My education at Apparel Arts in San Francisco provided me with all of the skills I needed to make B's pattern. Take her measurements, draft her sloper and draft her dress pattern from the sloper. Still with me? Then fittings with mock-ups 1 & 2, and a Skype fitting for mock-up #3.
Meanwhile... I ordered a bolt of silk from the manufacturer because it was a lot cheaper that way. It was a 100% silk double sided satin in ivory. Gorgeous fabric with a lovely weight. I also ordered a roll of 100% silk organza for the flounce, Habutoi silk for the lining, and a roll of crinoline for the, uh, crinoline.
And I cleaned my sewing space since I was about to convert it to white silk land. And that is a scary clean place.
By the time I cut and assembled the dress, it was actually the 4th time I had done so because of all the mock-ups. It went together really smoothly, and as always it looks so much better in silk than in muslin!
I mailed the dress to her, and we didn't open it until a few days before the wedding. It was a bit of a wrinkled mess, and I had only a small hand steamer to try and hang/steam the wrinkles out! But where there's a will there's a way.
think she looked gorgeous on her wedding day. It's true that a seamstress's job is never done. I felt like there were always more things I could have done or worked on, but at a certain point it's done and it's beautiful. And she loved it!
Oh Yeah, and I made my dress, too!
