Craftsifaction

I was able to channel my strong desire to create and sew my own wedding dress into some other projects. I finally finished a side table/bench I've been working on since early autumn, when I dumpster-dived (curb-scavenged, really) for this worn, old bench in my neighborhood, which I rescued from town dump oblivion by lifting from the roadside and spiriting home in my arms under a light drizzle.



I spray-painted the legs red...thinking it would be nice to have some color in the house. I then took to gutting the moldy cushion, unveiling a flat piece of wood.



Then came the winter, and with it, a crisis of identity and lack of utility for the bench project, and a bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder for me, preventing me from leaving my bed, let along mustering the creative energy to face the red-legged bench.

Alas, the sun came out in late February, bringing with it a desire to undo the red, bring back light. So I painted the legs off-white, wiped the top to make sure no mustiness remained, and cut to size a length of decorater fabric (given to me as a birthday gift by my Sandy in Austin, along with an old copy of Vogue Sewing...she knows me so well!).

I glued down the fabric, smoothed it, cut the edges, and glued it under...



...and, voila!



I am going to put on this bench a lovely flower lamp that used to belong to my grandmother, and that my mother brought with her, with love, in an airplane carry-on from the west coast. The moral of this post: accomplish your work in your own time, in your own way...go with the flow because S.A.D. and winter will have their way, but you will have the last laugh...and the last craft.

Wedding Dress Blues

I am heading toward dangerous territory…convincing myself that I can make my own wedding dress.  Yikes!  Somebody stop me before I do it!  Really, I went to a dressmaker yesterday in Royal Oak, a funky burb of Detroit, to talk about having a dress made.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many beautiful dresses out there, and many of them would be fine.  If I am going to go beyond “fine,” though, then I will need to be more involved in the dress’ creation.

What I want:  a light, light blue dupioni silk, with creamy ivory or ecru accents…fabric flowers, feathers, ribbon, just some type of accent.  Slightly flared skirt, simple bodice – either strapless or scoop neck.  And a creamy ivory or ecru bolero jacket or shrug to wear during an outdoor ceremony.  Bottomed off by a pair of natural colored cowboy boots.  Sound fantastic to me…doesn’t exist.  So it has to be made or I have to give up on it.  And seeing as how the wedding is still 7 months away, I can’t give up on it just yet. 

Well, on the phone the dressmaker told me the average price for floor-length wedding dresses by her was between $500 and $1100.  But after setting foot in her door and showing her my ideas, it somehow shot up to $1300, not including the bolero/shrug.  The nice thing about this is it includes all alterations and fabrics.  The not nice thing about this is that the dress I have in mind truly is a simple cut, so despite my lack of expertise in sewing dresses I am pretty confident that this would be a simple dress, at least pattern-wise.  I asked her how to get the price down a bit and she said I could get a less expensive fabric than dupioni.  The only problem with that is that one of the reasons those dresses in wedding store display windows are “fine” is the yards and yards of satiny, polyester stuff that does not appeal to the touch or the eye.  So I am not negotiating on that.

Which leads to my Saturday night plans.  I am going to hunt for dress patterns and material.  And then I am going to give some serious thought to making my life slightly miserable for a little while and putting together my own dress.  Stay tuned…