1. Quest for the Dress

Welcome. This photoblog site is a history of the wedding dress that my mother made for me. The whole process from pattern selection through construction to complete ensemble lasted from January 2004 to the third week in April, 2004. The lesson and moral any and all viewers should take from this is, not only is my mom a hardcore seamstress, but she rocks. A lot. Thanks Mom!

2. Trying on Dresses

In July of 2003, my mother had surgery to remove scar tissue from her retina - a condition which would have blinded that eye if not corrected. Mom and I were both very excited about the dress project, but her healing process slowed from complications with her glaucoma. The medication she needed to control her pressure left her exhausted and disoriented, and she underwent another surgery. I tried on dresses at a well-known bridal barn, which here shall remian nameless, both to see what styles of dress suited me, and though I tried not to think too much about it at the time, to have a back-up plan in case Mom's eye didn't get better in time for her to make the dress.

3. Lessons from the Unnamed Bridal Barn

The dresses at that Unnamed Bridal Barn were all quite pretty, but most of them adhered to the style of "Big Froofy Dress". The skirts were quite heavy, and I knew they would prove cumbersome at a Las Vegas wedding. Mostly, they just weren't "me". Look at the picture: Is this a picture of a bride, or just some woman in a big white dress?

4. Picking Patterns

I waffled. Oh, how I waffled. Mom finally laid down a deadline of January 15th as the final day for me to pick a pattern. At first I was all about the strapless dresses. I was pretty sure I was going to go for strapless, so my mom started working on the Laughing Moon Silverado Corset to go under the strapless dress. Then I became convinced that the strapless wedding dress would look dated in the future because they were so terribly fashionable now. And, because nothing brings out body insecurities like a big white dress (BWD) I wondered if the strapless dresses didn't make my shoulders and upper arms look a bit big.

Then, I found Vogue Pattern 2134. It's a beautiful dress, and I loved it dearly. Except, I began to think it looked a lot like the dress of a friend who is getting married in October. I didn't want to steal her bridal style, so I asked my mother if we could use the top of Vogue 2627 and the slimmer skirt of 2134. The end result would basically be a strapless dress, with small decorative off-the-shoulder sleeves, and the pretty fabric detail from 2627.

5. January, 2004

Mom and the test version of the Laughing Moon Silverado Corset. She made muslin test versions of every aspect of the dress before she ever cut the material for the real thing.

6. February, 2004

Mom with my fit dummy Francesca. Francesca is wearing the finished version of the Silverado. Mom edged the seams in blue, for my "something blue".

7. Patternmaking

Those of you who don't sew may not know that Vogue offers some of the most challenging and intricate commercial patterns available. Combining two Vogue Patterns is no easy task. Mom had to alter a lot of pieces, and some pieces simply couldn't be combined, so she custom-made all new pieces. These are some of her many, many custom pieces. She used my step dad's old electronics draft paper.

8. Pattern Instructions

Even the pieces that did work unaltered had really complicated instructions.

9. Fitting the Muslins

Mom made two full test versions of the dress to make sure it fit perfectly. She used old bed sheets that she got from thrift stores or friends. The first muslin was made of various 1970s-era yellow sheets. The second was made from pink striped sheets she used to have on her bed when I was a kid.

Each time I would stand for a fitting of the muslin, Mom used markers to write adjustments and notes directly onto the fabric.

10. Finding the Fabric

Mom couldn't drive because of the medications she was on for her eye, and she lives 60 miles outside of L.A. I spent a lot of time going around to different fabric stores all over L.A. in search of the perfect off-white bridal satin. I took high-resolution digital pictures so that Mom could see what I'd found.

Unfortunately, by this point, I was so jazzed that I was going to have a couture-quality dress for a materials cost of about $300 that I went a little overboard. OK, I went bridal. I insisted that we use 100% silk for the gown. I believe I even uttered the phrase, "But I don't want to get married in polyester!" at the idea of using a polyester-backed silk-faced satin.

As a note of explanation, silk is beautiful, but it's difficult to work with. Satin is not a fiber of fabric, but a particular weave. The fabric fibers are "floated" on the backing to create the fabric's famous glowy luster. Polyester-backed silk satin, then, is a satin where the backing - the support for the floating threads - is polyester, but the shiny part that everyone sees is silk. Since silk is so slippy, having a more solid backing ain't such a bad thing. But I, caught up in my bridal power-trip, refused to get married in polyester. Much difficulty ensued from this hasty decision.

I did eventually find a lovely ivory 100% silk satin at a store downtown. Mom came down to see it and give final approval. I still hadn't found a lace that I liked, but while we were at the store, Mom and I found a lovely imported silk lace that exactly matched the satin. Mom bought a lighter silk for the lining, and a brownish color to put under the lace.

11. The Lace

Mom said that the lace would be much prettier if she removed the motifs from their original backing, and reassembled them on a new fabric backing for the lace panel in the dress. This is what the lace originally looked like. It took her 45 minutes to cut out each individual motif. Then, she sewed little faux pearl beads to the centers of some of the flowers.

12. Hundreds of Tiny Stitches

This is the back of the lace panel of the dress. Mom spent 3 weeks hand appliquéing the lace motifs to a panel of silk that she had custom-dyed brown. People may rant about how ridiculous it is to pay $25,000 for a couture dress, but now I don't think that price is so crazy. My mom spent 3 weeks hand-embroidering less than a third of a yard of fabric. Some couture dresses are covered in this sort of handwork, and the people who make them are experts in their field who are paid accordingly. The only reason the heavily embroidered Big White Dresses (BWDs) you see at various Bridal Barns are affordable for your average middle-class Josephine is because they are machine embroidered, and made in vast factories in China by people whose entire yearly income (or five-year income) would not be enough to purchase one of the BWDs they make.

13. Textile Art

This is the front of the lace panel. One day when my mother was working on it, I called and asked her how it was going. She was enthused and said "I've decided to view this panel as textile art! Wait till you see it."

I ashamed to admit that the phrase textile art made me very nervous. Mostly, it made me think of the art projects mom did when I was in middle school which consisted of giant canvasses covered with bright color blocks and geometric orange fish. When I saw the finished lace, I was sorry I'd ever doubted mom's artistic sense, though if you'd seen the orange geometric fish, you'd understand why I worried. Mom's art projects are always cool, but rarely subtle. And they often feature orange fish.

The picture here does not adequately capture the beauty of the lace. I spent at least 15 minutes looking at the lace and sighing. I still sigh when I see it. It is beautiful. It is art, and my mom is an artist, orange geometric fish and all.

14. Work in Progress

This is a picture of the dress in progress. Mom has tacked the lace panel in, but it is far from finished.

Remember how I mentioned that silk satin can be difficult to work with? My mother backed each piece of silk satin on this dress with a light-weight cotton fabric. She sewed the cotton and silk together by hand, because the silk wouldn't hold it's shape by itself, and to allow all stitching to be done into the underlining rather than the silk. We estimated that she probably sewed .25 of a mile of hand stitches in the dress.

Once she had the backing on, she was able to use the differential feed on her kickass Pfaf sewing machine to sew the pieces together. The differential feed is great because it feeds the fabric from the top, in addition to the feed dogs which feed the fabric through from the bottom. Because both pieces of fabric are being fed through at the same speed at the same time, you often don't even need to pin the fabric together before you sew it.

15. The Pissiest Cat on the Planet

Bandit, the Pissiest Cat on the Planet, (not to be confused with Terrence's cat Bandit, a.k.a. the Best.Cat.Ever.) often liked to hang out in the sewing room and watch us work. She didn't fool anyone, we all knew she was just waiting for the opportunity to jump up on the table and nap on 100% silk satin.

16. The only time anyone saw my shoes...

Oh no! My bridal shoes do not exactly match my bridal gown. My honey and I are doomed to divorce. Or something like that. I got the shoes at Off 5th for a great price. Originally, we had planned to applique lace onto the shoes. When we laid the lace over the shoes, neither Mom nor I were too impressed. Finally we decided that we just didn't care. This picture is probably the only time anyone ever saw or noticed my shoes. Mom hemmed the gown to fall exactly 0.75 inches above the floor.

17. A Word on Bridal Make-Up: Don't.

Everyone says a bride must wear bridal make-up on her wedding day. This necessitates a special trip to the make up counter where the bride must find products which will make her appear to be many things she is not: flawless, classically beautiful, glowingly well-rested.

I went to Sephora. I expected to look like a princess, but walked out looking like a drag queen. No, I'm joking. I love Sephora, and it's not their fault. A little research online taught me that some foundations with SPF reflect white in a camera flash. This is why it is a good idea for brides with evening weddings to choose a foundation with no SPF. I returned $60 worth of make-up to Sephora and bought some Loreal True Match at Rite-Aid for 9 bucks.

18. Power of the Press

Another thing about my beloved silk satin? It wrinkles like nobody's business. Mom spent a lot of time with her iron and her special ironing tools getting rid of the many, many wrinkles that plagued the dress. In this picture, she's pressing open the seams of the dress - just as genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, sewing often seems to be 99% pressing/prep and 1% actual sewing. Mom later stitched all the pressed seams down by hand.

19. Finished!

Here's a picture of me in the dress. It took about four months of work. I learned so much, and I have so many wonderful memories of all the time I got to spend with my mom. Thank you Mom!

Something for which I am even more intensely thankful is that my mom's eye has healed. It was almost a year, and she went through a lot. I know it was scary for her, and she was very brave. We are all so fortunate that she had such a great staff of doctors and nurses attending to her health. I know she talked about the dress to some of them, so if any of them happen to read this - Dr. Avaz, Dr. Yamaguchi, Nancy the Nurse - Thank you for taking such good care of her!

20. Jumping the Broom

My husband and I jumped the broom on May 1st, 2004.

That's all...

Of course, that's not all. The dress was just the beginning. I learned so much about sewing from my mother during this project, and I want to continue to learn. I am determined to become as good a seamstress as my mother because if I ever were to have a daughter, and if my daughter were to decide to get married, I would want to be able to give her the same wonderful wedding present my mother gave me.

Round the Clock Cleaners Messed Up My Dress.

I took the dress to get it cleaned and pressed for long-term storage, and Round the Clock Cleaners at 115 North Lake, Pasadena, CA 91101 damaged my dress. I made a blog about it. Check it Out. Why I hate Round the Clock Cleaners

Round the Clock Cleaners at 115 North Lake, Pasadena, CA 91101 ruined my clothes and cheated me out of $140. If you want dry cleaners in Pasadena, don't choose Round the Clock Cleaners as your dry cleaners. Read the blog to hear my story of how Round the Clock Cleaners damaged my wedding dress and ruined a vintage coat. Why I hate Round the Clock Cleaners

Here is the post: http://whyihateroundtheclockcleaners.blogspot.com/2007/02/dont-trust-round-clock-cleaners.html

Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners
Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners Pasadena California Round the Clock Cleaners Dry Cleaners