Catching Up: Part 2 - Wedding Blues

Just before our Hallowe'en party, my lovely friend Liz sent a desperate plea for help in the Wedding Guest Dress department.

We've all been there ... what the FREAKING HELL do you wear to somebody's wedding in unfamiliar territory -- especially when that wedding is miles away? (btw, in Liz's case, it was my hometown of Cape Town *sob*) She had raided every shop she could think of to no avail, a universally bad sign as, trust me, this girl has shopping mojo. And a 20% M&S discount, but that's another story.

So. Of COURSE I agreed to help her! Yay!!!!!! :)

(disregard the fact that this was my 2nd gig sewing for someone else, and therefore the only the 2nd time I would actually be expected to both finish the garment and not finish it poorly).

We went through my Burda & Knipmode collection & settled on Burda 10/2009-115, which was meant to be made up in heavy winter fabric, with a lining. The clever girl had narrowed our choice of styles by helpfully bringing a reference garment with her; also v useful for for comparative fit ... thank god. See below.

Seeing as the reference garment was a lovely floral summer dress and she was going to Cape Town for the wedding (!) we collectively pooh-poohed the heavy winter fabrics and Liz went off to buy a cotton/elastane blend, an invisible zip & thread. Like I said, the girl got skillz: two shops & one slightly frazzled phone call ('what kind of zip was it?') later, she had herself the ingredients to a dress.

Short version? I waited 'til the Monday after the party to start cutting, but all-in-all the dress took 3 nights: one night of construction, one night of fitting and one night of alterations ... plus one VERY frantic morning to finish off. The pattern is, honestly, not the easiest to interpret - Burda's instructions were sparse (as always) and by omitting the lining I created loads of problems for myself. HOWEVER. All of those problems were solved by liberal application of lovely lace trim. Huzzah!

What is with Burda patterns?
I hacked off nearly half a foot on the side seams during the fitting.

Ohohoh. And. Please, let's not forget one CRITICAL resource: Colette Patterns' invisible zipper insertion tutorial. I would have totally died without that info.

(Note to the lady with the big opinions about ironing the zipper teeth in the comments section of that tute: ironing them works. Not ironing them doesn't. Nuff said. :P)

Liberal application of lace. 

 Liz wore the dress a few days ago, and I'm most relieved that she looked very happy in it. Idiot that I am, I was so swept up in applying lace trim that I completely forgot to make the accompanying self-fabric belt ... it's on my list of things to do this weekend, I swear!

Looking at the pictures now, I can see the mistakes that another fitting session and a few more days' sewing would have fixed, BUT I'm really chuffed with the results. Considering this is only garment number 9. Shh,  don't tell Liz. 

Look at the happy smiles and ignore the mistakes. IGNORE THEM. 

And why is this post called 'Wedding Blues'? Well, apart from lovely Liz being in my lovely hometown while I had to be in stinky work doing stinky routine things, I mistakenly convinced myself that Liz had chosen not to wear the dress after all ... this is what comes from looking at people's Facebook pictures while in a bad mood. Dumbass that I am, I didn't remember that the wedding hadn't even taken place yet and that the pictures I was looking at were of a completely different wedding.
So, I proceeded to stomp around for several hours while poor Rob tried to placate me. When Liz sent a message several days later saying that she was wearing the dress, well ... I felt like a total twonk.

Lessons learned: BurdaStyle patterns come out BIG, Facebook-stalking never leads to anything good, and invisible zippers should be ironed prior to insertion. :)

Catching Up

I've been trying to work out the best ways of getting my posts written while using my iPhone - whether by using ShoZu, a different app, using blogger in my dinky browser window (blehhh) or some other as yet unheard of method. So, today I'm trying the email option; I'm typing as I commute in on the Northern Line ...

So, stuff to tell you? Lots!!



Every post needs a picture.
Miss Meg attacking her tail.
Pesky thing keeps getting in the way!!



I've been shopping up a storm recently, and have loads of thrifty finds for you. Also been sewing up Rob's costume for our Dead Famous party coming up on Saturday, and recovering from the gut-wrenching failure of the Skulls 'n' Roses bodice muslin (more later).



Mostly, I've been thinking about stylising this blog to be a little bit more appealing - to you as readers, and to me as a blogger. I'm pretty much addicted to most of the blogs i follow and I notice points of appeal like clever tags, good layout, interesting fonts, etc. So ... I need some creative input.

First things first - what to call my 'thrifty finds' posts? So many of us love secondhand shopping that many good descriptions already exist ... and never one to pass up a challenge to be different, this one is really bugging me.

So ... thoughts, suggestions, ideas? On a postcard, please!



Not that I'm one to get distracted or anything, but ...

... The lovely Burda 107 is a little bit on the back burner (and yes, I have mostly back burners and very few front ones) while I attend the Fashion Antidote's Pattern Alteration class this afternoon.

I have SO many books about doing pattern adjustments, and have read SO many blogs on the subject ... but I clearly just perform better when I'm working in the right atmosphere/environment/whatever. As the sewing room progresses from 'mess' to 'usable', this will hopefully shift the balance of burners from back to front! :)

Anyhoo. Himself & I are attending a wedding in late July and I am determined to bloody well make my dress myself. The bride & groom have gone to great lengths to make their wedding different -- and, while this is pretty regular feature in most wedding planning mindsets, I think they're doing a damned fine job. The wedding has a festival theme, and will be a 3-day camping trip on an organic farm in Dorset (I think??). So, not exactly a 'kitten heels & fascinator' kinda day!!

During Karen's recent Fabulous Fabric Fandango (AKA Goldhawk Road shopping trip), I found the PERFECT fabric ... and then immediately settled on one of the 6 potential patterns I'd taken along for inspiration with some great moral support from fellow shoppers/sewists/bloggers! So, it's V2961 in Skull & Roses cotton print (£4/meter), with black cotton for the contrast halter (£1.25/meter).

YAYYYYY! Now. Need to go tidy up the leftover buttons lying on my sewing room floor so that at least one of the button tins is organised (more on button tins & other miscellaneous sewing inheritances in a later post, promise!) and I can actually get to the stuff needed for this afternoon's class!

Yes. It's been mostly like this since we moved in over a month ago. Three guesses as to how much sewing has been done??? Argh. 

PS. Oh, my giddy aunt!! Karen linked to my blog in her post about the Fabric Fandango above. Goodness. My first blog mention ... *whispers* I think I might faint.