Bead Wars II: The Bodice Strikes Back

 My goodness! I've made a lot of progress since my last post!! Naturally, after I wrote the the bodice was done it wasn't. I tried to sew the "finished" bodice to the skirt front the next day and spent like 4 hours wishing I was a centipede trying to pin it to myself. I realized that the princess seams didn't quite line up and that the fit needed to be altered a bit. I thought about just saying "whatevs" and rolling with it, but I knew all of y'all would be at the wedding thinking, "Man she really could've done a little more to the top!" And I can't let you down!!!!

    

              

            Before Fixing                                                                   After

Long story short After 2 more days working with the bodice, I think it's finished. We'll see if there's an Episode III. And the dumb beads keep falling off!! I'm tempted to grab some super glue. Who knows maybe I'll get to that point.... Well, eventually I got the bodice pinned to the skirt. I'm terrified to sew it until I sew all of the pieces together because all of my tugging on the bodice while wearing and trying to pin it has made the lace pretty fragile. That night I ran around Mom's house wearing the front half of my dress like a bib-- bodice completely on with the front of the skirt hanging down in full-on apron style. It was the first real glimpse of the final dress that I got to see on me I just didn't want to take it off!    
                   

                                                             
When I leave Sandy's house after working on the dress the dining is room covered in beads, pins, scissors, lace, silk, thread, and pattern pieces looking like a small factory. We now have to cover the dining room table with a bed sheet because her cat, Cali, thinks it's an amazing idea to lay all over a couple "G's" worth of sewing and dress stuff. I literally have had nightmares that I will walk in one day and there will be a little "gift" all over my dress! Anyway, the first night we covered it, I left the dress laying out in large pieces and it actually started to look like a real dress!!!! As we pulled the sheet over everything I flashed back to 5-years old and said "IT'S CINDERELLA!!! I NEED SOME BIRDS!" It totally looked like the scene where the birds and mice are helping Cinderella sew her ball gown. So if y'all know of any mice that sew or any particularly helpful birds, please send them my way. A fairy godmother wouldn't hurt either. Thanks.

         

Cinderellie, Cinderellie.....

After realizing that Gus wan't coming, and the birds were probably busy I tackled some more beads. It looks like Teddy is the best I can hope for as far as non-human help goes... Anyway, I got ALL of the lace (which means ALL of the pattern pieces) cut out!!!! Last night I finished pulling off beads from the seam allowances (edges with 5/8" allocated for sewing the whole thing up) and tacking down the now loose threads/beads that need to stay and are connected to the rest of the beads. This means I finished both back train pieces!!!

I promise, he's helping.

Last train piece!!

               
      

                Lace Insert...with 12'' to spare.                                    Last piece?? Done.
                          Cutting it close!!

Last night, as I was watching the amazing "I love New York" benefit of VH1 for 9/11's 10th anniversary (and ugly-crying) I cut out the waterfall insert. Listening to those stories made me stop and think how lucky I am to be here getting ready for my wedding. So many of the men and women that died that day never got that chance, or to see their children getting ready for their weddings. It made me super thankful and in a way it made me feel like they were all suddenly a part of the train. Almost like every bead on the train represents the legacy of each of these heroic people.

 
     One train piece on the table                                             Train piece draped


Now I have to pull the beads off the insert, tack down the others, and pleat it before we can FINALLY start sewing everything together!! I couldn't be more excited!!! Stay tuned....

Looks like we're aaaalmost ready to start sewing.