My Dress for the Wedding

I was overdressed. I knew I would be, but what other chance was I going to have to make a formal dress for myself!? Besides, my husband expects these sorts of things from me now. I just can't bear to let him down. Right?


This dress was my inspiration. I am still so in love with that dress. It reminds me of the dress Vera-Ellen wears when she dances on the dock with Danny Kaye in White Christmas.


Made of an ivory satin and yards and yards nylon chiffon. Two complete circles resulting in a 10 yard circumference around the bottom for each of the four layers in the skirt. Talk about a twirly dress.

It was yellower (in person) than I originally imagined, almost a light buttercup actually, but it looked fabulous with those tomato red heels in the end so no complaining here.


I should have made a movie to show you how it moved. Oh, how it moved!



Here is a detail of my favorite part. Didn't that turn out lovely?

(I know it's a little lacking in the main wedding coral color, but as I figure it, I was going to be carrying this darling coral accessory the whole time anyway. Plus, I wasn't so sure I could pull off the coral as well as she could.)

It's been a while since I've sewn for myself, and honestly, I was scared to death to do so much pattern drafting for myself for this dress. I feel so much more comfortable drafting for children. I learned a lot from this one, and I'm still learning, but each new dress is a new step along the path.

Tigi's Wedding Dress

Now that the newlyweds (my brother- and sister-in-law) have been married a month, I suppose I can post pictures of my wedding creations. Not that there was really any reason to wait until now...it just kind of happened that way.

First, the headband I made using the singed fabric method like the one here. I used about six or seven layers for each flower and offset each layer instead of attaching them all in the middle. There are a few beads sewn in the middle too.

And now, here is the dress I designed and made for Tigi. My little fairy princess. What a doll!


Aren't those gold sandals just adorable?


Funny story about the fabric. I found it in the "red tag" section at JoAnn's the day before the "red tag" section went on sale for half off. It was only fabric around in the PERFECT color, so, like any other good-natured bargain hunter, I hid it beneath a pile of other red tag fabrics so that I could return and purchase it the next day for $1.50 a yard. Then I found another bolt and promptly hid that too. After all, you've got to buy an extra four yards...just in case, right? I then returned the next day and recovered my buried treasure.

A couple of weeks later my sister in law and her mother who was visiting came over, and I proudly showed them my conquest. To my surprise, they turned to each other and laughed. "So you're the reason we had to go to THREE different JoAnn's to find enough of that same fabric for all the bridesmaids' and flower girls' dresses!" they exclaimed.

Oops. At least I can say with a surety that it was the perfect fabric.

I'd love to show you my initial sketch that inspired this dress, but Teagan is sleeping in the same room as the scanner so I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow. Until then.