Cassie wanted her three cousins, my brother’s three daughters, to be her bridesmaids; and look how beautiful they are! It was so much fun and a totally lovely and enjoyable experience for me to make these dresses for my gorgeous nieces. I’d occasionally made little things for them when they were tiny, but truthfully it’s been a while. It made me very happy to create lovely things for them, and for Cassie’s special day too 🙂
We had lots of discussions about the dresses; initially we were thinking of the traditional identical dresses, but thinking on it further, the idea of different dresses seemed a lot more practical. Three sisters, who can and often do! borrow each other’s clothes, would find a lot more use for three different dresses, than three identical dresses. And everyone wants for the bridesmaids to get further use from the dresses!
We did however, make the dresses the “same” in the sense that I used the same pattern for each dress. Namely; view B of Simplicity 1195. This is actually just the “slip” designed to be worn underneath the “proper” lace overdresses of the pattern, but it gave us the perfect, spaghetti-strapped, princess seamed bodice with a nice twirl-irific A-line skirt that we were hunting for. Side note; it’s amazing how a lovely simple basic pattern like this is actually quite rare; we searched ALL the pattern books and this was basically the only one that fit the bill! Amazing!!
Even then, it still needed a few tweaks… the pattern is actually a little drop-waisted and the girls wanted a true waist seam. Luckily, a very easy adjustment. Also I made each dress to be fully lined, obviously. And the pattern runs quite large; I traced out the correct size for each girl and it was really quite baggy; I had pin in all the seams quite aggressively to get the bodice to fit.
I wanted the three dresses to look the same on each girl, so I made muslins for each one to perfect the fit. My Mum early on said; it’s going to be so easy to make their dresses because they’re all the same size!! And I was immediately like; No Mum, they are NOT the same size! Mum; But they wear each other’s clothes all the time! Yes, they can wear each clothes reasonably easily; which is great! because I love the thought that they are going to be able to swap and wear each other’s dresses in the future. But that does not mean they have the same bodies, because they are actually very different, sharing none of the same measurements.
So I made three muslins too. I hardly ever make muslins, only for the most important of important-est of items. So this is a stupendous honour, just so you know 😉
Fabrics! All the dress fabrics were bought at Fabulous Fabrics. We had a great fun morning searching for the perfect colours … well; I actually left the four girls to play with fabrics and make their choices while I happily browsed fabrics and pattern books by myself. And just handed over the credit card at the appropriate time. And successfully managed to not buy anything for myself at the same time! A very good day! Cassie had made a mood board for her wedding, and chose the three colours from those on her board.
Also, it’s funny; but finding the matching lining fabric for each colour was almost as as much of a hunt as anything else! We found the perfect yellow lining fabric at Fabulous Fabrics at the same time as we bought the dress fabrics, but not any of the other colours … I eventually found a good sage green match at Spotlight, and the pink dress is actually lined with ivory lining fabric, that I had already in my stash. All three matching invisible zips I found at Spotlight.
T’s dress, in sage green; and J’s dress, in golden yellow are made in the same crepe-back satin as each other, and the pink fabric for C’s dress is a much lighter weight, slightly crinkly crepe. Cassie was quite worried that the pink was a different fabric but it was exactly the right colour so I assured her we could make it work. And it worked out absolutely fine, of course! Because it is a much more lightweight fabric with a tiny amount of crinkle-based stretch to it, I did need to make a few changes to the construction technique of this one… for example; to stabilise the bodice of the pink dress, I constructed it so the lining plays a far more structural role with the dress/lining sewn firmly together at the waist seam as well as at the top edge.
Also, the pink spaghetti straps had a slightly elastic quality, and I did NOT want for them to stretch out over wear obviously!, so I threaded a length of cotton crewel thread through the straps, and stitched it to the straps themselves very firmly at the bodice junction; so this behaves like an ersatz “backbone” that provides hidden support and stops the straps from stretching. Just a little secret tip/trick that no one would ever know!
I also took the step of hand-basting the seam allowances of the pink bodice down after grading. I can’t explain exactly why I chose to take this extra step, just call it a hunch about a difficult fabric.
The green and yellow satin-backed crepe is a far more stable fabric, so these dresses have the more traditional lined dress construction, with dress and lining free from each other from top edge down.
I attached ribbon hanging loops to the waistband of each dress; this was leftover ribbon from my stash.
It was a lot of work making the three dresses, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! the fact that they were three different colours made it so much more enjoyable than if they had been the same, I think. I machine-stitched the lining hems, and I want to give a big shout-out to Cassie who then hand-hemmed the dresses themselves for me. This is always a much huge-er job than you originally anticipate, so I’m so grateful that she stepped in and took over this important, and arguably rather fiddly part of the process. Thanks, darling!
These are the bouquets for the wedding, constructed by Daisy Hill Flowers… aren’t they the most stunning?!! I was blown away when they were delivered! And I love how the colours of the girls are selected in the bouquets too.
Daisy Hill Flowers also decorated the wedding cake. The wedding cake was a doughnut cake! made by Krispy Kreme! this was what D, Cassie’s new husband wanted. His one request, as it were… 😉 I think it turned out absolutely gorgeous, and the doughnuts were delicious too!
Cassie made the cake stand herself … she searched and searched for a nice stand online and in stores but nothing was just right. So, she made it herself, as you do. Or should I say, as we do?! She’s such a product of her family…!! Sam took her to the Men’s Shed one day; he does a lot of woodworking projects there, and she cut out the rounds. She brought them around to our place, where she painted them all white, and then got the perspex rod cut into the appropriate length, and drilled and screwed them together. Bam! I’m so proud of my resourceful and clever daughter…
Carolyn, just stunning! The colours compliment each other and the simple style is perfection. I also love the shoes and flowers with these dresses. Can’t wait to see the bridal gown now that you’ve given us this delicious ‘entree’ !!
Thankyou for brightening up these dark days.
The dresses are lovely. As a child, my mother took me to the Australian Ballet to see traditional repertoire. There were always scenes were the Corp de ballet were villagers at a wedding. They wore ballerina length gowns in a range of colours and I could never decide which was most beautiful. But thinking that over was a reverie like your post.
I was married 30 years ago and had both roses and flannel flowers in my bouquet so loved the native mixed with exotic flowers.
So glad you saved these posts until now. Beautiful work
Stunningly beautiful dresses in their simplistic lines but not just a throw-together in their construction! Your meticulous attention to simple detail is inspiring. You can be very proud Carolyn!
What beautiful girls and love the different colours. I don’t think I would have the patience to do everything you did. Stunning.
These dresses are most beautiful, Carolyn! Your nieces look so happy and beautiful in them. It’s unbelievable that there are so few basic dress patterns like this one.I love the line and drape of these dresses, the fit on every niece is spot on and the colours compliment their types. It surely was delightful looking at these beauties supporting your beautiful daughter! (Can’t wait seeing the bride’s dress!)
What beautiful dresses. I look forward to seeing your daughter on her special day and I’m so pleased to hear it all went ahead and went well. So much uncertainty makes your wedding plans more tense than ever. Having just read your previous post as well, I can relate to the whole COVID-19 drama. My daughter and her fiancé were due to marry yesterday. I had only chosen to make my own dress but as you’ve shown, there is a lot of joy in paying particular attention to every detail for such a special day. The tension was rising though, as we got closer. We were about 95% organised, 3 weeks out with just her dress to collect but on March 16 she called, in tears, to say they were postponing. As heartbreaking as that was, the tension had become almost unbearable. A very big cloud lifted as we shifted our focus to next year. I know many people must be in a far worse situation than us with all that’s going on and hopefully we’ll be in the clear soon.
Best wishes to your lovely family and good health in these uncertain times.
Stunning bridesmaids dresses, the shape, colour and your attention to details is what you do so well. All of your family seems to be very creative and to see Cassie’s wedding donut stand shows that.
What a fantastic idea to make them in different colours which go so well with the flowers. The thing that struck me as the most brilliant though was their sandals – just perfect! You did them proud. Jo xx
Just beautiful to see, thank you for taking my thoughts away from Covid 19!
Sam the Aussie
Love this! In fact, I had my guestbook attendants dressed in three pastel shades. My red-haired niece in a light sage green, my blond niece in baby blue, and my brunette niece in pale yellow. The dresses were made of a shirt weight stretch fabric, and had a cowl effect neckline, and lettuce edged hems. The girls liked the colours, but were very unimpressed that they needed to wear slips…. should have lined them like you did. These pics really took me back!
So many uplifting themes wrapped into one subject: the occasion and person these dresses were made for; the dresses as garments; the dresses as a color study; the women who wore them; the woman who made the dresses, and how everything played out. All recorded for great wedding album remininiscences decades later.
Purely functionally, I’m curious how you stabilized the top edge of the bodice, given that the seam held the weight of a heavy dress plus lining.
Second, my perennial dilemma with summer frocks and eveningwear: how to solve the underpinnings problems. Did you build in a shelf bra, or figure out some other cunning solution? I hope you get to share that info…after we get the Main Event. Cassie’s dress.
i love this , such a lovely combination of design and color . The dresses are so elegant and the colors are just beautiful together .You should be very proud of yourself and your very resourceful family .
How lovely are the dresses in different colours? Very unique and elegant.
Just stunning! You did Cassie and your nieces proud. So lovely to see the three girls together. I also love their bouquets. Great reminder of the Australian flora for me. Keep healty, love from Basel, Anita
I have so enjoyed reading these posts about your sewing for the wedding Carolyn. You did such a wonderful job on all of it. And so happy to see that you were able to celebrate the big day just in time