a long week

i got crazy and decided Monday night that i was going to try to make another dress in two days, to wear in time for my friend's wedding this Saturday (today). I bought gray and mustard yellow ponte knit when I was in LA last month, and since ponte knit is my new favorite material, I wanted to make a dress using both the yellow and gray. The top is from my evening gown I tried to finish before i graduated. let me tell you, ponte knit is amazing because it hugs to the body so well, while still being flattering. 

I had a hard time figuring out how to make the dress fancier for a wedding. Before the black roses and the ribbon, it was just a plain grey v-neck. I had no idea how to give it a little bit more umph, so that's when i called anna. 

anna is my sister. she lives in down town salt lake and loves clothing as much as I do. whenever we go shopping, we seem to buy the same items. we both have pointy oxfords, black capris from ann taylor, a liberty of london dress from target, the same short sleeved black coat from banana republic....the list goes on and on. you should see us during christmas shopping-- we become twins even though i have black hair and she is blonde (both died, however. our natural colors are exactly the same, so there ya go). anna loves all things with details like roses or ribbon. we both appreciate designers who make simple items seem special.

I called her up yesterday to come over and to help me with the dress and it's details. i asked her about the possibility of doing a giant gray bow above the waist yoke. She gave me that look that I know so well: the look of "you suggesting that is so funny and totally bizarre that i don't even know what to say to you" with a little chuckle. fine anna, you think of something. 

so we went to joanne's. we looked at one black lace trim that was so beautiful, but on a second look, it didn't seem quite fitting for the style of the dress. we looked at some black pleated ribbon trim that would echo the pleats of the skirt really well, but it was still too fancy still-- not the perfect balance between casual and fancy. went back and forth and back and forth at ribbons, sequins, pom-poms (not really), chains with tulle fringe, and we finally settled on making tulle roses to go up the neck on one side and stop at a shoulder. we then also decided on hand pleating a random pattern with ribbon around the neckline to meet the roses on either side. It was perfect, as you can see:

 

yes these roses are hand made. 

pleating on the skirt was hard to do, because I had to sew the skirt on top of the waist yoke, rather than right sides together where i could have just matched the raw edges. i had to totally guestimate the placement in the skirt and almost sew blind. i'd do it again though. it turned out great. 

love this dress. love love love. probably the best thing i've ever made.

going to california tomorrow with bridgette and anna for a week! will be sewing and will blog.