first attempt at pattern–>dress~!

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to celebrate the joyous wedding of one of my small group leaders from Penn State. Words cannot describe how much of an amazing influence she had on my spiritual walk and growth. Not only were we able to talk about discovering God’s role in our lives, discipleship and community on our one-on-ones, we also shared snippets of our lives that included relationships, friendships, and of course, school.

our small group (throwback to freshman year xD) ❤

Since leaving PSU, both of us have moved onto other things in our lives–me, medical school in Philly and her, being a blessing to others with the campus ministry in Virginia. When I found about her and J’s engagement, I spent a good 10 min screaming in happiness and then another 10 jumping off the walls in anticipation of their wedding (!!).

Fast forward a couple months, and D is now married (AHHH!!). Their wedding was one of most amazing, hilarious and energetic weddings I’ve ever attended.  I didn’t realize how much I missed the AACF community, but the wedding was a reminder of how much I love these brothers and sisters 🙂 It was SO good seeing AACFers again and catch up on each others lives. Eating, laughing, dancing together again–what more could you ask for? 

Members of table 10, who are now SENIORS!! (crazy how time flies)

Anyways, I needed a dress for the wedding and just like senior banquet, I used the event as an excuse to practice my sewing. This time, I wanted to actually sew a dress that wasn’t held together only by safety pins, since 1) I knew there would be dancing and much more movement than senior banquet and 2) I had time! 

I found an amazing site that gives you FREE fixed size patterns to print out, and a huge selection of dresses. I’m not the fixed size, but I figured the pattern was a good starting point. 

The pattern with the leftover scraps after I cut the fabric

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the fabric before. It was another one of my thift store hauls ($3!!),  and I bought it bc I couldn’t resist the super satin-y feel and gorgeous deep red color. I’m pretty sure it used to be a bed sheet, but hey, as long as I can cut and sew it, fabric is fabric 😛 

All the sewing was done Wednesday before the wedding. Most of the time spent on the dress was in arranging the pattern, marking the fabric, then finishing up the dress so it fit. The actual seams were actually not as bad as I thought–yay for patterned instructions!

Some pictures of the process:

I got lazy so used a permanent marker to mark my sewing points, but  this is an example of why that is a bad idea ^__^”  Oh well; this seam was hidden inside so no one saw it 🙂

A lot of time was spent altering the seams so the dress fit– white line = original; red/yellow thread is the final seam (i ran out of white haha)

And finally, 5 hours later, the finished product!

I’m so glad the zipper installation went ok– I was so scared I was going to screw up  because you can’t hide the zipper >__<

Finished dress with leftover scraps in the background

The dress is a great base, but since I had leftover fabric anyways, I decided to add ruffly-embellishments to the neck/chest area. Unfortunately, did not get around to sewing it on, but thats what safety pins are for ;D (so I guess yes, I did have to use SOME safety pins for this :P)

FINAL finished product:

With Penn State (and current) roomies ❤ 😀

close up of the neck/chest wrapping, with the beautiful M~

CONGRATULATIONS again to D & J! Many blessings for your marriage and future together– you guys are perfect for each other ❤ 😀