Finishing

3/11/15 - Just one month to go before my wedding, I was in the finishing stages of my gown.  I had stitched the lining pieces back together, and I added boning to the bodice seams.  I used spiral steel bones left over from making my corset.  

Before I could attach the lining to the dress itself, I needed to stitch the bottom edge of the back drape to the back bodice.  The top edge was basted to the foundation along the top neckline.  I pinned the bottom edge where I wanted it, then removed the basting and flipped the top down out of the way.  I then stitched the bottom edge to the foundation on the machine, and pulled the top edge back up and basted it to the neck edge again.  Next I attached the lining to the dress along the full neck edge, just below the basting line.  (I re-wrote this paragraph several times, so I really hope it makes sense!)  

I understitched the seam allowance to the lining, clipped curves, and turned the dress and lining right side out.  As soon as I did I realized I had problems.  The bottom edge of the back drape was pulling funny and creating unslightly wrinkles.  

So I was forced to unpick the stitching on the bottom edge and re-pin it where it naturally wanted to fall.  I then had to re-stitch it by hand, which was somewhat of a challenge.

But the lines were much smoother now!  So it was worth all the aggravation, I guess.  :p

I also turned up the lower edge of the bodice draping and pinned it down to the skirt (after serging this edge to make it a little neater) and handstitched it, as well.

3/14/15 - As I was working on some of this hand-sewing, I was listening to the rain outside and hoping that it would not rain on my wedding day.  We were not having an outdoor wedding, but I did have my heart set on taking pictures outside at Colonial Williamsburg.  So to ease my mind, I took a break from sewing and took a swatch of leftover silk outside and held it out in the rain for a few seconds, so I could observe the effect of rain water on my dress fabric.

I let the rainwater dry, and came back to it a few minutes later.

The fabric did not seem to me to be damaged from the rain.  There was no running of the dye, which was the thing I was most worried about.  There was some wrinkling, but much of that was there before the rain.  My fears allayed, I went back to my sewing.

3/25/15 - It was time to mark the hem!  I had just assembled all of my undergarments (more on that later) and my friend Stefanie agreed to help me pin it.  We went to her house after work, and I got all dressed in my corset, petticoat, shoes, and gown.  As a former bridal consultant/seamstress, I know very well how important all of these pieces are to the overall fit and length.  Stefanie pinned the hem for me, and I practiced walking with it pinned to test the length.  I walked on both the hardwood floor and the large floor rug, to make sure that it wouldn't be too long on a carpeted surface.  I also practiced walking up and down the stairs, just in case I should have a need to use stairs on my wedding day.

We also took some pictures of me in the dress, because I couldn't take pictures of myself in the dress at home.

Sometime between March 11 and March 25 I made and attached covered buttons to the right side of the gown, replacing the bright red plastic buttons I had used as placeholders.  I bought my button molds from Burnley & Trowbridge.  I believe the ones I got were the 3/8" size.

I also tried on the train, which I had done a bit of work on since February 16.  Basically I had added a 1" wide twill tape waistband that would fasten in the front, and I had made the decision to keep the front drape as a separate piece to be placed over the waistband to hide it.

I was still having problems with the train gapping in the back, however.  Stefanie suggested using some really heavy interfacing to add some support to the waistband in the back.  I did end up implementing her suggestion, but it got put on the back burner until after the dress itself was finished.

Silk and Tatting

I know I'm due for another update on The Dress, but I want to talk about The Veil real quick.  I've actually had a vision in my head of my perfect bridal veil for a lot longer than I've had one of my dress.  What I have always pictured is more or less... ok, exactly like this:

She just beat me to it.

I have a deep and abiding hatred for tulle, which was only sharpened and honed by working in bridal for a year and a half.  So I was never planning on having a tulle veil.  Once I started ordering samples of silk for my dress, I also started looking at various sheer silks for a veil.  My favorite was the 3mm silk gauze from Dharma Trading.  It's so light and floaty and gorgeous!

Of course, when I finally got around to ordering my veil supplies, I had misplaced my sample.  So I ordered from memory, and accidentally got silk chiffon, which is not quite as sheer.  Beautiful stuff, though.  I decided to keep it to use for something else in the future, and re-ordered the gauze I meant to buy in the first place.

Here are the two fabrics side-by-side - gauze is on the left.

What to do with five yards of silk chiffon, though?  I'll have to come up with something fabulous...  (I bought way more fabric than I needed for my veil, but that was on purpose.  I have a secret project in mind for the extra gauze.)  

Now, a gorgeous fabric deserves gorgeous lace!  Did I tell you guys that I learned to tat?  Melissa Mead, an awesome co-worker of mine, taught me how back in September.  

I was a little excited.

I was learning to tat so that I could make more of this lace:

These were scraps of lace left over from my mom's wedding dress and veil, tatted by my aunt and grandma back in 1980.  I was originally planning to make enough lace to edge my veil.  

Then a few days later, Melissa surprised me by giving me 2+ yards of silk tatted lace!  

I was floored when she told me it was for me!  I decided to use this lace for my veil, and use the scraps of my mom's lace for the edging of my handkerchief.  More on that later.  :)

I wanted to make more of this gorgeous silk lace, so I ordered some matching silk thread on etsy.  While I waited for it to arrive, I practiced the pattern on some fine cotton thread that was conveniently already wound on one of the tatting shuttles that I inherited from my grandma.

When my gorgeous silk thread arrived, it was a bit of a learning curve.  The knots slid along the thread beautifully, but it also knotted much tighter than I was used to.  But eventually I got the hang of it.

Melissa's lace is across the top; my early attempt at copying the pattern is below.  

I'll post pictures of the finished veil after the big reveal of The Gown.  :)  

The Train

So I know I kind of disappeared for about three months there, but I did continue to take pictures of my progress as I went!

2/3/15 - I put the train together pretty quickly and easily.  The pattern is fairly straightforward once you have the pieces in your hands.  I only took one photo of the progress.  This was just before I sewed through all the layers of pleats at the center back:

2/13/15 - I pleated up one side according to the instructions, but left the other side un-pleated just to see what the difference was in the drape.

Left side pleated, right side not

In the end I decided I liked the look with the pleating, so I followed the instructions to the letter.

2/16/15 - My friend Stefanie invited me over to her house for a sewing day, and I mostly worked on some little fiddly bits of the gown then.  But I also tried on the train and had a chance to walk around with it on for the first time.  Stefanie was nice enough to take some photos for me.

These were the first pictures of me that I got to see that looked like I was wearing a wedding gown!  :D  And there are, of course, many more to come.