The First Cut

So the time came, this weekend, to give it all a proper try. Yup, deep breath and plunge forth into the deep. The first cut.

Of course, we kinda chickened out of doing it properly. We also realised we neglected to buy any lining for the practice run dress - which was a bit of a silly oversight given we wanted to check out how to do all of it, and get it all perfect. Oopsie. So until the practice lining was brought in, we thought we would have a shot at cutting out the top, and the top of the skirt, in some leftover lining at mum's house and see how it looked - and, more

importantly, if it would fit.

We pinned it all down and had a go. It actually turned out quite well (despite a minor upset in accidentally cutting out a size 16 in the top of the skirt).

The top fit, happily, like a treat, even over my cotton dress - and the v-neck front, it seems, will

hit in exactly the right point (above what my mother would refer to as "too tarty" but below matron-esque standards). Even in weird, leftover black/navy lining, it looked elegant and almost kind of beautiful already. Check out Diana there. She's loving it.

We swiftly, therefore, got quite excited about the whole

thing and now are if not cavalier then certainly less timid about the real thing.

We'll still be doing the practice first though. Just in case.

Our exciting new friend.

This week we ventured into the treasure trove itself - Mandors. Fabric, fabric everywhere. Of course, it was just for a preliminary look, but 40 minutes later we had done a good scouting of some gorgeous silk dupion and silky lining, and also pulling over some over to a table and holding it over some bright red netting to make sure it didn't shine through. But yeah, just looking.

What we did buy was four meters of plain white cotton - which behaves in a fairly similar way to the kind of silk we want - for our practice dress. (Just in case it all goes wrong). But that wasn't all.

Allow me to introduce our new friend, Diana. Isn't she pretty? Diana (we didn't name her, it's just the name of the model, but it is really sticking) is fully adjustable between sizes 10 and 16 and will, hopefully, make the whole thing a lot easier (as well as looking awesome and being a lot of fun. We're thinking of inviting her to the wedding. She could stand in the corner and wear the practice dress).

My mum and I got her out and set her up the next morning. She makes a somewhat frightening creaking noise as you adjust her size - but hey, no lady likes to have her measurements increase, I suppose. She also starts to look kinda alarming as you make her bigger and her mid section starts splitting apart. Especially if, like us, you neglect to notice that there's a back dial as well as a front dial. Oopsie.

Anyway, Diana. A new member of the bridal family and, most likely, a very helpful one.