Sewing Formalwear: Vests and Ties for a Friend's Wedding

Recently, my sewing time has been consumed with an epic wedding project for one of my good friends. 

I made vests and ties for all the men in the bridal party -- six vests, five neckties and one bow tie.

Ashley, the bride, has been a good friend of mine (and sorority sister!) since college. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding and made the most beautiful guest book tree for our guests to sign. Not only that, she helped do the dishes after my wedding. Now that's a friend right there!

When her husband-to-be told me that she wanted vests for the wedding to match the bridesmaid dresses, but that the shop was trying to charge an obscene amount for them, I, of course, said I would make them.

I apologize for the quality of the photos -- they were taken in the wedding tent, late at night, when we were several hours into the reception. And I took them with my cellphone. But I just couldn't resist sharing this project!

This was one of the most thoughtful, beautiful weddings I've ever been to and it was done at the home of the parents of the bride. Ashley planned out the most lovely minute details, from the table dressing, to the flowers, to these vests.

For most of these, I used Simplicity 4762. The tall guy on the right got Simplicity 1506 (basically the same pattern but in big and tall sizes).

The patterns actually worked out well for sizing. I made a muslin for the fellow in the bow tie (he was a bridesperson, which is why his tie is different) since he lives close to me and would be available for fitting, but, happily, the envelope size for his suit size was a great fit. For the rest of them, I just went with their straight suit sizes and the vests all fit well (especially when they don't have their arms up -- I promise they were all long enough!)

Since I knew I'd need multiple sizes, I traced off the pattern in each size and ended up making two smalls, a medium, two larges and a 1XL. The ties were all identical, so I was able to batch cut them and sew them up in a couple nights. The bow tie (it's actually a fake bow tie and is held on with hand-sewn plastic snaps) was super quick to sew up, too. The ties are all a bit flimsier than normal store-bought ties, but they were fine for the one night.

As far as fabric goes, the bride requested some shiny, textured fabric, so I ordered a large amount of swatches from Fabric.com. When she came to visit, we could not believe how exactly this fabric matched the bridesmaid dresses (plum Alexia Bridal dresses). It looks like the exact same fabric (and maybe it is!) I ordered 15 yards while the fabric was on sale -- I knew I'd need around 12 yards and I wanted a little wiggle room just in case I made a mistake! The fabric came in a giant bolt. It was a pretty intense mail day, let me tell you. 

For lining, I used black pongee lining, also from Fabric.com, since it was only $3 a yard. Not the best stuff on the planet, but cheap and it got the job done. 

The entire front of each vest is interfaced with medium weight interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply. (The only real "splurge" of this project at $6 a yard -- I was worried the cheap stuff would cause massive wrinkles in the poly shantung and I'm really glad I went this route.)

The buttons are cover buttons purchased from Etsy. On the backs of the vests, which I didn't get pictures of, there are gold vest buckles from JoAnn. 

All in all, I think they turned out well! And I managed to keep them cheap -- around $35 per vest/tie set. Which is at least cheaper than the $90 the shop wanted to charge -- and I think that was for vests alone! It was a tough project, just because of the scale of it, but with a little bit of wine and a lot of movies, I made it through.

The groom looks happy with them, right? It must be the vest he's happy about. Or I guess it could be the whole wedding thing. ;)

Now the only question is what  to do with all that leftover purple poly shantung!

Unselfish Sewing: Kwik Sew 3486

This past weekend was the wedding of my dear friend Andrew and my new friend (!) Caren. It was a beautiful ceremony, and I was honored to be part of it. 

My lovely friend Christine and I were groomspeople for the wedding and, being me, I decided to make my dress. (I'll drop a short post on my dress later this week -- it's a remake of a pattern I've already blogged, so not very exciting.)

Christine, being seven months pregnant, was having a hard time finding a dress, so I offered to make her one, too! 

This was my first time making a dress for someone else, so I conned her into letting me take a ton of pictures.

The fabric is stretch cotton sateen from Mood and, at $10 a yard, was a real bargain. Since I was making two dresses of the same fabric, I got matching serger thread.

For Christine's dress, I used Kwik Sew 3486, which is a maternity pattern. The pattern is great and the instructions are lovely. HOWEVER. If you're going to make this, save yourself some heartache and get a paper copy. Neither local JoAnn's carried this pattern and, on a time crunch, I bought a PDF (twice -- oops) instead of ordering a printed pattern. Kwik Sew, I love you, but why, oh why, do you have such scary DRM? Print Sew is a nightmare! Never again will I buy a digital Simplicity pattern, that's for sure.

The dress is a faux wrap top with an empire waist, a gathered skirt and ties. It also uses facings, which was another new thing for me. I've never used armhole facings before.

I had her measure herself and I made a muslin out of a thrifted bedsheet. The muslin fit fairly well, so I went ahead with minor adjustments and had Christine try on the final product at the rehearsal luncheon. (That's major trust, right there!)

The top could have fit a little better -- you can see some gaping in the photo above -- but I think that might be partially due to the fact that fitting someone at seven months pregnant is a bit of a moving target. Or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better!

I ordered some zippers from Mood that looked like a match, but they were much too green, so I sent Greg out to get some new zippers from G Street at the last minute and he got the saleslady to help him choose a color. That man is a trooper. Normally I hate on G Street because it's pretty expensive, but it does carry a huge selection of zippers in many colors -- much more reliable than JoAnn's. I may not like G Street for fabric very much, but it's great for notions!

I wish I'd snapped a few pictures of the inside of the dress. This may be the best garment I've ever done in terms of clean finishes on the inside. I actually feel really smug about how well it came out. Too bad Christine probably won't get to wear it again!

Christine looked beautiful (which had little to do with the dress!) and I got to try out my skills on someone other than myself. It was a really fun project.

 In general, it was a great wedding and I had so much fun hanging out with friends I don't get to see often enough. And a huge thanks to Christine for being my guinea pig!

Bits, Bobs, Works in Progress and a Knitting Project

It is all groomsperson dresses over here there days. Groomsmaid? Groomswoman? Basically I'm standing up for the groom, who is one of my closest friends, at a wedding. (If you've been reading for a long time, you might recognize the groom, my friend Andrew.)

Luckily the bride and groom are really chill and said we can either buy dresses from David's Bridal in Malibu (the color, not the place) or we could get something the same color from somewhere else. All they wanted was knee-length and sleeveless. I can totally work with that! 

Of course I chose the latter option and had that "somewhere else" be Mood Fabrics. 

Mood had a gorgeous cotton sateen in a VERY close color for $10 a yard and last time I was in NYC, I bought tons of white cotton lining fabric from one of the cheapy fabric stores, so I had plenty of that on hand. (It's sick how cheap those places are -- I think my white cotton lining was like $5 a yard for 60-inch fabric.) 

Mood fabric on the bottom, David's Bridal swatch on the top. Brooke at Custom Style assured me via Instagram that the fabric was close enough since the dresses would be on different people; and if anyone knows what she's talking about with this stuff, it's Brooke. Thus reassured, I ordered enough to make Butterick B5748 again. I really like that dress -- so comfy and cute. Plus, I figured the shininess of the sateen would make it nice enough for a wedding. 

Unfortunately, the zipper I bought does not quite match. It's going to be closed into the lining, so only the pull will be visible, but I went to the trouble of getting matching serger thread and everything, so it's a bummer my zip doesn't quite match up. Can't decide if I should go with the unmatched zip or go with white. 

Also trying to decide between a self-covered belt or a bow belt. I'm leaning toward the bow. And shoes. I'm thinking nude pumps? So many decisions. So little time. Feel free to weigh in in the comments. 

All I need to do is put in a zipper, make the belt and hem the skirt. And give it a wash since I can see the yellow chalk marker I used through the dart lines.

At the bachelor party, I found myself offering to make a dress for one of the other groomspeople, the sister-in-law of the groom; she also is a good friend of mine and she happens to be six months pregnant. (Don't mind my dummy, which isn't quite the right size for this dress, which is why the bust area looks so baggy.)

I'd been wanting to make something for someone else just for a challenge -- and who better than your petite pregnant friend!

Because I was nervous about the fit, I went all out with the muslin, using a sheet from the thrift store and an invisible zipper harvested from a wadder.

Luckily it needed very minimal adjustments. A little out of the center back and sides and it should fit perfectly!

The pattern I used is Kwik Sew 3486 and let me tell you about buying it as a PDF and having the. worst. time. ever. with the printing. The DRM on the Kwik Sew/Simplicity patterns is mind-boggling. Had I not needed the pattern so quickly, I'd have ordered it, since neither local JoAnn's carried it, but with only a month to the wedding and a need to fit the dress ASAP, I went PDF. Never again. Print Sew sucks.

Luckily, it turned out cute and my friend liked it. Phew! 

Lyra has been helping me with the dresses. Look at those hound eyes! And that little teal snippet on her nose! Oh the cuteness. I die.

My entire sewing space is COATED in teal thread, by the way. And, apparently, so is my dog! (It's a good color for her, don't you agree?)

I also decided recently to teach myself to knit. I've always wanted homemade sweaters since I'm super sensitive to wool, and, being unable to convince my mom to make them for me, decided to just go for it. This above is the Miss Marple scarf. Next up? A Miette sweater in chocolate brown. Wish me luck! If you're on Ravelry and want to be friends, check me out!