Weddingbee Blog

I shared my mom’s elaborate bridal shower invitations with you, and now you know that my shower was kind of a big deal for me. I was excited and nervous, and both families were combining for one big party so I had one shot to do it right—which meant one shot to choose the. perfect. bridal shower dress.

I’m pretty darn proud of myself for this one—I had a dress hanging in my closet that I’d been meaning to alter into a cuter, sexier version of itself, but just never got around to it. Now that I had a reason, I was sewing on all cylinders. Here’s a semi-before shot—I have it pinned already so you can see where it’s going:

It had some direction it’s own.. the cute pale blue and white striped cotton, the embroidered eyelette design at the bottom and the subtle sweetheart neckline. The problem was, it was a little frumpy on it’s own without these pins.

Enter the magic dart:

Umm, well okay, this isn’t the best picture. But a dart is a stitch that takes a garment in and contours it to your bod. A-line dresses already have some darts in them, so to take the dress in, pin it to your desired fit at each dart point- for this dress it was two in the back. Take the dress off and turn it inside out, and draw the bigger dart with it’s new trajectory with an pencil. This line is not straight- it curves in and then back out to make room for your hips and booty. (Does this make any sense?) Then simply stitch along your new dart line (you can see the first smaller dart, and then my new big one).

Next, I bravely cut off the bottom trim:

This is super short! But not to fret, I was putting the trim back on in a frillier way and adding some of the length back.

I don’t have a record of this step, but I gathered the trim a slight bit so it would fit onto the skirt higher up (where there’s less circumference) and made a slight ruffle out of it, then I stitched it back on:

Huzzah! All done!! Shorter and more fun. And how did I bring this summery frock into early fall, you ask?

(photo by Fromage Photography, aka Ms. Candy Corn)

A yellow cardigan (it looks like Miss Cardigan’s icon!) and a belt brought this spring/summer number into September. More from the shower to come…and yes, more from the talented Candy Corn and more beautiful shots of that hot lingerie laundry line!

Have any of your save-it-for-a rainy-day sewing or craft projects turned into must-do wedding projects?