About Me

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Wedding dress #1 (and the Linden I made while procrastinating)

Hi all!

I'm glad to report that the pre-clinical-rotations-two-months-of-frontal-lectures-hell is behind me! I past the exam and my body (and mind) are slowly recovering. Sitting in class all day IS NOT FOR ME and I'm glad I'll never have to go through this again in my life.

As I mentioned before, we are getting married in the beginning of February. We've been living together for several very happy years, so getting married and formalizing our relationship was not a surprising step for anyone. Therefor I naively thought that everyone will accept our opinions regarding the ceremony itself, and will let us hold it in a way that suits our lifestyle. I was wrong... Weddings in Israel are big (and expensive), the stadard is an evening wedding with dinner and a dance party (DJ included), in which guests are expected to give money as a present, to cover the costs of the party. Needless to say, this kind of celebration isn't really for me... but as the wedding ceremony is also a gift we give the families, we are doing what we are asked to do, while trying to fit it into our lifestyle as much as possible. 

Having a "standard wedding" is difficult for me as my mother died when I was young, and nothing can make up for the fact my only wish for this happy occasion would be that she could witness it. therefore I tried as much as I could to push aside the traditions, the "should" and the "proper", and make this night about love and happiness in a less formal way. Unfortunately, as I wrote above, not all of my wishes were granted and for the past weeks I was just sad about this entire thing. 

I know it makes very little sense, as I get to spend everyday with the love of my life, and one night in which I put other people's wills above mine will not change it. But I still struggle with letting go of the things that will not be as I wish, despite knowing I'll enjoy this night no matter what.

Anyway, the wedding dress and all that involves my appearance is one place were I can do whatever I want (within reason). The process of designing my outfit started with deciding about several topics:


Do I want to make my own dress, rent it, or buy it?
Well, that was the easiest... I think that making my own dress will not only save money but will allow my to wear (almost) exactly what I have in mind. It will also spare me long hours of looking for an RTW dress, fitting sessions etc. Most importantly, the making of a garment is part of the experience in wearing it. I think I'll feel more "me" in a garment I spent time working on.  

How much money am I willing to invest? Do I want to save money, or try working with high-end material?
I want to feel special and beautiful in my wedding dress (aren't we all...?), and it shouldn't look cheap. At the same time, this is a one-night garment, so I didn't want to invest a lot of money in fabric. I prefer to invest money on fabric for garments I'll wear more (such as high quality denim, that I already asked for my birthday). 

How much time do I want to invest in this project?
Nowadays sewing knits is all I want. The speedy work on the overlocker and the cozy result excite me. I have plenty of projects on my winter sewing list, and since winter-wear is my favorite to sew (and I would also like to sew a cascade coat this year), I don't want to spend all my free time on the wedding dress. Therefore, while I think dresses with lots of bead work and hand-sewn lace are amazing, it is probably not the project for me.  

What is the general style I'm going for? 
There are probably one-million dresses I would enjoy wearing. The waiting gown from Sex and the City would probably be my top choice as an inspiration, while the Vera Wand dress from Brides Wars is another one I always liked. However while I like this aesthetic I probably won't feel comfortable wearing such a big dress to this particular evening, so I started a pinterest board and realized I wanted something with less volume and more coverage. 

At the end (of admittedly a very short search session) I decided to use the two-piece outfit from Rue De Seine as the inspiration (it's at the bottom of the board). 
After a few weeks of procrastination I finely went fabric shopping with a friend. For the top I decided to use the snowball dress by Waffle patterns, the base layer would be made of cotton-sateen in off-white, and the top either from lace we bought or from a lace shirt I already have (depending on the amount of lace needed). The skirt is "just" a full circle skirt cinched at the waist, made out of three layers of white chiffon and one layer of lining in cream sateen. 

I like the texture and pattern on the shirt I have so I hope I can use it for the dress (also, I got the shirt from my father's wife, and it feels special to integrate it into the dress)
 

Before we went fabric shopping, D jokingly said I can buy as much fabric as I'd like, but he will lock all my non-wedding-related fabric until I finish the dress, as I have no plan B and the wedding is getting closer (I don't really have time working on the dress during the week, and we still have to make all the decorations, since no made-in-China-by-children decorations will be part of our wedding...). Obviously Linden sweatshirts are made faster than the time it takes to persuade me to confront 20 meters of white slippery fabric, so this one was made immediately:

 
(Worn here with my Go-To Knit Pants. I know I promised a review but I'm still not sure what I think of this pattern). This is my 4th Linden, this one is made from Scuba knit I bought along with the aforementioned ridiculous amount of white fabric, and put immediately into good use. I made straight size 2 based on my measurements, and surprisingly my broad shoulders don't need extra room. Please note: Linden comes with 1/4" seam allowance!

After finishing my Linden I was ready to conquer the piles of white fabric, which meant I had a "white Christmas" after all! The results of this first sewing session will follow shortly. 

Till then, Happy Christmas and may you all have a fabulous end to 2015!