I am promising for years then I will do the outfit for my mother in law when she is going to be the mother of the bride. And that time finally arrived. She is always such a great supporter of my sewing and has such a difficult time finding a good fit in RTW. It was difficult for me to get started. I started by listening to what she would want and what she would think it would look good on her. we had concerns about a floor length dress with her being tall but I felt a long dress will be more elegant. Then we went shopping hoping that maybe we get lucky and find a hidden gem or at least get an idea what it would look good on her and what would definitely not. We didn't find any hidden gem. we only found one that was fitting her decently but the design was quite boring the the fabric low quality so I decided it have to make it.
Then we went fabric shopping. We choose on fabric together but I think that would be difficult to work with and would not go with most of the designs I was considering. Then I bought a new set of really, really expensive fabrics by myself. And we both loved them...But then we started to actually go to a pattern and make a mock up and we felt in love with one of the Lekala designs and my fabrics would not work with this design... But we decided that Lekala 4287 is going to be out bodice:
We did a top first in a knit with lurex and a lot of stretch and even if the top didn't come out perfect we knew we could make it work :
And for the skirt I had a few samples of long circles from the wedding dress and deiced a 3/4 circle will look best on this silhouette. I wanted a even fuller skirt but I was voted out by everyone else....
But then the fabrics I have picked up would not work with this collar and didn't had enough for this skirt so back to fabric shopping... I was on my own again and and I was let to decide the fabric and this time that I knew the design I also knew what qualities I wanted in my fabric : stable enough to work for collar, flowing enough for a long circle skirt... easy right :))). I was lost for a while but when I found think thin teal brocade with tasteful sparkle I was sold.
It all went together rather quickly after I got this last fabric. The same weekend we got the fabric we also had the first version of it. The top was quite large but I was hopping that is more because of the fabric used and at first didn't went sizing down the dress but after putting it on I had to take it in 1cm at each seam all around from underarm down. That is quite a lot and then even more under the bust to get more definition and the final dress still has a decent amount of ease...
At first I tied the bow the same way as the design but in the end I closed it differently.I also added a little more volume to the right side of the bow and made the cleavage smaller:
We recut the skirt because I decided it was important that the center front and back to be on the bias and not the grain. It was a huge difference in the way the skirt dropped to the floor.
I skipped the back seam for the bodice and moved the zipper to the side as I thought it will be more discreet there.
I put a hook and eye to secure the upper zipper and I had a bit of fun painting it and trying to get a close shade : started from white with gray, then metalic blue, then again gray:
I raised the waist quite a lot to a point where I thought it will be the most flattering and had to shorten the back significantly but I am absolutely in love with the final dress.
I plan to share some better photos in April with all my dresses in action. It has such a lovely twirl.
I hardly been sewn anything lately, working a lot on the wedding dress for my sister in law that is going so slow but hopefully so nice as well... I still went a bit of fabric shopping as well looking for inspiration on the rest of the outfits... So Sewing 50 - shopping 43 with this ones.
