Wedding Sewing

Ready for JJ and Emily's wedding

     Our son got married a few weeks ago.  They asked two of our grandkids to be in the wedding party as well as the goddaughter of the bride.  I volunteered to sew the dresses and the vest and bowtie.

Pattern used

     I went looking for patterns with my daughter and then we sent photos of possible choices to my son's fiancee.  She chose this pattern but with the solid back.

Modeling the dress

     She also wanted a sash instead of just the band as pictured.  They sent me a link to colors they had chosen.  I went to our local JoAnn's and picked out what I thought would work and then she went to her local store and made the final choices,

Tied with a bow, sagging down

     After I got the measurements of everyone I bought the fabric and patterns and got to work sewing. I got one dress made before the shower so she was able to take it back home with her to check how it fit her goddaughter.  It fit perfectly so now was the time to make the other dress and the vest and bowtie.  Thankful for Pinterest to get instructions to make his bowtie.

Tied with loops, less sagging but not pretty

     For the sash she wanted this pink tulle fabric but neither of my local stores had it.  They bought the end of the bolt by them and brought it in when they came for the shower.  After I made the sash and tried the dress on my granddaughter, I didn't like how the weight of the bow pulled down the sash.  I tried tying it another way but still didn't like the look.  I sent off pictures and the bride agreed it wasn't quite right.  After playing around with it a little, I decided to add a couple of more thread loops near the center back.  That worked to hold up the bow.  We also tied the bow without a knot first and that helped reduce the bulk.

Ring bearer's pillow

     Then it was time for the ring bearer's pillow.  I still had some of my mother-in-law's wedding dress here.  After more emails and texts to finalize the design I made the pillow.  She didn't want any ruffles so I just opted for a covered cord.  I also added a ribbon loop in the back so my grandson didn't have to balance the pillow.

Vest and bow tie

     The day before the wedding we helped to set up the place for the reception.  At that time I got the first dress back and that afternoon I added the thread loops to her dress.  At rehearsal that evening I gave the dress back to the mom so she would have it for the wedding the next day.

Dress for flower girl

     One other thing I did different was to add two layers of the sparkly tulle to the skirt instead of just one.  I thought it added a bit more fullness to the dress.

Detail of the sparkly tulle

     The wedding was beautiful.  My grandson walked down the aisle like a pro but my granddaughter would not walk down unless she held my daughter's hand.  Needless to say she wasn't able to toss any petals since she was clenching her mom's hand.  The other flower girl got too shy and wouldn't walk down the aisle at all, even with her mom.  Oh well, they all looked cute in the photos later.