holy cow

I think I may have made a wedding dress.



Much still left to finish up, but there you have it. I ended up pinning the pleats in the silk shantung and realizing that they really had no "there" there. So I went just with the taffeta which is rustly and kind of neat. I need a floor length slip so I may turn the shantung into that.



(without heels, so the skirt is laying a bit funny)

Still left to do:

• proper zipper insertion. What you see here is basted, and also not closed the whole way up. I can generally zipper myself into any dress, but this one is a little too tricky to do when it's only basted, since I didn't want to tear the lace. I am thinking of doing a zipper underlay as shown in the Couture Sewing Techniques book.
  
  
• Make the sash
  
  
• Hemming! My mom has volunteered for this. thank you mom!!
  
  
• hand sew down the bias binding on the armholes
  
  
• hand sew down the silk habatoi bodice lining to the waist
  
  
• make a ton of teensy covered buttons for the bodice center front and attach them. you might be able to see the loops sitting there... these are purely decorative, since it really closes with the back zipper
  
  
• steam and press. again, my mom has volunteered for this one ;o)
  
  

The general overview of the dress construction is that the skirt is silk taffeta (from Mood) underlined with silk organza (from Susan Khalje). I marked the pleat lines on the organza and hand basted it to the taffeta. The selvedge of both the organza and the taffeta is at the hem so it will be very easy to just turn up and stitch the hem in place. The bodice is three layers - lace (from Mood) basted to silk organza and a silk habatoi lining. Then the neckline border lace was hand stitched over the dress's neckline and the excess cut away beneath. The cap sleeves were attached to the armholes, and then I used bias strips cut from the habatoi to finish them. Viola! Sounds so simple written up like that. ;) If only! In any event, I am loving the fit. I can wear a simple bra underneath, and I don't need to squeeze myself into spanx. I can move my arms freely, the pockets are in just the right spot, and it feels very comfortable! The pockets are going to hold my cellphone (for picture taking (; ) and my great-great grandmother's lace handkerchief that all the women in my family have held at their weddings. My sister pinned it to her slip, but I plan to fold it up into the pocket to keep it safe. It's been a continuing "something old" for a few generations now, so I'm very happy to carry on the tradition. My something blue will be the slip- I bought some ivory colored lace with a baby blue ribbon woven through that I'll attach. Something borrowed will be my mom's fancy white evening purse that I'm borrowing that day. Something new are the bangles (choora) that my friend bought me from Kerela. You're supposed to wear them for 40 days after the wedding- I may only make it until I go to sleep that night. ;)

Finally, Carolyn asked a few posts back how much muslin I'd gone through on this epic pattern selection and fitting trip. The answer is two bolts of about 10 yards each. Yikes, that's a small amount of muslin sacrificed to this dress!