Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Lindsey's Wedding Dress - Final Fittings - July 19 & 22, 2010


Now we're gettin' down to the nitty gritty!  The week of the wedding, we had a fitting on Monday, and I was thrilled that it was looking better every time.  That's a good thing!  I can't get over how small her waist looks!  I do love a good corset...
Close up of bodice
I pinned up her hem, and fiddled with her cap sleeves again.
Hem pinned up - back view
 You can't really see them, but I do have pins on the front of her dress.
Hem pinned up - Front view
Lovin' those pleats!
I fiddled with the cap sleeves a lot without really getting anywhere.  Once I finally got them sewn together with swimsuit elastic attached, they got surprisingly easy!  One last shot at pinning the pleats, and presto! they were done!
Cap sleeves
I was kinda at a loss as to how I was going to hem it, since I had to sew the lining and the satin together at the front so the pleats would all fold together.  I essentially underlined it.  The back of the dress was lined, but 'underlined' at the side seams.  It took me a while to decide how I was going to hem it.  After pondering my options for a while, I remembered a nifty hemming method I learned when I worked at The Bridal House.  If the skirt is made with 2 layers, you can trim the edge with lace, and hand sew it to the inner layer, thus having no stitch marks on the outer layer!
Lace trim hem on the front
I first stitched my lining and satin layers together close to the edge, then I serged them.  Then I sewed the lace trim on.  I measured the dress to determine how much lace I would need, and I ended up buying 4m.  I only had 11.5" leftover!  Yesss!
Lots of pinning at the corners!
After everything was sewn, serged, trimmed in lace, pressed, and pinned, I settled in for a long evening of hand sewing.  I made my stitches half this size when I went around the corners to keep them from getting wavy.
Hand sewing
We had our very last fitting on Thursday, and I was thrilled that the hem turned out so good!  It better have; I spent almost 6 hours on it!  Phew.  
Side view
When we first put the satin overdress on, it was very slinky and heavy, and it was quite apparent that the dress would not stay put with a couple of lace cap sleeves.  I sewed white bias tape to the back of the dress and the curve of the armhole of the bodice.  I hand sewed the bias tape to the inside of the corset.
Upper edge of dress hand sewn to corset
This is what the back looked like when everything was sewn.  The dress is completely finished here except for the cap sleeves.  My last step was to hand sew them to the inside of the dress.
Back view

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