The Wedding Dress

When my daughter asked me to make her wedding dress, what other answer could there possibly be but YES!!!? Never mind that I'd never made a wedding dress before, or that she and I live on different continents.

The process:

• 19 months Before Wedding: Em tries on dresses from bridal stores and picks the various features she likes.
• 12 months BW: I draw a new pattern, combining features from four different commercial patterns.
• 8 months BW: the muslin version fits!
• 7 months BW: the first silk version doesn't fit, but no problem, because Em moves in with us while working out visa issues.
• 5 months BW: sewing machine breaks; new part has to be ordered from Switzerland. Can't wait for that, so I buy a whole new machine.
• 4 months BW: learning to use the new machine.
• 3 months BW: despair sets in somewhere around the fifth silk version that still doesn't fit, but in different places. I get a tip from a costume designer friend about the wonders of fabric glue.
• 1 month BW: we consider buying a dress off the rack but reject that idea because I'd have to alter it, since it's now too late to hire anyone else.
• 2 weeks BW: the eighth version fits!

Biggest challenge:
Combining a size 14 bodice with a size 8 skirt in a smooth seam.

How I fixed it:
I trimmed the sides of the bodice and added a chiffon band that connected to the back waist.