SMF x SCF: Summer Wedding

It’s wonderful to have weddings back and the opportunity to dress up again! Recently, Syreeta attended a client’s wedding and once she had taken care of her clients, it was her turn to shine. It’s safe to say that she absolutely nailed it!

What did you see design-wise in the pattern and fabric combination?
For this wedding, I worked on numerous garments for the bridal party, including alterations for the Bride’s gown and Maid of Honor gown and a custom commission for the Mother of the Bride.

Thus I was a low priority and didn’t begin considering what I would wear myself until very late in the game! I was such an afterthought in my own mind that I didn’t connect this post topic with my wedding attendance at first. But when I finally did (less than a week before the wedding 😅), I immediately hopped back on Sew Much Fabric to peruse. Because I worked with the bridal party, I luckily had a comfortable amount of insight into the ceremony colors & design, which helped me whittle choices down. And since I’d recently dyed my hair creative colors, I shifted down to a neutral color palette in order not to clash. I’m always a sucker for brocades, especially in abstract patterns, so this brown choice was perfect. I asked Roz to just pop it in the mail — no swatch needed — and I would make it work. In all of her awesomeness, she made it happen and the fabric arrived just in time for me to pull the look together. I finished it the night before the wedding!

When looking for sewing patterns, I was looking for simple yet chic. Working on a tight timeline, I didn’t want anything with tons of pattern pieces or finicky tailoring needs. I also opted against a gown because I would have to help out the day of. The wedding dress code was semi-formal, so that wasn’t completely necessary anyway. However, I don’t often wear shorter skirts, so this hemline was attractive to me!

If you saw my previous post, you know I’m a sucker for ties, so I quickly figured this element would be my focal point. I skipped cutting the original tie pattern piece and drafted a quick version of my own: extra long with a slanted edge. The Sew Much Fabric brocade was BEAUTIFUL beyond what showed online, and I recognized a gorgeous complementary “wrong” side that I used to face the back side of my ties. This gave a lovely contrast and additional shimmer to the look.

Sewing Tips
This pattern was very easy to sew up. However, the one thing I added was a skirt lining. The original pattern only included a facing, so I simply cut a second skirt front & back out of lining fabric and finished it to the outer fabric at the slit + hemmed it about 1″ shorter. I really prefer the cleanliness and extra stability that linings provide, but the fabric choice was an additional part of this decision. Brocades tend to have a rougher texture, especially when they feature a metallic thread, so the wearability was much nicer, with a smooth lining against the skin.

The triangle bodice portions of this pattern are cut on the bias. While pattern placing, we know it’s common to flip and rearrange pieces to allow the best use of fabric. To help with this, I transferred the grainline to the reverse side of the paper so I could still ensure the correct angle.

Always use your ruler and spot a few intervals down your grainline to ensure it’s the same distance from your selvage at each point. This is how you know your piece is accurate according to the grain of your fabric!

And one more tip for the triangle bodice… even with the bias cut on a woven, your piece may not shape perfectly around the bust. Especially with larger cup sizes, there can be gapping issues. To alleviate this, I used stay tape to slightly tighten the sides of the triangle before understitching. For some, this may be a good fit-check point before you trim your seam allowance or top stitch. Reshaping may be worthwhile.

Anything else you feel is important with your process?
Ties win again, as I’m sure I’ll play with tons of ways to wrap them when I wear the dress again & restyle in the future!

Keeping a decent stock of notions around also saved the day here. I was able to quickly dip into my stash to find a coordinating zipper and other bells & whistles to complete this garment. This saved the time and the stress of going to the store while short on time! My collection runs sort of deep — check out the prices on the hook & eyes and zipper! (Wish those were still accurate today. Lol.) There was also something very sweet about pulling small vintage notions into a look of this style. They won’t be very visible, but those little things are often the details that make us love sewing in the first place!