside of the middle (canvas) layer. I only use 3 loops and I make them out of 3 inch pieces of elastic. The goal is to be able to close up the inner (fleece) layer without too much distortion of the outer 2 layers, which is why I make the loop so long and stretchy. For the drawstring, I use about 30 inches of cord and I burn the ends with a match so that they don’t unravel.

Oh, I learned the hard way to stitch the drawstring (at its midpoint) to the middle loop (only). If you don’t, the people that you give these chalk bags to will, at some point in time, pull out the drawstring and then ask you to thread it back through the loops! I can tell you from experience that this is possible, but NOT fun. So, sew that puppy in permanently!

Insert inner pouch into middle pouch – wrong sides together (and toward the inside), keeping drawstring cord in a loop around the circumference of the fleece layer such that it can be used to tighten inner pouch. Baste these 2 pouches together around the top.

Now you’re probably expecting me to slide this combined piece into the outer layer, and baste all 3 layers together, before finishing the upper edge, right?

Well, this is the really cool part of my design. My design is not for just any old chalk bag. It is for a chalk bag with interchangeable covers! In other words, you can make multiple outer layers (cotton prints) for the same chalk bag, and switch between them whenever you want!

So, my next step is to add a loop to this piece, so that the chalk bag can be clipped onto a climbing harness. I use about 5 inches of strap, folded over to make a 4 inch (circumference) loop with a 1 inch tail. Both ends of the strap have to be burned with a match to prevent fraying.

I use 2.25 inch wide grosgrain ribbon to make the binding around the top edge. (As with the cord and the strap, I burn the edges to prevent fraying.) Before sewing it into the pouch, I stitch hook and loop tape (for example, Velcro ®) – the hook (stiff) side – across one length, close to the edge. Then I sew this binding inside the pouch , with the hook tape sticking up over the top. The idea is that the pouch slides into the decorative outer layer (cotton) and this binding folds over and the hook and loop tape holds the pieces together.

You'll notice that by putting the strap on first, this binding doesn't meet in the back, but rather a 1 inch gap is left. This may seem like a design flaw, but I do it deliberately, to account for the fact that my covers aren't always a 'perfect' fit. If a cover is a little bit too big, then this small gap in the binding allows room for the excess fabric, leaving the majority of the bag looking smooth and well fit.

Inside the bag, there is a perfect spot for your label - right over the strap. ;)

That finishes the main body of the chalk bag! So, the only thing left to do is to finish the outer layer. You do this by turning over the top one quarter inch and stitching in place, and then sewing a piece of hook and eye tape – the loop (soft) side this time – all around the top.

And, now, you are ready to 'dress' your chalk bag! Here is a series of 3 pictures, illustrating the process of putting a cover on:

I usually start folding over the top binding in the front center and work my way around each side to the back. If the cover isn’t a perfect fit, you can hide the excess fabric in the small open area in the back, underneath the belt loop. ;)

For the finishing touches, add a cord stop and a small carabineer…

And voila! You have a chalk bag fit for a 5.15 climber, with interchangeable covers!

If you happen to climb, or have friends who climb, you are welcome to use this design to make chalk bags. If you find ways to improve the design, please let me know! I would ask, however, that you don't use my design to produce and sell chalk bags with interchangeable covers. Thanks. :)

PS - my next post will be about shopping for the wedding dress fabric!

14. Fitting #3

2007-11-19T15:41:00.001-05:00

Sunday, November 11th, was our third fitting. I asked Dorothy, a friend of mine with much more sewing experience than I have, to join us and give an honest critique and any helpful advice that she could.

After my mistake last time, I was feeling a bit anxious about this fitting. I really wanted to show Susan that her faith in me is justified.

You may remember that, for our very first fitting, I didn't follow the actual dress assembly instructions, but rather completely assembled the lining to a size that I thought would fit, but left the outer dress pieces separate. I had Susan try on the lining - it was too big - and then I quickly assembled the outer dress pieces to a smaller size and had her try those on.

To prepare for this fitting, I took all of the pieces apart, re-marked them all to the smaller size, and then assembled the dress according to the instructions (minus the boning). So, Susan tried on the "full" version of the dress - lining and all. It was a major success!

I'm still going to take in the sides and under the bust just a little bit more, but we are very, very close to having the fit just right. There are a few wrinkles across the bodice back (running parallel to the floor), but I think that those may go away when the boning is added.

I also still have a bit of work to do on the inner corset. But it is really coming together! It was so nice to have Dorothy there - both for the suggestions she made for improvements, and for the reassurance that we were on the right track!

Here is a picture of the 3 of us:

13. Diversions #2

2007-11-19T15:10:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. My digital camera died and it just seems to me that posts in a sewing related blog really need photos...

My camera was over 3 years old (i.e., ancient by digital camera standards) and the warranty had expired ages ago, but its recent death was due to a known defect, and so Canon replaced it for free with an upgrade, albeit a refurbished camera. I was hesitant because I had really liked the original, but the new one seems to be quite nice! So, no more excuses... ;)

Since my last post, Susan and I have had another fitting and I am making real progress on the muslin! But, before I provide an update on my progress, I wanted to quickly mention some of the other sewing projects that have been filling the small open gaps in my sewing time. Working on Susan's dress requires that I have a real block of time available and am mentally at the top of my game. I'm making enough mistakes under those circumstances - the last thing I need is to try to work on it when I'm tired or distracted!

However, there are some easy and fun patterns that I can bang out in a spare hour here or there, and over the last 1.5 months I have squeezed some of them in. First, I made my husband a second Hawaiian shirt from the other piece of fabric that he picked out while we were in Hawaii. Here is a picture:

Next, I used the fabric that I picked out in Hawaii and made myself a simple button-up-the-front shell (a shirt with no collar or sleeves). The cool thing about this is that, inspired by another blogger, I made it a reversible shell!

I wish I could give you a link to the other blog, but it seems that she has taken it offline or changed the url, because I can't find it anymore... She was blogging under "bluemooney".

Here is a close-up picture of the shell, showing off the 2 different fabrics.

If you'd like to read my full review of this project click here.

Finally, a sewing friend of mine, Dorothy, is about to become a great-grandmother for the first time, and I made a couple of cute little baby buntings for her. This pattern is as easy as they come! Here is a pictures of 1 of the ones that I made:

And, of course, if you'd like to read my full review of this project click here.

There is really only one other mini-project on my sewing plate between now and Christmas - I've promised to make a couple of chalk bags for some climbing friends. Other than that, it will be full steam ahead on the dress. We're closing in on a good fit for the muslin, and shopping for the real fabric will be coming up soon!

12. Fitting #2

2007-10-28T17:29:00.000-04:00

We had our second fitting today (Sunday, October 28th). We focused on the corset, following the detailed instructions provided by a highly experienced PR member, JF, here .

Basically, JF recommended that, instead of having Susan wear a strapless bra under the dress, I use the bodice pattern pieces of the dress to make a tightly fitting corset and embed it inbetween the outer dress and the lining.

This corset would also be the place where the waist band or waist stay would be attached. The waist stay (which is not called for in the pattern instructions, but EVERYONE recommends adding) is important because it holds the weight of the skirt. If you put the weight of the skirt directly on the (strapless) bodice, it is likely to pull it down at an inconvenient time. (Think Janet Jackson & wardrobe malfunction...)

So, I hate to publicly admit to another very stupid mistake, but I'm trying to remind myself of my motto:

'muslin mistakes make for defectless dresses'

What did I do? How could I mess up something so simple? Believe it or not, I got the top and the bottom of the bodice pattern pieces mixed up, and put the zipper in upside down. Not realizing this, we did all the fitting and adjustments on the corset while it was on her body upside down.

Not surprisingly (in hindsight), it took quite a large adjustment (deviating in a disproportional manner from the stitching lines) to get it to fit snugly... ;)

How could I have done that? Well, without experience sewing evening gowns, it just was not obvious to me - from looking at the shapes of the bodice pattern pieces - which was the top and which was the bottom. And I guess I was just working too quickly and not double checking every step. :(

Susan, (and this is a TRUE friend!), laughed it off and said that (a) she's glad to know that she's not the only person who makes mistakes, and (b) under the circumstances, it's pretty impressive that we got it to fit so well... :)

Bottom line - I'm embarrassed and annoyed with myself, but it's not the end of the world. We'll just have to do it again. Right side up, it should go much more quickly! The next time we get together for a fitting, I'm hoping that a friend of mine will join us. Dorothy has more experience than I do, and should be able to help me get the fit of the corset and muslin perfect!

Sorry, no pictures - my camera died and is in the shop for repairs. (Kudos to Canon - they are fixing it for free!)

11. Wedding "Theme" and Dress Design

2007-09-22T11:53:00.000-04:00

Susan and her fiance have a vision for their wedding that expresses the idea of two unique and separate people joining together. They are going to use two colors throughout the decorations to capture this - each color representing one of them. Susan, whose nickname is "Sunny", will be represented by some shade of yellow or gold.

They have even decided to continue this theme into their clothes. While she hasn't settled on the final design, Susan is considering having the majority of her gown done in a creamy off-white, and the godet (and maybe even the bodice) in a golden yellow tone, with a lace overlay to mute the contrast a bit.

Here are some swatch samples to give an idea of the kind of look she has in mind:

There is more to their vision than this - I haven't really done it justice here. Maybe Susan will add a comment to this post and elaborate a bit? (hint, hint...)

In any event, I think that this is going to result in a truly beautiful and one-of-a-kind wedding dress - for a truly beautiful and one-of-a-kind bride, in a truly beautiful and one-of-a-kind ceremony! :)

10. Our First Fitting!

2007-09-22T11:45:00.000-04:00

Sunday, September 16th was the big day - our first fitting! Susan spent the previous day dress shopping - seeing what was commercially available, getting an idea of what looked good on her and how much the dresses cost.

She emailed me some photos (clandestinely taken - apparently that was not encouraged by the shops she visited) and her thoughts ahead of time. She had found two dresses - one more formal and one more casual - that she really liked. And she was concerned about the Vogue pattern that she had picked - she was afraid that the folds in front and the side godet were not going to be flattering with her figure. But she did have some ideas for ways to modify the pattern to still make it work.

Truthfully, I was a bit worried. I wasn't sure if I could figure out how to incorporate the changes she was suggesting into the pattern. And I suspected that I was going to be "fired". Even though the most important thing to me is that Susan get THE dress - you know, the one that makes her heart melt and her knees tremble - regardless of whether it was one she bought or one I made - I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't be a little tiny bit disappointed if she ended up buying one.

But I wasn't going to throw in the towel until she tried on the muslin and we both got a chance to see how it looked.

We started with the lining, which I had completely assembled to the size that I thought would fit. It was WAY too big on her - easily a complete size too big from top to bottom.

So, while she patiently waited, I assembled the outer layer, increasing the seam allowances by one half of an inch. Then she tried it on.

It was beautiful! :)

My pictures don't do it justice, the fit still isn't perfect, it's been made in a cheap cotton and you have to ignore the bra straps...

But it was beautiful!

She looked gorgeous!

And I still have my "job". :)

9. Preparing for the First Fitting

2007-09-22T11:44:00.000-04:00

After the cut fabric pieces had hung over night, I prepared them for our first fitting. The Khalje book recommended marking all of the stitching lines by basting them into the single pieces of fabric with thread in a contrasting color, and then joining the pieces by basting them together with a second contrasting color of thread.

The idea is that, once these pieces are adjusted to fit, the pieces themselves become the pattern pieces that are used to cut out and mark the real fabric. While the muslin is a bit flimsy, it's a lot sturdier than the tissue paper that the pattern is printed on!

By comparing the markings on the original pattern pieces, I was able to determine that each size was drawn 1/2 inch larger than the previous size. In order to adjust for the different sizes that I thought I'd need to fit Susan, I marked the smallest size at the bust, one size up at the waist and a third size at the hip, and then connected those marks with a french curve. Finally, I marked 5/8th of an inch inward from those lines, to show the seam allowance.

I did get tricked once - one of the pattern pieces only adjusted in size along one seam - not all the way around... Once I discovered that, I worked more carefully and so was not tricked by the two pieces (center bodice and godet) that were the exact same size for all versions of the pattern.

I will say that basting (I used the longest setting on my machine) and using two different colors of contrasting thread (in my case: black to mark stitching lines and red to connect pieces) did make removing stitches much simpler! I was glad I had followed that bit of advice! :)

Finally, I did not follow the instructions for assembling the dress. Instead, I basted up the lining to create a "stand alone" dress that Susan could try on first. In addition, I basted up the folds in the front of the outer dress, but didn't connect the pieces of the outer dress. I figured I'd have her try on the lining first, and then, depending on how it fit, assemble the outer layer accordingly.

8. Cutting the Muslin - Take Two

2007-09-22T11:40:00.000-04:00

Susan, (like most of us!), fits in a smaller size above the waist than below the waist. After some deliberation, I decided to cut out all of the pieces in the largest size called for across all of her measurements and adjust around the bodice and waist by using larger seam allowances.

Given that this is a practice dress, I also decided to at least TRY each of the steps that I know will be important with the real fabric. At this stage, that basically means making sure that your fabric is "grained" correctly before cutting out any of your pieces. This ensures that the dress will drape beautifully. :)

First, you need to make sure that your width-wise edge is on the grain. (I guess the odds are good that the finished [length-wise] edge [the selvedge] is on the grain...)

There seem to be two main ways to do this. If the fabric rips easily, you can take a small snip near the cut end and then rip down the entire width of the fabric. This rip should be along the grain.

Luckily, this worked fine with my muslin.

Apparently the second method (for fabric that doesn't rip so nicely) is to literally pull a single thread out of the weave the entire width of the fabric, and then carefully cut along the gap it left. I think this is called thread tracing. All I can say is, "Yikes!"

Unfortunately, you are not done yet. Next, you have to make sure that your length-wise edges are perpendicular to your width-wise edges. Having a cutting board marked with a grid is helpful for this.

This picture shows what it is SUPPOSED to look like.

It actually looked more like this:

You can see how far off grain the muslin was... :(

I guess if you steam the fabric (with your iron) and pull / stretch it, you can often get it on grain. Truthfully, given that this was just the muslin, I worked with it even though it was a bit off grain.

Finally, you are supposed to let your cut pieces hang for a day or so, allowing the weight of the fabric to help bring the grain into alignment. (I learned these things in the 2 classes I took on PatternReview and am trying to incorporate them into my routine sewing practices...)

It took me the good part of a day to mess around with the muslin's grain and get all of the pieces cut out, so I went ahead and let my pieces hang overnight before starting the next step.

7. Diversions

2007-09-09T16:21:00.000-04:00

I must admit that I was a tiny bit discouraged to find out that I had cut out the wrong size. So, instead of plunging in and cutting out a new muslin, I took a short break and made up one of my TNT (tried and true) patterns today: a Hawaiian shirt for my husband. I used fabric that he had picked out this summer in Hawaii! (We went there to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.)
(To see my review of this pattern click here .)

Here he is in his new shirt:

It wasn't a complete waste of time, wedding-dress-wise, because I practiced a technique for attractive seams - I made French seams. A small tutorial on how to make French seams can be found here: click here

Here are a couple of close-ups of the inside of my husband's new shirt:

See, no raw edges showing anywhere! Inside or out!

Now, it's back to the wedding dress! :)

6. Muslin, Mistakes and the Master Plan

2007-08-31T07:48:00.000-04:00

Well, my "Master Plan" is working! I've barely started on the muslin and already I'm making stupid mistakes!

Why is making mistakes part of my Master Plan? Because, once I make a mistake on the muslin, the odds that I'll make that same mistake on the real dress are practically (!) nil. So, the more mistakes I make on the muslin, the better... :)

And believe me, my first two mistakes were doozies!

1. I ordered the wrong size muslin. I ordered 6 yards of 45 inch wide muslin. The pattern calls for 6 yards of 60 inch muslin. Result: I had to supplement the nice, high thread count muslin ordered specially for this project with some cheaper muslin from my stash AND I had to piece together some of the wider pieces in the skirt.

2. I cut out the wrong size. For some reason, I just had it in my head that we had determined to start with a size 16 and make adjustments to reduce the size of the bodice as needed. But I couldn't remember exactly when we had discussed this and come to this decision.

Guess why I couldn't remember when we had discussed this....

Because we hadn't.

In fact, size 16 should be the right size for the bodice, but will be too small for the skirt. So, it's back to the cutting table for me...

5. Preparations

2007-08-31T07:46:00.000-04:00

In preparation for "the project", I started looking around for resources. Several of the online classes on the Pattern Review (PR) website seemed potentially very valuable (not to mention fun!).

Click here for catalog of PR online sewing courses

Susan and I took our first online class together - "Top 10 Couture Techniques" by Susan Khalje (http://www.susankhalje.com/). The techniques she covered were:

narrow machine hem
bias spaghetti straps
gathering
angled seams (like in a Basque waist or godet)
bound buttonholes
lining treatment for bound buttonholes
grosgrain ribbon facing
faggoting
covered snaps
attaching hooks and eyes

This was my first experience with an online sewing class and, overall, it was great. We received detailed and well-illustrated handouts on each technique. There was a message board where we could post pictures of our efforts and questions for the instructor. And we had several scheduled chats, when most everybody in the class could "get together" and talk about the lesson and/or anything else. Our instructor was great. I think that the chats were most useful if you had been working on the lessons and had questions prepared, but they were interesting regardless. Unfortunately, I have to admit, I did not finish trying all 10 techniques before the last chat...

A funny thing happened during one of our chats. Right before the chat began, I got an email notification of a sale at http://www.sewingpatterns.com/, and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to buy Susan's Vogue pattern. So, during the chat, I sent her a private message telling her about the sale and asking her size so that I could place the order. Her reply - she knew about the sale and had already ordered the pattern! That little booger! It's going to be difficult to make this a wedding gift if she keeps jumping in and buying everything first! ;)

The second class I took was "The Technique of Underlining Garments" by Sarah Veblen (http://www.sarahveblen.com/). Like the first class, the handouts were extraordinary, the chats were very informative and a lot of fun, our instructor was great, and I didn't get all of my "homework" done. In this class, we made two half-scale garments: a wool skirt underlined with organza and a charmeuse blouse underlined with silk georgette. Underlining is a key component of wedding dresses, so being able to take this class was HUGE! I was also very happy to get to use some of my "top 10 couture techniques" (like the grosgrain ribbon facing) on my half scale garments in this class!

Finally, I purchased and am currently engrossed in studying Susan Khalje's book, "Bridal Couture: Fine Sewing Techniques for Wedding Gowns and Evening Wear." (link to book at amazon) The book is perfect (and invaluable) for me - someone who has been sewing for a few years, but has no experience in couture or wedding dress sewing. (And after reading the chapter on sleeves, I'm SO thankful that Susan picked a sleeveless pattern!)

Of course, interspersed through all of this, I keep a close eye on the Message Boards on the Pattern Review website - in particular, the forum on "Bridal and Formalwear Sewing." For example, I used advice from this thread, click here, to decide what kind of fabric to use for my practice version of the dress (often called a muslin).

Thank heaven for the PR website! :)

4. It Must Be Fate

2007-08-31T07:44:00.000-04:00

A few days after Susan picked out her pattern, I was checking the reviews on the Pattern Review website (see my links), and what did I find?

A newly posted review of that very pattern!

click here to see the review

Yes, a PR member had just finished making the same dress for her god-daughter's prom! In addition to posting beautiful pictures and giving lots of helpful information about the pattern, she eased my mind quite a bit when she said that she thought that an Intermediate level sewer could probably handle it.

I couldn't wait to tell Susan, and she was just as excited as I was! A coincidence? No, we agreed, it was fate...

3. Pattern Shopping

2007-08-31T07:43:00.000-04:00

Our first step was to meet for lunch, grab a quick bite at Chick-fil-A, and then spend the rest of our break browsing the pattern catalogs in our local JOANN store.

When we first sat down, Susan didn't have any concrete ideas of what she wanted her dress to look like. (Well, long and white maybe, but that was about it...) But it didn't take long - comparing gowns, analyzing features - before she started to zero in on - if not what she wanted, at least what she DIDN'T want.

Then, while looking through the Vogue catalog, she found a pattern that she thought she liked. We wrote down the number and kept looking. The more she looked, the more she kept going back to that Vogue pattern. The more she went back to it, the more she was sure that this was THE ONE.

link to pattern

She liked View B (the view without the sleeves), but with the lace overlay on the godet (triangle-like insert in the skirt) that is shown in View A.

I was nervous because the pattern was labeled as "Advanced" in difficulty. But I had to agree that it was beautiful. And I could see that she really loved it. We said we'd both "sleep on it", but I think the die was already cast.

2. Where the Magic Will Take Place

2007-08-31T07:00:00.000-04:00

I am very lucky to have a dedicated sewing room. I have three machines set up, a cutting table, an ironing board, a dress form and assorted pieces of storage furniture. While I wouldn't say that it is 'decorated', my cat knick-knacks have all migrated to this room (not to mention the live cats, who seem to prefer sleeping on half-finished sewing projects to any other place in the world!). And I made a window valence and cushion cover with some cotton fabric showing cartoon cats sewing & quilting. So, I guess there is kind of a feline theme...

My three machines are: a Kenmore Free Arm Sewing Machine (Model 16530), a Singer Quantum Lock Serger (Model 14T967DC), and my grandmother's Elite Sewing Machine, from the late 1940's, which was made in "U.S. Occupied Japan." (If you are interested, check out this yahoo group: vintagejapansewingmachines.)

They all work, and while I spend most of my time on the 2 newer machines, I do periodically use my grandmother's and I love having this vintage machine in my room!

One of my favorite things in my sewing room is my bulletin board. I post pictures of people wearing the things I've made for them. Looking at those pictures never fails to make me feel smile.

I have to admit that I don't have my dress form (Dritz "My Double") set to my measurements. I use it more as a 3D hanger - to do things like make sure that hems are even and buttons align with button holes, etc.

My iron is new - a Consew Model 300. This is my first experience with a gravity feed iron. I researched irons on the Pattern Review web site (see my links) and this one got rave reviews. So far, I have to agree. I really love this iron!

Around the ironing board you can see the remants of a past hobby. We used to be into photography, and the stand holding the water container for the iron was originally a stand to hold backdrops for portrait photography.

As you can probably tell, I love this room and it is a wonderful place to work!

1. The Saga Begins...

2007-08-30T22:36:00.001-04:00

Good friends of ours are getting married in March 2008. The four of us go rock climbing together once or twice a week. They are the couple on the left in this photo, and we are the couple on the right. We climb at Aiguille Rock Climbing Center in Orlando, FL (http://www.climborlando.com/).

My friendship with Susan, however, extends beyond our shared enjoyment of climbing, to include (among other things) careers in the same field and a love of sewing. So, when they announced their engagement, and after some deliberation, I offered, as our wedding gift, to make her wedding dress.

My deliberation stemmed from two main concerns:

1) I didn't want her to feel obligated to say yes. If she wanted to select something from a bridal boutique, then that is what I wanted for her.

2) I wasn't 100% sure that my sewing skills are up to it. I consider myself to be at the advanced beginner / low intermediate level. And, while I'm happy to wear "good enough" homemade sun dresses around the house on the weekend, I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than "practically perfect" for something this important. And, of course, wedding dresses are typically a bit more complicated than sun dresses!

The pros were mostly the obvious ones:
Sewing is something special that we share. Sewing our own clothes means the same thing to both of us - you get to have EXACTLY what you want. I thought that having a dress I made for her with love would be more special and meaningful than anything she could find in a store. And, unlike many recently engaged young women, she actually seemed to feel more stressed than excited about shopping for a gown.

After weighing the pros and cons, I went ahead and made the offer, attempting to give each of us an easy way out, just in case. I started by telling her that I wanted to make a suggestion, but if it didn't appeal to her then that was fine and I wouldn't be the least bit hurt or upset. I suggested that, if she thought she might be interested, she do both - shopping in bridal shops and browse patterns with me. IF there was a pattern that she fell in love with AND nothing in the stores appealed to her as much, then... I even added the disclaimer that it would have to be a pattern I felt capable of doing, and doing well.

You never know for sure if saying those types of things ("It's okay if you don't want to, honest.") will really work and eliminate any feelings of obligation. But I generally say what I mean, and I was hoping that Susan knows me well enough to believe me when I said it.

Well, given that you are reading a blog entitled "The Wedding Dress Saga", I don't suppose there's much suspense about the outcome. She said "Yes." And so, the saga begins...