I've been sewing, how about you?

Here is a fun project I had the opportunity to work on last month. Meet Brianna, I've known her since she was 9. It blows my mind that she is old enough to get married but what can I say? Time flies. Brianna purchased this gown for her wedding and there was a little problem with it, it was strapless. Now to people who are not members of my church this isn't really a problem but to a Mormon bride this is a challenge. The 80's and early 90's were good to Mormon brides, finding a dress with sleeves that was modest was not a problem. Then sometime in the mid-90's everything changed. If you watch TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress" you know that Kleinfelds of New York sells mostly strapless dresses. Some of them are sheer corseted little numbers that run upwards of $20,000.00! From a design standpoint I find them wonderful, as a Latter Day Saint woman I find them good for business. But I digress, Brianna as a Latter Day Saint bride needs a gown that is modest. That's where I come in. I had to add sleeves to this dress and shorten it. Not an easy fix, I hung this dress in my work space and would work on other projects then turn and look at it, waiting for it to talk to me on how to add sleeves. Finally it spoke, hemming the dress turned out to be easier than I thought but the sleeves still posed a problem.




I've added a photo of the inside of the dress just in case you wanted to see what the inside of a designer gown looks like.

After a trip to downtown LA with a few friends, Brianna's mom and I found fabric to match the dress and I went to work. The gown had some asymmetrical pleating that was a bit organic so matching it was a little tricky plus the entire dress was cut on the bias. Most of the work I did was done by hand. I believe I stuck myself a total of 6 times. And yes I did get blood on the inside of the dress that I had to get out. Fun stuff. In the end, I was happy with the way it turned out and I believe the bride and her mom was too.

You decide, here is a picture of the lovely bride her reception. The next picture is her wedding cake, I don't know who made it but I love it! The detail on it is amazing!!! Well that's all for today, it's the Fourth of July and I have a party to get to.
Terri