Wedding Finale
***Huge thank you to JD Swiger for the photos on my wedding day. You can see more of his work at johndavidweddings.com***
Well, I kinda fell off the planet. The last couple of weeks leading up to the wedding were bananas, and I was sewing until 30 minutes before I walked down the aisle.
THE FINISH OF THE DRESS
When last we met, I had completed the underbodice. From there, the next step was the sleeved lace bodice that went over that. This was where most of my time went. Working with lace is very time consuming. The key is to make it seem like there are no seams, which involves lots of overlapping and trimming and hand sewing teeny tiny stitches so you can join two bits of lace without anyone knowing. There is also a layer of tulle underling to give the lace bodice extra support. All of this done by hand.
By the time that fiasco had ended and the underbodice and bodice were joined up, I had watched all of the Project Runway available to me on Hulu, and was three weeks to the wedding. I then had to hand sew bridal button loop tape to the back of the bodice and sleeves, and match up the loops to where 60 taffeta buttons on the back and 10 per sleeve were to be sewn in. Ooh…and to sew the lace trim to the bodice around the neck and waist to hide the raw edges. Again - all. By. Hand.
By now, I’m two weeks to the wedding, but not panicking. The skirt is all that’s left, and skirts are easy. I got it done in a day! Well, the main structure and lining of the skirt, at least. I decided that I didn’t want to hem it…no that would be far too boring. I wanted to use lace scallops to hide the raw edges! So, I busted out my serger, and serged my lining and my satin so nothing would fray. I then cut out and pinned my lace scallops so that the serging was hidden, and used my sewing machine with invisible thread to sew it down. It took me some time to sew around the beading, but I I got it all done in a couple of hours instead of days, if I had done it by hand. And I had more faith that the lace would hold with my machine stitching. I also cut out a few appliqués to add to the train.
At that point, I added in two large white hook and eyes for a bustle, and then took a step back to admire what I had done. Holy crap. My dress was finished! I was not ready for that. The end happened so fast!
With one week remaining, I assembly lined the bridesmaids dresses together, and finished the bulk of the sewing by the Thursday before my Sunday wedding. Had my fittings, made some adjustments. Just a few hems, and I was in good shape.
RETURN OF THE MUSLIN FROM HELL
My attempts at my one long-distance dress were futile. Something changed between when I cut the muslin and the fashion fabric. I really think I was burned out on sewing by the time I got to this last dress. So, I cut corners and was more focused on speed than fit and quality. As such, when my bridesmaid went to try on her dress the day before the wedding, it was to small by about a mile. We were already checked into the hotel, I did have my machine with me for a couple of hems left still to do, so this did not faze me. I got her in the dress as much as I could, stood back and examined where I needed to add width…and then promptly began cutting into the arm holes and slashing the skirt off the bodice. All of my bridesmaids were in the room at the time with jaws dropped. I thought the one I was trying to fit was going to have a panic attack. But they saw how I wasn’t concerned…at least on the outside…and it must have given them faith. I pinned and chalk marked her until we needed to leave for the rehearsal dinner, where I had four too many margaritas and was in bed at 1 am. Not the most auspicious start to my wedding day.
After the booze got out of my system on my wedding day, I got to work.
This was what I posted on Instagram the morning of my wedding at about 7. I had ironed all of my fabric, and trimmed excess off where I had pinned and marked the day before. I didn’t have my Butterick 5710 pattern on me, but at this point I made the maid of honor dress (heavily modified) twice, four muslins, and three successful bridesmaid dresses. I could sit down and put the thing together right now blindfolded if I wanted to. I started by attempting to rip out the invisible zipper, not realizing that when I cut the skirt off, I cut off the bottom zipper stop. The pull slid right off the zipper, and I thought I was going to throw up. My sister and maid of honor, God bless her, Ubered to JoAnn where she got the last black invisible zipper in the length I needed.
After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. While my gals got beautified, I sewed. I took a break around 3 pm to get my hair and makeup done, and got right back to it. In hindsight, I was so happy to have the sewing to distract me from the day. I didn’t expect to be as anxious as I was, and since sewing is meditative and relaxing, I was able to go into the zone and not freak out.
Until 5:30. When my needle broke. My only needle. I was supposed to be getting into my dress, and I had to figure out how to hem the last 19" I had to sew before I could marry the man I’d waited 33 years for. God love my mother…she had hem tape. So I threw up that last hem, and got my gorgeous ladies all dressed.
Then I started prepping to wed.
Did I mention I made my veil, too? Butterick 4487 sewn with invisible thread to a tiara. I added some fancy trim to the edge of the veil, as well.
I’ll let the rest of the wedding pictures speak for themselves.
It was the best day of my life, and I was so sad to take the dress off at the end of the night. It’s now hanging in a shadow box above my cutting table. I can’t believe it’s all over. I learned so much, and feel like I leveled my skills up. So…what will I do to challenge myself next?