Back to a little sewing

It was nice to get back to a little sewing today, even if it was wedding related and not quilting.

I’ve been working on DD#1’s wedding dress off and on over the past couple months. She wanted to wear my wedding dress from 1981. She has a much smaller waist than I did thirty-one years ago, so I detached the skirt from the bodice and took it in a couple inches at the waist. That gave us the opportunity to add an additional layer over the skirt. A friend (thanks, Mindy!) donated her wedding dress which had a sheer organza layer that was covered with crystal beading. I cut that dress up so we could take advantage of the beautiful beading. It was not too difficult to add that beaded layer in when I sewed the skirt back onto the bodice. I’ve also been adding lace from DD#1’s future mother-in-law’s (FMIL) 1971 wedding dress. I used the same lace that was at the waistline of her dress and put it in the same position on the modified dress.

After the dress was back together, we decided to alter the sleeves. My original sleeves were fairly full and gathered into a lace cuff. For DD#1, we cut the sleeves off just below the elbow and added a flowing flounce. Then I used more lace from FMIL’s dress to cover the seam. I think the dress is nearly done now. There are a couple more things we could do if we end up having extra time.

I also made buntings. Nice and easy to do and they don’t require much brain power! The bride and groom are both bookworms, so we’ve been making a variety of decorations from a vintage dictionary that was already falling apart. I thought a few buntings of dictionary pages would be fun. I just rounded the bottoms of the pages a bit first and then sewed the pages to long ribbons. Since we also used paper doilies for the invitations and some other things, I made a few buntings of doilies too. I want to make two more buntings, and then I’ll be done with those.

It was nice sitting at my sewing machine again. Hopefully there will be lots more of that in my future.