My uncle and his fiancée approached me a few months ago to ask if I would be willing to make the bridesmaids’ dresses for their wedding in August 2018. They were going to pay me, and each bridesmaid would pay for their share of the materials used. I said yes, but that I’d like to do the labour/sewing as my wedding gift to them. They wanted all of the bridesmaids to wear the same colour, but were completely flexible about the style of dress each person wanted. I knew I needed to be organized from the beginning in order to keep track of the different dresses and measurements for each person, so I made a Google Drive folder of all the different patterns I had at the time and gave each one a number. I sent the link to Dana first in order to let her veto any dresses she particularly didn’t like (she didn’t veto anything). She then sent the link to the folder around to her bridesmaids.
It was around this time that I found out that there were 10 bridesmaids. TEN. Luckily for me, five of them are out of province and opted to buy their own dresses instead of having me make them one! In the Google Drive folder, I also included a Google Form. I’d never used one before, but it was very straight foward. I asked everyone for their emails, name, top two picks for dress pattern, and then their measurements. I also asked for a full body shot so I could have a sense of their figures visually.
Funnily enough, despite there being loads of indie patterns in my collection, all five of us chose patterns from McCall’s. Myself and my sister chose Butterick 5463, designed by Gertie (immediately below). Two others chose McCall’s 6713, which I’d made for myself before (that was the pattern that made me realize the amount of ease included in Big 4 patterns…). The fifth dress will be another McCall’s pattern, M7350.
After I’d collected everyone’s measurements and dress choices, Dana and I went fabric shopping. I was honestly kind of worried she’d have sticker shock because I’d never bought that much fabric at once before, but she was ecstatic! It worked out to around $50 per dress; we bought 10m of a cotton spandex jersey, and 8m of a lightweight cotton voile. The dresses will all be “malibu blue” – if you Google that, it’ll give you a good representation of the colour. The wedding’s going to be on a nearby farm, and the flowers are going to be predominantly sunflowers, so I think it’ll look great! Dana also gave me a big load of old bedsheets to use for muslins, and I scrounged some random knits from a bag of fabric my sister was going to give away.
I’m not normally a tracer, but because multiple people wanted the same patterns and they were all different sizes, I knew I’d have to trace. For my peace of mind also, I thought it would be easier to trace everything so I could label all the pattern pieces with people’s names and sizes. Then if I need to do fitting adjustments, I’ll be able to do them right on the traced pattern pieces. The size range I owned for M7350 stopped one size under the size of the person who requested it, so I had to grade up myself as I traced. Everything else was pretty straight forward. I picked a starting size for each person based on their measurements, and I figure I’ll go from there. I know how to do full bust adjustments when there are darts or princess seams, but the concept of doing them on the faux wrap-style bodices that the two knit dresses have frightens me a bit, so I’m reaaalllyyy hoping I don’t need to do anything in that department. Fingers crossed!
Below is what five full traced patterns looks like! It was a lot of work, but I’m excited that it’s over with so I can move on to making test versions of each of them. I’m probably going to do bodices with a little peplum just to conserve fabric, since all of the patterns are relatively free at the hip. My goal is to have those all done and fitted by the end of June, because I’m going to Finland and Iceland for almost 3 weeks in July and I have a feeling the wedding will sneak up soon after I return. Have any of you made bridesmaids’ dresses before? I’m also making my own dress (and no one else’s, haha) for my friend Jenn’s wedding in fall 2019, which I’m excited for.
