Pink Reception Dress and Interior Finishing

 If you follow my personal blog, you read about our Illinois Reception last week. But what you didn't learn was that I specially designed and created the pink dress especially for the reception!

Photo by Amanda Dominick

I found the fabric on clearance at JoAnn's. I believe I paid $3 a yard for 4 yards. It's a very lightweight printed muslin, that was really fun to sculpt a dress from. It was also fussy - that pleating on the front is all tacked down by hand!

With this dress, I challenged myself to finish the interior as completely as possible. I rarely do this, as it's a lot of extra work and doesn't affect the exterior of the garment in most cases. However, I wanted to prove that I could do it! So every single seam on the bodice was turned and slipstitched.

Yes, even the armholes!

It was a lot of handsewing but so satisfying.

(I did not french seam the skirt, which would have been the equivalent type of finishing. I had a serger and was quite happy to just utilize that.)

There's something else I did special for this gown, and that is to make a proper short skirt crinoline!

Photo by Amanda Dominick

Here you can see the bit of poof it gives the skirt has my dad and I have our father/daughter dance. The crinoline was a lot of work, but I made it a completely separate garment from this dress so now I can wear it under any short party frock I choose!