Vogue 2931

The Story: When we started a family, (wow can it be 27 years ago already?!), I was already dreaming of wedding dresses! 5 daughters later, I am finished my second gown and enjoying every minute of it. We always start with snoop shopping, and trying on wedding dresses. There are a LOT of wedding dresses out there! This dress is an amalgamation of aspects of a few different dresses and actually Erica’s vision never wavered from her original idea. Erica and Denis were married on May 2, 2009, and I wanted to wait until the photographers pics were up to write a review. They went up today, and that meant that I needed to scramble to get my thoughts and notes together! I apologize in advance for the lack of photos! I was working 2 fulltime jobs, and between that and getting the bridesmaid dresses, my dress, and Erica’s, it was a near miracle anything got done! I promise to document the next one (this August) better!
The Pattern: The dress was based enough on Vogue 2931 to own it. From the website: Fitted, lined dress has princess seams with bow and front bra, back invisible zipper closing and neck straps. Built-in foundation with boning, hook and eye tape closing. Floor length.

Sizing information: A(6-8-10), D(12-14-16), FW(18-20-22) I used size 6 and had to grade down significantly from that. Darn woman wears a size 2 or so. I’d hate her if she didn’t come from me!

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? I took the looks I wanted from this pattern. Those features were true as represented in the photo and drawings.

Were the instructions easy to follow? I didn’t really follow them, but they looked decent. I depended heavily on my own sewing skills and, of course, to Susan Khalje’s “Bridal Couture” and Susan E Andriks’ Bridal gowns. I find myself relying less and less on these as I go along, but for reference and “how in the world?” moments, they are invaluable.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? Nothing not to like. I was looking for a trumpet or mermaid shape, and this one fit the bill. I didn’t use the bodice at all.

Fabric Used: Silk Peau de Soie from L.A. Fabrics in Toronto, Ontario. Underlining was lightweight silk organza from Thaisilks. Lining was silk habotai from my stash. Heavily beaded trim was purchased from MJ Trim in New York City. Remember that trim. I am stealing it from the train to use on the next wedding dress. At 25$ a yard, it is quite simply the Dutch in me to stretch that trim as far as it will go!

Construction and Alteration Details. Truthfully, it was a pretty straightforward gown. From this pattern, I was mostly taking the skirt, minus the train. We saw a detachable train on a dress and decided to go with that idea. Just think – no bustling, just unhook and go!

Bodice: A basic strapless princess seamed bodice with vertical ruching. I used 4 layers of fabric. From inner most to outer- lining (which was handstitched to the dress), heavy interfacing – almost buckram like, base fabric, and the outer gathered fabric. The ruching was hand gathered and hand basted to the base. I gathered each section separately and carefully basted and stitched the sections together. There is boning in the base fabric – I believe I put in about 8 pieces. There is also a waist stay and I gave Erica some extra boob padding as well- she appreciated that!

The beading was hand stitched on to the bodice.  No Kate is not stitching! She is buttoning, and cursing me at the same time!  I cursed when I had to unbutton Erica at 2 in the morning.  Apparently Denis didn’t sign up for “unbuttoning 35million teeny buttons on my wedding night!”
Skirt: I added about 4 inches to the length, and after some email discussion with Summerset, used her method of underlining and finishing the seams at one time. The underlining was a *d*itch to keep in place, but I perservered. I did make a net petticoat to keep the skirt out and stiff, but we nixed that when we saw how “out and stiff” it would be. Instead, I had the idea to take stiff netting and, starting from where the flare begins at the knee, encase the netting in the lining, with more lining “lining” the netting. Clear as mud? Okay, picture this. From skin out- lining, netting lining, underlining and peau de soie. But the first lining, netting is only from the knees (flare) down. It gave the skirt some extra oomph without being to radical. I have no idea where I got that idea. Must have been one of those sleepless nights!
I used 1.5 inch horsehair for the hem. I think the hem is the only thing I do not like about this dress. It was not as perfect as I would like, and if I had a “do-over” I would rethink that part of the process.
Train. It’s a loonngg train! The photo is of the mockup, but you get the idea! I simply traced the desired shape and cut. Of course I practiced on some throw away fabric first! The train has a 6 inch inverted pleat at the top, and is lined with silk organza. I sewed a strip of horse hair in between the layers in order to add stability to the top edge. It is held to the dress by 6 hooks, with hand stitched eyes sewn under the bodice trim. There is no way on earth you could tell how the train was attached from just looking at it! The trim – which you cannot see in the photos, is the same trim as the bodice. It goes about 2/3 of the way around the base of the hem.
Zipper and trim: I hemmed and hawed about how to manage the zipper and buttons. I knew I wanted a full, operating zipper, but we also love those little self covered buttons. I also knew that they had to be operating – with loops. I could not picture them just sitting on the back of the dress. Just sitting!?! I just was not sure how to make it work. One night, I sat down with some buttons, some fabric, some loops and a zipper, and just played around. Note to all of you – play around. It makes you smart! Um- play around with fabric and buttons and such! I made it all look like what I wanted the finished product to be, and deconstructed from there. If you really want help with installing a zipper and functioning buttons/loops- drop me a message and I will talk you though it. If I get a chance I will write a tutorial on how to do it, but I really don’t know how many of you will ever want to go through that amount of trouble. The zipper was hand picked btw. I used 36 buttons as well. Do I even have a decent photo of the back?  Here at least is the mockup without buttons.

Bolero/shrug/shoulder cover: Erica saw something like this somewhere and fell in love with it. It took about 10 minutes to draft up and just a bit of fiddling with pleats to make it look right. There is a centre back seam, and you can see in the photo how I shaped it to get it to narrow under the arms. I also pleated the very ends and sewed a hook to the end as well as hand worked eyes just at the side seams to hold it in place. I made 2 hand made flowers and added a bit of beading from the trim to tie it all together.
We made a birdcage veil to add to the “heck why don’t we dress you from head to toe” scenario!

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? While I wouldn’t make this particular dress again, the whole “dressing your daughter for her wedding” thing seems to be a trend in our house. A trend I love, and, even though they laugh at me and call me “crazy Connie, our daughters love too! Sigh 2 down, 3 to go – and the next one less than 3 months away!

My beautiful darling!

And all of my darlings!

All of the professional shots are by  The Last Forty Percent.  Yes, we love them!

..and apologies for the editing disaster!  I am certain this version of WordPress is possessed!  It skips me all over the place, and will not allow me to change typeface at all!