"The Wedding Dress" an update

I am honestly getting somewhere on The Dress! I thought I would update - but this is more of an "how I started" update- does that make it a prequel?

I found this photo of Kate while we were fabric shopping in Toronto. While it is not the fabric we ended up going with - it gives a good idea of where we want to go.

Here is the start of our "design (divine???!!!) inspiration wall. Note the lovely teal and lime green wall. I say it adds to the designer feel! annnd some of the pattern design changes I made. We reshaped the bodice front to a sweetheart neckline, and the bodice back to incorporate a lower gradually curved lace up back instead of a straight across zip/button back. I really must visit Kate's friend Laura to examine her lace up back for spacing reccomendations.
The bodice turned out FABULOUS!!!!! Cotton batiste covering with a cotton flannel underlining. I forgot to count the boning - I used a combination of rigaline (too lazy to check the spelling!) and some metal spriral boning. I think there are 11 or 13 pieces altogether. It fit like a dream the first time around!
And now the crinoline. I was making one however it was not "poufy enough"- kate's words. I gave in and bought one off of Ebay. We decided to go with the Extra Full one - why, I will never know! I think we were thinking vendors would "cheat" on their idea of full- but they did not! It came in a teensy tiny bag. Already we have soaked and straightened it 3 times - it may take a few more tries to get it wrinkle free! I am going to add some length. Even though Kate is not tall, it is about 4 inches too short and I remember someone (on Pattern review?) mentioning that if the crinoline is not long enough, the fashion fabric tends to swoop under when walking.
Oh yes - here is the crinoline..
Whew- enough for now. Tempting you .....I have the fabric sewn, and the seams almost seamfinished. You can see it later!

How did I end up with TWO sewing rooms??!!!

Honestly - it was a gradual thing. I have a great sewing room on the main floor of the house. Built in cabinetry, huge window, room for 3 machines and 2 dress forms. I share half of the room with myself and our business office- 2 computers, three printers and a fax machine. The cabinetry was actually designed for us and featured at a local home and garden show as a "office and craft room"

So why 2 sewing rooms?

Well you all know that Kate is getting married in October. And I am making her dress. And my dress. And Laurens dress.

Perhaps you didn't know that her husband to be works for us. Neither he nor Kate wanted him to see the dress before "The big day" With the anticipation that I would only have one child home for the summer, I decided to designate the small bedroom as "the Wedding Room" I set it up with my extra machine, Kates desk from University and some storage area. It is a GREAT little room - I can disappear and no one remembers where I am.

However - Lauren - who graduates from High School in a few weeks- had originally decided to work at a resort in BC for the summer/fall and put off going to University for a year. All of a sudden she changed her mind and is staying home for the summer and heading off to Carleton in Ottawa in the fall. Of course needs a bed. Then Micaela decided she needed to come home from Vancouver as she is missing us all too much - another bed needed. WELL GIRLS- you will have to do some room sharing for a while. I do remember on our Europe trip when we stayed at the convent- you all were afraid to have your own rooms because you were used to sharing. Well it's sharing time again 'cause I want my 2 sewing rooms!!!!

Wedding Dress con't - "Creativ Festival"

The plan yesterday was to head off to Toronto to the "Creativ Festival" (what a dumb name!) to decide how best to bling up Kate's lace. Leah did not have to work until 5:30 so she decided to spend the day with her mommy. Gotta love that girl. I thought I would head off early - 7:30 am in order to beat the traffic. HAHAHA Madam Lauren missed her bus- she NEVER misses it, so why she picked today I will never know. London is a half hour the other direction from TO! So at 7:30, we headed off to London, had to stop for a train that chugged ever so slowly across Adelaide Street, then stopped and backed the entire length of the train back. We finally got Lauren to school at 8:10, then jumped on the 401 towards TOronto. I always take the 403 into TO when I am going to the COnvention Centre, and the traffic was horrible- how all you commuters do that every day- I would go crazy! I much prefer my 2 minute walk! We also had to stop for diesel - do you know how hard it is to find diesel in Oakville?
We FINALLY parked on Front Street at 11:15am- I think that is the longest Toronto commute I have ever endured. I forgot which building the show is in - I haven't actually been since Lorna (PR friend from Ottawa) and I were there 1 1/2 years ago! OH MY GOODNESS - it was not listed on the events board! I knew I had the right day, and began to have a sinking suspicion that they moved it back to the CNE grounds where it used to be. Nope- they moved it to the INTERNATIONAL BUILDING BY THE AIRPORT!!! uugghhh. So back to the car we went, and fought traffic yet again to the International Building.
We found what we were looking for right away, and it seems that hotgluing Swarovski Crystals to her lace will be a cinch - and work well. So we purchased the Bejeweller , and 4 bags of 144 crystals- size 10 which is 3 mm - of clear crystals





I think we will need more and I found an Ebay store in the UK that sells them fairly inexpensively.

Anyways, the rest of the show was really a bust. Boring with a capital B! If you wanted to buy necklaces or beads, you would be in heaven, and for quilters it is great, or if you need a new machine. Personally I will give it a pass for a long time- I only went yesterday cause I knew that I could find crystals and talk to someone about them. I was going to do a few "demonstrations"- see even the classes have deteriorated- but given my travel "problems" I had to give them a pass.

See you all later!

The Wedding Dress Saga - 1st installment

Katelyn's Wedding dress! How long have I waited to do this! I suppose considering she is only 21 - not THAT long. It has been forever though since I created my own.

It is going well thus far. I think the main reason is that I have been able to sit back and say "what do YOU want?" I will not say anything is impossible- although I will say "wow, great idea, I am going to have to figure out how to do that!"

For inspiration we are using this Maggie Sottero dress that she tried on 2 different times. She likes the shirred bodice mostly. She has fallen in love with an allover lace idea so the draped lace will continue to the floor.


We are using this Vogue pattern as a very rough pattern.

We made a very lovely(!) black version as a mock up. The size 10 fit her almost perfectly.
We headed off to Toronto to look for fabric - specifically lace. I wasn't worried that we would not find any thing suitable as Ann (Gorgeous Things) was sweet enough to do some looking in New York City on one of her buying trips, so we knew that Kashi at Metro had some beautiful laces. The first store we visited was Leo's. The salesgirl was soo great and recommended to us that Kate be draped in the fabric to get a better feel of what she liked. What a difference that made. We ended up loving a Chantilly lace with no beading (75/metre) and a more netting like lace with lots of bling (150/metre). I was hesitant to buy at the very first store, so off we went to the other stores. There was lots of fabric to choose from yes, but nothing spectacular - as well as the fact that we were totally ignored by many sales people. Don't get me wrong, I abhor hovering sales people, but an acknowledgment of our presence would have been nice!
The last store we ventured into was LA Fabrics - bad name great store. Very high end, european fabrics. Kate fell in love with an Alencon lace - it was 54 inches wide which makes me suspect it perhaps is not TRUE Alencon, but at 75/mtre I was not going to argue. What cinched the deal for Kate was the fact that her inspiration dress was pinned to the same lace (in white instead of her ivory) and an inspiration picture that I had clipped was pinned by another bolt. Good Karma! No bling though - so I am off to Toronto this week to the Needlecraft show to explore Swarovski glue on crystals versus sew on beads.
6 -gulp - 6 metres later, we needed to decide on the underdress. We wanted Peau de Soie - and could choose from silk - 65/yd or polyester 6/yd. Kate thought I was nuts for humming and hawing - "gees mom - it's only the underlining- no one will know the difference" So we went with poly - yick. We did get silk chiffon for the bodice. Oh yes and some stretch silk charmeuse in brown for my MOB Dress. Our last stop was a hole in the wall where Katelyn scooped a bag full of perfect sequins for 5 dollars. Kate meet needle, needle meet sequins! (actually my fantabulous mother loves handwork and has offered to help out with the beading)

Next up - the underpinnings and hopefully some fabric photos.