Project wedding......Post 1

This is definitely my most ambitious project yet. My niece is getting married in 7 weeks and I was hoping to sew my gown and gowns for my girls and one of my baby nieces. Now guess what..... drum roll........ I'm sewing the bride's wedding gown. My first priority is getting her gown done, then my gown and then the kids. I shopped fabrics on Monday and picked up everything I needed. I already had the fabric for my gown and already have cut out part of the pattern. Yesterday I got started cutting out the silk and lace for the bridal gown.

Here are pics so far. I hope you enjoy watching the progress. BTW this is an ultra modest gown with sleeves and a high neckline.

Monday I went to the fashion district for fabrics and found this exquisite white lace with attached extra trim and ivory fabric for the lining of the lace. The bodice fabric is a stiffer silk/wool blend and the skirt under layer a satiny silk. The bodice fabric was really expensive, surprisingly more than the lace per yard. All in all I think I got a reasonable price for all the fabrics. The total had come out to over $550 and I told him I couldn't pay him a penny over $450. He hemmed and hawed about it and tried to pick out some cheaper lining fabrics for me but I stuck to my guns and he ended up accepting my offer for the fabrics I chose.

Here is a wide shot of the lace over the ivory.

closeup of the edge with the extra trim.

Here are all the fabrics together including the ivory tulle for the veil.

Now getting to work!

Laying out the lace pattern

sewing each pattern piece of the lace to the underlining for the bodice. I'm not going to do this for the skirt. The skirt will be separate layers so it will have more flow. The areas with the design were a breeze to sew through but it was a real pain in the neck to sew in between the designs as the tulle likes to shift.

This is as far as I got last night front bodice sewn to side princess piece and ironed. It looks fantabulous so far!