Wedding Dresses....and more dresses.

Much of my spare time the last two months has been devoted to sewing dresses; specifically a wedding dress and a bridesmaid dress for Abby and Patrick's wedding.
Abby is my daughters freshman roommate and we've long considered her one of our own.  Patrick really is one of our own...he's an actual cousin. Now Abby is officially part of our family and we couldn't be happier.

This is Abby in her wedding dress just after the ceremony.  Doesn't they look happy? They are such a handsome couple.

Abby fell in love with the fabric and fit of a strapless wedding gown, but she wanted more coverage and she wanted sleeves.  The wedding date was set for late October and the weather turns cool by then so she chose 3/4 length sleeves.

This was the dress she purchased.

Abby's mom was able to acquire extra fabric and lace from the designer so I could build Abby a bodice with sleeves.  I took apart the entire dress; bustier, boning, lining, zipper and both fabrics (lace and underlining).  I fabricated a bodice with neckline and sleeves, took up the hem about 3 inches and put it all back together with tiny satin covered buttons up the back.

We added a satin ribbon and quite a while later,  the dress was done.
Abby was happy and I was happy. I was happy I didn't ruin Abby's wedding day with a dress she didn't like.  It's always a risk remaking an entire (already beautiful, I might add) wedding gown.  I will admit I was relieved when I finished and it was what she had envisioned.
It was a win/win situation.

My daughter Rachel arrived home from a 16 day European trip the day before the wedding. I made her a bridesmaid dress rather quickly.  She's the tall blonde to the left of the bride.

I really loved how her blue lace dress turned out.  More photos to come of Rachel's dress.

The send off was a success. 

Congratulations to the new bride and groom.

The Wedding Dress

 There's going to be a wedding.

And this is what I've been doing this week instead of posting on my blog.

Abby bought a dress that was strapless (on sale).  She wanted one with a princess neckline and sleeves.  So a week later, I have taken the dress apart and remade it with a bodice (it will also have sleeves when I am finished with it).  The lining is altered, a new longer zipper's in place, the neckline was marked for the scalloped lace and cut out and the dress is ready to be joined to the lining.

All that's left are the sleeves and the bustle tape so Abby can dance with Patrick at her wedding.

Oh wait, on second thought...there may be some hand sewn embellishments later. And possibly a long row of tiny hand -covered buttons (just for show) up the back and some hand made loops on the sides and back so the 2-inch satin sash will stay in place. And did I mention that Abby is a teeny tiny bit of a thing, around 5 feet tall, so the hem will need to be taken up but that's a piece-of-cake after remaking the dress.

I'm in the home stretch and it feels good.  It's always a bit dangerous to undertake and make such severe changes on something so expensive and important as someone else's wedding dress, even if she a really really good friend.  Even if I think of her almost as another of my daughters.  Abby was blessed when the original dress designer gifted us some of the same fabric and lace.  Wow...he's amazingly nice. There is no way I could have found fabric or lace to match.  NO WAY.  The dress would have looked homemade and altered and not good at all without the same lace and fabric.

All this has been going on while the rest of the house looks like this....5 rooms of "like this".

I stuffed towels around the sewing room door and the dress is covered in plastic while I'm not working on it. The sewing room doesn't normally look like a bomb went off in there but there is overflow right now from other rooms that are being worked on.  I managed to clear out a good portion of it so I could work.

There's not much worse than plaster dust all over the house while trying to sew a wedding dress..

It might take a few months to wipe down the whole house.  There is dust everywhere!!!!!!!  The painters assure me they will be done by the holidays.

I'm hoping they mean the Halloween holidays. 

I'm still here...just busy. Wallpaper, paint, and repairs.

 It started with me doing this...to the living room, the entry staircase, the upstairs hall, and the dining room.

Almost twenty years ago we had wall paper installed and I was ready for a change.

One paper steamer and a lot of vinegar/water and elbow grease in essentially what is 4 separate rooms and I was ready for the painters to work their magic.

 Most of the furniture went to the garage and the family room; dishes and sets of crystal into boxes...do I really have that much dinnerware?  Yep, seems the sideboard holds A LOT and that necessitated a trip to the second hand store to donate some of those accumulated items. 

Some help from Brooke, Nate, and Abby with last minute stripping paper and moving the heavy pieces which were the table and the sideboard in the dining room...

 and the grand piano in the living room...

the family room got the miscellaneous stuff like the paintings, the piano bench, assorted side tables and chairs, and the draperies.

The painter assures me he'll be finished by the holidays; Halloween, not Thanksgiving.  Thank goodness.

So I'm still here, just not "here" on the blog much.  Oh, and did I mention I'm knee deep in remaking a wedding dress for a dear friend?  See you soon (I hope).

Fun in the Sun....

I've not been here at the blog for a while.  We've been busy.

 

There's been beekeeping, berry picking (and eating of course), jamming, some really good summertime menus, a bit of vacationing which included yarn and knitting of course,  there was some reading on the veranda.

It was hard to concentrate on anything but the Pacific view, but we managed to tough it out and sit on the veranda quite a bit, morning, evening, and through one slightly foggy afternoon.

There was some wallpaper stripping going on (and a lot more of it that has to happen, unfortunately).

There was even a summer birthday, which is new for our family.  It's fun to add son-in-laws and some new summertime celebrations.
I hope your summer is going as well as ours.  I'll be back.  I'm off for a bit again.

Eggs.....

My friend Pat keeps chickens and she kindly sold me some eggs this week.  Isn't the hot pink egg carton pretty?  Pat has a condo in Mexico and seems she brought the carton back from there.  I've never seen a colored egg carton in the US.  I'm going to have to give it back to her as I can't bear to put it in the recycle bin.  It deserves to be used again... for eggs.

 Last weekend was spent cleaning up a garden bed that I didn't get to before the snow fell at the Homestead.

It will sure be nice when the iris and other things in the bed flower.  It looks pretty bleak right now but the snow is gone and the sky is blue (the photo's not ehanced in any way) and I think it's beautiful outside even though the temperature is still COLD.

Easter Bunny and Santas....what?

An Easter Bunny paid a visit here at the House (wrong holiday, I know). 

She came to see the Santas.  She is dressed in her nice warm tights on this bright, frigid snowy day.

This is before she had a "little work" done on her face.  I restitched it.  Too thick yarn so I took out one ply, gave her a nose reduction. and a little eye job.  I think she looks better in the "after" photos (top two). 

And of course I need to show you her undies...

and her tail (isn't it just the cutest?).

 Her companion, Miss Fox, couldn't be left out.

I don't know whose backside is the cutest.  I love Miss Fox's tail.

OK...I've still got socks to knit.  3 pair down and one to go.  It was fun to take a little knitting detour.  

I'm off to make potatoes au gratin for a huge party tonight and I just got in from snow shoveling.  At least the oven will warm up the house.  It's hard to type with gloves on  ;)

The stockings were hung....

 The stockings were hung (minus one) by the chimneys with care.

 Did you know you could knit with fabric strips?  You can.

I'm not even worrying about St. Nick yet.  There's more decorating to do.

The Season's begun

Tree trimming

 In progress.

 And finished.  Someone (mwho we won't mention by name) thinks we have a few too many ornaments.  I don't think so. " The more the merrier" , I say. 

 Abby even wrapped some of our gifts.  It's nice to have them under the tree early.

When the girls are home for Thanksgiving, we start decorating the day after.  It helps to have all hands on deck.  (We have a lot of ornaments to unwrap).  And it's nice to enjoy the holiday for the whole month of December.  With the decorating done, I can concentrate on other things.

Have you started....or finished your decorating?

I still have a few small things to do.