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Well, homecoming 2003 was a huge success. We won the basketball game on Friday night, and the next night was the formal banquet. I started my day early, having to finish my dress. This dress was inspired by a picture of Arwen's Requiem Dress, though the final dress ended up only vaguely resembling the magnificent costume that was cut from the theater version of the Two Towers movie. I don't have a lot of pictures that fully display my dress at the moment, but I hope to have more from the picture-taking session at the Bunches' house very soon. So stay tuned, I'll be updating with pictures as soon as I can get ahold of more!
The first real picture of the sleeves I have right now.
Lying flat, they look like a teardrop shape with the top point cut off. The opening in front is so that I can find my hands, hehe. :)
Trisha Strong and myself, happily displaying our smiles for the camera. Isn't she cute? *pinches Trisha's cheek*
Anyway, you can see my sleeve at its full length in this picture, and as you can also see, it drags on the floor. I had to be careful where I walked.
My best friend ever, Eliza Meier. They had this nifty swing there that you could take pictures on,
and, well, I found out that my dress was not designed for sitting on swings to take pictures.
Me: Slipping...slipping...! Just take the picture, why don't you?!
This picture, Eliza and me, was taken at the house of the beloved Grandma and Grandpa Bunch.
They're not my grandparents, their hers, but I love them anyway. This shows how wide the neck turned out to be, despite the massive taking-up of the shoulders I was forced to do in order to be modest.
Um...this isn't exactly a dress picture...it's more of a Pat picture.
Hey everybody, meet my good friend Pat! Doesn't he look handsome and/or dashing?
Oh, yes, and my mom made my corsage. Since this picture shows a fairly good view of it. Three white half-blown roses, ivy, and arborvitae.
This is nothing special, except I don't think my face looks retarded in this one. Um, yay?
Tha's my Jaci, by the way. She's Trisha's sister. *pinches both their cheeks*
About the Dress
The dress is made out of JoAnn Fabrics' "Casa Crepe" in a dark, dark blue color. It drapes nicely and doesn't fray much. The first picture, the one of me putting my shoes on, shows the best color, I think.
The sleeves are made out of silver baroque satin. I used an old sheet to make a mockup sleeve and then cut both of the satin sleeves at the same time using my sheet mockup as a pattern. I actually wound up rounding the sides out more than the mockup to make it more of a teardrop shape, and I like how it turned out. They are hemmed with a narrow hem and overlapped about 2 1/2 inches in the front.
I used Simplicty pattern 9891 for this dress and my sister's elf costume and I've now sworn to myself that I will never use that pattern again. I had to take up the shoulder seams at least two inches in order to make the neckline modest, and the princess seams were in a strange place, making the front of the dress fit rather strangely. Even with the alteration, I still had problems with the neck slipping off my shoulders, even though I wore a regular bra underneath it and pinned the straps to the neck. That did help, but I had to worry about showing strap then.
Around the bottom of the upper sleeve, there is a band of beaded ribbon. I beaded it myself, using silver seed beads, 2-cut silver-lined rocailles, and miles of "invisible" thread. The thread was a source of great irritation to me, and sometime after the banquet, one of the strings' knots broke and I lost a couple of inches of the beading before Mrs. Meier saw and tied the ends together for me. Next time I think I'll use cotton thread, since it stays put better.
Not exactly dress notes, but: My mom did my hair, braiding it in a crown around my head. She also bought me the hair combs (that you can't see in these pictures but I'll get one up soon) that I wore in the back of the braid, bought the necklace, and let me use the earrings I gave her for Christmas. She also set the sleeves and the zipper into the dress while I was at school one day b/c I was running out of time to finish the dress, and I was sick. Thanks mom!