We got together last weekend to work on the wedding dress. Here, more or less, is how that feat happened:

"Hi, are we still on for this weekend?"
   "Tom can't make it. He has Suzuki recitals all weekend."
"Ah. Well, Teresa can't be here, either. She'll be in Seattle, judging a barrista competition."
  "Ok. Well, when's the next time we'll all be together?"
"Not till June, I think."

Silence.

"We only have 14 weekends left until the wedding. We won't be able to get together for all of them. Maybe we should get together this weekend anyway."
  "Yeah, I think we better do what we can even if Teresa won't be there."

Jenny Drafting the Bodice Overlay Pattern

Alas, my car is bunk, and unreliable. And so it came to pass that Mary drove after work on Friday to pick me up after my work day was done, to bring me back to St. Paul, to put in some focused creativity time on the dress. It was a rainy, cold weekend, and Mary's workspace is bright and airy, with lots of big windows overlooking a lovely perennial garden and the street and sidewalk below. It was cozy and comfortable indoors, and felt really good to be working together on this beautiful project.

Saturday morning we set to work: we needed to draft patterns for the foofy layers that will go over the main skirt. We actually tried different pattern combinations with each layer, at first cutting several narrow pieces for the tulle layer, then moving to larger pieces and fewer of them for the next overlays. In the end, we realized that the larger pieces worked the best - that's really helpful because that will cut down on seams to sew and pieces to gather - a big time-saver. And probably makes a more elegant silhouette as well.

Ta Da!  Success!

On Saturday we realized that our mannequin was not up to her task - she began dropping screws out of her platform, and became so wobbly that we couldn't rely on her to hold up the dress any longer. To be fair, she was never meant to be used as a dressmaker's form - she was always a lightweight prop, asked to do more than she was capable of. We decided to pick up a real dressmaker's form, and got a good deal on a nice one from JoAnn's. So our woozy prop was given early retirement, and as I write, she is back home with me, holding up scarves for me to choose from as I wish. She's tipsy, it's true, but she doesn't give up!

Bodice with Overlay

Once our new, sturdy dressmaker's form was put together, we were able to put the bodice and skirt layers on the form and began to get a sense of how the pieces were going to work together. And they looked great! We got the bodice and skirt layers joined on Sunday morning, then spent some time playing around with appliques, and were very pleased with our progress.

Bodice with Appliques

Side View of Bodice

And let me just say, it's really amazing how beautiful cotton muslin, overlayed with repurposed polyester curtains can be! 

Draft Dress Side View

Draft Dress Back

Draft Dress Front