The Long and Winding Road

I am happy to report, Zoe's dress is now DONE, but it was not without a couple of bumps along the way. Since I didn't manage to sustain a running blog commentary, I will try to reconstruct the timeline.

After the amazing Couture Workshop in February, I came home and spent about a week in early March finishing as much as I could without an actual bride fitting. My list of things to do was long, but it all went together nicely. At the end of March, I tagged along with Craig up to NorCal for a mystery writing conference in Monterey. Zoe drove down to our hotel, and tried on the dress for the first time. I thought it looked beautiful, but sensed that something was wrong. After we got back to LA, Zoe called, and said that she hadn't really been happy with the dress, that she regretted the choice of the organza fabric. She said 'It's too inflexible, too shiny, and I won't feel comfortable in it.'

 

First Fitting in Monterey Hotel Room

The next day Craig and I took off for our month long trip to Spain and Morocco. The whole time we were traveling, every time I'd think about the dress, which was often, I felt terrible. I wracked my brain for a solution. I was pretty sure that the addition of the sleeves precipitated her discomfort with the dress. She had loved the strapless muslin with the boning. But the pattern I used didn't have a sleeve, which Zoe wanted, so I had self-drafted the sleeve addition. I had made a "muslin" out of cheap organza, Zoe had tried it on at the workshop fitting, Susan K had checked and approved the fit. The cheap organza version had never felt comfy to her, but we wrote that off to the cheezy fabric, assuming that our beautiful embroidered organza would feel better.


I had to figure out what to do. Of course I wanted her to love the dress. Zoe and I talked about changing the overlay fabric for something softer, with more give. But I didn't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. I'd invested so much in the dress. The corset had 17 bones for goodness sake! The entire silk under-layer fit her like a glove. I wasn't even sure I could deconstruct the dress without doing too much damage to the delicate fabric. Plus I didn't have any extra material.


I was pretty despondent. After working as a filmmaker for overt 40 years, I knew from experience that many creative projects hit these kind of impasses, and are almost always better for it in the end. But this wasn't a film!


When we returned home early May, I turned to my guru Susan K and described my dilemma. I suggested that Zoe might feel better if I took off the sleeves, and either made it sleeveless, or if she definitely wanted sleeves, maybe could mix in a stretch lace or mesh for the sleeves.
 
Susan wrote back:

Boy, that's a tough one. But - the reality is she needs a dress she's happy with......so....are there any parts of this that she likes? The skirt? It wouldn't be the end of the world to take off the sleeves and bind the armholes - that's relatively minor - or a lace cap sleeve. Is she being specific about what kind of sleeve she would like? I don't know that mesh would go with the rest of the dress - yes, it would cover her, but I don't know what it would add stylistically.
The bodice overlay fabric could be removed, too, if she really hates that - one thought would be another lace for the bodice overlay and the sleeves, leaving the the skirt as it is (does she like that part?)

I guess I'd sound Zoe out and see which parts of the dress she can live with, and which parts she can't live with.....and take it from there.......
Poor you - all that work, all those good intentions......................how dispiriting.
Keep me posted........... Susan

I replied:

Thank you for your focused and insightful thoughts Susan. Your break-it-down approach is just what I need to pick myself up and move forward.

Zoe is driving down tonight for Mother's Day/Daddy's birthday celebration, so resolution of the dress question is #1 on my weekend agenda. Wedding is August 7th, so deadline is tight but do-able. I will take up your suggestions with her.

I think Zoe has a non-traditional, DIY style wedding in mind. Cake homemade by one girlfriend, decorations by another, simple, classic, short dress by mom. Yet somehow the dress disappointed, fell short of this easy, casual vision. The restricted movement as metaphor. Zoe chose the organza overlay fabric on shopping trip with me and her girlfriend, who spotted it on the shelf and encouraged her to buy it.

In hindsight, if I had more sewing experience, I might have anticipated that adding a sleeve in that unforgiving fabrication would possibly be an issue, and steered her to a more stretchy lace. Ah hindsight.

Learning so much. Thanks for being there. I will keep you posted.

Gratefully,
Karina

To which Susan responded:

And bear in mind - any fitted sleeve is somewhat restricting. It just is. Which is why we all choose to live in t-shirts! - and we're not used to such confining garments - we're just not. I don't care who fits it - me or Coco Chanel - it'll feel tight (at least if it has any sort of attractive silhouette it will).....
so there's that....

I wonder if taking off those sleeves might do it........they do make things more formal, and without them it will be more of just a pretty summer dress and she'll have tons of movement.
Just a thought.
Keep me posted..... Susan

So Zoe and I  conferred on the phone and agreed to move forward on 2 fronts:

1) We'd start the revisions by removing the sleeves from the nearly finished dress and see how that looked and felt.

2) I would make a second "After" dress for her to change into after the ceremony.


When Zoe came down for Mother's Day/Craig's Birthday, she tried on the dress first with:

... and then without sleeves.

Voila! Much less constricting, much less itchy organza. A lot less formal and matronly. Totally adorable. Crisis averted, problem solved. Happy Bride.  Very relieved mom.   Besides, without sleeves you can see her awesome Crossfit Biceps.   Phew!

We also picked out a pattern, bought some beautiful white Thai silk, so she can change into something more comfortable for dinner and dancing. I'm going to make view A of  Vogue 8996,  for the "After" Dress.  It's almost complete, and I will post pictures as soon as possible.

In the meantime, Zoe received her PhD May 22nd.  Craig and I couldn't be prouder parents.  We went up to Santa Cruz June 13th for commencement.

Celebrating Dr. Buck

While Zoe was down in late June for a friend's wedding,  I was able to mark the wedding dress hem.  After she left,  I finished up the hem, and got started on the "After" Dress.

I must admit,    I have a lot of empathy for the hard working production costumers who are constantly trying to schedule actor fittings.   Fortunately, Zoe's had a lot more time since she completed her studies.    She was just down for a raft of SoCal based 4th of July parties and festivities, during which time she tried on the hemmed wedding dress and we declared it DONE!
 

Now she has a month to find some shoes!