Author Archives: lholy

First jersey piece

Posted on by
5

As promised here are a few pictures of my new top taken during our holidays. Looking at them makes me want to go back, it was so nice to enjoy the sea for a week and not have to worry about anything. It was the best way to start my maternity leave and forget about work.

This top is actually quite simple, but it was my first piece made of jersey fabric, so it feels like an achievement. I’d been afraid of knit fabrics and had been avoiding them, except for the occasional dolly piece that I would sew by hand. That’s why I had made it one of my goals for this year’s sewing courses to start sewing with knits. At the beginning of June I realized I had very few time left to achieve this, since the lessons would end soon, so I stopped the project I was working on, went to a cheap fabric store in Paris to get a nice looking but inexpensive jersey and then went looking for an appropriate pattern in my Burda magazine collection. Since I didn’t have much time and because of my jersey fear I wanted something quick and simple. And if possible something that could accomodate my big belly. I settled on the 123-A top from Burda 2013/01.

If you’re considering making this top, please know that it’s quite large and long! I expected it, but not that much. I traced the pattern according to my maternity bust measurement, which is one size bigger than my regular size. But I think my regular size would have accomodated my 8 month pregnant belly without any problem! The top body is straigt so it’s quite roomy. Also the sleeve opening is quite large and low, so if you’re not wearing anything underneath your bra band will show when you lift your arms. Lately it’s been too hot in Paris for me to mind, but it’s not something I usually like.

This top was quite easy to sew, it makes me wonder why I waited so long to sew with knits! That said it’s a pretty forgiving project, since it’s very simple and not fitted. I started sewing it using the serger we have in the sewing class, and since I couldn’t complete it before the lessons ended I finished on my regular sewing machine, using its elastic stitches. And you know what? Everything went ok! The stitches might not be as nice looking as if I had used the serger all along, but it worked and my seams are stretchy and not too bad looking so it’s fine with me. I even used a twin needle to hem the bottom. It’s a little bit wavy, I don’t know if it’s because of the needle or the stitch settings. But with the busy fabric you don’t see it that much when I’m wearing the t-shirt.

I was very careful when cutting my fabric to have it laying properly, so that the stripes wouldn’t be wonky, but I didn’t think about matching them at the sides… ^^; I guess I’ll do better next time. The intructions called for Vlieseline stabilmanche to stabilize the back neckline, shoulders and sleeve opening. Since I didn’t have any my teacher suggested I cut small bands in a bias tape and used those as stabilizers. It made the back neckline a tad too thick and rigid with all the layers, but it’s okay. I didn’t use any stabilizer on the sleeve openings though for fear they wouldn’t hang properly. Below is a picture of how the shoulder seams look like with the bias strip stabilizer.

So here it is, my first knit project! I feel more confident in using jersey now and would love to try other patterns. I’d like to make some fitted garments, which are more my style. But it’ll have to wait until I have the time. With all the things we had to do in the house to prepare for the baby’s arrival I’m only now finding the time to sew, and there are some more urgent things in my to-do list, like things for the baby for example. ^^ He might arrive any day now, I’d like to make a few things before that…

Holidays

Posted on by
2

The past few months have been very busy, but I’m now officially on maternity leave. Friday was my last day at work. From now on I’ll try to concentrate on myself, the baby to come and our little family. We still have a few things to prepare before the baby’s arrival, and I have a good number of sewing projects on my waiting list.

But for now we’re kicking my maternity leave with some holidays. We’ll be away for a week and I don’t think I’ll have easy access to the Internet there, so I probably won’t write again before we come back. I’ve added to my suitcase my first handmade jersey top, which I’ve just finished. :) Hopefully I’ll have some picture of it worn at the beach to share with you when I return.

See you soon!

Spotted: Couture Casual Wear Homme

Posted on by
1

Hello ! I’m posting a quick update tonight to tell about a book I just discovered today: “Couture Casual Wear Homme”. It’s a french pattern book for menswear! It’s not that often that we get to find new patterns for the men in our lifes. It just got out yesterday and I haven’t been able to see it myself yet, I got the info on the Internet and read about it on the author’s blog. The patterns seem to cover a wide range of casual clothes and could turn out to be a good basis for more evolved pieces with modifications, if the initial patterns are well made. Here is the cover:
If you want to read more details you can go check the french version of this post or head over to the author’s blog, here and here. She’s also having a game to win the book here.

I won’t stay longer for tonight, I’ll try to add a few more stitches to the t-shirt I’m working on before going to bed. I’m finally trying to sew with knits! I’ve been quite afraid of knits and have been avoiding them so far, but no more (or so I hope). Appart from that it’s been rather slow sewing-wise around here lately. I had a lot of other things to handle (like work, being pregnant and preparing for the baby’s arrival and organising Mr Robots’ birthday this month for example) and didn’t finish much. -_- I can’t say for sure but it seems this is changing though, I might have things to share soon (beginning of July ?).

Me-Made May

Posted on by
4

I’m still here! ^^ With lots of pictures. If you don’t know Me Made May, it’s a big annual event on sewing blogs. The point is to entice people to actually wear the garments they create and make a effort to coordinate them. People who wish to take part pledge to wear a certain number of outfits each week using handmade pieces, sometimes with other constraints. And then you can take daily pictures of your outfits to document your challenge, which you can share with others through the Flickr group and your own blog. I don’t find it very hard to wear my handmade pieces, I usually use them a regularly in my daily outfits, but I thought it could be nice to try and make a special effort this month by taking part anyway. It would force me to use my imagination to vary the coordinates. I didn’t make any pledge in advance because 1. I don’t have much time to post lately (as you might have noticed) and 2. I wasn’t sure how I would do in the challenge, because I don’t have that many different pieces that I can wear right now (hence the imagination challenge) and it’s not easy for me to take pictures each day. My pledge to myself was “Try to wear at least one handmade piece as many times per week as you can, with as little repeat outfits as you can” (but there will be repeat outfits, I’m pretty sure of it). I couldn’t do a weekly round-up post before, so here is my midway round-up.

But before the actual round-up, let me introduce the main “me-made” piece that will accompany me throughout this month:

I’m pregnant! We’re having a little boy (that’s what the text in French says)! ^___^ Okay so he will accompany me for a little bit more time that just this month, as we’re expecting him to arrive in August. This picture is a few weeks old, I’m at six months today. Can you believe it? I feel like it was just yesterday that we got confirmation that we would have a baby, and there’s only three months left… So you now understand why I was afraid it would be hard to follow the challenge, as most of my closet doesn’t fit anymore (and for the stretch tops that would fit, I’m afraid I’ll distort them and won’t be able to wear them post-pregnancy if I put them on now).

May 1st:

- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress. I finished this dress in early April, half of the detailed post about it is ready, I’ll share more details about it asap.
It turned out to be warmer than I thought it would be that day, so even though I started it with a top and a cardigan, I ended up wearing only the dress.

May 2nd:

- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress
- non maternity shirt from Camaieu that I can’t button below the bust anymore but it doesn’t matter ’cause it’s hidden by the dress! ;p
- charter school cardigan in rust from ModCloth (love those!!)
- shoes: Eram

May 3rd:

- handmade japanese tunic. This is the first garment I made when I went back to sewing after moving to Japan, on my japanese sewing machine, with japanese fabric, from a japanese pattern. ^^ I used to wear it a lot, but it doesn’t seem to fit in as well in France as it did in Japan. Plus I have more shapes at the back than standard japanese girls (slightly curved back + bigger hips) so I probably should have changed something there, it bags a little. So I tend not to wear it very much nowadays. Thanks to Me Made May for making me remember that it exists and try to arrange it in a nice way! :)
- maternity jeans from Verbaudet
- handmade patchwork belt. I also made it some time ago, from instructions in this very inspirational book. I probably should have interfaced the squares to help them hold their shape, but I didn’t think of it at the time… I love the fabrics that went into it and love the concept but sadly I don’t wear it often either, because I don’t know how to use it in a nice way. I think it’s either too short or too long for me to know what to do with it. Now that I’m pregnant I might be able style it more easily. ^^ What do you think of this?

May 4th:

Most of the day was spent cleaning and tidying the appartment in my jamies, so I’ll share the outfit I wore at the end of day to have diner with family members. ^^
- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress, because I wanted to show it to my family.
- non maternity striped top from Camaieu bought one size bigger to accomodate my belly.
- grey wool cardigan from Etam
- fabric flower pin
- blue & silver bracelet handmade by a friend
- shoes: Creeks for Andre bought two days before. I find them really nice, what do you think? :) Hope they’ll be around for a while.

May 5th: same outfit as the previous day for most of the day, as the diner ended later than expected and we slept there.

May 6th: no handmade pieces that day: maternity jeans + a cute maternity blouse lend by a friend. Which funnily has exactly the same kind of shape as some japanese or Citronille patterns, and is made from a rather stiff cotton (poplin?), so I actually could have made it. ^^ I’m toying with the idea of copying it in a softer fabric.

May 7th:

- handmade bear skirt. It has an elastic waist so I can still wear it, even if it looks less elegant that usual as it is supposed to sit at the waist, not the hips ;p I wanted something light and flowy but not too summery as the weather can’t decide between grey/rainy or nice.
- non maternity top from Camaieu bought one size bigger to accomodate my belly
- cardigan from gothic lolita brand Innocent World
- shoes: simple gothic lolita MJs bought in Japan.

May 8th:

- handmade bear skirt
- non maternity top from Uniqlo
- cotton shawl that I bought from someone off Ebay, handmade but not by me. ;p
- necklace handmade by me to go with the skirt. :) It has a small teddy bear and a yo-yo in the skirt fabric.
- shoes: simple gothic lolita MJs bought in Japan.

May 9th: no handmade, I wore basic comfy clothes to tidy the house (it was a holiday).

May 10th:

- maternity jeans
- non maternity top from Camaieu bought one size bigger to accomodate my belly
- handmade pullover. I haven’t shown this one here before because it’s not officially done, although it’s wearable and I’ve worn it several times. I find it’s lacking the nice finishing touches that it should have to match my other clothes, but I’m not sure of what to do… I’ll do a proper post about it later.

May 11th:

- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress.
- striped maternity shirt lend by a friend (from H&M I think)
- wool cardigan from Etam

May 12th:

The theme that day was “cold spring candy”. ^^ Okay for real I didn’t have a theme when I chose my clothes, but those socks remind me of candies, especially with that blue top. And as you can guess it wasn’t very warm.
- handmade blue velvet maternity empire dress
- light turtleneck top (non maternity) from Etam
- charter school cardigan in peacock blue
- candy colored overknee socks

May 13th: I don’t even remember, but no handmade.

May 14th:

The weather is still very cold around here, I have a hard time finding handmade things to wear in new ways…
- non maternity elastic waist skirt from Etam, bought on sale two years ago
- non maternity top from Uniqlo
- handmade pullover
- handmade necklace, even though it doesn’t really count for the challenge. I made it during a workshop organized at a friend’s shop when I was living in Japan. The teacher gave us the pearls and a picture showing the finished necklace, so we all got the same piece in the end. I like it very much and wear it quite often.

What do you think of those outfits? I know they’re not as varied as what others are showing this month, but I’m glad I could go this far without any real repeat. :) Sorry about the blue dress showing up all the time, hope you’re not bored with it! ;p That said it’s very comfy and I feel pretty when I wear it, so it’s not going to change, unless I find the time to do much more sewing than I can do now. I want more dresses! And I need more simple tops to wear in this weird weither, that can be combined with skirts and dresses. If the weather gets better, as it’s supposed to at this time of year, I will have more things to wear. I can’t wait!

Wedding part 2: deciding on a dress

Posted on by
2

As promised I’m starting to post about my second wedding attire. I’m going to let go of part of the suspense: I did make part of it, but not all. Despite Mr Robots first forbidding me to sew my own wedding dress (or rather, speaking strongly against it). Since I always find myself to be short on time and stressing over my project when they have an imposed deadline (like what happened for the dresses for my friends’ wedding) he didn’t want me to be in such a situation while preparing my own wedding. And I tried to do as he suggested, I promise, even if as a sewing addict making my own wedding dress seemed a very exciting project!

Beautiful vintage wedding dress
(beautiful picture found on Pinterest, I don’t have the original source…)

Mr Robots wanted to have the pleasure of discovering my outfit on the D-day, so he had to know as little as possible about it in advance. Since I still wanted him to like my dress though, I collected and submitted him an assortment of pictures from the Internet, to get his feelings. The dress I was at first dreaming about: a 50′s inspired white tea length beauty, with a lace overlay all over it, a full skirt, a scoop neck and maybe short sleeves. His reactions to the pictures: he liked the feet-long dresses (“it’s more elegant, more princess-like”, can you believe it’s him who said that?!), and he found that too much lace looked like Xxx. -_- You can guess I wasn’t too happy about that… I had to find another style I liked. But one day I’ll make that pretty tea length lace dress and he’ll see that he was wrong!

50's lace dresses
(source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

So I went to try wedding dresses. I didn’t want to spend a lot on a second dress I wouldn’t wear often, so I gave myself a small budget. Remember how I said last time that I wanted to keep the big white dress for the french wedding? Here’s the conclusion of those first sessions: the big fluffy white dress wasn’t for me (at least, not at that time in my life). Ironic, isn’t it? I didn’t really feel them, wasn’t especially taken (contrary to my maids of honer/witnesses) and didn’t really picture myself getting married in the dresses I was trying on.

Trying on a white wedding dress

I decided to give the wedding dress shops one last chance with a colored dress I had seen online that had a little bit more personality. All the poeple who saw it loved it: it was beautiful and looked great on me, all that stuff. But while I was looking at me in the mirror suddenly it felt as if I was looking at someone’s picture on Style Me Pretty. It was really nice indeed, but it didn’t feel like me. Add to that that I couldn’t see the exact color I would be ordering (brown x ivory), that the timing would be tight and that it was at the higher end of my budget, and I wasn’t totaly convinced…

Sacha Novia Soyeuse

In the meantime a friend told me about tartan wedding dresses that he saw while on a trip in Scotland. Since I have a long time love for tartan, I really liked the idea. But I wouldn’t order my dress online. And of course while browsing the Internet looking for inspiration on dress styles (to buy), my imagination started going loose: picture after picture, I couldn’t help starting to get a design idea (to make), which seemed far more exciting than the dresses I was trying.

tartan dress
(heritage of Scotland)

Through Zibuzine I heard about Volute, a corsetry and custom dress making shop that had made her wedding corset (sadly they are now closed). I got in touch with them and our first meeting went really well: I liked the shop spirit and the owner was quite excited by my project. We talked about different options and prices.

After all that I sat down to talk with Mr Robots and we agreed that the custom-made outfit was the best option. ^_^ It would be made partly by Volute and partly by me (for the simpler pieces). And I think that even if he was worried he was actually quite pleased that I’d have once again something of my own design. ;p And so to close this up here is a little mosaic of the pictures that most inspired my outfit. You can click on the image to see a larger one. The story is to be continued in a later post…

Inspirations

Japan-inspired book cover n°2

Posted on by
5

At last I have a completed project to share with you. And it’s one I’m quite happy with. It’s another book cover, once again for a gift. This one was for my father, who wanted his own after seeing the ones I made for other family members. It was his birthday during the Easter week-end so I decided to gift him one.

He got quite passionate about Japan when we got to live there, reading lots of books about the country, so it was one possible starting point for the cover. Especially since I still had some of this fabric, and was on a short schedule so embroidery was quite out of the question. As I didn’t want it to be an exact copy of the one I made for my husband, I decided to use the square fabric motifs as appliqués on a solid background.

At first I thought I’d just use the motifs, but it looked a little bit empty and sad. I played for a bit with the design to see what I could add, and then I realized I could use the small stripes I got left after cutting as ribbons. It was perfect: since they’re thin you can’t distinguish the motifs so it wouldn’t get too busy, and at the same time the colors match exactly! After some fiddling around I found a layout that I liked and sewed everything in place with a zig-zag stitch. In the end it adds a sort of modern graphical feel to the cover that I quite like, with the colored motifs contrasting against the black background.

Mr Robots helped me pick the inside fabric. It’s the red serge from my two-tone skirt. I feared it would be two thick but it wasn’t, and the colors look great together. I also tested minor adjustment to my pattern, to allow for thicker books while still maintaining the folded side in place: putting two elastic bands instead of the only one that’s in the pattern. They’re placed on each side of the initial elastic. If use prove that it’s better I’ll post the details here.

My father seemed happy with his cover. And Mr Robots is almost jealous, he’s starting to think he should have asked for a fancier design for his cover. ;) If you want to make one yourself, you can find the tutorial here !

Vintage inspiration: movie poster

Posted on by
Reply

Last Sunday we went to the restaurant with some of my husband’s family and just accross the table, on the wall facing me, was this movie poster:

Of course I couldn’t help but look at it (it’s not like anyone could miss it) and I quite liked the lady’s outfit, which felt like from the early 50s. So after a while I got up and took a picture of it. And I thought I’d share it here with you.

I really like the sleeve shape on her blouse. It was fun because after that we talked about clothes and costume history for a few minutes. And we checked the Internet to see what year the movie was released in: 1952.

As a side note I promess that I’ll share longer posts soon, I have many things to show you, I just have to find a little bit more time to edit my pictures and finish the translations.

Lil Weasel

Posted on by
1

For the opening of its online shop, the parisian brick and mortar shop Lil Weasel is organising a little game to win a gift card. It’s a cute little store in one of Paris’ roofed passaways, full of beautiful fabric, yarn (or so I’ve heard, because to be honest I don’t much about yarn), patterns and other sewing tools. I’m therefore gladly doing a little bit of advertising here to join the contest, and I’ll add it to my French shops reference list right away. And I might try to go to the parisian store soon to check those pretty swiss dot fabrics in real life (not that I really need new fabric, but they seem very nice)… ;)

Wedding part 2: Save the Date

Posted on by
8

One year ago yesterday we pronounced ourselves husband and wife for the second time. What better moment to start a journey back to the preparation of that magical day? Rather than just showing you some random pictures from the wedding day, I’d like to share how it came to life.

The ceremony corner

Let’s start by the begining. After we came back to France in 2010 we started talking on and off about this wedding. The theme we would use to decorate the reception room was chosen without much difficutly early on: autumn! We both love that season, and the beautiful autumn trees (and nice weather) that we had in Japan made our love stronger. The first wedding was in March, we decided it would be nice to have the second one in September. That way it would be in autumn, and we would have two anniversaries 6 months appart. With time the themed got more precise, evolving into a kind of slightly enchanted autumn forest. In theory, M. Robots really wanted that wedding to happen, but in real like he was quite scared of organizing such a big event. Months went by… Then in June 2011 one of my best friend got married. It was a wonderful ceremony, full of emotion, and it got me going. I realized I really wanted that wedding, and I wanted it as we imagined it now, not as we would do it in 5 or 10 years. M. Robots got no other choice than forget his worries, and we started looking for a venue. In the end fate had us get married in March again, because of one of our witnesses (kind of a maid/man of honnor?) lives in the US and we had to do with her schedule, plus deal with the availability and price of the venues. People were therefore quite surprised by our theme (“Autumn in Sring?!”), but we didn’t see why we should change our plans just because it wasn’t the present season. ^^

Japanese autumn

We decided to do as much as we could by ourselves, so as to cut down on costs (the official reason) and because it was more fun (my own personnal reason ^_^). That included the paper stuff. I’m no designer but since I was a little girl I liked drawing, so I was happy to have an excuse to get back to it. Save the Date are not very common in France yet, you usually tell people about your wedding over the phone or by email first, and then a few months in advance when everything is settled you only send an invitation with all the details (which, funnily, is called a “Faire-part”, which would be closer in meaning to “save the date” than to “invitation” ^^; ). Since I started reading things on the Internet to prepare the wedding I discovered the concept of the save the date, and I loved it and decided we would have one. It’s way nicer to tell people about your wedding that way! Once we got the venue booked I got to work, but had a hard time deciding what it should look like: include some sort of mini us or not, what to show of our lifes, tastes, of who we are, what we do… Plus it had to be inside the limits of what I could actually draw. At the begining of September I got a design inspiration that I shared with my husband, who liked it and thought it should be our basis.

first sketch

There were too many living creatures on this first version. They were things we like, but they made the design look too much like a mix of pop-culture references and less personal. We decided to remove them and keep only the nature/decor elements, that would create the feeling we wanted to convey and be more neutral so as to let the Save the Date be about us.

paper version

After the final version was mostly done on paper I scanned it to add colors on my computer. Since we both studied computer science it made sense for us to send all the paper things by email (except for the grand-parents who don’t use the Internet much). It was a hard work for me since I’m far from being a master in computer illustration, but I managed to get something we quite liked, even if it’s not perfect. Our forest being a little bit of a magical place, it also contains shells (as M. Robots grew up by the sea). And you can see that in the end I kept a small white Totoro because it injected a quiet little bit of life that blended well with the rest of the design. Some people recognized it for what it was, others didn’t know about it but still guessed it was a forest spirit/creature, and others still thought it was a kind of a rabbit. It was funny. :)

Digital version without text

Then we had to work on the text itself. At first when we started organising the wedding I was thinking about it as an event that only concerned us as a couple. It was our marriage, our big day. I didn’t think much about what it could mean to our parents. And then I came to realise that it was a big deal to them also. After all, it’s not everyday that you children get married! Even if it’s not their day, some of them wanted to help, to take part in the making of this thing that was so important to us. That made me revise my thinking and try to find ways they would feel included and could help if they wanted. That also included the invitations texts, even if I didn’t want the traditional thing (“Mr and Ms XXX are happy to announce the wedding of their children” sounded too far from who we are and what this wedding was). I think that the event being a second wedding in a not so common situation, and us being older than the first time, gave us more freedom and imagination and the will to express who we really are. I had thought of adding nice books to the table decor because they’re pretty and we both love books, and it added a whimsical/fairytale feel that would be perfect for our strange little forest. Since my husband’s mother and my grand mother are/were working in public libraries, I got the idea one evening of writing the Save the Date as a kind of book release announcement. M. Robot really liked it, and most of those whose advice we asked in advance were enthousiastic too. In the end it gave us the following:

Final Save the Date

It reads like this (I removed the real names and locations):

“Hear ye! Hear ye!
My-family-name and his-family-name publishing are introducing…
Lholy & Mr Robots
The wedding ~ part 2
On Saturday March 31, 2012
At Town-of-the-wedding
To be followed in the invitations…”

So here is how our personalized Save the date was born. People responded really warmly to it, which was nice. It eventualy inspired all the other paperware, which you’ll discover later. In the next installment I’ll start talking about my outfit. :)

Wedding dress n°1

Posted on by
9

Today I’m opening a series of posts about our wedding, that will soon have happened a year ago. Some of you that have been reading this blog for some time or stumbled upon an old post might wonder: “But hasn’t she talked about her husband before March 2012?”. Indeed, I have. This was actually our second wedding. Let me explain something to my non-french readers (or you can skip to dress pictures below ^^ ). In France the only way to be legaly married is to be married at the city hall by the mayor or the mayor’s assistant. Any other ceremony is only for your own satisfaction/beliefs, it won’t be legal. And to be married in a catholic church (for example) your have to arrive that day with an official paper proving that you got legaly married first. It is therefore very common to have two ceremonies, first the legal one (which is rather quick) and then a religious one, usually happening the same day or a few days appart. In our case, the two happened four years and twelve days appart. When we got engaged 6 years ago we were living in Japan, so we planned to wait until we got back to France. But at the beginning of 2008 it appeared that we had to get legaly married to be able to realise our plans. We therefore decided to quicken the legal marriage, which meant preparing it in less than one month, in Japan. You can easily guess that none of our relatives that didn’t live there could attend. So we decided at that time that we would only do a quick official wedding for the papers, and that we would have another “real” wedding with our family and the rest of our friends when we came back.

The French embassy address on the GPS screen

Funny thing is, both of our weddings happened in March (we didn’t plan that). Our legal wedding anniversary was last week, so I thought I’d share pictures of the dress I wore then before talking about the second one. It’s not totally irrelevant to this blog because even though I didn’t make it myself, I did design it and had it made by a professional wedding dress maker.

Even though this wedding was at first motivated by administrative necessities, it was the first and only time we were to be legaly united and recognized as husband and wife by the law, so we felt we had to play the part so that we’d feel like getting married (all the more since many close relatives weren’t there): we went for a real french legal wedding at the embassy (instead of just signing wedding papers at the japanese city hall), nice outfits and have a day that we would remember. I wanted to keep the traditional big white dress for the french wedding (you’ll see the irony in that sentence with my later posts), especially since at first we thought we would have to go there by train, plus I had a very small budget, so I went looking for an elegant but simple long dress that would be suitable (at that time I didn’t imagine making it myself). And guess what? The solution I found within my price range was to have an empire dress made by a designer specialized in wedding dress, that worked two streets appart from my home! She was adorable and very patient, making sure everything was perfect despite her basic English and my poor Japanese. Here is a little glimpse of its creation.

Inspiration

First, my inspiration (in purple and green). Rental dresses that I saw in a shop window in Harajuku and fell in love with, which a dear friend convinced me to try even though they were way out of my budget. Then my first sketch and some color tests.

sketchcolor testscolor test

Choosing the final color combo was really hard… Then the designer suggested some fabrics and to use lace at the neckline and down the front and we got that final design:

designer final sketch

Then she constructed the muslin and we had several fitting sessions before getting to the final dress (the sleeves took some time to get right).

muslinsecond fittingthird fitting

And finally here is the dress all done! With pictures from the D-day taken by our friends. In real like it’s way more green than you can see here. The color is hard to get right on pics and it didn’t help that those are taken with poor lighting.

So here was my first wedding dress! ^_^ I had the pleasure to be able to put it back for a few pictures by our official wedding photographer last year, and to wear it for the brunch we did the following day.

More to come soon about wedding n°2!