Reflections

Well... the big day has been and gone. It's all been a bit of a blur. Last Friday, the preparations were frantic, what with the dress still unfinished the day before the wedding (THANK YOU, mother-in-law!!!), the favours still not decorated, family and friends all wanting a piece of our attention and just general, last-minute panic. I admit my nerves were thin, worn and when the DVLA decided that that day was a good day to yet again annoy me with their inefficiency I broke down in tears.

By 8pm all was done and ready.

The favour idea got thrown out of the window and instead, I decorated the lot with piping icing in lots of different styles, from the abstract swirls of black with roses in the centre to cheesy phrases like 'love, love' love' and one or two that actually showed a picture of cheese with the caption 'some cheese'. Now I have approximately 80 pizza box holders here, ready to be crafted into something entirely different.

The dress has been finished with the help of my mother-in-law and it has been the first occasion I have ever heard that woman swear like a sailor. We went for the easy option in the end - loops made from ribbon, silver decorative ribbon to cover up minor faults at the back opening and a new modesty panel as the original one was nowhere to be found, and when I did, it was too short anyway.

The guest book got spiced up a bit with some card prompts I stole from the internet (questions like 'What are your 3 top tips for a happy married life' and 'What should we definitely do in our first year together?') and a variety of cheesy stickers, which, to my surprise, actually worked very well. Our guest book is about 2/3 full and most people have taken the time to fill in an entire page full of good advice and well-wishes.

It had been a lot more work than anticipated, but we got it all done in the end.

As you can see, I am now waiting for pictures. Our photographer has given us a glimpse only, with one beautifully captured picture of the cake cutting process, in which the Husband and I shared a moment of oblivious joy in the form of a broad grin on our faces.

What few pictures I have have been added here, but hopefully, over the coming days and weeks we will have a big selection.

I will keep this blog up and running, occasionally, with a few updates and possibly more ideas, should I have the opportunity to participate in other people's weddings in the future. There have been a few things I have probably missed, which I will also post when the time is right.

However, I will not give up crafting, and the wedding preparations have shown me just how much joy and, yes, relaxation I get from dabbling in various arts. I have just opened up another craft blog here, where I will post regularly on whatever it is I am making in our newly-wed household, from Christmas cards (upcoming!) to wall-art and the many cakes and bakes that make life just that little bit more interesting.

Please do visit my new blog, The Crafty Times, leave comments and enjoy.

Dress update

Sooo, it's been another week and I haven't had time to do anything remotely do do with the wedding. Work was crazy and I am very panicky about getting it all done in time now. Today's shown a lot of progress, what with finished menus, a seating order, a table plan and place cards, as well as a started letter box.

But the dress is another matter.
It's shoulder straps are done - I've used ribbon to keep it simple - but with the whole bottom still needing draping, it's looking like another all-nighter. Having said that, I am pleased with it. The top fits perfectly, the bottom sits nicely around my curves and I actually look a lot slimmer than I am.

The shoulders that I've been so worried about now look okay and I may even leave the beads off them after all. So really, it's just the skirt. I will attempt to fix the messed-up thread tension on my sewing machine and give it another go.

But have the picture as an impression of what I've been doing.

And finally, a big THANK YOU. 1000 views cracked!

Tears, Tantrums and T'dress (sorry)

Just updated the post to show what the dress really looks like. The previous picture was awful, sorry.

Every day is dressmaking day, even though it still doesn't seem like much has got done. Draping the first bit was easy enough - all I had to do was find a shape that suited the dress and that I halfway liked.

Draping the second side was harder as I wanted to make sure that the patterns matched up completely.

Both parts were trimmed at the bottom, leaving a rather large margin to avoid fraying ruining the dress before the big day.

This then left the question of what to do next. The idea was to make the rest of the corset quite fitted, with a single layer of fabric being shaped around the belly and back bit. Oh, how mistaken I was. The fact that the material is gathered underneath the breasts has meant that it does look a little untidy under there, which means that any straightforward fabric layer would have shown the extent of the problem and in the trial I was close to tears and just buying a damn dress again.

However, I then chose to layer the fabric across the first 4 sets of bones on the corset (the affected part) and used a slip stitch to fasten the upper layer to the breast draping.
I have to say, I am quite happy with the result. The additional layers have taken the focus off the middle and onto the belly. Whether I would really like to show my belly off is an entirely different question, of course.
Any fabric underneath the last layer will now become skirt as this is the height my hips start at and dresses that shape appear to suit me.

So now it's onto the sides and back. Hopefully this means that by the end of the week the majority of the dress will be finished.

A friend has helped me choose some jewellery to take apart and use to cover up the shoulders and midriff area to hide any less than professional stitching. I am also using some of the newly-gained beads in a second tiara and potentially some earrings, so that everything will appear to match up after all.

Fabric Draping - The dress is back!

We have spent the last few days house hunting and have finally found something promising, which we will try to secure on Monday. This has meant that - predictably - a lot of attention and focus had to be diverted from the wedding preparations, save for little items like the frames and the flower-shaped confetti, which will be strewn across the tables.

However, today is Sunday and that means that Estate agents are shut, so there would have been nothing to do but wait around. I decided it was time to stop being down (it's what losing your home does to you) and get back on the horse, so to speak.

With the corset inner done, the daunting task of actually draping the outside of the fabric awaited. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. I cut my satin to a rectangular shape since I had no idea what I needed, but needed to start somewhere. I then applied Fraystopper to the edges, since whilst sharpening my scissors on sandpaper brought some cutting relief, the material still frayed like mad.

Using up all my available pins, I shaped the fabric around the inner, starting with the top of the bra straps and finishing under the bust. Each time, I folded a small portion of the fabric to cover part of the previous section, in the hope that this could cover up any sewing faults, which it did. I then sewed the edges of the folded material together - in a line at first, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake, then just at points where the material met or needed support in staying in shape, which showed some promise. I am not too worried about the messy top and whatever the material will look like under my bust, as I am making shoulder and belt appliques which will cover all that up.

So things are looking up on all fronts and I hope that this trend is set to continue.

Ring cushion

It's been a little quiet on the wedding DIY front recently as the holidays have meant less work for me and I have therefore used every possible opportunity to earn some money over the last few weeks, and any other free time got used up applying for more permanent roles.

I have not been idle, however. I have now got the DJ's contact details, have emailed him and am yet to hear back from him. I've booked the bridal suite the night before our wedding, so that the groom won't rest an eye on me before the big day. And I've made our ring cushion.

For this, I used some thin satin, which would have been of little use for the dress (a fail-buy, which I didn't want to see going to waste), white cotton thread, invisible nylon thread and a selection of beads - long, metallic, pearls, drop-shaped and diamond-shaped - as well as some toy stuffing and Fraystopper.

After applying Fraystopper around the edges, I cut out two 9 1/2 inch by 9 1/2 inch satin squares and sewed 3 of the edges together on the inside. I then turned the cushion to the right side and attached two beads - the round, metallic one and a see-through plastic one - on either end through the middle of the fabric with the help of the invisible thread. This was to ensure that the cushion would bend towards the middle and hold the rings securely.  I then sewed the rest of the beads in a floral pattern onto only one of the two fabric squares. It would probably have been easier to do this first and then the middle beads, but you live and learn.
The next task was connecting the edges of the last side with cotton thread, being careful to leave a gap for the stuffing, which went into each corner - enough, to make it all cushion-shaped and soft, but not too much to risk the threads bursting. Then I sewed the last bits of the edge together.
All in all, it took me, maybe, three hours to get the cushion done by hand. Hadn't I had a few G+Ts in the process, it may have taken 2, but the beads proved a little more difficult when tipsy.

Anyway, I must slowly get to the point of actually making serious savings. A similar ring cushion in the shop went for about £12 - this one here cost me about £2. I will have to start making a list. The next blog post appears sorted :-)
Though, I am also working on some table decorations, which would start at a minimum of £20 in shops, so we will see.

The Finished Veil

So it took every free minute I could spare for the best part of 2 days to get the veil finished.

Let's walk back through the process.
Bought organza, mistakenly thinking I could use it to crunch nicely for a petticoat-like underskirt. Thought I'd use the material somehow and it was thin, light, white - it seemed perfect for a veil.

So I roughly cut out the shape:

It was messy. Very much so, and very scrunched up. The steel rulers I bought seemed a decent weight to attempt straightening the material out a little, whilst I used pins to mark the places where the Fraystopper would go:

The Fraystopper made more mess than anticipated. Ribbon - folded over the edges and sewn on with invisible thread - was needed to both smooth out the edges and hide the glue-like substance:

The hand-sewing took the most time. I sat for about 8 hours to get all the way around the veil.

The next step was to affix the shape to the comb. Again, I used invisible string to - I forgot the technical term - crunch the fabric and used a bead on either side to keep it in shape.

More thread to sew the fabric onto the comb, and it was done!

I'd like to take a picture showing the whole veil, the way it falls to my waist, but I have found out that organza, whilst nice in natural light, is not particularly flash-friendly and looks more like a plastic bag over my head :-( That means that I may still decide to go veil-free after all. We'll see what it looks like when the dress is ready.

What have I learned?

Material matters. I did not really have a clue about different types of netting, now I know which material to use for what. I had no clue how they would fall, or even be worked. And, obviously, whether they worked in different types of light. This has helped me think a lot more about the materials I need for the corset and I have bought some lining, which is very strong.

I have also learned that everything takes more time than anticipated, especially when hand-sewing. Things go wrong, need working out and re-working more than I thought they would.

I have learned that I love my big saviour, the glue gun, when things go wrong. And that I hate nylon string.

Wedding dress preparations

As I am sitting down after a morning of household chores to mask the state the house was in up until about three hours ago, and waiting for a new piece of furniture to materialise, I am thinking about how I can make that dress happen.
I am okay at sewing. I can repair a torn seam, sew on some decorations to plain Christmas stockings to make them special and put together some crude felt food.
I am not very good at making clothes. However, that might be due to the fact that up until now I have never used a sewing pattern. So I guess my next step is to learn how to read and alter these to fit my shape.

After the cabinet has arrived, I thought about popping into the local bridal wear shop and having a nosey around. This is less to do with lack of ideas and more with trying to find out how on earth these things are put together. I am not too worried about a corset - I either learn how to make one of those or I buy a cheap, plain white one and decorate it.

I am more in awe of those skirts - how do people manage to create that many layers and not make the hips look 4 sizes bigger than they are?


In a premature retail rush I decided to buy the material I will ultimately use to make my dress:
We have some white silk, silver fabric, white silk ribbon, sew simple glue, button-hole making things and a tiny white feather boa, which will form the collar, wrist bits and the bottom of the skirt. For decorative purposes I also added white bows, roses, mini-pearls and sequins. I am sure they will come in handy somehow.

The next step will be to find some literature on making clothes. I will need to know how to make sleeves, shirts, skirts and possibly a fabric corset.
Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Well, I am stubborn.