Continue reading How To Make A Wedding Dress Posts Tagged ‘My Great Dress Search’
08
How To Make A Wedding Dress
Jan
2009
Remember how I said that experience arranging flowers was not necessary for doing your wedding flowers? Well, I still think that. However, when it comes to sewing a wedding dress, I think experience is a very very good thing. If you've never sewn a dress before, go out and sew a few. Figure out what you are doing, and then decide if you want to take on your wedding dress. It's not an impossible project, not at all, but it's complicated, and takes skill.
My sister, my mother and I (and yes, David too) tackled Project Wedding Dress over Christmas break. It was more complicated and more time consuming than we expected (of course). It lead to Project Runway like, down to the wire, midnight sew-offs. And, in the end, it was far more rewarding than I'd ever imagined. The dress isn't quite done yet, and I reserve the right to complain about it later (remember that!) Sadly, you are not going to see the finished project till August, I'm afraid, just hints and whispers. But! I've had requests to walk you through the process, so here we go!
Step 1: Pick Your Pattern
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Continue reading How To Make A Wedding Dress
24
Update From Project Wedding Dress
Dec
2008
Update from the wedding dress front: I just finished standing for an hour while my sister wielded sharp pins in front of my face and threatened that So Help Her God, if I didn't stop wiggling, she'd pin the muslin TO me. Good thing I can make crazy faces and hum silly songs without wiggling. Well, good thing for me.Of course making a wedding dress is nothing like the making a wedding dress fantasy, where we all hold hands and hum, and create something so magical that the birds burst into song. It's a lot more about making something and then realizing you did it wrong and need to fix it, worrying that you are really making the worlds most boring dress and what were you even thinking, and trying to not be too cross with each other. But on we go. And on Christmas Eve no less. When I get back to San Francisco I'll have more photos and stories, but until then, I was hoping everyone could think really happy thoughts in our direction at once. It's quite nerve wracking, making a wedding dress from scratch, and we can use all the help we can get.
Continue reading Update From Project Wedding Dress
21
Project Wedding Dress – It Begins
Nov
2008
I mentioned in a past post that, inspired by the incredible Kimi, I'm going to attempt to make my wedding dress. In fact, it seems that all of the women in my family and David's family will attempt to make my wedding dress together over the holidays (how cool is that?) This sounds more ambitious then it is, since my mom sewed all of our clothes when we were little, and my sister and I have been sewing and designing our own clothes since we could reach the machine - we just haven't done much of it in recent (busy) years. Project Wedding Dress starts this weekend, as I crawl out of my sickbed to go fabric shopping, or more precisely, to go shopping for fabric swatches.Continue reading Project Wedding Dress – It Begins
15
Little Girl Wedding Dreams
Aug
2008
It's weird how we get wedding fantasies set in our heads when we are little girls. Everyone always says that they never thought about their wedding until they got engaged, but I'm not going to lie to you. I started dreaming about my wedding as soon as I could talk. When my mom gave me my first piggy bank at four, she asked me if I'd like to save for college. "No," I told her "College is boring. I want to save for my wedding." I still remember the horrified look on my feminist mother's face. "But..." she said weakly, "You know that girls can do anything! What would you like to do?" "Save for my wedding dress," I said firmly.At four, I was perfectly sure of the wedding dress I would get. One that was big, poofy, and looked as much like Glenda the Good Witch's dress at possible. Over the years my idea of a wedding dress slowly scaled back. A five years ago, I was sure I'd get married in a elegant lace sheath dress, and over the past few years I grew to love short wedding dresses too, but I was sure they were not for me, since I would want something 'more traditional.' But each time I've put on a big dramatic wedding dress - the kind I thought I was going to love- it felt like I was in some sort of wedding dress costume. I just didn't feel like myself. And I wanted full range of motion, I knew that much! So, slowly, I've started to think that a short dress is for me. I've tried one on now, and even my mom, who was not on board with the idea, fell in love with it.
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25
Vintage Wedding Dress Inspiration
Jul
2008
So, real life has been a little exhausting of late, which means that my pithiness and sass are running a little low. So, I thought I'd share with you one of the things that are inspiring me right now. These dresses, from Priscilla's of Boston, are not the most affordable, but it's the styling that I love, and the inspiration is free. I'm loving their simple vintage feel. (And if you want to cheer my weekend, leave me something that's inspiring you in the comments.)
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07
Dress Shopping, The Generic Edition
Jul
2008
So, I finally swallowed my pride, along with some past bad experiences, and waltzed in the door to David's Bridal. I'm a bride trying to keep on a budget, after all, so pride is overrated. I was expecting everything in the store to be a sparkling, princess, A-line poof - and I was wrong. David's Bridal is in the business of creating designer knockoffs, and business is booming. I told them I was looking for long and lace, and off they trotted. They came back with a few dresses priced from $250 on up. One of them (from their "couture" collection) was $1000 and perfectly lovely. In case I wasn't picking up on the fact that this dress was COUTURE, it was called Monique Lou(huillier of course, was implied). I put on the dress, and I can absolutely tell you, it was a nice dress. Full stop. There was not a thing in the world wrong with it. I looked lovely in it, the lace was nice, I looked like a bride.Continue reading Dress Shopping, The Generic Edition
