Vogue Couturier Designs 919 - The Finished Bridesmaid Dress

Hi everyone,
The photos from the wedding of my good friends Kris and Erin were finally posted on Facebook. Even with the light rain (which luckily held off for the ceremony) it was an amazing day! I'm so glad I could be a part of it. The wedding was held at the beautiful Crown Point Historic Site in Crown Point, NY. It's one of my favorite places for living history events and where the bride and groom have spent a great deal of time. Being re-enactors and have a great love of history, this location was perfect for them. I recently came across a great article online about weddings hosted at museums and historic sites. What a fantastic idea!

I should point out that none of the photos you are about to see,except for the first, are my own. There are by Jeff Weeks of Jeff Weeks Photography. He has some great photos on his Facebook page if you care to hop over and take a look.

So here's my finished bridesmaid dress! I used Vogue Couturier Designs 919. You can read about the construction of the dress here.

Photo by Jeff Weeks of Jeff Weeks Photography

Photo by Jeff Weeks of Jeff Weeks Photography

The night before the wedding, I put my hair in pin curls and left them in until just before we needed to change. I really liked my hair when I first took them out. Beautiful springy curls! Jeff snapped these picture which I think are really fun.

Photo by Jeff Weeks of Jeff Weeks Photography

Photo by Jeff Weeks of Jeff Weeks Photography

 

Sadly I brushed the curls a bit too much and that combined with the humidity left my hair very flat by the end of the day. Actually, I thought the curls were rather sad when the ceremony started but ah well, what are you going to do? Lesson learned. Erin's hair looked amazing all day and that was waaay more important. ;)

Here's the wedding party in front of the old stone barracks! All the girls wore different colors, including our shoes, which looked fantastic! Erin picked bright colored Gerber daisies which tied everything together really well. The groom and best man wore Hawaiian shirts.

Photo by Jeff Weeks of Jeff Weeks Photography

And of course one of Cori and I together. He was feel the vintage vibe and decided to wear his 1940s trousers from Morning Glorious Vintage, suspenders from Who is Sylvia? and thrifted vintage bow tie. His hat was a gift that day from his mom. Not sure the date of the hat but it's a great fedora style by Knox.

Photo by Jeff Weeks of Jeff Weeks Photography

I love the colors in this last photo with Erin and Becca. That's Lake Champlain in the background, by the way. A beautiful place to go if you ever need a simple vacation. That's all for now! I have a few more pictures on my Facebook page, including silly pictures of me dancing if you need a good laugh. :)

Don't forget! I'll be holding a giveaway soon in celebration of reaching 100 followers. I'd like to know what kind of things you all would like to see. You can vote here or leave your suggestions on my other post.

Photo by Jeff Weeks of Jeff Weeks Photography

Current Project - A Green Bridesmaid Dress

What  is everyone working on these days? My current sewing project, which I may have mentioned before, is a bridesmaid dress for my friend Erin's wedding. The wedding is June 8th so I really need to finish this soon! The three girls in the wedding will all be wearing different colored dresses and different colored shoes. My dress will be paired with bright pink shoes! :)

I'm using a vintage pattern for this project, Vogue Couturier Designs 919 pattern from 1952. 

I'm making the tea length version but the skirt will not be as fluffy as it looks on the pattern cover. For the most part the dress is going together rather well. The skirt is cut in four pieces - two front and two back - with a shear overlay that is gathered to fit the waist.

The bodice is proving the most difficult part. The bodice and bodice lining use the same pattern pieces with the exception of the bodice fronts. There is a separate left and right front that are pleated and overlapped at the center. This seemed easy enough at first but when it came to fitting the bodice I found I had to completely redo the pleats. After, of course, I had already carefully hand stitched them in place. ugh....

The very odd looking bodice front before pleating

In the pictures below you can see the left and right fronts along with the pattern pieces. I carefully remarked the pleats using a white fabric pencil and pinned them into place. 

Bodice left front

Bodice right front

The bodice right front overlaps the left. After I check the fit and stitch the pleats in place the bodice and bodice lining will be sewn right sides together along the top edge, flipped, and pressed.