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!

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?

Home Sewing Is Easy! (And it keeps the home fires burning!)

First off, I suppose I should mention that Greg and I were married two weeks ago!

I made my dress, and you can definitely expect a post on it soon! I am planning to team up on a blog post with our fabulous wedding photographer (since I didn't take any pictures!) so once he finishes editing, I'll get that up. 

While you're waiting for my wedding dress, I thought I'd post a super fun dress I made a few months ago: the Home Sewing is Easy dress!

Greg gave me this fabric for Christmas and I made it up in time for the last NYC meetup I went to. I think this fabric was pretty popular among the home-sewing crowd -- it seems everyone at the meetup had a couple of yards! 

The print is based off an old illustrated instruction manual that, I think, must be from the '40s or '50s since it mentions that sewing "helps keep the home fires burning." 

I lined the dress with plain flesh-toned cotton batiste. 

The pattern for this dress is New Look 6223, which I've made up before. 

Since I'd made it before and been very pleased with the fit, I decided to just go for it this time.

At the time I made it, I didn't blog this dress because I wanted to take the bodice apart and redo it, but I've since worn the dress several times and have decided to ignore its issues.

The bodice, I think, is slightly over-fit. It's a little snug. I have no idea how this happened either. Fabric differences? Maybe I cut a little extra off by mistake? 

Mysteries of the universe. It's one of those "feels fine until I eat something" dresses. 

But aside from some snugness in the armholes and the waist, it's a really fun dress to wear. And I  get lots of compliments when I wear it, which is always a bonus.

I spent a lot of extra time cutting this dress to be sure there wouldn't be anything questionable in inappropriate places.

And I tried (with limited success) to match everything across the invisible zipper.

But overall, now that I've worn this dress in public several times, I've decided to love it.

I know novelty prints aren't for everyone, but they are a fun talking point and a lot of fun to wear!

I also know that many people think quilting cotton isn't acceptable for garments and, to be honest, I can't imagine why. As with anything, high-quality quilting cotton has a high thread count. This dress barely wrinkles after a trip through the washer.

Greg just found an old "Where's Waldo?" bedsheet that I'll likely turn into another novelty dress soon. But first I need to sew some work clothes. And I'm totally about to buy some cotton with happy sushi on it. Because why not?

How do you feel about novelty prints?

A Quick Jaunt to New York!

I had the best time in New York this past weekend.

Lladybird Lauren, whose meetup I attended last year, was heading to the Big Apple this weekend and decided to make an event of it. 

Photo from Madalynne

Originally, I wasn't intending to go, since I ended up planning an earlier trip. But when that trip was canceled for bad weather, I immediately jumped on the meetup train, and I'm so pleased I did! 

We all met up at Mood at 1 p.m. and there was QUITE the group. Lauren was there of course, as was Marcy (in one of her Project Sewn dresses), Lisette (who is super sweet), Jennifer (who recently traded me a pattern that I still need to sew up!), Fleur (who has a really good Instagram account), Amanda (I met her at Male Pattern Boldness day), Suzanne (also met at MPB day!), Clare, Nettie, Madalynne (she brought us all vintage silk thread -- so sweet!), Juli (I read her blog, but I didn't recognize her in person, lol), Cindy and Elaine (who don't have blogs but are still really cool), Angela (she just moved back from Japan and has the cutest blog ever) -- oh gosh, and who else? 

Several people I saw, recognized and didn't get a chance to talk to (Sonja and Amity). And several people I talked to and didn't write down their blog names. So I'm totally depending on the rest of roundups to link to them so I can figure out who they are! I try to make sure I follow every person I meet at these meetups, so if you're not listed, you should hit me up in the comments. ;-)

Hilariously, about three or four of us wore our Sewaholic Minorus. Most people seemed to be wearing at least one homemade clothing item, which, can I just say, is the coolest thing ever? I made a new dress just for the event (which I'll share later on -- after wearing it for an entire day, I decided the armscyes need fixing.)

It is so nice to meet up with sewing folks. I don't know anyone around here who's into sewing, so it's neat to be able to get in-depth opinions on things like sewing silk and lining wedding dresses. 

... Speaking of which, I bet you can guess what I bought. 

Yes.

Wedding dress fabric! Eep! 

Not only did I spend a wonderful day luxuriating in the wonder of Mood and the company of lovely and talented ladies. I also found the perfect wedding dress fabric! 

The top fabric is a silk charmeuse to use for lining. The bottom two are a delightfully soft silk-cotton blend. I got four yards of each, just to be safe. 

I also got some light purple cotton sateen to make a dress for Greg's sister's wedding (I'm a bridesmaid) and some light pink silk for Greg's mom. 

In other news, I finished my first sweater (pictures to come) and started a second one, which I worked on during the bus trip home. 

What a fun way to spend a Saturday. :)

Making My Own Wedding Dress: Inspiration and Frankenpatterns

I promise this won't become a wedding blog, but making my own wedding dress definitely will involve lots of sewing time and planning.

Source

For as long as I can remember, this Audrey Hepburn dress from Funny Face has been my dream dress. Tea-length, boat-neck with cap sleeves, big skirt and fitted bodice. Sounds like me, right?

There are elements I want to change, though, for sure:
1. Closer to knee-length
2. Waistband at natural waist
3. Lace on top

So what I'm thinking to do is use a couple of patterns together.

Source

I want the above type of sleeve, from Butterick B4443, but on the bodice from my New Look 6223 Oscar de la Renta dress (darts instead of princess seams) and a boat neck:

I also think I want a true waistband, a la Cambie and Lonsdale:

That way I can have a big wide ribbon as a belt, maybe?

And I want a big fluffy skirt.

My current idea is to go with a cotton petticoat on the bottom, something like these:

And then a stiff crinoline on top of that. Or maybe just a slip and two crinolines? I definitely want a very full skirt, though.

I'm wearing a crinoline (of the stiff variety) in my Cambie dress pictures, but I definitely want an even larger skirt.

The question I have about the skirt is gathers? Full circle? Not quite sure what to do about the skirt. Got any ideas?

I've never worked with lace before, so we might have a test run with cheap lace before I start in on any wedding lace, but I'd like to do a lace overlay on the bodice. If I can find it, I'd love to do a silk lining as well.

Basically, I have my work cut out for me...

Sailing in the Caribbean and Exciting News!

Greg and I just returned from a fabulous trip sailing in the Caribbean and, in major news, we're engaged!

The charter boat skipper I used to work for, Capt. Phil, took his boat to the Caribbean for the winter and invited us down for a couple of weeks. We flew into Guadeloupe, where we joined the boat. We sailed south to Les Saintes, then sailed to Basse-Terre and then sailed north to Antigua. 

Source

Source

We stayed in Antigua for quite a while, exploring the island around Falmouth Harbor and English Harbor, which were beautiful. We spent some time on the beach, drank lots of rum punch and did a lot of wandering around. It was heavenly. 

We were hiking in Nelson's Dockyard National Park when Greg proposed. (Near the powder storage building pictured above.) 

... and then we hiked back down and had cold Cokes to celebrate. Ha! It was really hot and sweaty that day. And showers on the boat were limited, which is why there is a dearth of pictures featuring our faces. You're welcome. 

OK, so here's one of me on the short trip from Falmouth Harbor to English Harbor. Thurlow shorts for the win! 

Anyway, we're already knee-deep in wedding planning. We decided to get married this spring/early summer our at Gregs' parents' house in Leesburg -- and of course I'll be making my own dress, so let me know if you have tips on wedding-dress-making, especially sewing with lace. And if you want to come to the Garment District with me to look for said lace. ;-)

Things I've Sewn Lately: Groomsperson Dress

As promised, I put together a short post on the dress I made for myself for Andrew and Caren's wedding. 

I used Butterick B 5748 again, which is a reproduction pattern from 1959. It's super simple -- just a scoop neck with a low scoop back and a circle skirt with a full lining.

The directions we got for picking dresses were pretty simple: knee-length, sleeveless dresses in the wedding color. Rather than buy one, I made my dress (and I also made one for a friend.)

I loved my first version of B 5748 and I knew it would be great for dancing and comfortable for an all-day event, so it was an easy choice.

For the reception, I wore my off-white Cake Patterns Pavlova top. During the ceremony, I wore a little bow belt I made up, but I took it off when I put on the sweater and it didn't make it into these pictures -- woops! 

I also put on flats for the reception. I had super cute Michael Kors nude pumps for the ceremony, and I thought I'd wear them for more of the reception, but the lawn where we took pictures was pretty wet and muddy and I ended up standing on my toes for the entirety of pre-wedding picture time so that I didn't sink into the lawn, so flats were definitely in order by the time the ceremony was over. 

I'm also wearing my paternal step-grandmother's pearl necklace and absolutely gorgeous pearl earrings given to the ladies in the bridal party by the bride and groom. 

The only change I made from the last time I made this dress was to put the zipper in the center back, rather than the side. I enclosed the zipper in the lining, a la Sewaholic Cambie.

I also got to use my chalk hem marker for the first time. That thing is fun! I snagged it from JoAnn's with a 50 percent off coupon a couple weeks ago and it definitely made marking the hem on a circle skirt much much simpler!

I don't know how much wear I'll get out of this dress since it's a shiny cotton sateen, but it was a great fit for the wedding and I had a lot of fun making both groomsperson dresses!

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!