The dress and chiming bells ...

I'm back with a beautiful thing.. the summation of a long story with the sweetest of endings. I hope you can hear wedding bells too!

Picture this: you're in line for a relatively dodgy restroom in an equally dodgy bar. Someone vaguely familiar approches you and asks you whether you'd be interested in making their wedding dress for them. You of course say 'YES..yay..' and dive into your mess of a bag for a business card worried you might end up forgetting all about this encounter because of those 5 extra gin and tonics.

For something that has started out in a restroom, this is a sweet story indeed!

This is the sketch for the dress. I sat down with the bride-to-be for what must have been a bit less than an hour (fast no?!) and we came up with this. A 1950s inspired dress with a bias cut semi transparent overskirt, a cinched waist, a double layer veil and the all important hand embroidered inserts. Hand embroidered quotes about love in Maltese, English and Latin.. isn't that the most romantic of thoughts!? I'm so happy the bride suggested this idea in time.. what a comparatively commonplace dress this would have turned out to be if we had opted for machine embroidered material. So here enters my go-to friend for everything romantic, swirly and well-executed: embroiderer extraordinaire Sarah of The Secret Rose fame! Contacting her at possibly the busiest time in her life to date (ie. mid-MA course/thesis) she performed awe-inspiring, embroidery acrobatics to finish her work in time for the wedding! I owe you a big Bravo!! and a wishful promise that next time round (hoping and secretly sure there'll be a next time round) it won't be this much hassle for you!



A number of visits to the textile shop and a batch of swatches later; on an ardent quest to find the best material to embroider on and the best backing for it, we settled for this lovely antique white, sturdy enough for our constructed shape and for the embroidery needle. Here are some teasers I simply couldn't help myself releasing mid way through the dress-making process. I had just put the embroidered pieces in and way so happy about the result!





Last Saturday afternoon we were cordially invited to the bride's home just minutes before she was to leave for the church, to take some final pictures of her in the dress. It was a lovely gesture on her and her family's part and it felt as if the whole household was in a 'happy buzz'.. following are some of the said pictures.









some nicely taken closeups by Sarah...





Just like her choice of shoes, the bride's choice of antique gold jewellery couldn't have complemented the dress more. yay!



Here's a commemorative photo of Sarah and myself with the bride-to-be (yes it was pretty chilly last Saturday! *please excuse the piling on of large scarves)



and even though I was half asked not to, I simply had to post this swiftly taken photo of the bride's mother in the lovely purple jacket and dress! I'm so happy we opted for purple in spite of all the lovely colours in the spectrum!



This is a parting gesture blogpost.. I've worked on this dress for such a long time I sometimes expect to find it hung behind me on my wardrobe. If you wish to read a slightly more chronological excerpt about this project I suggest you go to Sarah's blog! If on the other hand you're thinking about getting married and would love to do it in a special dress I suggest you get in touch.. there's little else that pleases one more than to see such a personalized project through. I intend to work with Sarah on customized embroidery pieces well into the future so from that end I can assure you quality standards and all that jazz.

Please come and find me in a restroom near you! :)or else it's babettopolis@gmail.com .. the choice is yours!

Christmas came early ...

Yes it did. And it did with the surprise visit of gift-laden parents. Now resigned to the idea that they must bring their own wine with them cos we always run out, they still visit often and bring with them bagfuls of stuff which reaches me, via their house, from neighbours, acquaintances and relatives alike (see teh jewellery below). I have a feeling that after today it's going to be a bit tricky for me to complain about anything. Following are four indian gowns with matching pants and scarves which I got as a combined christmas/birthday gift. All I need now is an excuse to wear all of the stuff on top of each other .. the material so special, the cuts so flattering. I am in love and risking overkill!












Dilemma: what to keep in its entirety and what to pull apart and up-do. A little voice in my head tells me there's no way further up for these lovely things.

Anticipation and a dose of satisfaction

What bliss it is to be able to take some hand-sewing tasks to the sofa at 9pm, make tea and make the best of someone else's lp player to listen to an ever-increasing record collection which you had no time (or speakers) for before. It's restful to not have to look at your laptop everytime you wish to listen to something else.. with a record player you usually opt to stay put and listen through the whole thing.

It's also nice to find time for old projects, more precisely, old unfinished projects which have stood the test of time. To be even more precise, pieces of embroidery started some four years ago and abandonned for other pressing projects. This coat was one of the first things I had sewn, in fact it's a relatively shoddy affair. I had drafted out its pattern after attending a pattern class and I remember taking it to the teacher to inspect and getting a 'what were you thinking, dear?' look. Very few got it and even less emphatized with my Nordic priest look. It is now finished, just yesterday I decided to sit down and not let go of it until I did .. whilst listening to a mix of Brahms, My Fair Lady and Joanna Newsom.





What anticipation for the next Patches on the 27th! click on the link to view all the participants' profiles (mine included of course) .. this should be a good one.. and this time round I mustn't forget to put on cosy thermal socks! I'm expecting soup and tea and lots of familiar faces.