So I think I am going to make Mina's green walking suit from the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Or at least something like it.

Pictures that someone else has kindly collected here:  http://periodmovies.blogspot.com/2008/07/minas-green-walking-suit.html

I know little to nothing about this time period, I just like the dress.  Is it even remotely accurate or is it just movie fantasy time period-ish?

I plan to get patterns from Truly Victorian and start in the next few months.

If y'all have any recommendations, warnings, or thoughts, holler out!

I took a few more pics yesterday with a friend of the ceremony dress, since I wore it so little at the wedding.


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Here is a slideshow sneak peak of my wedding photos from my wedding photographer....

Wedding Slideshow

I have LOTS to catch up on, but since this is the first day back at work from the honeymoon, no time to blog now. But I will be giving all the nitty-gritty in the upcoming week, never fear. :-)

So as much as I would have loved a gorgeously hand-sewn hem on my reception dress, the fullness of the skirt beat me over the head with the impracticallity of doing that with so much to do and so little time. So I cheated and just did a rolled hem on my serger.

Does it look fabulous and is it what I wanted/dreamed of? No.

Is it passable and unnoticeable to 99 percent of the people that will see it? Yes.

Sometimes you just have to go with what is easy.

So the reception dress is almost done. I brought it to work today to do the finishing details, so hopefully it will be done when I get home and just need a good pressing. Work proceeds on the suit, but I have so little time left it might just be a two piece rather than a three piece.

But in the meantime, I am soothing myself with these pictures of the Cutest Cake Topper EVER!! 

( Pictures Behind the Cut )

Yes I made it. Yes those are tiny replicas of us and the cats in clay, dressed in real live scraps of fabric. The little paw prints represent my kitty Joe who passed away last year. The kitty poses represent the personalities of the kitties (George is saying Mommy Mommy look at me while Fred goes straight for the cake) while the humans are in a swing dance pose that even ended up vaguely heart shaped. AWWWWWWWWW.



Yes, I am a crazy person. :-) I will try to get better pictures, including ones that show the kitty faces because they turned out really cute.

As promised, here are some pics of the ceremony dress in progress with the two button options. I only had a few buttons done---in the final look the buttons will go all the way up the back. Ok, so the red ones are just scraps of fabric cut in circles, but it gives you the idea.

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A separate issue.....anyone out there know how to make the train keep that pretty pretty circle shape even as I walk down the aisle in it? The beaded edging definitely helps some, but it does collapse a bit as I walk.

AAAHHHHH!!!! Less than two weeks!!!

So when I first started working on my dress design, I keep hearing Tim Gunn in my head, telling me to edit my look. Thus the conglomeration of every idea I ever had for a wedding smooshed into one dress eventually got edited down to what I think is a pretty classy design.

But this one detail I am working on now, I am not sure if Tim would exclaim "Fabulous" or tell me I have "too much look".

I am so inspired by the gorgeous beading detail jennylafleur  is doing on my train. She started with the beaded edging I loved so much from Summerset's Midnight Garden outfit. Then she did a sort of sunburst pattern with bugle and seed beads, and now she is doing some scatter beading in several shades of red in the panels.

I loved the sunburst idea and it really went along with the art deco-ish feel I have for the wedding in general. So I thought I would introduce the idea in the covered buttons I am doing all down the back to the point where the red train starts.

I have really struggled with the buttons. Red ones were too harsh against the ivory. Ivory ones I thought might look a little plain against the magnificence of the train. So I embroidered a sunburst pattern in red on some buttons and came up with this.



Of course these aren't attached to the back of the dress yet, just laid down on some ivory fabric to see how it would look. But now I am not sure if this is too much or if this makes the look. If these enhance the train idea or distract from it (I am getting the train back this weekend, so maybe once I see them together that will tell me). I asked my Tim Gunn, but he ain't talking.

The reception dress is now mostly put together. And of course now I am seeing all kinds of problems.  Pics and more behind the cut.

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would underlining a dress in cotton muslin (rather than cotton batiste) be horribly tragic? 

this is for a dress made of ivory peau de soie, a high quality poly blend, not the real deal silk.  with many many seams that show through to the other side which is not attractive.

i have silk organza and china silk, but with my experiments with both of those, the seam allowances still show through.  and i don't have enough of either of those to do a double layer.

plus this is a dress i am dancing in and not planning to line, so cotton might be better against my sweaty skin than silk would be anyways.

cotton muslin is cheap and readily available. 
cotton batiste is more expensive and would need to be ordered so would put me behind deadline. 

any thoughts?

I did some work this weekend! Muslins for both dresses are done and fitted, The Boy's pants are started, and the petticoat for my reception dress is about halfway completed. Here are some pictures of the ceremony muslin.

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