Don't send in the marines just yet

In case any of you were wondering, I made it through sewing that silk junior bridesmaid dress (McCall's 4763) yesterday. That is to say, I am still here, and still mostly sane. No stealth trips to David's Bridal, though the thought of buying something similar and snipping the label off did cross my mind.

All I have left to do is to attach the waistband to the dress and then hem it, though that will have to wait until the day before the wedding to do that because the girl lives a zillion miles away and I can't try this on her until then. Witness my invisible zipper, sewn to the top layer of silk satin with my machine, and then hand-stitched to the silk lining. It was a feat of patience for me:

Huzzah!

The zipper, up close. My stitches are imperceptible!

From afar: simple yet so pretty!

I hope it fits her. And that she doesn't grow between now and October. That couldn't possibly happen, right? RIGHT?? (I'm still a little inhinged, see?) I changed the waistband from the one in the pattern, so that the two girls (ages 10 and 3) would match a little more.

Next up, the flower girl dress. Slightly less tricky because the lining is a cotton/poly blend. I'm going to experiment with interfacing the whole thing because the flower girl dress should be stiffer than this floor-length fancy number, but the bride wanted the two dresses to be of the same fabric. That presents a challenge for sure.

Impulse Buy of the Day

 

 With my kid at her sitter this morning I went downtown to the fabric district to go buy what I need for the flowergirl dresses I am making. I went to Metro Textile Corp. on 37th Street because the prices are really good and the guy there is so helpful and so sweet, and when you get the end of the roll (which I did three times today), he doesn't charge for the extra bits. Unfortunately, however, he likes to flatter, which doesn't make it easy to avoid impulse buying two yards of silk printed with peacock feathers. (The light in my apartment is shit, so this picture here doesn't do the colours justice. It really is an amazing piece of fabric.)

Fabric guy: Your husband would love to take you out to dinner in a dress made from this silk.

Me: (Sigh) How much?

In case you need to know: $14/yard, which is half what you would pay for this same fabric at Mood.

Anyway, I will need a dress for this wedding in the fall, so it's not like it was a total impulse buy. And where can you find an amazing silk dress for $28? I don't want to mess around and make any mistakes with this fabric, so I will test out whatever I make first before cutting.  Here's the pattern I just bought (Vogue1207, on sale for $3.88  from Vogue Patterns), which I think will be lovely in this print. Business in the front, party in the back (that's what they used to say about mullets where I come from).

The Winning Patterns

Ryan and Me at City Hall

Getting married at City Hall in NYC has its benefits:• It only costs $25.
• You don't have to make an appointment, so there's next to no planning ahead required.
•It's interesting to see the other couples also queued up to get hitched and try to guess why they're getting married at City Hall.
• Easy access to Brooklyn Bridge for post-ceremony photo shoot.
• It's right off the A train, so it's a quick commute most places on the west side.
• Carrie Bradshaw did it. So that makes it fashionable, right?

 The only drawback in marrying my husband at City Hall back in June 2007 was the lost opportunity to design and sew my own wedding gown. A number of talented bloggers I follow are in the process of planning their gowns, and though I have never regretted not having a wedding (for so many reasons: the cost, the time required, the fact that I'd have to pull off some crazy Comedy of Errors whereby I would hold two weddings concurrently — one for my mom to attend and one for my dad, so that they never have to actually see each other) I mourn just a little the chance to dabble in couture.

OK, here we actually are at City Hall — both in Banana Republic

Kathleen at Grosgrain will no doubt make herself a lovely wedding gown. Her aesthetic is tasteful and lovely. I can't wait to see it. Suzannah at Adventures in Dressmaking regularly posts progress on her gorgeous gown. And my friend Andreae, who had her third kid and no longer write in her blog With the Crickets, draped and sewed her own dress.

I will, however, get to make a few bridal numbers this year. A flower girl dress for my daughter, who will be 3. Here's the pattern the bride (my husband's cousin's fiance) choose from my short list (picture it in ivory with a green sash):

Vogue 7819

And a junior bridesmaid dress for a 10 or 11-year-old (in black satin with a green sash)

McCall's 4763

While I don't get to make any design decisions in sewing dresses for another woman's wedding, I will no doubt expand my sewing repertoire.  And the satisfaction that will come from making two little girls feel special and lovely will no doubt eclipse any and all needle pricks I will sustain in hemming a dress on a toddler.