Then there was a wedding.!

Such a long time since I posted.. so much sewing and knitting has happened in the meantime. A little over a year ago my daughter got engaged and one of early questions in the planning was.. "Mum, would you make my wedding dress?" Of course, I was delighted, proud even. Then it grew, to cut a long story short I made the (4) bridesmaids dresses, 3 flower girls dresses, 7 waistcoats and my own outfit. Then just before the day I made shoe bags with the girls names embroidered on them and a bag for 'the' dress itself..
For the brides dress I was lucky we found a pattern that was a starting point but then I had to cut and slash it until there wasn't much of the original pattern left. The detail just under the bust are flowers cut out from my mother's wedding dress lace. That was something my mum the bride and I all enjoyed!

A simple design but I think quite effective

From the back

The waistcoats were quite easy and was lucky enough to buy the fabric at a half price sale, so chose a silk satin and silk taffeta for the backs. The fronts were made from a heavy embossed cotton and the clever sales person at The Fabric Warehouse (they don't have a website but this will give you the details) suggested that I use this same fabric for the flower girls bodices, this was an inspired thought! I can't recommend this shop highly enough. They have excellent staff with creative ideas and suggestions that they give out freely. They have an awesome range of fabrics that are moderately priced.

As a little extra touch I pokerworked their names on a wooden coat hanger for them to keep. The covered buttons made the waistcoats I think, I would really recommend this if anyone else is considering doing this. 

It was nice that the little girls dresses matched the waistcoats, this was not in the original plans but pleased we did it. The silk chiffon overlay hem should have been double neatened.  Did the same as for the bridesmaids dresses which were polyester and slightly circular and the single neaten after a row of short straight stitching worked for this. I have learnt so much about handling these fabrics and different tips and tricks. Big learning curve for me. 

Not a professional photo but one that included all four (girls) one of the girls couldn't make it on the day so we took her dress and had it on a mannequin. The colour worked really well on the day with all the greenery around them. The girls were comfortable, not a strapless dress in sight and were able to hide some sheer elastic straps for those who wanted or needed them.

Then it was my outfit and I got to let the creative monster loose! I bought the material because I loved it and saw Italy on the counter together at the above mentioned store. It consisted of 3 types of silk, chiffon, a really textured but light weight and then just light weight plain fabric all the me colour. The grey guipure lace was quite hard to fit into this but I was determined to use it. I crushed some fabric,cut out flowers and then layered one on top of another. Such fun!!