1st Communion Dress (Finale)

Cut from the detachable train of my wedding dress, this is my daughter's 1st Holy Communion dress.

Pattern: Vogue 7845

I removed the embellished lace trim from the hem of the train, and replaced it along the the hemline.

Along the neckline, I stitched small and medium pearl beads, using the bead placement from the hem as a guide.  You can see the neckline below. The veil was borrowed from her cousin.

Here is a view of the back.  The floor vent is giving the tulle netting underneath some "help", and the "poof" of the princess seamed dress is emphasized!

I absolutely love the way it turned out, and have to say that to anyone who can sew, you should give serious consideration to re-using your gown or parts of it for special occasion, heirloom pieces like this.  Having my daughter re-use my wedding dress in this form, made the day all the more important to her.  It wasn't particularly difficult, and extremely rewarding.  I can't think of another sewing project that will bring be so much joy... that is, until her wedding day!

Communion Dress Muslin

When I'm sewing for myself or my daughter, I really prefer to do "wearable" muslins, so I dug in the stash, and found the perfect fabric for this trial run.  It's the oldest fabric in my stash, a blue cotton from the early 90s. I bought it to make myself a dress, and never got around to it.  It's got a pretty tonal intermitten stitched design, and is a great weight for spring.  (Easter in Michigan can be snowy, you never know...)

I cut the size 7, which fits her perfectly in the waist.  My fitting concerns are:

1.  The length is about 5" more than where I'd like it to be.  No big surprise, she's petite.  Always has been, always will be.  This fitting issue is easily remedied, so no worries on this one.

2.  The waist is perfect.  Not too tight, not too roomy.  This falls in the "plus/bonus/celebrate" column.
3.  The chest is a tad bit roomy. When I pin out about 1/4", it's perfect.
4.  Will she grow in the next 3 months?

5.  If this is going to be a "family heirloom", should I do a perfect fit, or leave room for the future generation?

Unpinned bodice: Too roomy? I think so.

Pinned bodice.  Will it still fit in April?

Unpinned, Side View

With 5" pinned up to the desired length.  Ignore the socks.

I spread out the train on the worktable and placed the pattern pieces on it, with the 5" removal line marked.  There is plenty of space, so I'm not too worried about having enough fabric.  But, I am having some issues thinking through the details of the lace appliques and trim.  The front of the train has plenty of space for me to cut the front and side front pieces.

Thank God I covered the pool table!

Front pieces, lots of space, no problem!

I'm really attached to the idea of placing the large center back applique on the center back of her dress, keeping the seam intact, and moving her zipper to the side (under the arm).  Pattern placement says this is do-able, but introduced a new concern.  Will there be enough room beneath it for the beaded hem lace applique?  Will it be too much?  Should I eliminate one of the trims (big center back motif or hem lace)?  Another option would be to cut everything out of solid satin, then recreate the motif at center back using a couple of the smaller lace motifs combined. 

Back pieces, large CB motif featured below right.

My last issue (complaint) is the removal of the lace trim from the hem of the train.  I'm thinking that the right way to do it is to carefully remove the stitches and pull it away from the satin.  I'm very tempted to cut the trim off the satin, very close to the edge of the motif, and save myself some sanity.  But of course, there is the quick way... and then the right way!

Wrong side of hem with stitching of trim.  Yikes!

I will continue to think on this for a few days, and start removing the trim along the hem in the mean time.

In other news... yesterday I ran into Joann's for what may be the last time ever for fabric.  I just needed 2 linings, but also ended up grabbing some ribbon and flannel (kids need pj's, what can I say?).  The cutting line was a mile long, but we waited it out.  Then headed over to the register line... and that was 2 miles long.  I spent twice as much time in there just waiting, not shopping.  It's been that way for the last few months, and I'm pretty much fed up.  There are enough decent priced, quality fabric resources online, I'd rather spend the hour in my sewing room than in the stupid line waiting! Here's the 4 pairs of finished pj pants.  I'm getting pretty darn quick with these!

Parting Shot:  Little Man had to get into the picture action, too... so, he jumped up on the hemming block and posed with his new "warrior toys".  Such a tough guy...

An Unexpected Reaction

As we sat in church yesterday (after her first reconciliation) waiting for mass to end, I leaned over and quietly asked my sweet little girl, "Do you know what fabric I'm using for your Communion dress?  I'm going to use my wedding dress!" with a big smile on my face.

At which point she promptly started crying.  She thought that I would be sad to cut my dress, and didn't want to be the reason for my sadness.

What?! I thought she'd be excited (like me), and it never dawned on me that she wouldn't want to use it for her communion dress.  And then I remembered how disappointed I was that my mom cut up her wedding gown to make my older sister's baptismal gown, and that I never got to see either the dress in person, or the baptismal gown for that matter.  I suddenly realized that I never considered my daughter's feelings in my plans for one of the most special dresses in her life.  Crap.

When we got home, I opened up the garment bag, and spread out the dress and the train on my bed.  I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief seeing that the train is constructed with plenty of satin.  I don't know how to photograph it to show you, but there's the long train (lace cut outs) part, and it continues around to a shorter side (that faced into the back of my dress) and attached to the back of my dress.  See?

So, I called her in, and proceeded with extreme caution...
"Honey? First I need you to know that the most important thing to me is that you are happy.  I'm not sad to cut my dress for you, so please don't worry that it makes me sad to cut my wedding dress.  Someday, you'll be a grown-up, and you'll get married, and I think that you will want your very own dress.  But, maybe you might want to use part of my dress for yours. If you don't that's okay, too.  Maybe you'll want to buy your dress in a store.  We don't know what will happen, because it's very far away, right?" (I emphasized the "very far" part!) "Number 1 is that you are happy.  And I am not sad.  Got it?"  Head nod.  Ok, proceed...  oops.  The phone starts ringing.  I go answer it, which takes a few minutes, and when I return she ahs questions.  "Where did you get your dress?"  "It's so pretty..."  "Was it expensive?"  "You were so lucky to have such nice dress, Mom..."  Wow.  How did I get so lucky to have such an awesome kid?  I answer her questions, and can see the wheels turning.  She likes the fabric, the lace, the pearl beads...

"Ok, we have 3 options.  Are you ready?
Option 1: We don't cut any part of the dress or the train. We put it away and someday when you get married, maybe we'll use it, and maybe we won't.  But we'll make your Communion dress out of some other fabric."
"Option 2:  We don't cut the dress, but we use the train instead.  See? There's lots of fabric.  So much fabric, I could cover you from head to toe... twice."

She's under there.  Promise.

"And we'll put the dress part away.  Again, maybe we'll use it, maybe we won't.  And see the lace on the edge of the train?  We can use that on the bottom of your dress, too."

"Option 3:  We use both parts, and cut the dress and the train for your Communion dress.  I think that when you're a grown-up, you'll want a dress of your very own, but maybe I'm wrong."

"What do you think?"  There is a brief pause (the wheels are still turning, but I can tell, she knows what she wants), and says, "I think we should do Option 2, use the train, but not the dress."



Phew.  Compromise!  Works for me.  Everyone is happy, and when I show her the Vogue pattern, she starts telling me where the lace will go.  I love having a daughter, and I especially love having mine.

The underside of the train, where I'll cut most of her dress from.

Now, how to get started?  I'm thinking I'll start snipping the threads that are attaching all the trim at the hem.  I don't think I want to jump into making a muslin yet, the girl is still growing and April is a ways away!

In addition, my "flowergirl" (who is now a college freshman), gave DD her flowergirl dress for dress-up, but it's too small.  In excellent condition, we will use the over-skirt of pearl-studded tulle for her veil.  I think I'll edge it in satin, too...

As an aside... the embroidery business is in full swing, with about 65 sweatshirt orders.  Friday at school was fun, seeing teachers and students all over the building wearing my stuff!  I'm officially a trendsetter (in my little world)!

A Very Important Dress

I have a big project coming up for the spring, and my mind is already starting to be occupied with the daunting (but exciting) process...

Turning this:

into this, for my little girl's 1st Communion!

Vogue 7845

Where do I start??? With the skirt being gathered, I'm confident that there is plenty of fabric, not to mention that the detachable train supplies me with even more! Initially, I was thinking of using only the satin (and not using the beaded lace bodice of my dress), but now I'm wondering if that wouldn't be a good use of the little short sleeve over-jacket piece of the Vogue pattern?

Let me also say, my sister is very troubled that I cutting my dress up.  She's afraid that DD will want to wear it someday, but I'm confident that she'll want her own dress!  As nervous as I might sound, I'm really excited to share my wedding dress with DD in this way.  My anxiety comes from "I want it to be perfect!", not from "OMG... I'm cutting up my wedding dress!" (Ok, maybe just a little bit of the latter...)

Yes, I am posing in front of a firetruck on my wedding day...

I don't know if you can see, the skirt has a lot of fabric to use.  My initial thoughts were to use only the train, and not cut into the actual dress.  But, I forgot that the train has a lot of spots where the satin is cut out for the lace to show through.  But... it's a really big train, so maybe I can get around that? The skirt of the actual dress is all satin, with just a lace embellishment at center front, and the hem is trimmed in lace (all laces are beaded, too).

Obviously, I'm in the early stages here, just gathering my thoughts before grabbing the scissors.  If you have any experience in this process or advice to offer, please share!!! I've got until Easter (April), so there's plenty of time to do it right!