Natalie and Rick's Groomals

Ashlee Raubach did such a wonderful job on this shoot.  I love a photographer who will capture the folds and details of the dress.  I know I say it a lot, but it is so important to me.  You should check out the rest of the shoot on this blog.  Really great work.   

I love the richness of the location.  I love the warm tones on the photographs.  But especially, I love the cute couple.  No, they are more than just cute.  They look perfect together. 

Here is the long rambling story that sort of has to do with this dress.  I was at the dentist waiting for my kids and, of course, I was hand sewing.  It was quite pleasant.  With the help of the dentist, I was multitasking.  In walked Zina, this really fabulous person from High School.  She asked me about the Knit dress.  It was surreal that she knew about the dress.  It was serendipitous to run into someone and already know how she was doing because of her blog, and to have her know how I was fairing made me feel so... not alone, for lack of  better words.

I love to see these shoots.  I can now relax about the knit dress because Natalie wears the gown well.  Do you all like the different gown idea?  Of course I am always happy when a bride re-invents how a bride should look.  I think it reads bridal from the simple veil to the shoes.  Great job Natalie.    

Wedding Day!

We have heard about this beautiful event all day.  It is a wonderful thing to have something happy and joyful to think about compared to the normal news of the day.  So I wish the couple a wondrous and happy life. 

Now let us speak of the dress. 

If you have a design house making your dress, every detail is sweated over, talked about, discussed for hours, slept on.  They have a goal in mind, they have a concept, a feeling.  I wonder if that is what came across?  I do have a feeling that someone wanted the dress not to be over done.  Yep, they accomplished that.  I also wonder about the delicate size of the lace.  Whose decision was that?  Did they have all sorts of lace layed out and Kate said, "can we get something made like this one?"  

The best part of this dress is the bodice.  The structure is perfect.  Oh, how I wish I could spend some time in one of these design houses.  What a dream it would be to learn, learn, learn.  There are so many things I would love to know.  

I am a bit sad that she didn't go a little more crazy with the design.  Heaven knows Alexander McQueen's house is capable of going over the top.  But before I share too much of my opinion, I would love to hear your thoughts. 

 

One Down

Happy Earth Day!  Photos by Jamie.

I am not doing anything special as far as being environmentally active, BUT, I did finish Ginnie's dress.  Yeah!  This dress worked well with me.  I didn't have to re-make anything.  I just got to go forward with it.  I also spent quite a few days sewing on the lace, which always gets me in a euphoric state.  Lace can be such a friend of the dress maker.  It can make a bodice look quite precise. 

Ginnie was so layed back during the process.... even though she is getting married next week! Come to think of it, when I do work with a bride with such a close deadline, they are always mellow and calm.  Does something happen to a bride so close to the date?  I am convinced that they have some chemical pumping through their veins that make them just happy and content. 

I love these theories I invent. 

I wish you all a happy Earth Day.  Our earth around us has been sprouting up springs left and right.  It is pretty amazing and powerful.  Oh, and I think the forecast calls for rain. 

Heidi and the Knotty Bride Blog

I can't keep up with this girl.  In this world of blogs, Heidi has gained some noteriety.  Or in the words of Hank, my little guy, she is famous.  If you haven't seen these photos of Heidi, check them out here at the knotty bride. 

Thai food and the spa

All is well. 

I dropped off the kids at our 15 year old skater, drum player, snowboarder, and kid tender's house.  Why do we think girls need to be the care taker of our kids.... especially when said kids idolize the cool guy that teaches them to skate? 

With that done, I dropped off a knit dress that I have been working on, and THEN met my friend for lunch.  We had Thai food.  It was insane.  I love the soup and think it has healing powers beyond my comprehension.  Michele had never had mango with sticky rice.  Crazy huh? 

Well, I was frustrated, because despite the soups best efforts, I still felt lousy. 

I took matters into my own hands and retreated to......

I have had my hair cut there a few times but had never visited the spa.  Who knew?  It was perfect.  I am not the massage getting type, but dang, that solved all of my problems.  Diana was the massage therapist.  I highly recommend her to any one of you.  She works hard and gets to the root of the problem.  

I feel a bit dorky writing about this.  But I feel so normal (normal for me, come on, everything is relative).  I need to celebrate my new found outlook on life. 

Okay, I think the real thing comes back to sewing.  Here is the rest of the story.

I took on a knit dress.  Not my thing.  I think I mentioned it a bit ago.  I knew it would be a challenge, and like all dresses, it was.  The bride was patient with me, thankfully, and in the end, I think things worked out.  I was worried by the end if it that I lost all capabilities to make dresses.  It seems like the knit dress and I could not communicate.  I don't talk knit. 

The wonderful and great thing that happened is this.  I had a fitting for my "Slight" bride.  She is doing a frothy dress.  I love it.  It consists of Taffeta, organza, my favorite Chantilly lace, and tulle.  These are all well loved ingredients and I know how they will be honory with me and how they will delight me.  Who talks like this about fabrics?  Me, I guess.  The fitting went surprisingly well.  Remember at this point I was questioning any ability I once had.  The next morning during another fitting, the bodice surprised me about how well it fit.  Such a relief! 

I feel like I am in my realm again. 

I am optimistically looking into the next few months with excitement and my fingers crossed.  I love that there are dresses planned that will take directions that no one knows.  I am relieved that I am up to the challenge and looking forward to it. 

Will the storm now leave!

First off, isn't this picture so painterly?  I love a good oil painting of clouds.  It seems like Jamie, the photographer, captured that same feeling.  I hope you all like it as well.  Check out her blog here.  I love her peaceful images and interesting take on the world she sees. 

Here is where the self centered post begins.  It is the busy season.  I feel like I will be diving into an ocean of work... "will be" being the operative word.  I need to be drowning in silk and tulle and late late nights.  I haven't.  I got sick.  Not just a day of down time but a weeks worth of down time.  Dang.  I want to be so overwhelmed that I just get a ton done.  Not in the cards.  

Not only do I feel yucky but the weather is bad.  Yes, snow and slush and overcast skies.  Come on, it is April!  So I have time to stress that I am not getting anything done yet I don't have the physical capabilities to do anything.  Let's add on the feeling of being pretty out there as far as geography.  When I step out of the house for fresh air, my main worry is cougar or some other predator getting me.  I don't need to worry about the neighbors seeing me in my jammies.  Maybe I would rather worry about the neighbors than a wild animal.  I love where I live, but when I am sick, it seems way too far away from the grocery store or the nearest neighbor. 

Anyway, we went down to town for church today.  One of my sweet friends gave me a hug right at my breaking point.  So I cried.  I couldn't help it.  I swear, though, that crying really can help.  I imagine it must release some great chemical that makes everything okay.  Of course I was surrounded by great women that I call my friends.  So we had a short counseling session and discussed how it will be okay.... and it will be.  In a minute. 

In a way, it is better already.  I am sitting in the sun, peacefully, without the weight of wedding gowns on me.... Wait, that part about me sitting here without the weight.  Well, that isn't really true.  The weight I feel is just less than before.  More of a handle-able level. 

What I really really want is to make each one of these upcoming dresses so cool.  I want to love each and every one of them.  Even their imperfections that hopefully only I can see.  Could I achieve this?  I will have to let you know. 

Thanks for listening.  I promise to quit posting depressing posts.  M

Why do I do this?

This weekend I made flowers.  Lots and lots of flowers.  I hated them, not all of them individually, but all of them as a whole.  I hated everything I was trying to do for this dress.  This is normal.  I go through this with all of my dresses at some point.  BUT, the dresses I really really want to be over the top crazy cool, well, I go through a lot more of the hate before the pay off happens. 

So this dress is for Abi, someone I have known for a long time.  She has got to be the happiest person I know.  She also is willing to go big with this thing.  If I have a willing bride, I try to take advantage of the situation. 

So the pressure is on. 

I love the pressure.... today. 
I hated the pressure yesterday. 

So I spend two full days of obsessing over the dress before I finally tore myself away from it.  We went "down to town" which sounds so country.  While coming home it dawned on me which direction to take.  I worked on it this morning and, wala, I surprised myself.  It has to do with the way the lace looks on these ruffley things I made.  It has a sweet but modern look to it.  The flowers I hated for the last few days have now taken a back seat to this new thing.  Now I don't hate the flowers.  The are not the big design feature.  They are the whip cream that could be omitted if desired.   

While I was frustrated and moody, I called my friend Michele.  She is a creative genius and knows what I was feeling.  I think I have talked her down before as well.  She simply stated, "It is the mother of creativity" or some sort of thing.  So of course I took that as literally the pain you go though becoming a mother.  Stay with me on this one.  You have to go through a lot of pain and you have to learn to be patient when becoming a mother.  I guess the same goes for creating something else.  Patience is key with dress making AND most every dress I create has a pain stage. 

I wonder if anyone else has these experiences while creating.  I worry if I just don't get it.  Maybe I need to learn to ride with the waves instead of swimming up stream.  I think, in the end, swimming up stream brings the best results for me.  I wonder if some people out there create while floating down a moderate river, with the sun on their backs, and sipping a tropical drink. 

This would be a great time to comment.  I am curious to know what you all think.