Here I am with my husband in the dress that I talked about in part 1 of this post! This dress was intended to be worn at Greta’s wedding, but as you may remember from this previous post, I was sadly unable to attend.
Several weeks after Greta’s wedding day, we were invited to another amazing wedding and I was finally able to debut this bombshell dress. It was the wedding of Charlie Todd and Cody Lindquist held in gorgeous Pawley’s Island, South Carolina.
I first met Charlie, the groom, in 1999 when he was an undergraduate theatre major at UNC Chapel Hill. He was enrolled in my technical costuming class where I taught him how to sew!
A few years later, I started dating his college roommate- who is now my husband (the handsomeness featured above^)! We’ve all been good friends for a long time (also all neighbors in New York City) and Charlie’s wedding will go down in history as one of the most memorable.
The groom is the founder of Improv Everywhere, “a New York City-based prank collective that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places”.
If you’ve been hiding under a rock and don’t yet know about Improv Everywhere, check out their website and prepare to be impressed. These guys are top notch! (And yes, I participated in several “missions” back when I lived in New York.)
The wedding itself even had a prank! Check it out by clicking here or on the photo below. Be sure to watch the video!
“Loosely threading” this post together, I also traveled to New York City late last year for a couture construction class. As I mentioned before, I was equally as excited to learn what the class had to offer as I was to learn how such a class is taught.
This class was taught by the amazing coutuier Susan Khalje and the equally fabulous Kenneth King. Susan wrote the book on bridal couture. Literally.
The class was called “New York Sit and Sew” and it was held in the tiny studio of Project Runway’s Emmett McCarthy. The class structure was loose. Basically you bring a project and work on it. You learn from other people’s projects as well as your own.
I decided to work on strapless foundations featuring fitted bust cups. To save time, I used the bodice of the Burda pattern that I mentioned in part 1 of this post. I’m a busty girl, so I thought it would be challenging enough to make the dress for myself, while taking advantage of the master fitters, Susan and Kenneth.
Sadly I have very few photos from the 4-day class. It was an extremely tiny room with about ten people working and NYC had the absolute worst weather that weekend. Here’s a shot of myself and Susan and a few of the ladies from the class in Emmett’s showroom before heading out to the Daphne Guinness exhibit at FIT….
…and one shot of the tiny workroom, featuring several ladies working, and Kenneth and Susan helping me create a custom underwire using a coathanger. Even couture has to get creative sometimes!
Four days is not enough time to shop for fabrics, pattern, mockup, fit and finish a strapless dress, but here’s a photo of the interior progress taken early on the last day of class. I found this gorgeous silk and wool blended fabric in cherry red at Mood.
I’m sad to say I am still not finished with this dress, but hopefully one day I’ll be able to post about it! For now, here’s my basted unfinished version pinned to the stand.
I’m thinking that I might finish it into something inspired by this 1950s dress.
Maybe someday!
Thanks for making it all the way through this very loosely threaded post!
