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The Ever After Frock Halloween Grosgrain Giveaway
10.16.2010
Dreaming of Dresses
So recently (for about 2 years) I've become more passionate about dresses. The girlyness of them. the softness. the adorableness. I see them everywhere, and whenever I see one I like, my heart just does a belly flop and I wish I could have it. My problem is I don't have many things I need a really nice dress for, and the super comfortable casual ones are so so simple that they don't speak to me. Anyway. I really want to make dresses. Everyday dresses, or at least Sunday Best dresses are what I like. ModCloth has a number of heart belly flop dresses. such as.....
They are so pretty. And a lot of them have inspired some of my own designs. I fill a notebook full of all these designs that I will probably never make because I have too many ideas for my mind to handle it. I feel if I ever was a contestant on Project Runway, I'd never finish any of my challenges because I'll think of one thing, then think something else is better, then all of a sudden these other things will pop in my head and I wont know what to do. I wish I had access to a place like mood (+ their budgets!) every time I started a new project. I think having good materials to begin with helps a lot with my enthusiasm for what I'm making. Oh my, I have much to learn... I'm gonna go get sewing on my latest dress design. :)
AND......
AAANDD.......
They are so pretty. And a lot of them have inspired some of my own designs. I fill a notebook full of all these designs that I will probably never make because I have too many ideas for my mind to handle it. I feel if I ever was a contestant on Project Runway, I'd never finish any of my challenges because I'll think of one thing, then think something else is better, then all of a sudden these other things will pop in my head and I wont know what to do. I wish I had access to a place like mood (+ their budgets!) every time I started a new project. I think having good materials to begin with helps a lot with my enthusiasm for what I'm making. Oh my, I have much to learn... I'm gonna go get sewing on my latest dress design. :)
10.07.2010
The wedding post
Hello all! well I am sorry but I only have the end result photos here for the wedding dress... but I hope that will be good enough? unless I figure out how to email my phone photos to myself.
Anyway here is a photo of the front. my hand is conveniently covering a detail of the skirt that my mother didn't believe I could even execute. but alas, I did. I had inspiration from a designer from 1940, Ceil Chapman. She is flippin amazing. Her draping is so graceful and effortless. It makes my brain hurt when I try to figure out how she put some of her dresses together.
Just look at that dress! Perfect folds in all the right places. See the part at the hip where the draping goes 2 different ways? I kinda succeeded that with my dress, but it doesn't look quite as lovely. Oh well.
Anyway... The fun part was the back. I actually think that after so much work making the front of the dress work, the back ended up looking better.
The buttons worked out great, and my mom made some roses out of the scraps to put on the transition from bodice to skirt. We put in some loop tape, but it was hardly worth the effort, but it definitely made a great photo in the end:
That's my mom and godmother trying very hard to button me up. It took longer than even putting the dress on. By the end of the night I was so sick of standing up straight and being constricted by my dress, I told my husband to just cut through the loops because it was taking him 10 times longer to undo one loop than it took my mom to do up all the buttons. Or maybe it just felt that way. haha
Another part of my ensemble was the headpiece. It was my mothers for her wedding in 1970. It had a HUGE veil attached to it when she wore it though. Very 70's. And since it is bendy, I was able to make it more headband-like rather than it taking over my entire head like she had it for her wedding. Here's a close-up:
Apart from my dress being handmade, I had relatives make the bridesmaid dresses. My mom was the winner for the most sewing for the wedding by helping me with my dress, sewing her own dress, and sewing my sister's dress. Go mom! Here's a pic of all of our handmade dresses. Credits from left to right: My mom, Me and my mom, my godmother, and my mother-in-law. Thank you ladies for your skills, time and dedication! My godmother also made 3 different veils to choose from, how awesome is she?!
My sister-in-law also made the flower girl dress out of extra fabric from my dress. She was very adorable, but also she is 2 which means that she is more interested in playing with the flowers rather than posing with them... hah, but this picture is a winner!
It was a lovely day and it was nice to see all those months of hard work finally show it's face. The reception hall looked fabulous all decked out in green and pink. And the cake! it was perfect! (yes those are giraffes, no there's no reason besides it was funny. See the etsy shop where we got it.)
We had live betta fish as our centerpieces. THAT was a lot of work on it's own. We had bought 30 fish a week before hand and tried to keep them alive for the day. We only lost two total which was great because we didn't need all 30 of them. You can kind of see him swimming around in this photo. All of the fish found their way to a new home which was great. I was worried no one would take them. We hand-made the table runners because otherwise it would be 20 bucks a table for a tablecloth service to put a green tablecloth down.... really? 20 bucks? we got away with less than a dollar for the runners. they looked fab with the pink napkins.
I was also lucky enough to have my uncle Dana do the photos for me all day. He's been in the business for a very long time. He helped his dad out when he was in High School and his son (my cousin) Helps him out too. Yay for family businesses! They do such a wonderful job too. they captured everything beautifully. You can check him out here: www.whiteography.com
After all that, I am done with wedding planning. It was a long and hard rollercoaster ride, and I am glad it is over. And now I have all these pretty wedding photos to look at too :)
Anyway here is a photo of the front. my hand is conveniently covering a detail of the skirt that my mother didn't believe I could even execute. but alas, I did. I had inspiration from a designer from 1940, Ceil Chapman. She is flippin amazing. Her draping is so graceful and effortless. It makes my brain hurt when I try to figure out how she put some of her dresses together.Just look at that dress! Perfect folds in all the right places. See the part at the hip where the draping goes 2 different ways? I kinda succeeded that with my dress, but it doesn't look quite as lovely. Oh well.
Anyway... The fun part was the back. I actually think that after so much work making the front of the dress work, the back ended up looking better.
The buttons worked out great, and my mom made some roses out of the scraps to put on the transition from bodice to skirt. We put in some loop tape, but it was hardly worth the effort, but it definitely made a great photo in the end:
That's my mom and godmother trying very hard to button me up. It took longer than even putting the dress on. By the end of the night I was so sick of standing up straight and being constricted by my dress, I told my husband to just cut through the loops because it was taking him 10 times longer to undo one loop than it took my mom to do up all the buttons. Or maybe it just felt that way. haha
Another part of my ensemble was the headpiece. It was my mothers for her wedding in 1970. It had a HUGE veil attached to it when she wore it though. Very 70's. And since it is bendy, I was able to make it more headband-like rather than it taking over my entire head like she had it for her wedding. Here's a close-up:
My sister-in-law also made the flower girl dress out of extra fabric from my dress. She was very adorable, but also she is 2 which means that she is more interested in playing with the flowers rather than posing with them... hah, but this picture is a winner!
It was a lovely day and it was nice to see all those months of hard work finally show it's face. The reception hall looked fabulous all decked out in green and pink. And the cake! it was perfect! (yes those are giraffes, no there's no reason besides it was funny. See the etsy shop where we got it.)
I was also lucky enough to have my uncle Dana do the photos for me all day. He's been in the business for a very long time. He helped his dad out when he was in High School and his son (my cousin) Helps him out too. Yay for family businesses! They do such a wonderful job too. they captured everything beautifully. You can check him out here: www.whiteography.com
After all that, I am done with wedding planning. It was a long and hard rollercoaster ride, and I am glad it is over. And now I have all these pretty wedding photos to look at too :)
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