Boy, once the wedding was over I thought life would slow down. NOT! So, long after the fact, here are pictures of the finished dress. Like almost every other woman I know, I wish I was my younger, slimmer self, but all in all, I was pleased with how it came out. I sewed on it right up to the night before the wedding. Apparently starting 7 weeks early wasn't quite enough. Or, perhaps it's that old adage that a job always expands to fill the time allotted.
This has to be one of the most complicated garments I have ever made. It required a lot of hand-basting of the lace and silk chiffon layers to each other before any construction seam could be attempted. After that it was pretty straight forward. It wasn't as hard as a tailored jacket but the bustier was tricky. I kept allowing too much ease for the boning. I had to remove the boning pockets twice, take in the seams, replace the pockets and the boning and check the fit. I still could have made it tighter but adding a waist stay ribbon made it close enough. I think the bustier alone took me about 3 1/2 weeks working on it off and on.
The wedding day turned out perfectly. Even better than the dress. We're taking it as a good omen for the rest of our days together.
