THREE WHITE DRESSES

There is a poem entitled Three White Dresses. It talks about a blessing dress (a.k.a. Christening Gown), a Baptism Dress, and a Wedding Dress. I remember this poem from when I was a Young Woman and the simplicity and purity that it spoke of. I aspired to these three white dresses.

Here are my Three White Dresses.

When I was going to BYU-Idaho, my major required us to take a Bridal Design course. We could create any formal gown for anyone. (Bridal and Formal are really the same thing, just different color scheme). I chose to make my own wedding dress. (I was not engaged at the time - which is good - because my real wedding plans happened so fast, it would not have been an easy time to design and create my dress during that engagement.)

This is my WEDDING DRESS

The design process began with a sketch and some inspiration.

My design inspirations were: the dresses of the Early Renaissance, Audrey Hepburn's Embassy Ball gown in My Fair Lady, and three dresses in The Princess Bride. (These remain two of my all-time favorite movies to this day.)

Audrey Hepburn: Embassy Ball gown from My Fair Lady, 1964




My Fair Lady: Embassy Ball gown in action.

Princess Bride




This is the movie trailer. All three dresses are in this trailer, if but for a short second. You just need to go see the whole movie...;)




(This dress is my favorite of the Princess Bride three. The video quality is not super - I suggest pulling out your copy - you SHOULD have one - :) This dress is in the wedding scene right before this scene AND in the final scene where she jumps out of the window onto the white horses.)

My fabrics were ivory silk crepe de chine and silk georgette. I did silk ribbon embroidery on the bodice and first head piece, and used french alencon lace and silk ribbon as hem and bodice detail.

This was the first headpiece I made, in the Bridal class. Juliet style.
The dress and the sleeves each had a train.

Actual wedding day - I had lost the Juliet headpiece (found it years later btw) and had someone make me a daisy chain head wreath which I loved much more for my wedding day.) The trains are edged in french alencon lace.

Closeup dress detail. The sleeve trains are tied at the elbow with silk ribbon.

Closeup bodice and sleeve detail. Silk ribbon embroidered flowers down center front bodice.



My Daughter's BLESSING DRESS

On her Blessing Day. (Laying on the quilt my grandmother had made for my wedding.)

The beautiful and sentimental thing about this Blessing Dress and underslip was that I made them from the scraps left over from my wedding dress. I learned the heirloom techniques in my Children's Clothing class at BYU-Idaho.

I added pink ribbons to the entredeux lace.

Bodice detail.

Sleeve detail.

Hem detail.

Skirt detail.



My Daughter's BAPTISM DRESS

On her Baptism Day.

Baptism Dress: white sparkle organdy, rayon lace trim, double skirt

Lined, with invisible zipper.

Sleeve detail.

Skirt detail.

Pleated skirt attached to waist for fullness.

Lace at waist seam.

Double skirts trimmed in lace.

Back: invisible zipper through waist seam.

Back: lace wraps around waist.

(I couldn't help myself - she also needed a Scripture Tote to match her Baptism Dress!)



I hope to end up making more versions of these white dresses - for my daughter's wedding someday, and my children's babies.

Do you have Three White Dresses?

Three White Dresses




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HAPPY DAY AFTER-VALENTINES DAY!

This is my favorite part of Valentine's Day: sharing a special date (or two) with my sweetheart. And recognizing our love for each other.

He is so smart - first thing Valentine's morning started out with him handing me a giant box of these favorite treats. He is so lovely - he knows I love them and gives them to me even though my diet is "starting soon".

We went to dinner here because we LOVE this place!
Then we came home (because there were no tables left - it was very very busy - which made it fun to watch all the couples kissing to get their free entree!) and ate our dinner at home while watching our DVR'ed SNL episodes.

Earlier, my sweet sweetheart surprised me by buying theatre tickets at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

We will be going to these shows:

This one is our OFFICIAL Valentine's Date, later this month.

This one in March - for no particular occasion.

This one in May - for our 17th anniversary!

So yes it was a great Valentine's Day - not that it had to be February 14th to celebrate our love...right?

But I do not usually get caught up in the decorations and everything of this holiday. HOWEVER. Pinterest has entered my life and I cannot help myself with all of the CUTE and irresistible crafty things to make and do for every holiday under the sun. (Note: I have always been crafty - mostly "sew"-y - but have managed to filter out a lot of it based on time constraints or whatever other reason I come up with at the time). But this year...

My Pinterest to-do list was very lengthy, as I believe it will be for years to come now. And I'm OK with that. Now. I don't want anyone to start thinking I have become a sucker and am now at the mercy of Pinterest's siren call...but I do have to say that this renewed desire to craft and create beyond my normal things is a beautiful thing. Because it makes me happy. And it makes me awesome!

I did get few things created that I had "pinned":

I sewed Heart Chains with my sewing students.

I made and taught a class to make Hearts & Pompoms Garland.

{Crayon Hearts}I made these delightful melted crayon art hearts.

Here's our version of Martha Stewart's craft. We did not hang ours up yet though - next year we will figure out a cool way to do it.

For now, they are stuck to the sliding glass door, against our snowy backdrop.

The process of making these was actually pretty cool, though labor intensive (peeling crayons, shaving them into bits, melting them with the iron between waxed paper, trying to get the stain off the table because we did not follow the directions explicitly - they really mean it when they say put layers of craft paper underneath your ironing)

I think they're pretty and can't wait to pull them out of the bin next year and hang them properly.

{Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies}
Don't these look amazingly delicious? I made them for my kids for V-day. But I adapted a little bit...

I added pink "cherry"-flavored frosting instead of the chocolate. I love chocolate and cherry (almond, really) flavors together. And it looks Valentine-y with the pink.

Some got more frosting than others. Still so yummy!

{Red Velvet Crepes}
I made these for my kids' dinner last night before Tyler and I left for Qdoba.



Here's a few of the Pins that never got done but I do, thankfully, have the peace that I can do them "next year":

{Heart Wreath}

{Conversation Hearts}

{Wood Grain}

{Faux Patchwork Heart}

{Ice Art}

{Love Note Pillows}

{Cinnamon Cookie Crunch Popcorn}

{Ruffled Heart Shirt Dress}

{Stuffed Hearts}I love this because it uses red snowflakes from the previous season...Christmas. Nice transition.



A few more Things Valentine:

I got "Heart Attacked" by my church class. Nice heartwarming surprise!

My kindergartener brought home this wreath he had made at his school Valentine's day party. I love it!

It looks like an easy craft, made from a paper plate with a circle cut out of the middle and hearts glued to it.

I keep these things for next year too. {LOVE}

My daughter made this darling lollipop flower for me in her Home Ec class. {LOVE}



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