Click your heels together three times.

Saturday was a fairly successful day. The lining, which we cut out a few weeks ago, was provisionally stitched together by mum to do a final proper fitting.

Even though it's just satin lining, you can already see the form the dress is going to take, and it looks quite lovely even that way. Mainly the morning consisted of mum promising not to accidentally pin me but we got a good idea of how it's going to look.

We also called the overlocker into action for a practice session. Luckily, it came ready-threaded, so we haven't had to cross that bridge yet.

What we did do was practice a bit of serging. Now, I'm pretty used to my sewing machine by now, so the needle flying about doesn't really bother me. But when there are two needles, two "loopers" - needleish things at the bottom which shoot in and out - a knife flying about and some sort of strange spring going in and out, it starts to get a little scary again.

The results, though, make it all worth it. The neatness of the serged seams and the way the overlocked edges are fray-free, will give everything, as mum keeps repeating, "a more professional finish". We certainly hope so.

This week I also started cutting my first bridesmaid dresses. We went up to Mandors for a big fabric shop - one lot of navy blue fabric, one lot of royal blue, and one lot of "turtle" green. The fourth lot, which will be a kind of turquoisey bluey greeny is waiting til the bridesmaid in question can have a look and pick the colour herself.

Into this

rainbow will be my favourite fabric everrrrr... silk dupion in "Flower of Scotland" tartan print. I made a dress from this a couple of years ago for a friend's wedding and, if I didn't think it was mean to make them all dress like the Bay City Rollers, I'd probably have decked them all out in it.

Anyway, the colours fit together within the tartan, which we are going to turn into wraps (one side tartan, one side plain colour to match the dresses). Such is my plan. Mum has yet to be convinced of the genius of it... we shall see.

The thing which is causing some issues - in my head only - with the bridesmaids is the accessories. I think I've driven them half crazy with links to red shoes. Red shoes, you see, are the defining factor.

Why? Well it brings us back to the movies. Which is, of course, the Wizard of Oz.

Bridesmaid Louisa - officially my longest-serving friend, who I have known since she was born - says she remembers me telling her I would wear ruby slippers whenever I got married.

I had red shoes when I was little, but when I got to university I found the first pair which really could earn the ruby slippers title. They were flats from Office and they were loved so sincerely that I wore them thin, so badly that they let water in and started to fall apart. I still have them because I could not bear to put them in the bin.

Luckily, a few years later Marks and Spencer had a flash of shoe genius just before Christmas

and came out with these beauties. Not only with the sequins but with the high heels too. They are pretty much the perfect shoes. C duly bought them as my Christmas present that year (I knew he was a keeper).

Although I've worn them a couple of times, I have, rather oddly for me, kept them in good nick by not wearing them to death. And as soon as we got engaged, I boxed them away so that they'd be good on the day.

Don't worry - that's about as sentimental as I get.

It's not as easy as it looks, is it?

Unfortunately things got a bit bleak at the weekend.

There we were, ploughing away, trying our wee practice dress. We cut it out of cotton, cut the lining, everything going swimmingly. Within merely an afternoon, we cut out the whole thing and put the entire bodice together, and the skirt too.

We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves in fact, in the way you only can when you feel like you're steaming ahead. And it seems to be only when you're feeling that way that you suddenly hit a brick wall.

So we had the top and the skirt section ready. The skirt was pretty much perfect for our purposes, and seeing it over the petticoat was quite exciting (even though, because we'd used such thin material for the practice, it meant the skirt turning a peculiar pink colour).

Then I tried to put the top on and we were somewhat deflated. It fits - but it doesn't fit the way it should, you see. There were weird sticky out bits on those beloved princess seams. There were elements puckering and pooking which were simply unacceptable. We were confused - especially given the practice top was exactly the same size as the lining-only practice we'd done.

So. What went wrong? Our theory is that pressing the cheaper cotton we got for the practice whacked it somewhat out of shape. It also seems that the facings of the dress don't quite fit in satisfactorily.

And what the hell are we going to do now? Well after bodice-gate (as it shall henceforth be known) we had a rather long, sometimes calm and sometimes panicked summit where many suggestions were thrown around. For my mum, this was not really helped by the fact that, still wearing the skirt, I was enjoying having a spin around to see it fly out rather than concentrating.

There's some stuff we're considering.

1. Back to the drawing board and look for another pattern

2. Make a practice bodice in the actual silk, to remove the doubt of the cheaper cotton

3. Get rid of the stupid facings (which will require moving the zip to the back of the dress. This would actually, having considered it, be a bonus in terms of easily getting in and out of it).

4. Er...

Anyway mum text me last night saying she had a solution. What it is, I don't yet know... but I'm sure we can work a way around this.

The search for a pattern.

In case you've been wondering (and I'm sure you

have over the Christmas break) the next stage,

in our DIY adventure is - da da! the pattern.

If you've ever made your own clothes, you will heed the importance of this. While I might have very strong ideas how I want this to look, I don't have the technical, pattern cutting skills to go it alone without just a touch of guidance and inspiration.

Luckily, I could spend days pouring over dress patterns so for me this was no hard task. For my beloved, it was slightly less entertaining as he was abandoned to share polite, sport-based small talk with my dad, while me and mum went

giggling to the computer to seek out some designs.

After a bit of searching, we happened upon So Vintage Patterns. If you've never seen it, I demand you click through now. It is dress-making heaven.

What we found there was a very exciting selection of lovely patterns. Having, on occasion, leafed delicately through vintage patterns in shops and market stalls, it's quite fun to have them all laid out on a handy website for you.

And so pretty! Take, for example, the 60s style at the top of the page. I'm loving the bridesmaid dresses, especially the open-pleated one with the bows.

I also love the way they label so many patterns with "So Audrey!" which, as already established, is definitely an aim here.

Then there's this gorgeous, short-sleeved, bows-on-top lovely on the side here (focus, naturally, should be on the bridesmaid dress which is the right length, rather than the bride which, although lovely, is simply far too long). What's extra cute here is that the neckline has a lovely heart shape, but it's still a high neckline. It takes it from little-girl style to quite sophisticated.

The only real problem is that it looks so nice in red, it's hard to imagine in ivory or white.

Another pattern which caught our eyes was this v-necked number at the bottom. This has something much-desired in our quest for the perfect pattern - ultra flattering, shape-defining princess seams. We also loved the v-neck which was open, but not too deep. Sadly, we then had the problem that it's covered in lace.

Now, I love lace, but it's not part of the plan - especially because there's going to be quite a lot more going on with this dress without plonking lace over the top of it as well.

Anyway, as lovely as all the So Vintage patterns are, there's also the small catch that, being vintage patterns, each is available in one size only. Patterns *can* be used as a guidance for bigger or smaller sizes, but probably by someone a bit more talented at doing so than me.

Don't get me wrong, if I saw the right one at the right size, I'd have grabbed it - and I'd definitely recommend the site as a source for any other brides going the DIY route or getting someone to make their dress up.

In the end, we decided to use some of what we'd seen on the site as inspiration - and source a contemporary pattern instead. But So Vintage definitely gets the props for pointing us in the right direction.

If you're interested in any of the patterns above, the links are below.

http://www.sovintagepatterns.com/catalog/item/1657945/7701375.htm

http://www.sovintagepatterns.com/catalog/item/1657945/8384703.htm

http://www.sovintagepatterns.com/catalog/item/1657945/5386597.htm

Inspiration

It's all very well, you may be thinking, wanting to make a dress. But what you need is a vision.

Well, you'd be right. In fact, vision is another reason why I've decided on the DIY(WM) (Do It Yourself (With Mum)) option. There are a huge number of wedding dresses for sale in the world. Unfortunately the vast majority of them are almost exactly the same, give or take a detail here and there. Strapless. Floor length. And, beautiful as they are, these are the two very things which I would never want in a wedding dress.

"Oh" you may cry "but there are plenty of designers who don't just do that". And yes, you'd be right - in fact I'm going to post about some of my very favourites soon. But in reality, I have sat through entire bridal fashion shows and been interested in only one dress out of 90. And it's only been because it was short. Not because it was what I dreamed of.

The thing is, I've never been a fan of floor-length. In fact I can think of only one occasion in my life where I've chosen a floor-length skirt (my sixth year prom) and it just... isn't me. My first thought was of a fifties, prom-dress style look - which you'd understand if you could see my wardrobe. Big skirts are definitely the way.

So when trying to explain this all to my
dearest, and initially horrified mum, I had to come up with some good ammunition and description. My mind, as it often does when trying to think of a simple explanation, went immediately to Grease. The Perfect Prom Dress - Sandy's dress during the dance off. And it's even white. (There will be plenty more Grease references in the future so if you're not a fan... sorry).

But what really swung it in my favour with mum was the Audrey Hepburn pic at the top. From her role in Funny Face, she has, as is customary for Audrey, the perfect look.

The dress we want to make won't be a perfect replica of either of these. But it will take the elements I most adore - the big skirt, the layered petticoats, and the overall sense of elegance - from each.

And if anyone shows up looking like Cha Cha, they'll be shown the door immediately.