Something Borrowed

Although I'll have the traditional "something borrowed" on our wedding day, I am thrilled that I'll be wearing something borrowed for our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, as well. Two of my bridesmaids are my cousins on my mom's side of the family; both have gotten married in the last 6 years, and they both wore the same beautiful lace dress on the eve of their weddings. My aunt graciously offered to let me borrow the dress for my own last evening as a "Miss," and I happily accepted.

When I first tried on the dress, though, it didn't exactly fit, and I was very bummed. I've lost some weight in the last few years and feel very happy with where I am physically, but I'm still not quite as lean as my cousins. The dress was originally custom made to fit the first cousin, and she has broader shoulders than I do, but a narrower mid-section. As such, the dress zipped up to the middle of my back, and would have been fine at the top where the zipper meets, but it wouldn't fit around my ribs. No matter how much weight I may lose, I don't think I can do much about my ribs!

I was really sad that I wouldn't be able to carry on the tradition of wearing this dress, but my mom was determined to somehow make it work. After some playing around one day, we came up with the idea of turning it into a corset-back dress. My mom was convinced that she could modify the style without harming the material at all, so after I wear it we can return it to its original state.

Here is the dress from the front..... it looks a little ill-fitting and loose here because the back is not completely reworked yet, so it doesn't fit me as snugly as it will when it is done. Plus, um, I'll be wearing shoes.

This is a quick mock-up of the back..... the zipper will go to just above the small of my back, and above that will become a corset back. Darts will be added to directly above my shoulders to allow us to create a nice V-shape (instead of the weird connect-at-the-bottom-and-the-top-but-not-the-middle scenario we currently have going on). Lace and lining will be added to connect the V, and satin ribbon (not this lovely white cording) will be used to complete the corset.

Obviously, this is a rough mock-up and everything will look quite a bit more finished when it is done, but playing around with this set-up gave us a good idea of how we can make this work. I am still a little nervous that it will look like I'm just a fat girl trying to squeeze into a skinny girl's dress (hehe), but I'm hoping it turns out okay! My mom is quite the seamstress so I trust that she will make it work and it will look spectacular.

Have you creatively modified any garments in order to carry on any family wedding traditions?