Monday, May 23, 2011

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!



13 comments:

  1. What a little sweetheart Ellaria is and her dress is so cute too!!
    Wow beautiful bride and her dress is divine! Tx

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  2. hola Jessica, Ellaria y tu estais muy guapas. La niña está preciosa con el vestido rojo. roser

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  3. Your baby is so pretty and that dress is spectacular! Great job!

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  4. I actually like your version better! You did a great job! The dress your mom made is so gorgeous!

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  5. Oh my cuteness! And what a gorgeous dress. :)

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  6. What a cute dress. I had a dress like this in mine for my granddaughter who is 3. She needs a fancy dress for her dance recital. For the bottom of the dress did you just sew a solid panel and then stitch the first layer of ruffles between the bodice and dress bottom panel? For the other ruffles I think from the photo it looks like you just stitched them slightly under the above row of ruffles. Is this what you did? Thanks

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  7. Love the dress! I like it as much, if not more, than the Gap one!
    I also love that everyone wore red shoes to your friend's wedding!

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  8. Pam:
    For this I had a satin skirt that is just hemmed. Then I cut the same skirt size out of chiffon, then sewed the ruffle layers to the chiffon overlay skirt. So when I sewed them to the bodice the chiffon skirt with all the ruffles attached was between the satin skirt and bodice. I did sew each layer with about half of it covering the ruffle below, working from the bottom to the top. Good luck on your dress!
    Jessica

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  9. The dress is gorgeous! I love it, and she looks so cute in it!

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  10. I think it is safe to say that your dress is cuter than the GAP dress... NO JOKE!! LOVE it!

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  11. adorable! i'm so jealous over the wedding dress! i wanted my mom to make mine, but she chickened out. Gorgeous!!

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  12. Your mother did a fabulous job on the wedding dress! You and your little one look adorable, I just love the red ruffles on her.

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