Project Bridesmaids

This summer holiday has very much been defined by 1. the olympics and 2. bridesmaids dresses!

I was so honoured to be asked by my friend Jess to be a bridesmaid, and even more honoured to be trusted with the task of creating our outfits.

There are five of us altogether, but Jess was happy for us all to have our own style dress rather than forcing us all to match and after some consultation of bridesmaids dress websites we all came up with our designs.

here is my rough sketching of the first 4 to work out the designs in my mind

I decided to make the dress patterns too. In one way this is a lot of work for me, but i think even with commercial patterns it is difficult to get a good fit sometimes and they can also be expensive and a headache. It also means that I can use similar features in the patterns, even though the dresses are all different, and so hopefully we will look fairly co-ordinated. I really enjoy drawing patterns and was really up for this task. I only hope my skills are adequate!

my file is crammed with block and pattern pieces

The fabric came from singapore where Jess was living and met William so I think that will be lovely to have us in a fabric from there. It is so beautiful - a green/blue dupion silk. I am really looking forward to getting started on the dressmaking!! 

We also have this great fur fabric for stoles! the wedding is in january i must add so it's going to be perfect!

And i am pleased with my progress so far. I have three of five toiles made now and although it is hard to tell until they are tried on, i am pleased with how they are looking.

lovely gingham curtain came in useful 

I am anticipating there will be some alterations necessary but hope that I am on the right track! I am very exciting to have a fitting soon to see how they look - it is so hard to tell with them just on hangers.

I haven't made a toile for my dress yet, but i think I will adapt my poppy and daisy high waisted dress pattern for a dress for me as really like wearing this style, and also will help balance our designs out a bit too. This means that I can probably make a start sewing the silk for mine quite soon. I'm excited to get to that next step! 

Yours maidenly,
Emilia. xxx