Early September, I had the good fortune to travel to Washington DC to attend a wedding for Felix’s cousin. I really enjoy attending weddings much more, now that I’m married. In not sure what changed between single me & married me – perhaps it’s because I’m older?? No matter what the reason, what I cherish about weddings is the love that emanates from the couple as well as everyone in attendance; it feels like a warm blanket of wonderfulness.
The second best thing of attending a wedding is being able to sew up my own fancy frock. lol
Being an outdoor, garden style wedding I had originally planned on using a lovely, floral linen fabric & Butterick 6935 pattern I’ve been meaning to sew up for just the right occasion.
The bodice was alright – but the skirt in my light weight linen ended up looking frumpy, instead of garden chic. Then I found out everyone was going to be wearing ‘cocktail dresses’ instead of a casual garden style dress – so I ended up changing my plans a week before the wedding. Eeeek!
As a replacement, I pulled out Mail Order 4645 (Teen Sizing). This is yet another pattern & fabric from my stash that I’ve had for at least 3 years and counting.
It’s hard to see in the image above (just look below) but that’s a navy blue silk shantung – very crisp and lightweight – perfect for summer.
Since I was pressed for time, on muslin #1, I went and made my normal bodice changes – shortening the armscye height, and shortening the bodice length, and widening the waistline. After stitching up the bodice, I found that I needn’t have made any change besides adding additional width for my waist. The bodice height & armscye height was perfect as is! Which is incredibly rare for me. I think it’s due to the fact this pattern is sized for a ‘teen’ not a woman.
Even though I was short on time, I knew I needed to underline the bodice so I cut a duplicate of the bodice front & back in a cotton batiste. The shantung really needed more structure in the bodice and waist. Normally, I would have used black batiste but I didn’t have time to run to the store and pre-wash so I just used the white I had on hand.
Honestly the weave of the shantung is so tight that you can’t even tell its underlined in white.
I love the clean contrast of the facing pieces to the white batiste underlining – I hand stitched this all around.
I generally hate wearing a side-seam zipper and move them to the bodice back whenever I can (for comfort & dressing ease’ sake). But this pattern prevented me from doing so. I sucked it up and stitched in the side seam zip.
No matter how little time I have, I do love pick-stitching in my zippers.
The only other addition I included was hemming the skirt with a 1″ horsehair braid. Again, I only had white on hand and didn’t have time for a run to the store for a black braid.
Luckily, I had enough length in the skirt, that it allowed me to cover it up entirely so no one was the wiser.
Upon reflection, I think I could have stood to lower the upper waistband piece & lengthen the upper bodice so it could fit a bit more snug under my bust. It’s not terrible and I’m probably the only one who notices things like this – I have a hunch it would be fine if it were in a cotton.
Since I don’t have any more to add about my dress, I’ll just put the rest of the images below for you to peruse through.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t post up an image of the happy couple and her gorgeous dress.
Last but not least: Have I mentioned that changes are afoot on Zilredloh?!
Stay tuned next week for the full scoop. :D I can’t wait to share what I’ve been up to.
Cheers & happy sewing!
In: Sewing
Curiosity killed the cat, so don’t make me wait too long please. Your dress is beautifully made and the colour is exquisite.
I’ll do my best Llynnda. :D I’m hoping to spill the beans early next week – if all goes well.
Beautiful dress, and doubly-so on such short notice!
That fabric is so beautiful! I love the neckline of the dress–it’s…I dunno, graceful? It’s pretty, anyway!
I do think the neckline is one of my favorite design elements in this pattern. I have a soft spot for boat-neck styles as they remind me of all things classically elegant; like something Ms. Audrey Hepburn would wear.
On enjoying weddings: I went through a period of HATING them because I was in a difficult relationship and they made me dwell on my own unhappiness. Now that I’m in a new, good relationship, I find myself much more enthusiastic about hearing about other people’s joy. It’s still annoying being a (getting older) single girl, though; I’m DONE dancing to All the Single Ladies and Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Maybe that’s just me, though!
No Jane, it’s not just you. heh I tire of the ‘usual’ wedding songs; a dj can really make or break my desire to dance at a wedding.
What a lovely dress! You look amazing in it and also your hair looks really beautiful! Neat trick with the horsehair in the hemline, I’ll write that down for future reference. I feel this makes the skirt part of the dress so swishy and eliminates the need to wear a petticoat beneath.
Horsehair braid hems really do give my full (light weight) skirts that extra bit of oomph M. I can’t ever justify packing a petticoat in my suitcase either, as I like to travel light when flying anywhere.
The dress looks lovely on you and it’s a great colour. I do think that the waistband could be a tighter fit on you, it looks too loose and is creasing at the front in the photos, hope you don’t mind me saying this to you! Best Roland
Your comments are very welcome Roland. I would very much agree, there is creasing in the front in the photos. Part of the issue is that these pieces are on the bias and the more I was pulling the more they were stretching out of shape. If I were to make this again, I would construct and cut some of these pattern pieces differently. Cheers!