WARNING: This post is long & it's a diary from when I started to make my Mother of the Groom Dress over the course of about 6 weeks. You are warned!
Let me tell you I am my own worse critic. Finding a dress to wear to the wedding was anything but easy! I looked through all my patterns, two, three times over. I searched the web for dress ideas. There was no way I was going to wear a strapless, one shoulder or sleeveless dress! That narrowed it down to about one choice....................figuring it out on my own!
I knew I wanted a long sleeve, round neck, maxi length dress. I also had 10 yards of beautiful mesh knit fabric to do with what I please!
The knit dress was easy to sew up from my TNT tank pattern. I just added to the length, to make the dress 58" from the shoulder. A little Steam A Seam Lite on the neckline and the sleeve hems and clear elastic on the shoulder seams since the dress is a little heavy due to the length. I made the bottom hem 1-1/2" to keep the weight incase it's windy on the beach.
 |
| Blue ITY Knit Long Sleeve Maxi Dress |
Now the overdress is where the headache came from! I started out thinking of maybe a floor length Grecian style tied with a belt............
 |
| Floor length Grecian Style? |
No way! Once I put it on, I looked like I was wearing a bed sheet over a dress. I think this style looks better sleeveless. Not going to happen!
Next, I tried a butterfly wing, or batwing style. Floor length again.
 |
| Something from a horror movie? |
No way! It looked like something I stole from a house of horrors! Now I really need to rethink this length/fabric/style. What if I make the skirt of the dress hi-low, or cut off the sleeves or change up the neckline?
I am going to have to rethink this, maybe I should go to a store?
Nope! I'm going to make this work!
I am thinking that the length of the dress with the overdress is making me look big over bigger. Maybe shortening the over piece is the answer. I sewed up the Butterick 5760 cardigan in about 30 minutes including cutting out the fabric.
 |
| Mother of the Groom dress |
I think this is it! I'm really liking the cardigan. It's simple yet a little elegant. I left the dress sleeves long until closer to the wedding. If it's warm, I may just make them shorter.
I still have to finish the edges of the cardigan. I'm thinking of using either a tan thread to do a rolled hem along the edges, or maybe a lettuce style edge finish.
I took this picture without the flash to show the true color of the dress. It's not turquoise it's more of a deeper color.
 |
| Mother of the Groom Dress |
I'm off to Jo-Ann's for some wooly nylon thread. After a day full of dilemmas, it turned out pretty good. I should have know to just stick with my tried and true and just jazz it up a little.
Back from Jo-Ann's and they don't carry wooly nylon thread. They have Bulky Nylon Thread. I used it but I did not like the rolled hem with it. It just didn't look good. So I've ordered a sequin trim that I may use. I'll just turn the edges up and stitch then add the sequin trim.
Sequin trim finally arrived. I am not happy with Fabric.com right now. It took over 12 days to receive my order! 7 days to just pick my order then they were out of an item I ordered and they emailed to ask would I like a substitute. I picked one but they wouldn't honor it because the sub I picked was more money.............HELLO! I'm paying for it! So I picked something else that I wasn't too happy with because it was lightweight and I wanted a medium weight twill. Finally I received my order after sitting in waiting for another few days! The bad thing is that it's only shipping from Georgia......I live in Florida.
I'll just stick to my Fabric Mart Fabrics, Thank-You very much!
Ok, back to the sequins. They came on a string and figured that I would just zig-zag stitch over them and attach them to the edge of the cardigan/overcoat. Three broken needles later, I have decided to go another route with the cardigan.
I turned the seam allowance along the edges and stitched. The fabric doesn't iron so the edge isn't crisp like I like. It all turned too home-made looking..............
 |
| Sequin Trim |
 |
| Sequin trim-NO! |
Back to the drawing board again! This time I'm going to cut out the McCall 6488 cardigan. Since the front edge needs a different treatment than just turning under and stitching. A band may be a better choice.
But...........guess what I did................since I wasn't paying attention I sewed one half backward! Ok I messed up again! Am I going to go with something different or dive in again to make another one?
After sleeping on it for a night, I decided to cut out another McCall 6488 cardigan from the mesh knit. I will pay attention this time, no distractions!
 |
| McCall 6844 Mesh Knit Cardigan |
I cut out the flounce twice and the collar piece twice. Doubling up on those two added a little more weight to the cardigan, helping it hang much better. I cut the outer flounces 1-1/2" shorter. Up close you can see the two layers but from a distance it just looks like one.
 |
| Mother of the Groom Dress |
The only hems I finished were the sleeves. I left the rest raw. The fabric doesn't fray and adding any type of rolled hem just bunched the fabric and added unsightly puckers. I thought that it just looked breezy left unfinished.
 |
| McCall 6844 Cardigan-Back view |
So! After three tries making a cardigan/jacket I now have 2 yards left from the 10 I started with. Also, I now have a strong DISLIKE for mesh knit fabric! I did want something more from this fabric but it was not in the stars for it. You have to keep it simple when sewing with mesh knits. Flounces, large ruffles or gathers, minimal sewing, and minimal finishing work best.
The BIG wedding day is two days away. It looks like we'll have beautiful weather maybe a little fog in the morning but in the mid 60's for the start warming up to the low 80's. It should be perfect!
I'll take as many pictures as possible and be back next week!
Until next time.......................
Bonnie
Bonnie
