Better late than never, hey! If you are jumping into this series here, don’t forget to catch up on parts one and two.
To ensure a calm environment, ensure you have almost no time to sew
Right, so back to the finale. Classically, I bit off way more than I could chew and ended up racing to the finish line on this one. Due to family circumstances, my generous four weeks of sewing time was cut down to one. This led to a pretty hectic week and some less than ideal sewing methods.
I wasn’t able to hunt up anyone to measure me accurately, so I did it myself. Lesson one: never do this. Turns out I made everything way too big. The fact that I didn’t have time to make a toile meant I discovered my error only days away from the big event.
Make dodgy alterations as you go to ensure the most flattering fit
I was nipping, tucking and redoing seams like a madwoman on Sunday, with our flight scheduled for the Tuesday night. I was still hand sewing the final sleeve edges and re-doing the zipper on Monday night. Honestly, a nightmare.
I realised that the bust was just too big, and other than completely ripping it apart, I wasn’t going to be able to salvage it very much in the time I had left. In the end I brought it in as much as I could without starting again and left it at that. I also had no time to make the matching fabric belt. Luckily I had a black one from Review that worked.
Wear it to the wedding and forget to take any photos in it.
Sorry, I really let you all down here. The wedding was such a whirlwind, I didn’t take any good photos of myself actually wearing it. I did throw myself in front of the official photographer on the night, so hopefully there’ll be a few there that I can share when they eventually come out. But I guess if you’re having too much fun to pull out your phone, that’s a good sign, right?
This has definitely been a more intense challenge than I expected. I’ve learnt the importance of getting your measurements done accurately, and taking time to make a toile when using a new pattern for the first time. But I’m happy with how things turned out. Over the Christmas break, I’m hoping to fix the bodice so it sits better and then enjoy swishing about in my 1930s inspired dress as long as the good weather holds.
