Sewn: Wedding Dress

Blogging about this dress super late but better late than never I guess! 

So I made a wedding dress. Props go to @kirstennoellew for the photos. I can't get over how much talent she has. I suck at modeling and usually hate pictures of myself but I love these photos. That shows how talented she is.

Ok so the dress. The bodice is made with lace applique sewn on top of silk organza. This took forever and a day in case you were wondering. haha I definitely listened to my fair share of podcasts during this process! (Stuff You Should Know, Doug Fabrizio, and Help I Suck at Dating. :)

For the pattern, I drafted a sweetheart bodice, and added cap sleeves and a scooped neckline. The seams are finished with bias. 

The skirt pattern is a gathered skirt with skirt panelings over top. The base of the skirt is silk satin (with the creamiest texture!!) and a silk organza overlay.

The panelings were a little tricky to figure out at first. I knew I wanted to do something similar to Leanne Marshall’s skirt panelings because they’re amazing (she’s just amazing in general, gahh). I wanted mine a little softer, so I cut them on the bias and draped over. 

  

Main Fabric: Off-White Organza

Skirt Lining: White Silk Satin  

Lace applique: Embroidery Lace Applique 

Pattern: Drafted (I use this book and love, love, love it.)

Sewn : Red Lace Dress

This dress was way out of my comfort zone, I'll be honest. I stick to neutrals typically, white and creams will probably always be my favorite color. However, not EVERYTHING I make can be white. haha, so I forced myself to try something new.

It's a recreation of this dress from Valentino S/S 2012 (on the left).

I thought it was pretty but didn't want a maxi length and of course can't afford a dress like this in the first place so the DIY route it was.

I originally got the lace from Etsy but it's sold out now, except hey I just found a listing on Aliexpress but it's way more expensive so not sure if it's still worth it.

(Ring: Anarchy Street)

The outer bodice is Newlook 6723 with lengthened sleeves (I added 7.5") and then I narrowed the skirt pattern so it would have less gathers. I also did this for the top of the sleeves.

The underlining bodice is drafted, and is basically just a sweetheart neckline, princess seams and boning for structure. I used Tasia St. Germaine's (Sewaholic blog) tutorial on sewing a boned bodice and definitely recommend. She explains things really well. The lining also has French seams.


For the closure, I used a gold zipper and a gold button on top. I like the peek-a-boo back, I think it's a nice contrast with the long sleeves. 

(Shoes: Soel Boutique, now online! Ahh trying to contain my enthusiasm about that one)

That awkward moment when you don't have a hand so the see-through lace sleeve looks really awkward. haha these pics totally caught me off guard. I'm used to seeing myself with short sleeves and/or with long sleeves that cover my arm but not with long sleeves that show light through where my arm stops! It looks kind of weird I'll admit so just try and ignore that. :)

I really like how it turned out though. I do have issues with the neckline, I need to go back and fix the scalloping in the front and I wish I wouldn't have cut so much off in the first place. I wanted a high neckline all along, it was just hard getting the scalloping right and I ended up cutting too much off. Oh well, trying not to knit-pick now because it will drive you crazy!

Lace Fabric: Red Venice lace from Aliexpress

Lining Fabric: Joann's in Tango Red 

Pattern: Newlook 6723

(Lining is drafted)

Button: 10mm in frog gold

Zipper: Aliexpress in #2

Sewn : Crochet Lace Midi Dress

This post has been a long time coming, I made this dress a while ago but it's taken me forever to take pictures. The Salt Flats are forever and a day away so I had to wait until we could make a day of it. (Shout out to my mom who will take crazy 3 hour trips out to the middle of nowhere with me! haha)

So this dress is a re-creation of this dress from ASOS, but I didn't want mine to have a low back so I made one with a scooped back instead. I used this lace from Etsy and cream satin from Joann's for the lining. I'm pretty sure it's this listing (in ivory) but I'm not sure so don't hold me to that. 

I drafted the pattern because I couldn't find a pattern with a similar bodice (It overlays the skirt so it's not attached to the waist like the lining is.) The skirt is just a basic rectangle cut out and sewn together, and gathered at the waist.



The bodice was a little hard to figure out at first, I had to figure out how the zipper was going to work with the overlaying lace and the lining underneath. But in the end I just used the same pattern piece for each layer but didn't do waist darts for the lace, and sewed them both into the zipper in the back. That makes no sense but it worked perfectly! haha 


The zipper is just a 12" invisible one from Joann's. 



The bodice has french seams where possible (not on the zipper, and curved seams) and then the neckline is a bias finishing.

Pattern: Drafted

Fabric: Off-White Lace from Etsy  

Lining Fabric: Ivory Satin from Joann's

Sewn : Textured Floral Knit Dress

Sorry I look stupid in this picture, it's freezing outside now  of course (or at least was the day I posted this) so I don't want to take new ones. I'm the world's worst blogger, haha.

So here's a dress I just made. I fell in love with this fabric when I first found it but then I was on the fence about it once the dress was done. Don't you hate that? There's just something about it that reminds me of Cruella DeVille though. Ah! Not what I was going for at all. ha hey maybe that'd be a good Halloween costume? 

 

I used the same pattern that I used for this dress from the Stylish Dress japanese sewing pattern book. I love this pattern, it's easy so there's not much you can do to screw up and the dress is just really easy and comfortable to wear, easy to slip on, etc. That's my kind of dress, especially during the school year when I just want something comfy and loose. 



The only tweaks I made this time around were just adding some length (cut off too much last time, the original pattern is really long though) and made the silhouette more a-line. Oh I added sleeves! I forgot the original pattern didn't have that. 



I really love the gold buttons down the front, I think the contrast with the black and white fabric looks cool. I used black elastic cording in place of the handmade bias that the pattern calls for (for the button fasteners) and I recommend that because it was a lot quicker. And I think it looks better personally. It was a beast to get the cording sewn in place though, that stuff doesn't want to stay pinned.

Fabric: Textured Floral Knit

Buttons: Gold Satin 3/4" Buttons

Pattern: Stylish Dress book (Pattern #J)

Sewn : Pink Pleated Chiffon Skirt

Today I realized something. Almost all, if not all my pictures are taken of the right side of my body. You never see my short arm. I've thought I did that kind of accidentally (I like the right side of my face better, ha) but I'm beginning to wonder if I do it more subconsciously than I realize.. So,

Nothing to hide. But I guess at the same time I know it's definitely weird looking at someone without a hand (it's the same for me when I see someone without a leg) and you know, it's ok to admit that too. It is different and takes some getting used to. But I guess I'm just realizing that at the end of the day, this is me! And really there's no point in not being ok with me. 

And really as long as I can still carry in more groceries at one time than my mom, I'm happy. haha

Top: ASOS Skirt: Handmade, Shoes: Shoemint

Alright to the skirt,

This skirt I've already posted, but I desperately needed some updated pictures so there you go. I made this so long ago that I honestly don't remember where I got the fabric but I did find some similar fabric that I'll link to below. 

Oh and I know these pictures look like I went way too vibrancy-happy on the colors ps, I think it's because I actually have a tan for once. ha and the field looks really green for some reason but that's really how it was. 

Fabric: pink accordion pleat chiffon

Pattern: self-drafted 

(but here are some instructions 
showing you how to make a similar one.)

Happy Tuesday! Any fun plans for the week ahead?
I'm playing hooky from school today and going to a One Direction concert. haha I'm way too pumped about it. Any One Direction fans in the house?

Giveaway Winner + Etsy Update

The winner of the ASOS gift card giveaway is,

Suzanne!

(Yay girl I was so excited when it was you!) I hope you enjoy it and get something really cute for the rest of us. :) I e-mailed you, let me know if you don't get it. 

And ok so after thinking it over for too long, I've decided to sell my lace wrap back dress. It's near and dear to my heart so this is kind of hard for me (first world problems, haha) but I just have never worn it since I've made it (I'm not cool enough to have fancy parties to wear it to) so I'm hoping someone else will be able to wear it instead!

The listing can be found here. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Sewn : Hawaiian Print Dress

My goal this summer was to find a hawaiian print dress similar to the ones I've been seeing around.  I ironically had a family reunion in Hawaii this summer (not somewhere I typically get to go to but definitely not complaining!) so that worked out well. 

The problem was that the original dress was sleeveless and I didn't want that so I decided to shorten the dress a bit and make sleeves out of that.

But now I think it's too short so I can never win. Ah man, oh well. I did what I could do so I guess I can't have regrets. I just need to be like 5" shorter and then it would be perfect.



For the sleeves, I just used a really rough sketch of a cap sleeve pattern (same one used for this dress.) I didn't bother measuring the armhole because I knew I didn't want the sleeve to go all the way around. And It worked perfectly! Yay for laziness working to my benefit. haha

Overall I really like it. I love the double ruffle on the bottom and I love the print of the fabric. I do just wish it was longer though. I tried everything I could and really there would have been no way to get any more length aside from buying a second dress so I guess I can't have regrets. But still, kind of annoying.

And last thing, sorry to self-promote but I follow this cute girl Caitlin's blog, and she did a feature on me the other day! It made my day so I wanted to make sure to mention it.

Happy Friday everyone!