Wedding Dresses

My best friend got married this past week.

We were assigned to be roommates as freshman in college and have been close ever since.

For her wedding, I was the maid of honor and so I made Ellie a little dress to match the flower girls even though she just sat in the audience with her dad and no one probably noticed her matching.

I received this grey layered dress from Baby Gap from my sister in law as a gift, and I thought it was so cute.  It came with a little black wrap sweater.  The wedding colors were red and black so I decided to use the black sweater and make a red layered ruffle dress...last minute the day before I had to drive to the wedding.

As Ellaria is porking out, the little grey dress won't fit too much longer, so I made the red dress a size or two larger to hopefully last to work as a little Christmas dress too.

To make the bodice lined, I just cut two of each piece and made two separate bodices, sewing the side and shoulder seams.  Then put them right sides together and sewed them together up one back, around the neckline, then down the other back side.  Since the bottom is open, you can flip the bodice right sides out.

I used velcro to close the back, just like her christening dress.

Because I was kind of in a last minute rush, I didn't finish the arms because she would be wearing a sweater.  So they're just trash and serged for now.

 

The Baby Gap grey dress had cool non-fray tulle for the skirt.  But I just got 1 yard of red chiffon and cut strips 8", 6" and 4" wide and the width of the fabric, then folded them in half and serged them together.  This way the ruffle layers are folded and top-stitched to the underskirt, but I didn't have to hem the chiffon.  

**My serger is super old, but if I had a nice newer serger I would have probably just serged a rolled hem instead of having the folded ruffle layers. 

So with the little sweater and the red satin flower headband, it completed the outfit. 

I ended up being so busy at the wedding, I only got a few shots of her in her dress at the actual event.

Just for fun I wanted to show you my friend's wedding dress because my mom made it.  Years ago my mom gave Molly a certificate that she'd make her wedding dress, and she ended up redeeming her coupon and had Sheila sew the dress she designed.  I'm pretty sure she loved it because she took 3 or 4 dresses each with a different element she liked and put them together in her custom dress.

Here's a bridal shot she sent me:

You can kind of see the laced back and petal sleeves.

And all the bridesmaids the morning of the wedding in the freezing rain.  I've never been so cold in May!