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from a hot mess to the perfect dress...follow the adventure as the old lady and I attempt to make my wedding dress.







Saturday, September 17, 2011

Come on ride that train

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a train! I finished it yesterday. Last week I got it to the point that everything was done except the lace insert. It took a good while to get everything to the point that I could finally set it in, but it actually happened! It's always nerve-wracking to get to this point because I'm always worried that it just won't look the way I intended. I ran into a girl I was in fashin classes with at Auburn and we laughed because with projects in school, it was extremely rare that something would turn out well.
Train on the loveseat. This thing is HUGE!
Before setting in the insert. Excuse the bulge in the center--it's where the zipper goes.

TRAIN!!! The only thing left is to put eyelash on the hem of the lace and hem the silk. My math skills strink and I didn't get enough eyelash so I have to order more.
See?! What a jerk.
I think the only thing I ever looooved that I did was my "The Root of All Evil" dress. It was made out of Iraqi Dinar (money)for the International Textile and Apparel Association's design competition. I made it because I hate money-it causes so many problems and makes people do terrible things. So I wanted it to have an evil-antagonist feel, very Cruella Deville and it actually did turn out that way! It was a really great experience because as I was putting it together it just started to make sense on an emotional level. The bodice began falling apart, to put it in context this was 2006, and I thought about how everything in Iraq was just falling apart and the chaos of the former regime had risen to the surface. The skirt, on the other hand, was very shiny and pretty, not to mention that it was made from the purple bills with Saddam's face on them, so it was highly indicative of Saddam's regime whre everything seemed fine on the surface. Anyway, this dress being made of paper is probaby what made the difference of it turning out to be (almost) exactly what I invisioned.



 Just so you know, the decision to use Dinar was not from my desire to make a social statement but because it being a retired currency made it legal for me to deface it, the colors are beautiful, and it was the cheapest option. Except that when I was trying to get some I found out that it was now a collector's item and crazy people wanted me to pay $1 per note. So I stuck it to the man and blew up high resolution images of the Dinar in Illustrator and had the techies in the library print them on a ginormous flat-bed printer. Then I glazed them with some plastic stuff, and used an x-acto to cut them out. I was sure that the CIA was going to bust down the door of my ghetto college apartment at any minute!! Luckily, I did not go to prison. I won first place in the Auburn division of the competiton and the dress was displayed in L.A.! While my wedding dress won't be displayed for 2 weeks and I won't win a prize for it, it is definitely going to replace the money dress as the best thing I've ever made! I'm actually kind of amazed that I have been able to do it and that it looks this good. I guess it makes a difference when you don't cut it out and start on it the night before it's due. Not that that EVER happened ...more that once...

 I'm going to go ahead and attribute this success to Adderall, all the things I learned from Ilaine Hartman and team in New Orleans (designer of all the Mardi Gras high-society queens' ball gowns) during my internship, and the pressure that everyone knows I did this-- it's not like I can blame it on David's Bridal if something goes wrong. I'm just soooo glad it's going well! I had "Come On Ride That Train" stuck in my head all day yesterday and I may or may not have run around Sandy's house holding the back of my dess to myself singing the song, and doing the Bankhead bounce. Yeah, you're welcome for the fond and ridiculous memories of that 90's dance move! We're going to try to sew up the whole thing today. We have to finish the edges (which means that we use a stitch on the edges of the fabric to keep it from unraveling) of at least the bottom of the dress because it won't be directly attached to the lining because the crinoline (puffy petticoat to make the bottom of the stress stick out) will go between the lining and the actual dress. And we have to figure out how in the world you make a crinoline. Yikes. I'm seriously thinknig about using the green St. Patty's tutu as part of the crinoline. Except I kind of mant to be Tinkerbell for halloween.....decisions, decisions...... Dont you think Charlie would be an adoreable Peter Pan?! And all the groomsmen should be the lost boys. Well, they kind of already are.  Pants, Wallace, Sean, I'm talking to you!!

 I'll keep you posted.

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