Saturday, August 30, 2008

Evelyn: More Sleeve Please!

I arrived at my second fitting to find my beloved looking kind of scraggly. She was the right length now, but she had threads hanging out all over the place and was stripped of the majority of her beautiful buttons.



Unless a dress advertised to be temple ready is purchased, in most cases an LDS bride has to choose whether she wants to go with a bolero or pay to have sleeves custom built into her dress. There are specific parts of the body that must be covered, as I spoke about here, and 99% of mainstream dresses do not fit the bill.

3 years ago I would have told you I was going to buy a bolero (yes I have been planning this thing for like 10 years), but I decided it wasn't for me. I think I also liked the challenge of finding a way to maintain the integrity of the dress while making it temple ready at the same time.

To create sleeves, A Bride Beautiful simply ordered some extra fabric from Watters when they ordered my dress. At my first fitting the seamstress and I discussed the look I was going for, and she was able to whip something up in just 2 days for me. I asked her to make sure that the V was high enough that I didn't have cleavage hanging out of my dress the entire day.



Here I am with my signature bun, modeling the mockup. Can you even tell what is new and what is old? This fitting had me so excited to see the final product.



We also agreed that little "modesty panels" as I like to call them, should be added around the armpit area and up near the bra line, so that I would be covered as I move around throughout the day. It was the only decision we made that took away from the asthetic of the dress a little bit, but I was willing to make the sacrifice.



I was instructed to come back the next day at closing time to pick up the finished product. Time couldn't go by fast enough!

7 comments:

Cate Subrosa said...

I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Anonymous said...

Your dress is looking beautiful so far!

Whitney R said...

I think your dress is beautiful. I love it! I think everything you have done looks great and you cant even tell.

Naturally Blessed said...

this is turning out great! you can really see how it will all blend seamlessly together when its all said and done. man, i can't wait to get alterations so i can see what the dress will REALLY look like on the wedding day. i am soooo excited about this part! i keep saying to my FI "i can't wait until u see me in my dress" LOL....

Erica said...

You look gorgeous! Your dress really accepted those additions well, kudos to your keen eye and your seamstress!

sherry said...

With the majority of wedding dresses having too little material and way too much skin showing, your dress is a refreshing change! It's beautiful and you appear to be every bit a lady. :o)

My daughter will most likely marry next summer. While not LDS, we are Christians and uphold modesty as lovely. She will be wearing a modest gown - already have an LDS wedding dress site bookmarked and a few dresses considered. :o)

Bless you.

Jenna said...

getmarried4less-How does he respond when you say that? Mine doesn't seem very excited to see me....

lady jane-Your words were kind and touching. Thank you for commenting and making my day.