Why would I cut up my wedding dress?
yes, I was one of those brides: no uncomfortable shoes for me!
As much as I loved my dress, I've come to the conclusion that none of our kids will be able to wear it. LMS has a much longer torso than I do (lucky her!) and the chances of her being as short as I am aren't super high. TLM isn't going to wear a dress when when he gets married :) And even if we have another kiddo, the likelihood of them having the same body structure/lack of height isn't very high. My dress had to be altered quite a bit, so it looked good on me, but wouldn't look good on very many other people.
The ones with the best chance at this point would be one of my younger sisters, but they're all quite a bit taller than me, so they're out of luck.
we're standing at the same level here: I'm more than a head shorter than Mr M
don't we look so young?!
So after carting my wedding dress around for almost 13 years, I decided to put it to a better use than just taking up space or getting lost (like my mom's dress did in one of our moves when we were growing up). Awhile ago a friend made a blessing dress out of her wedding dress for one of her girls, and that got me thinking about what I could do with my wedding dress.
We're obviously way past the need for a blessing dress, but LMS was approaching her eighth birthday. My mom made me a white dress to wear when I was baptized and I wanted to do the same for LMS. After some internal debate, I finally decided to go ahead and cut up my wedding dress.
you can't tell the details from this photo, but I think it was a white seersucker fabric
and I think my dad's glasses have come back in style....
It wasn't quite that easy though. Even after I made the decision, it took awhile to get up the nerve to actually cut into the fabric. I knew I had one shot to get it right. If I messed up, there wouldn't be enough fabric to fix it.
After paging through pattern books I found a pattern that was similar to the pattern of my dress. This made it easier to cut each panel for the flared skirt, but also meant there was wasted fabric since I had to avoid the existing seams. So there was enough fabric for LMS' dress, but there was only one panel left over and I wanted to save that for future projects, which meant there was no room for error.
it still fits! kind of... what you don't see is that it's not zipped up all the way in back :)
breastfeeding has a way of changing the size of your bust
Before I started cutting into my dress, I made a practice dress out of muslin. I don't usually do this, but in this case I knew it was definitely the way to go. I was able to go through each step and make sure I knew how to do everything the pattern said. I was also able to see that I should really go up a size. I made the practice dress a 6x, but ended up making the real dress a 7. I knew that might end up being the case, so I bought two patterns (since 6x and 7 aren't on the same pattern) at JoAnn's when they were on sale for 99 cents each. Score one for me for planning ahead!
Because the size 7 is the smallest of the patterns and I wanted to be able to use the bigger patterns in the future, I traced out all the pieces onto tissue paper. This also allowed me to adjust a couple of the skirt pieces: one piece was supposed to be placed on a fold so I traced out both sides, and another piece was supposed to have a seam for a zipper, but I eliminated the seam because I shortened the zipper (which I wouldn't do again, and but did because of how I cut the zipper out of my dress).
Then I took a deep breath and started cutting.
I separated the bodice, cut out the sleeves at the seams, and cut down one of the side seams of the skirt, which allowed me to lay the dress flat. Then I started laying out my patterns and deciding where I wanted each piece centered. My favorite part of the dress was the embroidered flowers and I wanted to make them an integral part of LMS' dress, so I moved each pattern piece around till I got the look I wanted.
After cutting out all the pieces, it was time to sew it all back together.
The bodice was lined, so I was able to re-use the lining as I sewed the bodice to fit LMS. The sleeves were also lined and I was able to re-use them with minimal alteration. The skirt pieces weren't lined, but there was an underskirt with tulle attached and I cut down part of it to make an underskirt for the dress. I left the tulle attached for added fullness, but I don't know that that was necessary. The fabric is thick enough that it has a lot of body on its own.
-- I don't know that I like the neckline- I think it's a bit wide, but it does mimic the neckline of the original dress.
-- I cut the zipper out of the original dress incorrectly and it ended up being on the short side. I didn't think that part through far enough ahead, and ended up with a zipper that only extends to the waist, which makes it a bit snug to get on and off.
-- Hemming the skirt was difficult and I'm not super happy with how it turned out. I don't think it hangs as nicely as it could, but I'm not really sure how else I could have hemmed it.
What I did like about this project:
-- The embroidered flowers are nicely showcased.
-- I like the length- I considered making it longer, but felt that that would feel too formal.
-- LMS gets to have a part of my wedding dress to keep (she also has her blessing dress made by my mother).
-- LMS likes it.
-- Despite the imperfections, I do like how it turned out and am glad that my dress is getting a new lease on life.
-- Other than the patterns and muslin, this project didn't cost anything since I didn't add anything to the dress- just took away :)
What I plan to do with what's left of my wedding dress:
-- There's not enough left for another baptism dress, but there is enough left for a blessing dress should we have another girl.
-- There's also enough fabric to make a vest and/or a tie for TLM. We'll wait and see what his preference is when he gets old enough.
Have you recycled your wedding dress?
Hmm. I've got one daughter and this is a bit tempting. I did take some pictures of her wearing my wedding dress a while back. And even if she was the same size as me when she grows up, I wouldn't want her to feel pressured to wear it. Well, I've got a little less than a year to decide if this is what I want to do for my 8 year old.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the decision! I definitely waffled back and forth for awhile :)
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