One Bridesmaid Dress Done

Well, mostly done, but it really feels like an achievement.  All three of the dresses that I plan to alter are in some stage of transformation.  I felt like I should alternate doing a little bit of each dress since getting started is always the hardest part, and the first step for each dress (removing the ruched tab detail) seemed like the most challenging task.  So even though I started with Jenn’s dress, I’ve put hers on hold and started May’s and Nicole’s dresses…and some how I just gained momentum on May’s dress and ended up finishing it.  Luckily this time I remembered to take more pictures!!  You’ll have to forgive the quality of my pics though, the lighting in my room is terrible.

Like I said before, the first step was to remove the tabbed ruche detail, so I tore the whole neckline apart at the seams.

Here I am pinning together the new seams.  You kind of have to add seams (darts) to shape the bust and get rid of all that extra fabric from the ruching.  I decided to place my seams differently than I did for Jenn’s sweetheart dress because these seams will easily be hidden by the large bow detail.  I’d say the hardest part about this was that the dress form was too small for the dress.  I had to pin it together in the back and make sure everything was proportional.

Roughly pinning together the new seams. I'm totally self taught, so forgive me if my terminology is off or if my process is totally weird or incorrect in any way. But I think I still get good results. Those two pieces of fabric pinned on the side will later become the bow for the bust.

After that, I sewed together the new seams as you see below, but the neckline is still open so that I can sew in the bow later.

This piece of fabric will eventually become part of the big bow detail

I still need to tack the bow in place in a couple of spots so you’ll see some pins and thread still sticking out, but this is basically the completed embellishment!  I decided to make the bow a little more abstracted than my original sketch, and I’m really happy with the results.  Its actually kind of similar to this other Jcrew Dress, but I think I like mine more =)

This was my first time using a dress form for any sewing project.  In the past I always struggled through flat patterning when making my clothes.  I’m so thankful Jenn let me borrow her dress form because it has made it so much easier to figure out what alterations need to be made and how and where and whatever.

And just as a reminder, here’s a picture from the Jcrew website to show you the dress in its original form

Oh yeah, and coincidentally, its May’s birthday today!  Happy birthday May!