Guys… I finished the dresses! It felt like a miracle! I powered through the night Thursday, only stopping for a half hour of sleep (and about 15 minutes of panicked sobbing… hey, I think that’s pretty good, considering the situation!), and I hopped on the plane with some of the hand-sewing left undone. Luckily, one of the other bridesmaids worked in a costume shop in college, so she dove right in and we finished in the nick of time!
Sadly, someone [coughnotmecough] remembered to bring the camera, but forgot the memory card (d’oh!), so I only got a couple of shots of my sister’s dress before the memory was full (nooooooooo!!). So for now all I can show you is B’s dress:
To refresh your memory, this is Simplicity 2209, from the Lisette collection. It’s a very simple silhouette, so I thought I would dress it up a little by making it in a cotton/silk blend. It’s fully lined, with a self-lined bodice front and bemberg lining for the bodice back and skirt. [Sidebar: is there a secret to working with bemberg rayon? I thought it was a huge pain in the butt to deal with... ugh!!]
I had to alter the dress quite a bit to get a nice fitted look since my sister is really petite, but it ended up looking nice, in my opinion. I originally cut a 10 in the bodice and a 14 for the skirt, but I ended up cutting an 8 up top and I still needed to add shoulder darts to accommodate sis’s tiny shoulders. The peachy-pink color is really flattering on her (and everyone in the wedding party– it’s a really forgiving shade!). I liked this pattern a lot– the crossed waist darts are an interesting detail. If I made this for her again, I would lower the darts more (I lowered them in the first round of alterations, but they’re still too high… I guess that’s one of the perils of long-distance sewing!). It annoys me that they’re so high, but I guess non-sewists probably wouldn’t notice. Sigh!
So there you have it! Bridesmaid dress #1 in all of its glory! Hoping to get some pictures soon to show you the other dresses!
What are you guys working on? Anything fun? Oh! I have a surprise to show you! I’ll take some photos of it and show you tomorrow!
