You must be lost

Well, our wedding was beautiful! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. Pics are as follows:
Bridesmaids' Luncheon - my pics, my sis-in-law, Amy's pics
Rehearsal Dinner - my oldest brother, Mike's pics
Wedding and Reception - Mike's pics, our photographer, Lori's pics

As for the dress, well, I got the neckline trim and piping sewn to it, finishing at 2am on Friday night. I had the bright idea that I'd just quickly tack and/or pin the belt to the gown as I was getting dressed on Saturday. No such luck. First, it wasn't going to pin to the dress easily at all. So, with the help of one of my bridesmaids, we were going to sew it onto the dress with me in it. With my too big dress form, I didn't take that into account when cutting the trim for the belt, so it turned up a little too long to be laced up in back as it should have been. So, she had to get creative and wound up having to sew me into the dress in the very back. It worked out ok though, but took about an hour longer to get dressed than I anticipated.

( Here are a few of the better pictures of the dress. )

A little note, if anyone decides to buy some of the hand dyed silk ribbon from M&J Trims, be forewarned, it is VERY delicate. Very beautiful, but very fragile.

And since there was such talk about it, here's the "whale of a wife" cake.

I made Marge's bouquet out of some tiny clay calla lilies I had.

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Oh, and I guess by ignoring Miss Erin, she thought perhaps I didn't get her email. She sent me the same exact email she sent before (probably a couple of journal entries back,when she asked what she did to make me so mad). Still ignoring. Just deleted and went on about my day.

Well, I did it, I bought a wedding gown yesterday.

( The story, for those of you who don't read my other journal )

But, here's the dress, or at least a bad picture of it I tried to take last night:



My dress form is too big for it, so it looks kind of weird in the bust area (the back isn't zipped up all the way). The sleeves fall to almost my ankle, but the way they're split up to the elbow, they're not at all in the way. It's got a short sweep train, about the perfect length that I wanted. I don't think there's really even enough there to hitch up, but I might try it out, just to see how it looks (for convenience sake, and the sake of not having people stepping on my train every 5 minutes).

I'm going to put my trim on at least the waist line, but I'm afraid it might be to much to do both the waist and the neckline. There are 8 cloth covered buttons in the back, but they're just decoratively hiding the zipper. I plan on replacing those with something a little more elaborate (either metal, or I found some beautiful glass ones on M&J yesterday). I noticed yesterday while trying it on again, it's missing the eye of the hook and eye that's supposed to close the little piece that covers the zipper as well. No problem there though, I've got plenty of those on hand. I've looked at some other more narrow trims that might work as well. And there's always the Viking tree trim I have that I could bead and use. I did think what I could do is still do a belt like thing, but fake it. Put the trim on the empire waist, actually sewn to the gown, but have it lace up in back and leave long trails of whatever cords I use to flow down the back of the dress. I wonder how it would look to still try to do a similar effect as the other belt I designed (and had started working on) just kind of inverse it and do it on the empire waistline rather than a drop waistline. I'm just going to have to experiment with the trims I have and see what works I think.

But yeah, I feel pretty good about it. This means I'm not pressed for time on the gown and I can spend the next six weeks balancing my time between all the other things I need to do. Pat and Martha loved the gown on me, and I think Chris liked it a lot too (but you know how much emotion and excitement most men display). I have to say, it was pretty flattering. I was worried about the empire waist looking like maternity wear on me. But the way it's cut, the skirt doesn't exactly fall from the waistline, it's fitted down to a typical waistline and then flairs from there. Now I need to get proper undergarments for it and perhaps get some pictures of me in it. But I think I might wait to do that until I get the trim situation resolved.

In other news, I heard from the lady doing my headpiece and she said she was going to start on it last night (that she had some prior things she needed to finish before mine). She said by the end of the week, she should have some pictures for me to see at least all the wire parts and then we can decide on beads. I think next week I'm going to go ahead and order beads for everything else (the strands I'll do on the headpiece, my necklace and any extra beading I might do on the dress or trims).

EXCITING!

Yeah, I'm still alive. *Pearl Jam jumps to mind*

I finally got my pattern for v2.0 of the wedding gown. I emailed the girl I first bought it from four weeks after she supposedly mailed it. She replied apologizing saying she just found it in her mailbox returned because it was missing a zipcode. Two things are wrong with that, 1) there's only one zipcode in Owens Crossroads, AL and most of the time, they deliver it anyway (I've gotten mail without a zipcode before). 2) I seriously doubt it would take 4 weeks to return a package that was missing necessary information. I'm trying to decide if I should give her negative or neutral feedback on it. I don't want to assume she's lying in case she's not and needlessly ruin her 100% positive rating. But, either way, she still screwed up. Then there's the fact that I only paid $2 for it, so I just can't really be mad about it. Incidentally, I had given up on her when I didn't get it and didn't hear from her and hadn't received the pattern and I ordered it from someone else for $5. The two arrived yesterday.

So, last night, I cut out the pattern and started cutting out the muslin. I've gotten some new ideas in the four weeks I haven't worked on it. I'm not going to get into them all yet though. I'll see how they work out in muslin first. Another thing I'm contemplating is scratching the crepe and using white silk velvet. I wouldn't have to line it and therefore the cost comes out to about $.30 more than the cheapest place I could find the other two fabrics (which was Denver Fabrics and they're almost out of both of them and might not restock in time). In my head, it's starting to look like a white version of the Mourning gown.

My headpiece should have been started two days ago. I haven't heard back from her since she returned from vacation. I'll give her until Monday and contact her to see how things are progressing, or if they're progressing.

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The jewelry set for the little girl went over very well with her parents. I've got pictures to post, but I haven't pulled them off the camera yet.

Man, it's really been two weeks!?

After a couple of months of waiting, checking weekly, hoping she'd get some more in my size, I finally saw the pair of khussa I wanted for the wedding gown today on ebay. Checking with Chris really quick to be sure it was ok I order them, I took the plunge and got one of two pair she had (the last two went so quickly, I had to grab them as soon as I saw them!).

( Here they are )

Ok, I give up on the princess seamed bodice. I'm going to have to recut it anyway, why not try a bodice without princess seams and see how that goes. It's just annoying to adjust and equally irritating to sew (and this is cotton muslin, can't imagine what it'll be like once I get to the silk!). Every time I think I have it, something else is out of whack and I'm sick of fiddling with it. I've got Simplicity 7964 on the way (actually got it for an unrelated project) and I'm going to give it a try. I think it'll look nicer without seams down the front anyway. Especially since it will be done in white (they won't disappear very well).

In the meantime, I guess I'm going to get some crochet hooks and thread and work on cords for the belt. It's something I could take with me to Indiana this weekend. Going back up, this time for a wedding just north of Indianapolis. We leave Friday in the afternoon, wedding is on Saturday and we'll come back Sunday, hopefully in time for my nephew's 5th birthday party. Man he's growing up fast!

I ordered this blouse from pyramidcollection.com for the wedding this weekend.


It should be here tomorrow. I'm trying to decide if I should wear my brown velvet skirt or the black knit wrap skirt I have. I wish I had time to make that purple velvet skirt I have planned, but oh well. I spent so much on the blouse and that trim this week that I don't want to buy a pair of boots (nearly got a pair of black knee-high lace up moccasins on ebay for $40, an awesome price and they're my size, but I shouldn't spend the money right now). So, I might just polish the black boots I have and wear those (which answers the skirt question, black). Oh, and I have 3 yards of black silk velvet that I had planned to make into a mantle anyway. There's no way those sleeves would fit into a jacket or coat.

Well, took two nights off from working on the gown for Chris' birthday. The cheesecake was delicious, and well worth the effort (not to mention I learned a lot for next time). And I grilled some rare tuna steaks on Tuesday night, mmm they were tasty. Last night Chris cooked dinner (a pasta frittata, really good!) so I got a chance to work on my fussy bodice. I finally got it fitted ok in the bust I think. I've also gotten it taken in at the waist and I think I'm ready to just sew up the side seams, true up the hem and call it done. I'll probably need to cut new front panels as a final mockup, possibly all three, but for sure the sides. I need to add a bit of fabric to the armscye where I've taken it in a bunch.

At that point I stopped to cut swatches of the organzas I got last week to try some washing tests. The metallic stuff will not be washed, ever! It curls up like crazy. I worked and worked and worked with it and an iron after even just a hand wash in cold water. Finally got it flat, but it looks kind of beat up. The stuff I threw in the washer in warm water actually looks a little better, but still, the wash did nothing for the feel of it (since the metallic threads) and just curled it up and shrunk by about an inch in the weft and 1/2 inch in the warp (probably has to do with silk shrinkage as opposed to metallic shrinkage). The two "sparkle" organzas did soften a bit, and only shrunk about 1/8th of an inch in both the weft and warp. I think I'm going to wash those with warm water in the washing machine. The metallic stuff (the green/gold) I'll just leave as is I guess. Though the effect was really kind of neat after washing. I might make my ties/ribbons out of it, then wash it and see what it does. Kind of a willowy effect I think.

The tambour frame should be here today. I'm still going to set it aside until I get at least my bodice finished, preferably the rest of my mockup actually. I have alternatives for the trim if I run out of time on that. I don't have an alternative for the gown.

ETA: Oh yeah, and I emailed Dinesh, since I noticed his auctions are all back up and in full swing. I saw a beautiful peacock blue trim in the same pattern as several of the ones Yvette has (specifically the ivory one I went gah-gah over). I asked him if he had any other colors of this pattern. He sent me a reply with several color options. One is another ivory and gold one that's gorgeous, though slightly different than Yvette's (a tan color in place of the light green) and another that's a green backing with purple flowers and gold accents, another stunning trim! Oh, if I had no self control, I'd be spending about $300 on trims right now! I think I'm going to go ahead and get both the "shades of green" one and the ivory and gold one. There are a few others in his auctions right now that I have great ideas for, but I'm fighting the urge to bid. *slaps wrist*

Got the tambour set today, but the frame won't be here until Thursday (supposedly). I'm going to leave it alone until then, but it's given me a lot of ideas. I thought maybe a very fine thread you could fake the "dragonfly wing" lace on the Chase collar with a chain stitch. Also, I thought it would make quick work of both the Coronation sleeves (Arwen's that is) and the Hope sleeves. I'm looking forward to lots of projects with this thing!

Speaking of the Chase outfit, I spotted a beautiful grey upholstery suede at Sir's Fabrics today that would have been PERFECT (color and weight, not to mention a fabulous price). But, I refrained from buying it. I was on the hunt for brocades for groomsmen vests (didn't find ANY) but there were quite a few suedes and corduroys that I loved. Besides, it was a remnant and I had no idea how much of it I'd need.

My friend Steff is coming over tomorrow to sew with me. She's got her own portable machine now so that should be fun. We've got a beer tasting tonight from 7-9pm at the brewery downtown (it's a Free the Hops event). We've got to bottle up some beers for it (about to start that), but I think I might try to get in some work on the bodice tonight. Would be nice to be able to start on something else tomorrow and I'm so close on it.

Well, I got an armband almost finished this weekend for the wedding gown. . .
( pic under the cut )

. . . but at the expense of a friend's wedding, an Aquarius party, seeing my best friend for the first time in over a month, and a beautiful weekend of weather perfectly suitable for hiking and other miscellaneous outdoor activities (i.e. getting off my ass for the first time since I threw my back out in September).

I'm afraid to leave the house for fear of not getting stuff done (and then there's that interaction with humans thing). The few times I DO want to leave the house, I'm held in by. . . "circumstances beyond my control". *sigh*

The above pictured armband is only awaiting a bead order to finish it up. I've got some 3mm Swarovski crystal beads on the way to outline the larger teardrop beads to make "leaves". A little something I noticed while counting up the flower clusters to see how many more of those beads I'll need, there are 5 leaves/scrolls and 13 flower clusters. Our wedding date is 5/13. I subconsciously coded our wedding date into the embellishments for my gown, heh. In the time that I wait for more beading and embroidery supplies to finish this and keep going with the others, I'll be working more on the gown mockup trying to get it finished before the beading stuff arrives. Still fiddling with the bodice fitting, but I'm close on it.

Otherwise, I guess I'll start working on getting some of these accessories ordered that we've been contemplating. I have it on my mental calendar to go to All Needz this Saturday to take care of rentals. We looked at clear plastic plates when we were at Costco over the weekend, and found out that for 5 cents more per plate, we could rent china that we wouldn't have to wash or dispose. I need to get back to working on the ceremony, too. Time to start making lists and learning to juggle.

I tried to buy some new pants this morning, since all of my old ones are falling off me for some reason (no exercise, no significant change in diet, yet I'm losing weight. . . should I be happy or worried?). Unfortunately, for some reason Delia's isn't accepting my card, even though I've used it with them before. They're saying it failed address verification. I haven't moved. Haven't changed anything since my last order. Even went to my bank account and copied the exact address (taking out punctuation and what not) and it still doesn't work. Wrote them an email to find out what the fuck they want from me (retinal scan perhaps?). I tried Alloy too, but since they're the same company, of course I failed their address validation as well. Where else can I find low rise, slightly flared cords with 34" inseams?