Weddingbee boards

I'm curious, because I haven't come across any mentions of it in the bee. 

in the 90's my aunt made her wedding dress. I don't have a photo, but let's just say it was complicated! with a really long train that sweeps up into a bustle-- just by pulling two ribbons inside. and it was covered in beadwork! after all that, it got ruined at the dry cleaners. I swear, she should have sued them.

when I got engaged, the first thing my aunt did was send me an email to tell me to not make my own dress- that it was way too stressful. LOL!

well, anyway, my mom (my aunt's sister) is a professional seamstress. she's making my dress-- but it's relatively simple (no beadwork). I designed it myself. 

because I also know how to sew, I'm making a big fabric flower to put off to the side on the waistband, and a matching fabric flower for my hair. 

I'll post photos after the wedding (I don't have any now). 

I was able to afford heavy weight 100% silk (it was on sale), and the entire thing cost about $100 (if you include all the lining and stuff). plus, my mom is award winning. I feel so lucky to have this!

anyway.... anyone else going to do your own dress-- or have somebody close to you sew it?

I've done some DIY on two wedding gowns.

For my second marriage, I made my own wedding dress.  Well, actually, I made the bodice of my dress.  I took the skirt from my mom's wedding dress, and attached a bodice that I made myself. It's the first time I had ever sewn. My mom says I picked an extremely difficult pattern, but that I did a really good job on it.  I don't have any pictures though. I was pretty proud of it.

This time I did some DIY on my dress that changed the style. I added cap sleeves, changeded the neckline.

This is how the neckline looked originally:

This is how I changed it:

Then this is how I changed it again:

Here's a close up of the sleeves. I hand-beaded them myself:

@Loribeth: You did such an awesome job! I love the addition of sleeves.

@Mrs.ChubbyBunny:  Thanks!  I'm so short and I have such broad shoulders that I like the way the sleeves look better on me than without. 

@AmuseMeMusically:  THANK YOU!  I love that I took a gown that anyone could buy and made it into something custom that no one else will have, even if they buy the same dress.

It took an amazingly long time.  The sleeves were made by piecing together 14 lace appliques, then adding scrap pieces of lace to make two sleeves look like mirror images of each other. I hand sewed all the sequines and glass beads on, making sure that both sleeves were done the same. Then, to give the sleeves added strength just in case the appliques started to come apart, I sewed a satin ribbon on the under-side of the sleeves.  I don't even know how many hours I put into them. 

@Annabelle86:  Thank you!

Here's a picture of the back of my dress before:

Here's the back after I altered it:

I have been sewing since I was four years old, and I've made tons of clothes for myself, but I don't think I could ever be up to the task to make a formal dress! something that involves a strapless bodice with boning and a lining? too scary. thank god my mom has the talent for that. 

I hate to admit that I barely sew anymore. I can afford to buy clothes now- plus, you can try on those clothes before you buy them! often, I would make something and then when I put it on, it didn't look good on me at all (the cut, color, or whatever). 

now I pretty much only craft things that you don't wear -- like purses or pillows. but one thing that I've learned from sewing: I can't leave anything alone! about 90% of the clothes I buy get altered in one way or another! maybe that's because I buy cheap ones, which never fit right :)

@Loribeth: that is amazing. nice work!!

my dress is going to be waaaay simpler than that!