My Birthday: The Woman in Red Revealed

Today is my birthday, and I feel fabulous!

I actually had a completely different birthday post planned, but given how great I felt wearing my red dress and how a picture is worth a thousand words, I decided: why not celebrate my bday by posting the final project dress reveal?

Honestly, I felt great in this dress and I think it showed. In all seriousness, I doubt I will ever wear a LBD to a wedding again. Red is the color for me! And the wedding was so much fun - lots of dancing! Even the bride had on a belly dancing scarf/skirt at one point. The only thing I'm a little disappointed with is that I didn't take pictures before the 30 minute drive to the church - there are now no pictures without some creases. Gah!

Isn't Magenta a beautiful bride?

I won't lie, it was a race to the finish to get this dress done. The day before the wedding I was just finishing up the hem and sewing the lining to the vent. But it all got done. And I felt great.

Me and some of the muses: Calliope, Erato and Mom Muse

A few parting thoughts on this dress - Vogue 1162 Bellville Sasoon. First, it was a lot of work! From the sleeves to the hand picked zipper to the fitting (and more fitting) and hemming, nothing was easy about this dress. Well, except maybe for the piped neckline, which really was very easy. (I see more piping in my future!)

All in all, this dress was beautifully drafted and everything fit together - no complaints with the pattern. The only thing that could have been better on the instructions was that Vogue could have had better directions and/or images of attaching the shoulder yolk to the bodice and in suggesting what kinds of hand stitches to use for the sleeves. Otherwise, they were very straightforward.

A few good decisions that I made were: using silk thread for basting and hand stiching, underlining in silk organza, hand picking the zipper, and pressing very very carefully and thoroughly. Thank you to ALL OF YOU who gave me advice and encouragement along the way. 

The lucky guy who was my date.

I thought that I would be exhausted after this project, but I'm not! I'm jumping right back into a project - the MPB boxer shorts sew along -  as a thank you to Phineas, who zipped and unzipped me about 100 times (every time I needed to try on for fitting purposes), marked the hem for me (twice, because I changed my mind) and didn't complain that he basically was living with a dress-obsessed maniac who would have forgotten to eat if he didn't remind her to for a month. (Thanks for feeding me, my love. You will have boxers aplenty!)