Dress Lengthening Alteration

A friend of mine needed her dress lengthened.  I found a dark green satin fabric that matched the jacket color and the dark green on the dress nicely.  In order to tie the bottom of the dress to the top of the dress I added a bias piece of fabric around the neckline.  I also made the rosette pin to be pinned on her jacket. 

Dress (Before Shot)

Dress Lengthened (After Shot)

Bias Tape Around Neckline (After Shot)

Rosette Pin (After Shot)

Wedding Jacket

Below is the description I wrote for the judges at the county fair. I ended up winning a Champion ribbon for this jacket.
"I designed and sewed this wedding jacket for a friend of mine. She did not like the corset-looking lines on the bodice of the dress and she wanted something that covered them up but did not cover most of the bead work.

She told me what she wanted it to look like and I made the pattern according to pictures and descriptions. She changed her mind many times and sometimes I already had things made when she decided she did not like it. She choose this fabric and I worked with it although many times it was exasperating. I think one of the hardest challenges was making sure the jacket looked beautiful but didn’t fall apart and fray. The other challenge was designing the jacket train to follow the exact curve of the wedding dress. I also had to figure out how to bustle the wedding dress because nothing was there to bustle it up with. The bride did not want the bustle to be very noticeable so she loved my idea of putting the train of the jacket on her finger for the reception. This created a beautiful flow of fabric that covered up and disguised the bustle underneath. I started this last September and finished it two weeks before her wedding, May 31, 2008. The bride’s mother who had bought the dress for her daughter thought the idea of a jacket would ruin the look of the dress but when the mother saw it on her daughter on the wedding day she cried because she thought it was so beautiful. I am sure I made mistakes but I am so glad I was able to do this for my friend because I learned so much. Just hearing the story of her mother and hearing that the dress got many compliments is enough to make me want to do it all over again including the blood, sweat, and tears."

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Pregnant Bridesmaid's Dress

Sonya was pregnant and she needed her dress altered before her sister-in-law's wedding.
She needed more room in the back so I folded the zipper back to make a "V" and added the loops so that she could lace it up in the back. She wanted a little more coverage since this was a strapless dress so I took the scarf that had come with the dress and pleated it in the front to cover her shoulders and gathered it so that it would drape in the back and cover most of the lacing. She also wanted all these changes to be undone so that she could wear the dress when she wasn't pregnant so I took out all the changes and it looked like it had never had loops sewn on it.

Front (Before Shot)

Front with Drape over Shoulders (After Shot)

Back (Before Shot)

Back Drape (After Shot)

Back Loops (After Shot)

Back Laced Up (After Shot)

A Civil War Ball Dress

For the Civil War Ball, I altered my mom's bridesmaid's dress for my younger sister, Nicole. I had to take the dress in a lot since Nicole is quite small. I also made it longer with the added strip of fabric around the bottom.

Dress (Before Shot)
Dress Lengthened (After Shot)
I added the puffed sleeves under the lace and ta-da, her Civil War Ball dress was done.

Lace Sleeve (Before Shot)
Lace Sleeve with Fabric Sleeve (After Shot)
Back (After Shot)

Another Civil War Ball Dress

Below is the description I wrote for this Civil War Ball dress for the judges at the county fair. It ended up winning the first place ribbon at the fair.
"I bought this maroon dress at the ARC for six dollars. It had no embellishments. Before I changed it, there was a shoulder strap and the sleeves were off-the-shoulder. I didn’t want that look so I attached the sleeves (with some tucks added) to the shoulder strap. I took it in at the seams to fit me. I also wanted to add some more height to the neckline so I sewed on the lace. I had seen dresses with the pick-ups on the bottom of the dress and I really liked that look so I got some black fabric and added the ruffle underneath the top fabric. Then I pleated the top fabric up at the seams and added the little ribbon loops to finish it off. I wanted a ribbon sash so I sewed two ribbons together to create the width I wanted. I liked the idea of four ribbons going down in the back so I didn’t sew the two ribbons together the entire length. I found the perfect chain of beads and took it apart at certain places to create the ‘chandelier’ effect. That is my favorite embellishment and I got lots of compliments on them at the Civil War Ball."

Civil War Ball Dress (After Shot) (I did not get a 'before shot'.)