Wedding preparation...

My brother-in-law is getting married on December 22nd, and it's been fun getting Kaylee's outfit ready. I originally wanted her to wear a teal dress that I found (their color is teal, and in the pictures the color looks really blue, but it's actually got a hint of green). However, they wanted her to wear black like the rest of the grandkids (they are all boys, wearing black suits). So, a black dress it is.

I had lots of fun creating her outfit, but had a few difficulties along the way. In fact, every piece of her outfit gave me some sort of trouble! My first dilemma: her dress. No one had a black dress in her size. I basically only shopped at Jolene, because I don't think anyone else would ever have a black dress that size, at least not the kind we were looking for. The first store had a billion newborn sizes, and then like...8 and up. My mother-in-law checked in Provo, not there. I went all the way to Sandy, and nothing. Finally, I checked back at my local store here, and THEY HAD ONE! They also had another one, new, just in...a plain black dress, with a removable sash. That was EXACTLY what I wanted!! But of course, none in her size. Every. Single. Size. Except for Kaylee's. *sigh* So I bought the other one with the built in black sash, and took it apart, took out the sash, added loops, and sewed it back together. I was determined that she have exactly the right dress. And it worked.


My second dilemma: what for her feet? Tights wouldn't work. Black tights would just be too much black for me. I HATE too much black. (It nearly killed me a couple of years ago, when Aveda took over my cosmetology school and I had to wear all black every day.) White would stand out and look weird, and good luck finding teal tights anywhere - at least, I never had any luck, especially not ones that were the right shade. So I finally decided to make frilly teal socks to match. I had never done anything like that before but I LOVE how they turned out!



My third dilemma: the sash. Normally that would be no big deal at all. However, the only ribbon I could find that was the right color was not wide enough for a sash. I bought some fabric to sew one, but thanks to my ability to lose things, I can't find an absolutely essential piece of my sewing machine. Actually, I think Kaylee took it off the table and ran off with it, but I can't really blame her because I did not witness it. One foot still works without it, but there is something wrong with it where it gets caught on itself and "jumps" up and down, making it extremely difficult to sew straight and even stitches. It's bad. Especially with silky, slippery fabric. But I gave it a go anyway, and here is the result! It certainly worked. I had to iron it past the seam a little bit so you can't see how crooked it is, but I am quite pleased with it. The only other problem was the ends of the sash. I have never been that great at hand sewing, and I didn't know how to do a hidden seam. I tried one side and it looked absolutely horrible. I mean really, REALLY bad. So bad that I showed Will and he just busted up laughing. And you know when Will just laughs at something I made, it's bad. It probably helped though, that I was laughing at it first. The other side, I tried something else, and it was perfect. I couldn't believe the difference. I should have taken a picture to compare them, but I was too embarrassed. Anyway, I took out the first one and re-did it, so they both look great now.

The last dilemma: the hair bow. I am horrible at making hair bows. Some people have this knack, and they can just whip up adorable bows like nothing. Mine always end up twisted, flat, crooked, too bunchy...just never very good. I don't know why. I mean, I'm a fairly crafty person, and pretty good at nearly anything I want to do. Even frilly socks. But bows? Eh, not so much. So this one is not perfect but I think it will do!

The finished product!

Okay, so my daughter is not really a product, but you know what I mean. I am so happy with how everything turned out. Hopefully the bride will agree and it will pass her inspection!