Tuesday, July 26, 2011

From the 1930's to 2011

A wonderful young women from church asked me if I could alter her grandmothers gown for her May wedding.  Above is a picture of the gown, circa 1930's.  Below is a picture of her on her wedding day.
                              
This was very nerve wracking for me.  I mean this is an antique!  I kept asking her "are you sure you want me to cut it?"  Before I did anything I took specific pictures of the areas I needed to alter so I could remember how it was put together once I took things apart.  Since the new bride was a bit more busty and taller than her grandmother I needed to do quite a bit of altering.  The dress did not have a lot of extra fabric in the seam allowances so I actually had to make the train shorter to have extra fabric.  I used that fabric to remake the piece that ran around the top of the bodice.  I used the old piece that I removed to add material to both sides of the back.   I purchased new button tape and replaced the old and put the 34 buttons back on.  I also had to add inches to the bottom so I bought an off white satin and cut a 5 inch strip on the bias, folded it in half and sewed that on the bottom of the gown.  

The biggest problem I had was that the 'bride to be' moved to California where her fiance, now husband lives.   I only had a few fittings and had to do quite a bit of the altering without an actual body!  I seriously did a lot of praying when I was working on that dress.  Especially while I was sewing all those buttons on and hoping it would fit!

The dress turned out great and she was a beautiful bride.  All the while I was working on this gown my daughter away at college was also making a wedding gown for a friend although she made hers from scratch.  She did an amazing job.  I am so proud of her!  You can take a look here


Blessings!

9 comments:

9patchnurse said...

Wow! Great job. You and your daughter are awesome.

FABBY'S LIVING said...

This is so wonderful to use her grandmother's dress, wow! You did a fabulous job and she looks gorgeous! My mil had her wedding dress, (1940) made into a baby's Christening gown, so all her children, her grandchildren and some great- grands wore this small gown for their Baptisms. You gave me an idea for a post with the little French silk, now, baby gown. Hugs,
FABBY

Miss Kitty said...

Your prayers were answered! The bride and the dress are beautiful. I did a re-make of a 1980's wedding dress for a bride a few months ago. It was hard to cut it apart for me so I KNOW cutting a 1930's era dress was even more scary...no going back.

Life With Lucy said...

So beautiful! You did such a great job!

Terri @ A Creative Princess said...

How beautiful Kathleen! You did a great job and are a very brave girl to take on such a task!!

Abby said...

You did an amazing job! What a beautiful dress.

Unknown said...

Wow what a great job you did! It would make me nervous too. I love the idea of making your wedding dress by redoing a family member's.
Stop by and share at the link party going on right now at Lines Across My Face.
:)Rachel
http://linesacrossmyface.blogspot.com/2011/08/cure-for-common-monday-3-craft-link.html

Michelle @ Delicate Construction said...

Amazing!! That is so impressive. I am visiting from Lines Across My Face and I am a new follower!!! Hope you are having a great day and I see you around soon!!
Michelle
www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com

Brooke said...

Holy cow! That's an amazing alterations update. You did a wonderful job

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