Being godparents - sewing for the wedding

  I am a little behind archiving my sewing because of the bee. But now that round 3 is close and and all we can do is wait I found some time to go though the event photos. Over the weekend of the round 2 sewing bee we have been godparents at my cousin wedding.   I think in the west a godmother/godfather is only present at a child's baptism but over here a husband and wife stand next to the bride and groom and act as witnesses and sponsors. It is a huge honor and quite a few responsibilities.

   Even though I knew about the event more then an year in advance I did nothing until the last moment. At first I wanted to sew my evening dress as well but all the evening fabrics left me completely uninspired so I have done nothing month after month. So 2-3 weekends before the event I went shopping with my mom and bought a dress. The pattern of the dress is OKish but the fabrics were something I would not have bought. A lot of tulle ( at least the soft kind ) and really not impressive lace but it was flattering on me and made me look pretty so I went with it. My critical sewing eye could hardly approve any dress but the close deadline was really good to force me make a decision. I will get to see that dress a little later.
   So now that I had a main dress for the wedding and a few decent choices in my closet for the day festivities I got green light from my mom to sew my day outfit. The wedding was a big deal for my family so I tried to make my parents happy and proud even if it meant going a few extra miles in the direction they wanted. I think in the same weekend of shopping with my mom I found this extremely soft 2 sided brocade and I thought it would make for a great dress. On the plus side it was stretchy so that would make everything a lot easier to fit. And one other aspect that blocked my previous attempts to start sewing for the event was that I wanted to use my fabric for kids outfits as well and is really really hard to find anything that would work for them. I refuse to put my kids in those scratchy and synthetic fabrics that form most of the special occasion section.
   I could have probably start my dress right away but my mom and I could not possibly agree on any pattern that I had so I ordered a few more and had to wait for them to be delivered. By the time I got that and made a decision I still could not start do anything. The sewing bee round one was just about to be announced and I was hoping that maybe I can do my dress as part of the challenge with some luck or a small twist. But then the challenge was announce and it was nothing like the dress I had planned so I forgot all about my dress and went on creating my skirt. Luckily that didn't take very long but even after I was done with the skirt I went on and sewed a jacket for it before my planned dress.
   At this point there was no time to wait for round 2 announcement to start my dress. I picked Butterick 6380 dress with sweetheart neckline and gathered bodice.

 I did a very quick muslin in a stretch french terry  that seemed similar in weight and stretch to my brocade but had synthetic fibers and I was not exited to make it into anything for kids.

So I got my dress done just before round 2 was announced. Being in a stretch fabric I didn't need the back closing and that made it all a lot easier. Invisible zippers scare the hell out of me.

The next thing I wanted to do was Eva's day dress in the same fabric. I picked a Butterick patern for her as well - Butterick 5980

Having experience with this Big4 patterns being to large I did a quick muslin 1st. Good thing I did. I used size 2 even if my daughter is almost 2 and a half and not small at all for her age. It is true I used a stretchy and comfortable fabric but still! Look how big it is!!! She got to wear it in my ant backyard the next day after wedding. I used view C for this :

I didn't found this view to be dressy enough and decided to do view A for the actual dress. I had to take it in considerably at most of the seams to fit her nicely:

   I also made her matching short leggings but I probably should have cut them even shorter.

   I had no idea that the weather was going to be as lovely as it was so I did a quick bolero for Eva as well using Simplicity 8025:

This one was in a stiffer fabric and fit nicely. I did a size 2 as well. She didn't need it though. I just put it on to get some pictures on our way to change for the evening.

 I almost didn't get to do anything for my son. But the idea of failing him was eating me. So I sacrificed a lot of sleep. I put Eva's dresses on hold to be hemmed by hand on the way there and I did his outfit. I am so so so happy I did that. And I was so proud to be his mom. The was the most handsome guy of the party. I used 2 Ottobre patterns for him. My favorite pants for him - Ottobre 06/2010 #31 Paperback writer pants and Ottobre 1/2016 #13 Vest:

He was very agitated the whole day and I could hardly get a picture with him in one place but he was my little man:

For the evening I only made Eva's dress using a nice soft cotton for the lining and nice lace for her bodice. For the skirt I used the tulle I had to trim from my dress and already had a cute fish line hem. I also did shorts for her to wear under. And again a bit to long. I used no pattern for this just free cut guided by one of her well fitting blouse.

The lace has no side seams and uses fabric border for margins on both top and sleeves. It is all hand sewn over the dress after it was finished. I was actually doing this half hour before we had to leave for the restaurant for the party. That's how close I was cutting it...

It was a beautiful event and I am glad we were part of it.