The Great Reveal: Sewing My Own Wedding Dress and Giveaway Winner!

This week, Greg and I will have been married two months -- high time for a post about my wedding dress, am I right? 

All photos in this post were taken by our fantastic photographer Ian Sbalcio (I highly recommend him!)

I went through quite the trial leading up to sewing my wedding dress. I started out with some lovely silks from Mood and the By Hand London Anna bodice and a big skirt -- but that dress just wasn't working out. I wanted a big floofy skirt, and the fabric I used was so light it showed every bump in the crinoline. 

After a quick mental breakdown, I had a good night's sleep, regrouped, ordered new fabric and went with my backup plan: basic white sundress. 

The pattern I used it Butterick 5748, which I've made twice before.

The outer fabric is Robert Kaufman silk cotton sateen and the lining was just plain light cotton lining fabric. Both were ordered from Fabric.com about a month before the wedding -- and, in a moment of insanity, I only ordered four yards of each, which is about exactly what you need to make this dress. (The ribbon was a plain satin ribbon from the stash I used to decorate the wedding area.)

I didn't start the dress until two weeks before the wedding. I was pretty exhausted by that point (we had an at-home wedding at Greg's parents' house in Leesburg, Va., so there was a fair amount of work involved) and I was not super excited about sewing ANOTHER wedding dress. 

But I finally put on a movie a zoned out and got this mostly done in a day. 

But can you see my major error in the above photo?

Me neither -- but look at it again and you'll see it.

I am fairly sure I forgot to staystitch the neckline and the super light fabrics just streeeeeeeeeeetchhhed out. Really badly. And I didn't have enough fabric left over to make a second bodice. 

I mean, God bless the sewing community. I posted on Instagram for help and was immediately offered tons of advice and offers to go and look for lace to cover it up. It really calmed me down a lot. And then a lady on Pattern Review (I posted for help in the wedding/formal sewing forum) suggested I steam it into submission. I applied tons and tons of steam, but ultimately, didn't make enough difference. Finally, I just made a strip of bias binding, sewed it on, flipped it to the inside, stitched it down and called it a day.

Oh, and I also, in my panic, got a little makeup on the neckline. So I dry-cleaned it, which got the crud off the neckline, but also made it bubble and flip to the outside. I was pretty mad about the pressing job our dry-cleaner did(n't), actually, but I brought it home, pressed the hell out of it and it was fine.

I don't have much to say about the construction -- this is a super simple dress to put together. As with previous versions, I put the zipper in the center back, rather than the side (which the pattern tells you to do) because underarm zippers annoy me.

Because the fabrics were light, I used a microtex needle. I originally planned to hem by hand, but when I got to the end, I was ready to be done, so I just trued the hem and did a plain old narrow hem on my machine.

Underneath the dress, I wore a crinoline from Modcloth made from soft polyester and on top of that, I wore a House of Oliver cotton and lace petticoat, which maintained the smooth lines of the skirt. I definitely plan to wear the cotton petticoat again -- it doesn't provide much floof, so it's not too costumey and it was very comfortable.

The sewing moral of this story? Staystitch your necklines. 

The life moral of this story? Making my wedding dress was 100 percent worth it -- I'd never have gotten a dress like this in a store. No one noticed the wonky neckline. Or if they did, they didn't say anything. 

I had the absolute best day of my life, the exact wedding I wanted. I wore Keds to the reception and danced to a fantastic bluegrass band all night. And, best of all, I got to marry Greg. 

So all the pain was worth it! 

And, finally, here's our winner for the House of Mouse Caroline Dress from Indiesew! 

Congratulations to Erin Goh: 

It's such a pretty dress, especially the cute little sleeves and the high neckline.

Thanks, Erin! Send me an email and I'll pass it along to the folks at Indiesew for your pattern. Enjoy!

What do you think? Would you ever sew your own wedding dress?

House of Mouse Caroline Dress and a Giveaway from Indiesew!

Another work-appropriate dress? Yes, please!

This is the Caroline dress from Mouse House Creations, a new-to-me indie pattern designer. 

A few weeks ago, Steve from Indiesew, a new online retailer/community dedicated to indie patterns, contacted me and asked if I'd like to work with them. We decided to do a pattern review and giveaway, and they let me pick the pattern.

After carefully browsing the patterns to find one that I would actually be willing to buy -- I got this pattern free, but I wanted to choose something I'd buy for myself even if I weren't getting the pattern free -- so I chose the Caroline Dress for several reasons. The price is not outrageous; it includes several options for different looks; it fits my personal style. 

And also, I was intrigued by these cap sleeves.  Aren't they interesting? They're not set in as sleeves at all, but instead are created as part of the bodice. The seam is slightly curved so that they lie well on your shoulders.

The pattern comes with long-sleeve, short sleeve and cap sleeve (seen here) options. It also comes with four different length options: above the knee, at the knee, below the knee (seen here) and peplum. Finally, it has two different necklines. I made the high neckline, but there is also a scoop neckline, which I'll probably try out at some point.

The skirt doesn't actually have a pattern piece -- just dimensions -- but, there are instructions for making either a pleated skirt or a gathered skirt. I chose to do pleats. I used a very heavy fabric for this, and I didn't think gathering would work well. 

And you'll never guess what that side seam is hiding....

Pockets! My favorite!

The dress is fully lined, which is my preference for most dresses.

The lining is a lovely cotton batiste in a nice slate blue. The main fabric is a fantastic mystery fabric that I bought from Charlotte. She was destashing and once I saw this fabric, I had to have it. It is fairly thick linen-look cotton, but very soft. But I don't mind the thickness, because my office is FREEZING! 

The best thing about this dress, I thought, was the fit. This is a straight-from-the-paper fit -- the only tiny change I made, which I make to every single pattern ever, was grading from one size at the bust to the next size at the waist. Not bad fit-wise, eh?

Now, while there are lots of similar patterns on the market, the huge strength of this pattern is the amount of hand-holding in the instructions. It has color pictures of every step -- this would be a perfect pattern for beginners, and I'd highly recommend it if you're learning (or if you're like me and are addicted to new bodice options).

I'm definitely a fan.

But now, the fun part! Indiesew has agreed to give a digital copy of the Caroline Dress to one of my readers. Yay!

To enter, leave a comment here and I will randomize next Friday, July 25, for a winner. 

Good luck and happy sewing!

Things I've Sewn Lately: Oscar de la Renta New Look 6223 (Also,Giveaway Winner!)

I am so in love with this dress -- and so sad that I probably won't get to wear it again until it warms up! I made it for the rehearsal luncheon for Andrew and Caren's wedding. 

The fabric is a gorgeous Oscar de la Renta twill from Mood. The bodice is lined with white cotton (that happens to have started life as a King-sized sheet at Ikea in the As-Is bin -- hey, it's 100% cotton!) 

The twill is slightly stretchy and does not wrinkle. I wore it on a four-hour drive to Pennsylvania on rehearsal luncheon day and was able to step out of the car, shake the skirt a bit and look like I'd just ironed it. 

I used New Look 6223, which is a great basic dress pattern. I made the cap-sleeve view, but the pattern includes a sleeveless option and a side ruched option, as well as a three-quarter sleeve.

The skirt, which from the pattern art looks gathered, actually is pleated, which is a much nicer option for such a heavy fabric, in my opinion.

While I loved the pattern pieces and the cut of the dress, I do not recommend this pattern if you're either the type of person who likes a clean inside to their garment or the type who needs to follow directions.

The pattern instructions directed you to attach the bodice lining at the neckline and then create the sleeves separately (with lining) and sew them together. Which would leave a raw edge. A raw edge on the underarm in a LINED dress? No thanks. What's the point of lining then? 

I MacGyvered a solution so that the lining completely covered the inside and there are no raw edges. I also enclosed the invisible zipper because I love the clean look the enclosed zipper gives to the inside of the garment. I serged all the skirt seams and the waist seam with white thread. I love it when everything matches, don't you?

I also had an issue where I got the waist seams matching and one side of the bodice ended up over an inch taller than the other side. I have no idea why/how that happened. Totally bizarre. I ended up picking out the top of the dress on the left side, cutting off a chunk, eyeballing the curve to get it back to the neckline and just went with it.

The dress came with pockets, though, so that kind of makes up for it?

Despite all the issues I had with this pattern, I'm sure I'll make it again, just because I think the dress is flattering and it fits well. Plus, forewarned is forearmed, right? I also imagine that the sleeveless version would be a little bit less tricky.

In general, though, I love this dress, mostly because of the fabric. I rarely wear prints, but this one just spoke to me!

ALSO: The winner of last week's blog giveaway is Kim! (You all should totally check out her blog -- it's awesome.) Email your address to aleksandra(dot)robinson(at)gmail.com and I'll send your prize ASAP. Congratulations! :)

A Year of Sewing Blogging and a Giveaway!

The dress that started it all.

My "blogiversary" was on Oct. 25, and, in general, I don't usually think too hard about post counts and anniversaries. Lately, however, I've been thinking a lot about how sewing has changed my life in the past year.

Mostly without meaning to do so, I've gone an entire year without purchasing clothing. Well, I have purchased exactly two items in the past year: a pair of running shorts over the summer and a silk shell to wear with my suit last January.

That, to me, someone who loves clothing, is incredible. Nearly unbelievable. I didn't set out to fulfill a challenge or test myself. I just didn't buy anything. And, to be honest, it was really easy.

At the best of times, I don't really love shopping for clothing. I'm taller than the average American woman and I'm pear-shaped, so I have a difficult time finding clothing that fits and flatters me. Most shopping just used to depress me.

These days, I can make most of whatever I want. In the last year, I've conquered most of my sewing fears. Like fly-front welt-pocket shorts:

A lined jacket with a hood:

A swimsuit:

And an entire month of wearing me-made clothing.

A large part of that is due to the amazing online sewing community. Everyone talks about this all the time, but the level of love and support in the sewing community is awe-inspiring. Instagram and Twitter offer tons of encouragement, as do blog comments and my local sewing group on Facebook. Plus, it's always inspiring to get to meet your favorite online bloggers in person.

Sewing has made me confident in my body and in my clothing. I have many fewer "fat" days than I used to. If something doesn't fit, I fix it. But mostly, since I'm sewing to my own measurements, my stuff fits. No more "this is a 6, yay!" or "I can only wear an 8 at this store, sad." I mean... how crazy is that? We should all know now that the numbers don't mean anything, but boy is it easy to get sucked into them. I can't be alone here, why else would stores use vanity sizing?

Anyway, as a thank you to the general sewing community (and because I've won two sewing giveaways this year!) I'm doing a small giveaway of my own.

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The winner of this giveaway will get 2.5 yards of slightly stretchy coral cotton (pre-washed), three Butterick patterns (a skirt, a coat and a vintage reproduction dress), a package of lace hem tape and a handful of random buttons from my button stash.

All you need to do to win is leave a comment on this post by Friday, Nov. 22 at midnight. On Saturday, I'll use a random number generator to choose a winner. One entry per person, please!

Good luck! And thanks for being awesome, sewing community!

Edited to add: I'll ship anywhere in the world, so go ahead and enter, no matter where you live. :)