The dress

Many of you know that I took on the project of dress making. It isn't too foreign of a concept to me, because my mom made all my formal dresses when I was in high school (about 7 total) and my wedding dress. She is a seamstress and I can sew a decent straight line. However, I did ask for help in the whole cutting/assembling process. I wanted a dress similar to the 4 I already had. I got them all last summer before I was pregnant--knowing that I wanted to be pregnant at some point and that they would work because they are high waisted and long/flowy.

So I thought it would be simple, but Joann fabric doesn't carry any material similar to those dresses (96% cotton, 4% rayon), so I got 100% cotton. It was all tricky to find a pattern, so I got something that looked like it would for for basics, but planned to change it up.

For anyone that things sewing is cheaper, think again. I bought my other dresses for about $20, and it cost me about $40 for fabric, zipper, thread, needles, etc.

I enlisted my friend Debra to help b/c she is capable in such things. She got excited about the idea and when I brought the pattern to our park play group, she opened it up and practicially salivated at the idea of working on it. This made me very happy because it is those types of things (studying a pattern) that overwhelms me when it comes to projects like this.

I wanted the dress to be for the wedding that we attended (previous post) but in the end, I felt too bold, colorful, a bit more casual and wanted to just fit in with my big bump among his co-workers and went for black and simple.

I was in San Antonio with my mom the weekend before and she helped me cut it out and make the plans. When I went to Debra's on Monday, we began and I was so grateful for her knowledge on the subject and confidence in assembly. I could not have done it without her.

Because of all the changes I had made, we decided that it is pretty much nothing like the pattern. This is our first try on, and I think both Debra and I had to keep a straight face at first b/c I was concerned she would feel bad and she was concerned I would feel bad. But eventually it came out and we busted up laughing, that it looked pretty much like a moo-moo that possibly a menonite woman would wear.

So we made a few alterations--one of which was to put a band around the waist to bring it all in and tie in the back. Here is cute Debra--she really did not want her picture taken, but I said it was imperative for proper documentation.

We also added this fun floral element which I love. Debra's crafty idea.
Matthew took this of me last night, I wore it to church on Sunday and even those that didn't know I made it (lots had heard about it and did know) gave me compliments. And Crazy Debra took a vacay from church and didn't even see the dress in all its glory!
Total time spent=12 hours together, a total of approx. 24 "man hours."

She said she started an etsy shop, I'll get the link later.