Wednesday, October 27, 2010

La Piece de Resistance!

I'll get right into it with this post, but you'll have to excuse the mess in the house in the background of the photos!

Here's a funky little jacket adapted from the satin overcoat coat/train part of Nan's wedding dress. I shortened the sleeves to a 3/4 length and added a cuff slit, let out the back darts (how tiny was Nan?!?!?!), hand appliqued lace from her dress onto the back panel, cut off the train and with the new hemline, formed a sort of bustle at the back complete with a rosette made from lace of her veil.

This jacket is now wrapped up in a closet in the States, waiting for someone to take out for a spin! Nan?!?!? Stay tuned to the blog for the final post featuring crafts made from Nan's wedding dress including a photo of Nan herself wearing a creation crafted from her dress!




Monday, October 25, 2010

Nan's Pillow

Second up in the series of crafts made from Nan's Wedding dress is this pillow. I made the pillow from the satin fabric used on the over jacket part and the lace comes from the under dress part. I cut out the lace motifs and stitched them by hand on the front side of the pillow before sewing it up on the machine.

Because of it's age (no offense nan!) the lace is quite fragile, but when stitched onto the satin it does provide quite a bit more stability. When I gave this pillow to Nan I told her that it's in good enough shape to leave on on the armchair in her parlor, but knowing Nan, it's probably wrapped up carefully in a closet somewhere... But I can't say anything about that since it's the good care that she takes of her things that makes it possible to use her wedding dress over fifty years later!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Funny Bunny

Up first in the series of things I made with Nan's dress are these bunny ears for my dear friend Ashley. How do I start a blog post about Ashley? Ashley got married just the weekend before I did, at her family's resort, Vichy Springs in Ukiah California, so we spent much of the summer helping each other out with wedding stuff. Actually, it's more like Ashley was helping me out with my wedding planning (remember this post?) and I was ooing and aahing over her wedding planning!

Ashley and I first met in Paris during a study abroad and got along like a house on fire. We both went back to our universities to finish up our degrees and found ourselves both transported a few years later back to Paris. Ashley is a talented designer with a heart of solid gold and a fashion sense of diamond encrusted platinum! So when we were organizing a bridal luncheon for her at the Plaza Athénée this summer, I couldn't resist making some trendy bunny ears for the bride-to-be.

A cheap-o headband, some bias binding, a little lace and glue were all that it took to make them - way cheaper than the ones currently being sold out there in fashion land! (We comnpleted the look with cheesy white heart sunglasses for the bride of course...) So here are a few shots of Ashley wearing Nan's wedding dress on her head for her own pre-wedding festivities -Congrats to Ashley and JM!!!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Nan's Dress

As you've learned in the last post, Nan married husband Malone in a Catholic Ceremony and OVER FIFTY YEARS later, she's very kindly passed me her wedding dress to reuse & recycle and to give birth to little craft babies. Before I reveal the crafting projects that this gown has become, here is a little teaser photo of her dress!


Her dress was a very pretty strapless number completely made of Chantilly lace over a satin under structure. The skirt part alone has three tiers of Chantilly lace! It was worn with a long sleeved satin overcoat with the most amazing cathedral length satin train and completed with Chantilly lace veil. (Take a peek at Nan in her gorgeous full ensemble in the previous post.)

You can see on this photo where I've started cutting away some of the lace on one of the tiers of this dress and how the lining is already cut to pieces. The satin overcoat train and lace veil are over there on the hanger... Stay tuned y'all, my next post is a craft made from these pieces!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Nan Being Gorgeous

Since wedding fever has officially taken over the Nattie-Beau houshold, I want to share with you all a very special wedding story before we get into the details of all of the craftiness of our own party.

Nan Malone married Husband Malone in a Catholic Ceremony quite a few years ago (photo Evidence of the couple in their gorgeous gorgeousness).


Nan very selflessly gave me the gift of her wedding dress for my own selfish crafting pleasure. Stay tuned for the results of what this dress has become!

Willkommen Madlen!

Little Madlen was born this summer to the most wonderful Mutter and Vater, our wonderful German friends living in NYC. Beau and I have had the priveledg of meeting little Madlen twice already, the first time during our wedding weekend and again a few weeks ago in the great city of New York.

Segenswünsche to this new family and may you keep each other warm with love during your first winter together! Beau and I are looking forward to seeing you all again together soon!