Time Keeps On Ticking, Ticking, Ticking, Into the Future

Working out design details.

We've been working on the couture dress, putting in marathon work sessions several days in a row, getting a few hours sleep and going back to it, slugging coffees and lattes and breves and slamming sandwiches and late night margaritas. We have laughed a LOT, which is good, because we are all acutely aware of time slipping by, the wedding date ever nearer, the learning curve on making the dress steep and unforgiving at times. So laughing is really good. We're not taking ourselves too seriously. We're taking the dress seriously, but not ourselves.

Armed with the dressform, the patterns, the "muslin" makings,
we're ready to start!

Sewing the "muslin". (It's not muslin.
It's a high quality silky synthetic!)

Keeping pattern pieces in order.
Hoping to minimize confusion!

Teresa holding the train piece of the dress pattern.
That's 1/2 of the total train, by the way!

We're learning a bit more about each other. For instance, I was told I have a way of speaking that alerts Mary to the possibility of a snafoo. Apparently I say, "Ummmm...." in a high, wavery voice and follow it up with something potentially mind-numbing like, "Did you mean to design the train with a run all the way across the back of it?" Of course I was hoping that Mary did indeed mean to design it that way, perhaps envisioning a clever disguise for that portion of the dress, and that it was not the case that we somehow had not noticed a flaw in the dupioni until we had sewn most of it together. To be fair, the flaw looked like a deep crease in the fabric, and didn't really show up until I was ironing the freshly sewn seams. At which point I quietly started to panic. And say, "Ummm...."

In case you're wondering, we decided this particular flaw was not a good addition to the dress design, furthermore this flaw was quite unacceptable, and we ripped stitches and bought more dupioni (checked it first for flaws this time), and the flawed piece was relegated to lining, where its imperfections will not cast aspersions on our efforts. Take that, evil flawmeister!

I've been reminded again and again how sweet, smart, funny, talented, and beautiful my nieces are, and how terrific Mary and Steve are, and how lucky I am to be part of the wedding dress project. It takes my breath away, this gift they have given me. I really want to do my best to help it all go right.

So it bothered me a lot that I had to leave my fellow couturians early, and alas, we did not finish before going our separate ways. :( Not to worry though, for we are reuniting soonish, to put the final, really gorgeous plan together. :) It really is going to be gorgeous. I haven't seen anything like it on any wedding blog or wedding magazine yet. I can't wait to see it on Stephanie on her wedding day!

Teresa, cutting some of the filmy fabric that we decided against.

This brings me to some pics I took early in the process. These pics show Mary, Teresa and me working out the details on the fake wedding dress - the "muslin", and if you look closely you'll see Teresa cutting some of the filmy, sheer, synthetic material that we decided we would not use, not even as a lining. As I mentioned earlier, the learning curve has been steep.