I’ve thought about making this my wedding dress since 2008. But now I think I might make it as a rehearsal dinner dress instead. Or just a dress to wear anytime I feel like it. :) Actually matched gauge in the pattern with the same needles.
2/9: Been working on this a lot this weekend. My shoulders are sore. Maybe it’s the cotton. I am already 3+ balls into this thing. The skirt is super wide, but I guess it’s swingier than it looks. I am going to change needle sizes a repeat earlier than it says to make it a little smaller. I will think about stopping the skirt a repeat earlier too, if the skirt looks like it is getting too long.
2/15: Finished the skirt using just a little over 6 skeins. I cut out a repeat of the lace, but my skirt was as long as it was supposed to be. Going to start the bodice with the smaller numbers.
2/18: My gauge was huge on the shetland bead lace part. I went down to a 5 for the bodice. And I am knitting less rows than the pattern calls for. I stopped one increase earlier on the front and am still worried about it getting too long on top. If I don’t have to rip this all out, I will probably finish for Ravellenic Games.
2/21: Finished the bodice last night and am blocking it today. I had a little bit of trouble remembering when to increase and I am not sure that the fronts match the back, but I am not worrying about it. Maybe I should have followed people’s advice and charted out the top. But my row gauge ended up way off, so I kind of had to make some adjustments anyway. It got kind of huge when I blocked it, so I had to mush it into a smaller shape. Now I have three days to finish the sash and put it all together. One of those days is a work day though, so we’ll see…
2/24: Finished a day late. All done, but need to weave in the ends this afternoon. The crocheted borders on the sleeve caps was difficult for me. Mainly because I didn’t know how many slip stitches to do around the arm. I had to rip out a couple times because my stitch ratio was off. Plus the yarn was super splitty and especially so during crocheting. The double crochet was tricky getting all of the many plies.
I didn’t gather the skirt using a waste yarn like in the pattern. I just divided the skirt into even section (ditto with the sash) and then eased it in. When I tried on just the sash and the skirt it was still huge. But once I sewed the bodice on, it all came together. The bodice had seemed small before hand, but it stretched nicely and it all worked out!
Used 9/16” Slimline buttons in Beige. I need to get another dress/slip to wear underneath it, but this beige sundress would work in a pinch. I might get good fancy pictures of this later this year.