Sew Sew

[jacey]

Having shopped for wedding outfits for Number One Daughter's upcoming wedding I discovered that
a) I do not want to look like 'the bride's mother'  (even though I am)
b) All the dresses available in the shops at the moment are sleeveless and short or strapless, boned and long
c) Dresses made for short, fat women are made assuming the wearer is at least 90 years old.

Aaargh.

So I dragged my old Bernina out of retirment and for less than twenty quid I've made an ankle-length, flared, blue (purply blue) dress and a shot-satin jacket that looks blue or purple depending on the light, (It's curtain fabric - and hey - there are some fabulous curtain fabrics areound this season. Much more interesting than the dress fabrics. I found a suitable pattern for the jacket, but had to adapt a pattern for the dress. It's a basic princess line pattern but I've inserted long godets to make the skirt flare even more and lengthened the sleeves to elbow length. I've made a clutch bag from the jacket fabric and made little leaf-shapes from the scraps and stitched them into a plain (cheap) black fascinator to customise it.

The jacket, hat and bag are finished. The only thing still to do is hem the dress.

Comments

[ferlonda.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds lovely! Got any pictures? Are "godets" gores? What's a "fascinator?"

I know what you mean about curtain fabric- they're often beautiful and wide enough to be very useful for sewing long, flowing things. I bet you'll look gorgeous in this outfit!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Godets are gores that don't go all the way up to the top of a garment - so a long inverted V shaped inset.

A fascinator is one of those silly little hat things that isn't a real hat but does the job. It shoves into your hair with a comb and has all sorts of fur and feather bits sticking off it. It's very silly.

[ferlonda.livejournal.com]

Godets- got it. Just what I thought it was.

I SO want to see a picture of you and your fascinator! I love those. If I could just get one to stay in my hair for more than five seconds (my hair is really slippery) I'd wear one now and then. That will look amazing with your hair.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Your dress sounds lovely. You will look lovely in it.

[brownnicky.livejournal.com]

That sounds great. I don't understand about the short sleeved obsession either - maybe it's so they can sell cardigand and jackets to cover them up. I think making your own is a great solution. I hope you can post wedding pictures.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I was truly apalled by the lack of sleeviness in ALL the shops. And Evans - my default fallback shop which usually has something (even if it's not the something I want) had nothing formal or dressy at all. This may be A Good Thing, of course, because their default 'formal' is usually 'Bride's mother' (and not in a good way) and they rarely have large sizes in short fittings.

[tychist.livejournal.com]

Sounds fabulous. I went through the same process last year. Didn't want to look like 'mother of the bride' and everything was made for tall people. I found a dress in the end, paid too much for it and was happy they'd chosen a black-and-white theme for the do. I stopped short of sewing my own, that *would* have been a mess.
Looking forward to photos!

Love the fascinator idea.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean about not wanting to look like the Mother of the Bride, even though you are!

Thankfully I didn't have to resort to making my own because I haven't sewed for many years, but your outfit sounds lovely. I trust there will be photos in due course? :)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

There will indeed be photos in due course.
:-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It sounds fabulous. I await pictures.