Friday, June 3, 2011

A bridesmaid dress

Here is my little sister, in her unhemmed bridesmaid dress:

heather's dress

heather's dress

The fabric is navy blue dupoini silk underlined in cotton voile so it's a bit, well, not "stiff" but it has some body to it. My mom and I had a little back and forth with her about how body hugging it should be. She's used to lycra & spandex in her dresses, and dresses that hug your curves. However, well, this is a 1960s pattern, and they really didn't design dresses to do that back in a day. Especially with this material, you can't really make it stretch closely over your curves without it looking a bit weird. You can see in the pattern that it skims:

coat front

So. She thinks it's "boxy" and "too loose" and we think it's fitting just fine. I am not much of a bridezilla but I've said "it fits like this for the wedding" and she can get my mom to take it in further after the ceremony. (I'm also getting into sewing silk dresses overload. I've got a nice cotton sundress for Kate lined up to do soon as a couture palate cleanser!!)

I do love me a nice stretch knit dress (see this GORGEOUS one that robin just made), but if I was making one like that, I'd use a pattern designed for a close fit and a stretch fabric. What do you think?

And one last shot... two flower girl dresses and a wedding dress all lined up:

wedding dresses

5 comments:

JoanneM said...

Elegant.
Love the shoulder straps?
Best color ever-navy silk!

Alexandra said...

What a pretty dress! And a lovely color, too.

Lisette M said...

The dress is very elegant. The dress in the link is more cabaret than wedding ;-)

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

This is just awesome that you are sharing your pre-wedding journey with us! I love your sister's bridesmaid dress and the flower girl dresses are just darling!

You will always remember this wedding since everything has come from your sewing machine! Tres kewl!!!!

SEWN said...

I think it looks lovely on her and I adore the color!