Helping out with my sisters wedding

Like I said before, I was the maid of honor for my sisters wedding a few weeks ago.  So, naturally there were a few crafty things that I did for her.  She called me in a panic one day after meeting with the people who were doing her flowers because she had just realized that she did not have a flower girl basket.  She asked if I could make one for her.

I used a basket I found in the clearance section at joanns and some ivory satin that I had as well as some ribbon that matched the bridesmaids dresses.

My other sister and I were in charge of her bridal shower.  The bride does not like decorations so decorating for the shower was a bit of a challenge.  She was okay with having a banner of some sort but after looking for days I could not find any bridal shower banners that were appropriate for her.  I decided to make her a banner that she could still keep after the shower was over.

I put a few of their engagement pictures on a piece of fabric using iron on t-shirt transfer paper and I added a ribbon so it could be hung up.  The piece of fabric came from some curtains from my sisters bathroom that she had me shorten a few months ago.  We used the banner as a guest list for the shower.

a closer up picture of the banner before the ribbon was attached.

coffee date dress... sorta

A year ago for my sister's birthday when I had just started sewing, my sister asked me for a dress for her birthday. I made her a dress and a matching purse.  She loved the way that it turned out even though I had used the wrong kind of fabric for the style of the dress.  

because of the wrong kind of fabric, the dress turned out not quite right

it looked nice but it was like she was wearing a bag that was gathered at the waist with a sash.

Oh, and she wouldn't let me take her measurements at the time she would only let me know her bra size, so getting something that would be more fitted at the time was not possible.

Well when the idea of her having a wedding shower came up, she wanted to wear the dress I had made her.  She tried it on again and realized that she didn't really like the way that it fit.  So she asked me if there was anyway that I could make it more fitted.  I told her that she would actually have to let me measure her if the dress was going to fit correctly and she finally agreed.  I decided to use the fabric from the dress and make a new dress from it.  She said she wanted the bodice to be fitted and the skirt to be a-line and if possible to still have gathering at the neckline.  I figured the coffee date dress on burdastyle.com was close and I figured out,through lots of pattern alterations, how to still have gathering at the neckline.  Since my sister and I have very similar measurements, I decided to make the dress up for me to see if my alterations worked out before I cut into the original dress.

front

back

side.

With the dress I made for my sister, I made just one more alteration and that was to square out the neckline.

front

back

side.

close up of the gathering on the neckline.

She also asked that there still be a band of black on the bottom

and she asked that I put some kind of a label in the dress so that she can tell everyone that her sister made the dress for her

she was very happy with how the dress turned out and so am I!  I was also very glad that I kept the extra fabric last year because I needed it to finish the dress, otherwise she would have had half a skirt!

burda dress 101 from 2-2011 issue

I have been very busy over the last few months because my sister just got married and I was the maid of honor.  Therefore I have had very little time to get on the computer but I did manage to get a bit of sewing in.  I managed to find time to sew this dress.

front

back

and side.

I made the dress out of some kind of synthetic material and I somehow forgot to do an FBA so I ended up doing like 1/4" seam allowances in the bust area.  I also decided not to line the bodice like it calls for and I finished the neckline and arm holes with some bias tape.  I am glad that I finished the neckline that way because the neckline is very low and by finishing the neckline the way I did I gained 5/8" in the neckline.  I also did a lapped zipper in the side instead of an invisible zip like it called for.  

In the end I love how the dress turned out and I love how the skirt makes it look like I have hips.  The only downside is that the dress is extremely hot to wear since it is a synthetic material so I haven't been able to wear it nearly as often as I would like.