My biggest sewing challenge

Last month I wrote a guest post for Sew Can Do about the biggest sewing challenge I ever had, making a wedding dress.

 I don't have any relatives who sew and I don't have any heartwarming stories about me sewing with my mom as a child. Except that one time I tried to cut up a pillowcase to turn it into a punk dress and jammed up my mother's old and underused Kenmore at age 13.

 I didn't actually learn to sew until I signed up for fashion design school at age 21. While there, I learned to make patterns and drape but my sewing skills were pretty atrocious and they sort of just sped through the one sewing class we took there.. I remember sending my projects to the dry cleaner to have them put in the zippers and buttonholes.

 Shortly after graduating, I was married and pregnant. I never continued with my design career or my sewing until I started my blog in June of 2010 many years later.

I was determined to finally become a decent seamstress and started sewing up a storm! But my skills were pretty rusty. Here is one of my first dresses I posted on my blog.

I called this the cupcake dress.
Cute, but but my sewing was not nearly advanced enough to make a wedding dress!

Which brings me to my story for today....

A few months after starting my blog I was asked by my son's teacher who knew I had a sewing blog if I could make her daughter a wedding dress. 

Well, that was way out of my league, but I said yes, I would do it!

 I spent the next three months eating, sleeping, and breathing wedding dresses. I had about as much confidence in my skills as a gnat, but I was determined not to make this beautiful girl a target of derisive laughter on her wedding day....

I spent hours on wedding sewing forums, bought an out of print copy of Bridal Couture and took an online couture sewing class with the author Susan Khalje. I shopped in downtown LA with the bride and we finally found just the right silk charmeuse and French Alencon lace for her gown. We pored over designs until she found the perfect design and I started making her a pattern for it. I had no idea how make a bustle, sew on buttons and hooks, sew an invisible zipper, make a pleated sash or sew invisible lace seams.

In fact, it was the first time doing many of these techniques for me.

There were lots of mistakes or what I like to call ," learning experiences" and much was learned...
Here are a few photos below of the sewing project that I feel turned me into a real seamstress.

Creating the bodice pattern first.

Drafting the skirt pattern.

An early fitting.

The bride's inspiration.

How on earth was I going to do this?

Fitting the underdress.

Attaching the lace to the layers underneath. All of the lace had to be sewn on by hand.

This skirt was all wrong and had to be redone!

Sewing lace trim to the neckline by hand. I had to dye it in tea to get it to match the lace.

Two disastrous first tries at a pleated sash!

The final sash, after many You Tube videos!

The final day finally came.....

I had to admit the final result was simple stunning on her. I had bitten many a finger nail worrying it would fall apart while she walked down the aisle.

The moral of my story is don't be afraid of a challenge when it comes to making something out of your comfort level. You just may surprise yourself like I did!

In looking back, it probably wasn't a good idea to take this kind of chance in making something I wasn't confident in, especially on such a special day as a wedding.
I guess ignorance is bliss!