Six days before my wedding and my dress is a work in progress. Am I stressed? No, I know I can finish it in time for this Saturday’s event! So in honor of this event I would like to chronicle the birth of my dress.
June 18th — my wedding day– is a day I had dreamed about when I was younger and had never thought would happen when I was older! This August I will turn 50 and this is my first and only marriage. God has truly blest me with my perfect match.
I knew if I ever married, that I would create and sew my dress — and I knew that it would be an uncommon dress. First, I look awful in white! Second, I also knew that there would have to be traces of my favorite print somewhere – leopard print, that is! If my mom was here, oh the comments she would make. Alas, that is not the case and so this dress is a reflection of me.
To begin with I must take you back to our time in Australia. Searching the fabulous fabric shops in Melbourne, I was looking for inspiration. On one foray I was smitten with an ivory lace that I knew would be perfect for cutting apart and using as applique. I had to purchase it. Carefully I chose a quarter of a meter due to its expensive price tag of $225 a meter! However I envisioned the lace being used in my headpiece and on the dress and thus didn’t need a lot.
So, if the dress were not to be white, what color would I like the dress to be? Cleg’s in Melbourne had a very pretty blush colored silk, but it was the wrong type of silk. What I was really looking for was a duppioni, something with more body. Prices in Melbourne would be at least $30 Australian a meter for the fabric I was looking for, not including lining, etc. And since I needed 5 meters, I thought I could better in the U.S. than in Australia. A trip to NYC was in order on my return to the states.
Even though I had an idea of what fabric I wanted to use, I was still looking for a clearer picture of my dress. After my return to the States, Rosie brought a book in for me to look thru called “The Party Dress”. The book had lots of dresses made with multi layers of chiffon and tulle. I did not see my inspirational dress the first couple of times flipping threw. The third time was the charm and I spotted the dress I was looking for. The model even had red hair! The dress was a lovely tea length, full skirt dress. The shoulders of the model were framed with an off the shoulder cut and the color was that of a delicious champange. That was the color that I needed to find.
The Monday after Mother’s day, Julia (one of my flower girls) her mother and grandmother and I, traveled by train the NYC to shop for fabric for our dresses. Julia already having tackled making her Holy Communion dress was up for the challenge of making her own dress for the wedding as a part of her lessons.
Would you believe we found our fabric in the first shop we explored! And what is even more surprising, I found fabric in the exact color of the dress in the book and it was a silk duppioni. It was a gorgeous champagne color kissed with a gold luster from silk. The price you wonder? In NYC, sometimes you can make deals (at least you think you are). I felt I made a deal, he lowered his price from $16 to $14. Julia also found her fabric. A shiny crinkled lavendar poly with enough weight to it that it would drape very well. Well this was just too easy.
Our trip was not over, this was Julia’s first time in the big apple and she wanted a trim for her dress. The next stop was 38th street. This time the second trim shop we explored Julia found the trim she wanted for her dress. A pretty soutach of roses sewn on a mesh background. We thought they would look smashing around the bottom of her dress. Fabric and trims in hand, we returned home to begin the work of putting it all together.
See Part II of this Blog to see how it all turns out.
