Almost missed another Mrs!

For whatever reason Blogger won't allow me to post a picture of the Electric Blue Wedding dress I made, but there it is.

My friend got married to her lovely fiance in early October, and - after seeing my dress in August - asked me if I was willing to make her wedding dress. Well, how could I say no to that incredibly honouring request? We spent some time on picking a pattern, chose another one, and another one, and finally decided it had to be a mix of all of them. I sketched and drafted, made a muslin, but we still weren't 100% happy with it. Then, after seeing the muslin, and even when seeing how the actual fabric behaved during the fitting process, we chose to go yet another way at the last moment. The end result is this electric blue wedding dress for my gorgeously curvy friend.

Note from the Mrs

And another few months have gone without posting. It's not even as if my husband (still getting used to that) and I went away on a honeymoon! My Wonderful Man and I had a truly fabulous wedding, and of course it is time to show you the pictures of my dress making.

This is a picture of me with my dad on the steps of Marylebone Town Hall before the ceremony: look at the train on that dress! The pattern I used is Vogue 2883, with minor alterations: I inserted a zip in the left side seam instead of buttons down the back (strangely enough I couldn't find buttons in the right colour...), and I closed the center back neck instead of using a button there: I just didn't think that made any sense. The fabric I used was a beautiful silk dupioni, and it was great to work with: easy to cut and sew, an supereasy to iron once I figured out the correct setting! Even though the dress consists of an enormous amount of fabric (I used about 18 meters), the fact that the silk was lightweight made it feel like I was wearing a little summer dress. Although never before did I wear a summer dress with a petticoat underneath. In this picture you can see my friend Esther helping me into my dress. She is wearing a stunning backless dress we made from KnipMode November 2007 (nr. 14). My family all came over from Holland and the US and our friends from near and far were there to celebrate with us. My husband (see, getting easier already) had arranged for all of the men to wear morning suits with different coloured ties, and when we left Town Hall the men all put on sunglasses and acted like Men in Black for the picture...

Added: In the evening we danced our behinds off, and in order for people not to trip over my train, I had sewn a little piece of ribbon on the inside of the center back seam that I tied to a piece of ribbon slightly higher up. I'll have to take a picture of that to show you.

Here we go!

Tomorrow I'm finally starting on my wedding dress. I can honestly tell you I'm getting quite nervous by now. Even though I've made plenty of gorgeous (gala- and even wedding-) dresses before. Even though I have enough fabric to make my dress TWICE if I have to. Even though there's enough time to make another 2 muslins before I start on the real project. I'm just getting nervous. But I'll call it excited, shall I?

Sew Houkje Doin' Houkje?

Gosh, I haven't posted in nearly 6 months! I wish that I had loads of garments to show to make up for my absence, but even that is not the case...

It's been busy in our little household though! My WM and I have decided to get married this year, and on the 8th of August our big day will take place. I will be making my own wedding dress from a gorgeous orange dupioni silk (impossible to photograph), and have set aside 6 days for the sewing in early July. I know that doesn't sound a lot, but it's not going to be a very complicated dress, and I've already made the muslin(s). I've chosen Vogue 2883 because a halterneck dress is one of the very few dresses I can wear without looking too "matronly". I guess I just don't have a "dress form" ha ha!

I am also looking forward to making a coat from "Patrones" magazine in the mini coat sew along with Melissa and Zoe. Zoe let me borrow her Patrones Extra magazine, and I must have traced over 20 patterns of jackets, trousers, skirts, and more jackets. And of course the coat that we will be sewing.

I seem to have a few problems with my posting, but as soon as I have solved that, I will upload pictures and links.