Wedding Weekend - Saturday - Part 5 - the dress

     Yes "my Kate", Brandon went to visit Brent and Kayla last night and brought her camera home with him, so I could down load the 'before' pictures off of it and thus do this posting. :-D
    To all of you - Kayla had picked up a wedding dress that she totally LOVED, months before their original wedding date. But she wasn't into it yet by their moved ahead wedding date. And besides, while she really did LOVE most of the dress, she had always wanted one which laced up the back.... and the one she'd nabbed didn't... 
    We called a few people. Some didn't do that particular type of altering on wedding dresses. Others were not cost friendly. I agreed to take it on as long as (and that was ever so highly emphasized!!!) they would not get all mad at me if it didn't turn out quite like they had in mind, or if I out and out ruined the dress. They were convinced I would do fine. I wasn't so sure. But I was determined. And that my friends is often what makes all of the difference! (insert head nod here)

    Here is a picture of the upper front of the dress before I got started. Then again, I didn't do any alterations to this part...
     (reminder, you can click on the pictures to see them larger...)

     Here is a picture of the full back of the dress shortly before I got started.

    Another "before" picture of the back -

    (don't know what's up with the lighting / coloring)
  And another -

(I'm wondering about the dates on those pictures.... it was August when I was working on this dress!!!)

    Kayla had loaned me her little camera (since ours still has not shown up) so I could take process pictures. I was very unfamiliar with her type of camera. And nobody was ever home as I was making progress on the dress.... So I took some shots, then heck if I know what button I accidentally  pushed which made the flash ALWAYS work - and ruined some good shots. And then in my process of trying to figure out how to deactivate that, I activated something else.... and in trying to figure that out, the batteries died.... BOTHER!!!
    But I had a dress to make both wearable and bride thrill-able, and a very short time in which to do so, I could NOT slow down and wait for a camera!!!
     So therefore, I can't show you how I took off a whole bunch of "do dad's" (similar to this)

    [which by the way, were sewn on with both white thread AND fishing line. Yup, Ms. Vertigo here, was trying to remove these sparklie little do-dads, which had been applied to the dress via invisible fishing line. Oh   My   Goodness!!!! ],
    so that I could remove one of the two flowing looking satin ribbon pieces (like you can see here)
[there were two different satin' ribbons' down the length of the dress. I did NOT remove one from one side of the dress! ;-p]

    Then repair and resew on most of the removed do-dad's, so that I could cut the satin strip into sections, attach the sections together in rows, and sew it on to the back of the dress in the area left exposed when the dress is not zipped up. I was able to do so and totally conceal one side of the zipper (no, removing it was not an option. Have you ever looked inside the back of a wedding dress. YOWSAH!!!). And I thought I had figured out a way to conceal the other side as well. I had even called Amy and had her pick up little white hook and eyes for me. Got some of them sewn on, only to figure out that this plan was simply NOT going to work. Bother!!! Which not only meant that I had to remove the little hooks and eyes, but also, for reasons I still don't totally 'get', I also had to remove all of the tiny little pearls and shiny beads (two rows worth) which I had already sewn on to the top of the new back piece, so that it looked like it had been there the whole time.     Took a deep breath. And another. Walked away and had a Pepsi (was not about to spill on that dress!!!!!!!). 'Nother big breath. And went to work again.
    (Actually, this whole thing was a multi-day process, during which there were lots of deep breaths and glasses of Pepsi... o;->)
    I had also used some of that fabric to make fourteen little loops (with pearls and beads sewn along the top of each), which I attached seven to each side of the opening in the back (as I was also connecting the fabric) to use to lace the dress up with.
     Man, I hope all of this is making sense to you guys!
   
    I then cut a couple of inches off of the bottom of the front of the dress. Kayla did not want to have to be concerned about not tripping on her dress! And besides, she had bought shiny new shoes for the occasion ;-> I used that length to make the ribbon for lacing the dress. And yes, I sewed some pearls and shiny things to the very tips of that as well.
   Sewing the pearls and shiny things on, is a process! Take a miniscule stitch, thread two beads onto the thread. Take another miniscule stitch. Repeat process. Repeat process. Repeat process. Till your eyes can't see the little holes and your going totally by feel of the needle.
   Then I had to rehem the front of the dress. Thankfully that was machine stitchable. As was hemming up the four inner layers of the dress.

    I got all but the beads sewn onto the tip of the lace up before Brent and Kayla came for the final "let's see how it looks / try it on" time.
    I had it hanging in the upper stairwell when they got there. They started up the steps while I was greeting their dogs. ;-p.  Brent got as far up as the landing and looked back to say "Thanks Mom!"  I asked, "does she like it"  He answered, "She's beaming ear to ear"  "Thank-you Lord!!!"
    My mom use to tell me that I had an over abundance of imagination. I think I used every ounce of it in re-doing that dress!!!  I thanked (Thank!) the Lord for so blessing me!!!

     If somebody were to look extremely closely, they would find one side of the zipper in amongst the loops on the back. But they would have to really be looking to spot it, and nobody did! :->

   They took the dress to the cleaners to have it cleaned after I was finished, which in turn removed all of the little holes from where the satin 'ribbon' use to be, etc.. Turned out, due to the type of 'do-dads' on the dress, the cleaners had to hand wash it, and thus it cost $90.00 to have it cleaned! Considerably more than they had paid for the dress originally.

    Here is a picture Kayla took with her cell phone, of the top of the altered back off the dress.

          (the lacing is pulled tight in this picture)

    And here are a couple Kayla's sister Hanna had taken at the wedding.

(I can not figure out how to get our new photo program to zoom in on a picture :-{  Byron, next time your here..... )

and during the ceremony-

and afterwords -

    This concludes my tale of altering Kayla's wedding dress for her. It took awhile for my eyes to recover from all of that. But a thrilled daughter-in-love and proud son made it worth it!!! ;->

;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~   
You might also enjoy these postings -
- - Part 1 - the cake('s)

- - Part 2 - the tux's

- - Part 3 - the flowers    

- - Part 4 -  the decorated church


as well as - 'The Reception We Hosted, Part 1'

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to:
 ~ "the simple things", are hosted by Rebecca, at 'simple as that' (http://rebeccacooper.blogspot.com/). 
  ~ "Amaze Me Monday('s)", are hosted by Carrie, at 'Dittle Dattle' (http://dittledattle.blogspot.com/).
  ~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)'  (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Soli Deo Gloria" (Latin = "For the Glory of God Alone"), is hosted by Jen, at 'Finding Heaven One Step At A Time' (http://findingheaventoday.blogspot.com/).
   ~ "walk with Him Wednesdays", are hosted by Ann, at 'A Holy Experience' (http://www.aholyexperience.com/).
~  "Coffee Talk Friday('s)", hosted by Vic, at 'For The Love Of Blogs' (http://forblogs.blogspot.com).
  ~ "Inspiration Friday('s)", are hosted by Vanessa and Heather, 'At The Picket Fence' (http://www.atthepicketfence.com/).

and then nest spring -
 ~ "To Have and To Hold, Wedding Blog Party", hosted every June by Stephanie, at 'Angelic Accents' (http://angelicaccents.blogspot.com).