The Wedding Dress Saga Begins

My daughter Zoe got engaged last May, and is getting married in August 2014.  She is recruiting many of her friends to contribute to her woodsy, non-traditional wedding,  and has asked me to make her wedding dress.  I am honored, touched, delighted, and needless to say, very nervous.  But I am so excited to take on the project. I really can't think of anything more joyous than making this dress for my darling daughter.

Zoe and I have been noodling on the design for several months now.  Initially she chose a classic sort of Audrey Hepburn-esque style, Vogue 8766.   With that pattern in hand, we went shopping for fabric at Britex in San Francisco.   After falling in love with a number of gorgeous designer laces in the $200/yard price zone, which was too steep for my budget, we regrouped over lunch.  We decided Zoe should try on some RTW party dresses, and see what looked and felt good.  So we headed into Bloomies, and had a blast.  Zoe tried on about a dozen dresses, and looked gorgeous in many of them.

I took lots of cell phone pix of the style details she liked:  A sweetheart neckline, sheer lace overlay, sheer elbow length sleeves, possibly an inset waistband, and maybe an A-line skirt.  Based on our dressing room research, we ditched the Vogue pattern, and are now going to make a modified version of Simplicity 1606, View C. 

I attended a Pattern Review meetup last month, where I met many inspirational fellow LA-based Sewists.  I spoke at some length with talented Sue V, who made a wedding dress for her niece last spring.  She encouraged me to do what she had done: take Susan Khalje's Couture Workshop.  So with the generous support of my mom, I am signed up to take Susan's 6 day Couture Workshop in February.  

Zoe lives in NorCal, and I am in LA, so fittings are going to be a bit of challenge.  She was down for Thanksgiving, but I didn't have the properly sized pattern.  I had originally bought a pattern based on her bust measurement, but Susan Khalje advised me to measure the distance from armpit fold to armpit fold, and that came up size 10.   The first muslin I made was based on the 14, so that was set aside.   I'll  make the smaller sized muslin for Zoe to try on when she is back down here next month.