Wedding Dress Part 1--Design

        About a year ago I started thinking about wedding dresses and began piecing together plans for making my own dress. In August of 2016 (6 months ago at this point) I got engaged and decided to make these plans a reality. The process has been a labor of love but I have learned so much along the way and plan to document the evolution and completetion of this project on my blog.
       Five years ago I randomly decided that I would like to make my own clothes, having absolutely no sewing experience. My mom and I went to JoAnns and I picked out some quilting fabric, a kwik-sew pattern, thread, and scissors. I had no idea what I was doing or what I was getting myself into, but despite my lack of sewing related knowledge, I made that dress, teaching myself to sew along the way. I realize now that the "head first" approach might not be the most traditional way to learn, but for me, it worked.
      This project has been much of the same. I now have a much (much) better understanding of sewing techniques and clothing construction, but I had little to no experience with many of the more "advanced" skills associated with wedding dresses, such as structural considerations. Even so, I jumped in head first and haven't looked back!
       This blog post will cover the initial brainstorm and design processes. So, back to the beginning! I knew all along that I wanted to have a 1940's inspired wedding dress. 1940's clothing and aesthetic appeals to me the most, so I started thinking about the design and fit of a 40's wedding dress. This for me meant sleeves, a fitted bodice to the hip, a sweetheart neckline, and a flowing skirt.

        From here, I began searching for patterns to help me create this look. One of the patterns I found initially was Vogue 8943, a Claire Shaeffer pattern. I was planning to alter the neckline and make the skirt longer, but I was drawn to the hip yoke and lace overlay. 

      I made a muslin from this pattern. It wasn't quite the shilouette I was going for but I decided to keep a shortened version of the hip yoke. I began looking for other patterns to help me realize my vision. I experimented with several patterns and sewed up a couple of muslins, but ended up selecting Retro Butterick B6022 for the skirt and Butterick B5731 for the bodice.

To create the sweetheart neckline that I was looking for, I used Simplicity 4215 from the early 1940's.

       

This part of the process was definitely the most extensive and time consuming, but I am pleased with the outcome. After making up several muslins, perfecting the fit and silhouette, and solidifying the design elements, I created this sketch to guide the creation of my Wedding Dress!

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McCalls 6696

A couple weeks ago I decided to jump on the McCalls 6696 bandwagon and I am glad I did! I think I will have to make up a couple more versions of this dress as it will be a nice staple. For this version I used a green gingham that I found at a garage sale. I lined the bodice with some white poly-cotton, also from a garage sale.

Everything about the dress construction was fairly straightforward. I added pockets and cut them on the bias to add a little interest. I cut a size 12 but ended up having to take it in at the side seams several times. I did my usual short torso pattern adjustment but I think on this pattern it was too much so next time I will have to add some of the extra length back on.

Where the back bodice piece connects to the waistband there is quite a bit of gathering that I wish I would have removed, as other's have mentioned doing. It is not terribly bothersome but I do not think the "poof" is overly flattering.

I wore it with my boots to church this morning! :)

Aunt Edna

A while ago my grandma posted this photograph of my great-grandma, my great great grandma, and my great great aunt Edna. I love old photographs, but I especially appreciated this one because of Aunt Edna's amazing dress! As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have one like it. Unfortunately I cannot make one just like it as I cannot find polka dot fabric like that, which is part of what makes the dress so cool.

 

I used McCall's M6988 as it looks like Edna's dress has a front yoke like this pattern. I added about 4.5 inches onto the hem. I cut a size 12 but ended up taking it in in several places.

 

 I have no idea what the color of the original dress was since the photo is in black and white, so I just chose blue because my options were pretty limited and my favorite color is blue. I did add the bow but it is pretty hard to see with all of the polka dots.

I like this dress but if I ever find fabric with polka dots that grow from big to small I'm buying it and making a new one!!

Falling Apart at the Seams

 

I was in Iowa City last week and decided to visit a consignment store called the Second Act. I don't frequent consignment stores very often as they are a bit too pricey for my tastes (really cheap) but I do like this one as it has a nice vintage section. My main reason for going was simply to look around, but I stumbled upon this 1940's dress. It was $12, which is generally much more than I like to spend, but still much less than all of the other vintage clothing. The price tag perplexed me as it seemed to be in very good condition. Then I looked a little closer and noticed that the stitching had fallen out at some of the seams and the hem was being held in place by safety pins.

Despite the gaping areas in the seams (which would be very easy to fix!) I loved the various elements of the dress, so I decided to buy it.

It is very '40s! The dress is made of black wool and has gathers at the shoulder yoke and pleats at the hips. It zips at the side and has buttons at the bodice. The buttonholes are tiny bound buttonholes. I assume that this dress was handmade as there were a variety of colors used in stitching the dress together. I guess that I'm not the only one who has used up thread that is "close-enough" in color : )

The only thing I'm not quite sure about are the shoulder pads. They are the only aspect of 1940s fashion that I'm just not sold on. I guess I am afraid of the football player aesthetic, or perhaps I associate shoulder pads with the '80s. I'm not sure! I suppose I could take them out and replace them with slimmer shoulder pads, but I don't want to mess with the original fit of the dress. I'll have to think about it. Other than that I am glad that I splurged on this dress!

Fixer-upper

 I have had this dress on my to-do list for quite some time now. I saw it at the Salvation Army a couple of years ago and bought it because I like shirt-dresses and I liked the turquoise-y blue color of the fabric. In its original state it needed some help though. I looked towards my pattern collection for some inspiration on this one.

Simplicity 5752

Simplicity 2222

I started by cutting apart all the basic parts of the dress; the sleeves, skirt, and bodice. On the bodice, I took in several inches from the side seams and then added darts in the front and in the back for some shaping. I cut the elastic off the skirt and added pleats along the waistline. I created the loose, cuffed sleeves using Simplicity 2222.

 The only thing I don't like about the dress is the collar. It looks a bit large to me, probably just due to the original size of the dress. That won't stop me from wearing it though! I look forward to wearing dresses like this one as a teacher because it is comfortable and I don't have to fret too much if I get paint or clay on it. The dress was cheap and I didn't spend too much time and effort fixing it up!

beAdazzling

When I was living in North Liberty, one of my favorite things to do was to get up Wednesday mornings and go to the Goodwill before class (weird, I know). The Goodwill's in the Iowa City area all have a 25 cent day once a week, and the one by me had their sale day on Wednesday. I was able to find a lot of neat things at this particular Goodwill (which I will have to blog about later) but one of my favorite purchases was this late '50s/ early '60s beaded black dress.

Sorry for the wrinkles

B. Siegel Co.

Unfortunately for me it is a teeny tiny dress. I can't even get it on my dress form to take a decent picture. So no chance of me wearing it. I love the beading though, so I decided to spruce up another, rather boring, 25 cent purchase with some similar beading.

 It is a blue silk Victoria Holley dress. It is flared, so right now I am working on bringing it in at the waist and the hips as I want the shape to be similar to the original. I will also bring up the hem considerably as right now it is ankle length. The beading is going very slowly, as you might imagine. I have never added beads to anything so I don't know if I am sewing them on correctly, but it looks like the beading on the original dress so I am pretty pleased. I plan to add an inch worth of beads at the sleeves and the waist.

Maybe someday I will recreate the original dress more accurately, but for now I am pleased with the progress of this dress. When I finally finish the beading I will try to post pictures of the completed dress!

Butterick B5813--a convocation dress

This weekend I celebrated the completion of my Teacher Education Program! I planned to go to the convocation ceremony, which of course meant that I needed a new dress to wear.  I decided to go with Butterick B5813, a vintage reprint.

I got the fabric at a garage sale a while back. I enjoy going to garage sales during the summer as I can often find nice fabric. At this particular garage sale, someone's grandma was downsizing and had a lot of fabric to get rid of. The whole driveway was filled with boxes of fabric, all for a dollar a yard. That worked for me! I believe that this is some sort of wool blend.

I really like the way this dress turned out. I cut a size 10 and graded up in a couple of places. The next time I make this there are a couple of adjustments that I will make, but overall I feel that the fit is pretty good.

This dress zips up the side. I lined the dress with black Bemberg rayon. I bought the shoes that I wore at Goodwill. They are Kenneth Cole, which I think is a nice brand!