Monday, May 18, 2015
Wedding Gown Journey: Completed
Wedding dress progress underway!
The beaded panel was complete.
At this point, I decided that I needed flares on the sides of my dress that would hang down lower than the front and back. Very 1930's. Very pretty and twirly. Very tricky.
I drafted two rounded bottom triangles. They were the wrong size. I drafted two more and decided to leave off the rounded bottom because the bias would make the pieces sag lower anyways. I sewed them on. They were pretty. It required much steaming and pressing and fussing.
Next installment.... Sewing the beading onto the dress! (Insert scary violin music)
Wait!!! You didn't even make a lining yet! (I then drafted and pasted and cursed and cut and pasted some more and cut out the pattern that I had made, praying, and sewed the lining together the correct way. I even did a proper rolled hem with my rolled hem foot, which was perfect)
the lining sat for three weeks untouched. I ironed and pressed it twice but didn't bother to do anything. Laziness! Finally, I did something about it and pinned the lining on my dressform, where it remained for two more weeks until I decided that I had to sew it in. Finally, I could do the beading.
But I hadn't sewed the dress hem... so, I sewed it all by hand using an invisible catch stitch and it looks great!
To attach the beading to the dress, I used the same trusty beading needle and invisible thread. I pinned the design as best I could (grammar... at 1:30 am?) and after watching the entire tenth season of Grey's Anatomy and a few choice X-Files episodes on Netflix, It was finished.
But wait... something is not right.
The design was not centered. Yes, in my lack of sleep motivational speaking mode, I had pinned the whole design off center. Did I try to fix it? Perhaps... we won't divulge the lengths I went to.
I finished off the procrastination by deciding to attach an applique triangle to the dress by hand. Yes, with teeny hand stitches that resemble a serger's rolled hem setting. Crazy.
Then, I finally pinned and sewed the drapery parts on the skirt back. Let me tell you, there are thousands of billions of hand stitches on those things. Do not be fooled. The entire process took an entire month to complete. Insanity!
Later, I applied rows of beading over the applique triangle. And it looked like a satin diamond with the skirt back peeking from beneath the cascades, just like I wanted. And I was happy.
But then I had to go back to my dilemma of the off-centered beading. Oh, golly what to do.
I settled on squinching some more beads on top of the design to make it look more even and added rows of beads at the neckline. And some accent lace. And it is very pretty.
I noticed that I had not sewed in the lining for the shoulder seam properly, and foulmouthedness resulted. But, I finished it, and it looks good.
Then I had to finish the armhole edges, but I didn't trust my machine to do it. So, again, I sewed the edges by hand. All you do is wrap the needle around the fabric edge to roll it under and secure with stitches. Quite easy. Took 15 minutes for each side. Then came the satin binding. I used satin ribbon. I had to stitch down the edges by hand and cursed myself for staystitching and then overlocking the edges because they are so hard to hide.
After that was done, I knew that I needed to sew the peplums on still. That was not fun.
For this step, I had to try on the dress again. I realized that I had grown an entire four inches on my bustline. FOUR. INCHES!!!
You are possibly thinking 1) "Gosh, I'll take those four inches on my girls any day" 2) "Stress-eating will do that to you" 3) "She's totally pregnant".
So which option is correct? NONE! It was my darn blessed birth control that gave me all those lady hormones and resized my bustline to 200%.
So, now almost a D-cup, I have a dilemma. I'm filling out my C-cup bras with cleavage. I have never before experienced cleavage in my life!
One must always wear a brassiere with one's wedding gown. But mine has a sheer lace back. What to do... I have yet to try those silicone cups.
By the way, When I tried on my dress, I popped a stitch. Because of my boobs.
PEPLUMS.
I tried on the dress. The bias cut fabric did not want to sit properly over my tummy (I didn't go to the gym or run like I promised). I pinched and poked and pinned and poked myself and finally pinned the peplums and the dress into submission at the same time.
Then I sewed the right peplum on (but before that, sewed a ribbon on by hand) while wearing the dress. No one there to help me, just by my lonesome.
The left peplum was more fun. It was a carnival.
The zipper is on the left side of the dress. What did I have to do?
SNAPS! The snaps were even more fun than the right side pinching and poking. No... do not go gentle into that good night.... I was about to flee from the earth at this point. It was hellish. The fitting, that is.
Thankfully with some tugging and struggling, it managed to look all right.
Then, I had to strategically place (read: fuse 1/4" ribbon to dress and then hand stitch thinking it will remain straight, only to press it, revealing a whole mess of wrinkles that you can't fix) ribbons and do several rows of beading on the front V part. It looked a lot nicer after that.
It is finished. All done. Viola.
Twirl, Twirl, Twirl.
The beaded panel was complete.
At this point, I decided that I needed flares on the sides of my dress that would hang down lower than the front and back. Very 1930's. Very pretty and twirly. Very tricky.
I drafted two rounded bottom triangles. They were the wrong size. I drafted two more and decided to leave off the rounded bottom because the bias would make the pieces sag lower anyways. I sewed them on. They were pretty. It required much steaming and pressing and fussing.
Next installment.... Sewing the beading onto the dress! (Insert scary violin music)
Wait!!! You didn't even make a lining yet! (I then drafted and pasted and cursed and cut and pasted some more and cut out the pattern that I had made, praying, and sewed the lining together the correct way. I even did a proper rolled hem with my rolled hem foot, which was perfect)
the lining sat for three weeks untouched. I ironed and pressed it twice but didn't bother to do anything. Laziness! Finally, I did something about it and pinned the lining on my dressform, where it remained for two more weeks until I decided that I had to sew it in. Finally, I could do the beading.
But I hadn't sewed the dress hem... so, I sewed it all by hand using an invisible catch stitch and it looks great!
To attach the beading to the dress, I used the same trusty beading needle and invisible thread. I pinned the design as best I could (grammar... at 1:30 am?) and after watching the entire tenth season of Grey's Anatomy and a few choice X-Files episodes on Netflix, It was finished.
But wait... something is not right.
The design was not centered. Yes, in my lack of sleep motivational speaking mode, I had pinned the whole design off center. Did I try to fix it? Perhaps... we won't divulge the lengths I went to.
I finished off the procrastination by deciding to attach an applique triangle to the dress by hand. Yes, with teeny hand stitches that resemble a serger's rolled hem setting. Crazy.
Then, I finally pinned and sewed the drapery parts on the skirt back. Let me tell you, there are thousands of billions of hand stitches on those things. Do not be fooled. The entire process took an entire month to complete. Insanity!
Later, I applied rows of beading over the applique triangle. And it looked like a satin diamond with the skirt back peeking from beneath the cascades, just like I wanted. And I was happy.
But then I had to go back to my dilemma of the off-centered beading. Oh, golly what to do.
I settled on squinching some more beads on top of the design to make it look more even and added rows of beads at the neckline. And some accent lace. And it is very pretty.
I noticed that I had not sewed in the lining for the shoulder seam properly, and foulmouthedness resulted. But, I finished it, and it looks good.
Then I had to finish the armhole edges, but I didn't trust my machine to do it. So, again, I sewed the edges by hand. All you do is wrap the needle around the fabric edge to roll it under and secure with stitches. Quite easy. Took 15 minutes for each side. Then came the satin binding. I used satin ribbon. I had to stitch down the edges by hand and cursed myself for staystitching and then overlocking the edges because they are so hard to hide.
After that was done, I knew that I needed to sew the peplums on still. That was not fun.
For this step, I had to try on the dress again. I realized that I had grown an entire four inches on my bustline. FOUR. INCHES!!!
You are possibly thinking 1) "Gosh, I'll take those four inches on my girls any day" 2) "Stress-eating will do that to you" 3) "She's totally pregnant".
So which option is correct? NONE! It was my darn blessed birth control that gave me all those lady hormones and resized my bustline to 200%.
So, now almost a D-cup, I have a dilemma. I'm filling out my C-cup bras with cleavage. I have never before experienced cleavage in my life!
One must always wear a brassiere with one's wedding gown. But mine has a sheer lace back. What to do... I have yet to try those silicone cups.
By the way, When I tried on my dress, I popped a stitch. Because of my boobs.
PEPLUMS.
I tried on the dress. The bias cut fabric did not want to sit properly over my tummy (I didn't go to the gym or run like I promised). I pinched and poked and pinned and poked myself and finally pinned the peplums and the dress into submission at the same time.
Then I sewed the right peplum on (but before that, sewed a ribbon on by hand) while wearing the dress. No one there to help me, just by my lonesome.
The left peplum was more fun. It was a carnival.
The zipper is on the left side of the dress. What did I have to do?
SNAPS! The snaps were even more fun than the right side pinching and poking. No... do not go gentle into that good night.... I was about to flee from the earth at this point. It was hellish. The fitting, that is.
Thankfully with some tugging and struggling, it managed to look all right.
Then, I had to strategically place (read: fuse 1/4" ribbon to dress and then hand stitch thinking it will remain straight, only to press it, revealing a whole mess of wrinkles that you can't fix) ribbons and do several rows of beading on the front V part. It looked a lot nicer after that.
It is finished. All done. Viola.
Twirl, Twirl, Twirl.
Bridal Embroidery Complete
Here is the completed embroidery.
This took ages! It is not for the faint of heart!
Again, this took AGES. I started in December 2014 and finished in February!
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