Wedding Sewing Progress-Mother of Bride (me) and Bride

Well - I'm hard at it - sewing sillk chiffon and lace and beading. I moved it all up into my dining room - as I decided the basement was too messy with all my sweatshirt sewing/order filling projects to handle all this sewing as well...

I've decided God must have been watching out for me that I didn't go ahead and finish my dress earlier last fall when I got going on it after getting the (to me) lovely beaded silk chiffon floral print while I was in Houston. If I had - I'd realized way back then - and been worried all this time about the 'CREATIVE OPPORTUNITY" before me! Can't decide wich it is - either I didn't cut the 2nd back skirt piece, OR I cut it and have lost it (NOT to be found - I assure you!), but I have only one of the skirt back pieces of the floral chiffon for my dress. It is Vogue 8150. I'm doing the center view as seen below. Well.....a version of it I suppose. The skirt is the shiny side of the crepe back satin that you see draped in the photo to the left - topped with a loose layer of the silk floral beaded chiffon. The neckline as it curves around my neck was a buggaboo...I realized quickly it would need to be stayed - and SURE GLAD I DID - as it still seems to buckle a bit on me - but I'm convincing myself that I'm being too picky. One has to move in a dress and it isn't always picture perfect. I see things like that all the time in the fancy gowns on Hollywood award shows.....

Back to the skirt - Thankfully, I have enough of the chiffon to go around me - but the angles to the skirting that I do have - are kind of odd. See in this picture of the skirt kinda pinned on my Duct Tape Double - (which is on TOP of my dining room table) what I have to work with...

The photo on the right shows the center back seam - kinda crazy...

I did have a long piece left that I will add to the left front as an extra floaty piece - we'll see what happens. I finished the handwork on the top tonight - and tested it - I CAN get it on - and off with help. :) Dear Daughter had a cow when I put it on for her - exclaimed too much cleavage...

My hubby says it is fine. Not that low at all. I'd worked most of yesterday adding a 2" piece to the top of the original center front - as you can see on the inside lining in this photo. She should have seen it before I did that! Twas that issue that put the break on progress last fall.

Next problem is since I have a seam in the chiffon skirt on the RIGHT side, but NOT the left - do I take OUT the invisible zip from the left side and put it in the right side - OR go ahead and put an opening in the fabric without a seam on the left skirt - which would look yucky - OR just NOT take the zip down into the skirt - and I think perhaps I can get away with that solution since when I just put it on - and had help taking it off - that it could be done without the opening extending into the skirt. Will sleep on it.....

On the other front... the wedding gown is coming along. Have the bodice all fitted - and torn apart and labelled clearly so that this 'muslin' is now the pattern pieces themselves for careful cutting. Today, I went ahead and made the corset part that has the boning in it - and the petersham waistline stay - the mechanism that actually holds the dress up and on her. Got the neatest soft boning channel stuff from my bridal friend/expert Tina down the street, and the spiral steel boning - so all ready for a final fit on that tomorrow morning to determine the length of the stays, and to assure the placement is good. During the fitting yesterday, we decided how the lace edging would be stitched pattern-wise at the bodice neckline edge...see photo:

There WILL be straps on this one - though exactly how - and what they look like remains to be determined. I took quite a bit of circumference out of the princess lined skirt - so that will ease up things on the minimal amount of lace I have to work with...annother challenge - but what fun!

The other thing I have conquered is to 'give her a butt'. She wanted the back of the dress to stick out more - so armed with net flounce donated by Tina (cut off of a mermaid slip) I engineered the pieces to add to the back. See here - the bottom most one supports the train and I had the brilliant idea (at least I think so) to velcro it on - so we can remove the bottom one when it comes time to bustle the gown for dancing.

This photo of her in the muslin gown - checking out the back in our makeshift mirror system - shows how the slip supports the muslin skirt...

Have her coming again in the morning to double check the corset - then I get to cut the silk taffeta, the pink underlining, and the china silk lining! Can't wait.....