Bridesmaid Dresses

I'm sure many of you on Pinterest have seen this pin:



(Source)
Well, meet my bridesmaid dresses.

I found some heavier jersey knit fabric at JoAnn and bought tons of it. I asked each of my bridesmaids for some measurements. Remember when I asked them to be my bridesmaid? Well yes, after that they sent me their measurements. After that it was quite simple. However, making the dresses more fitted than in the tutorial from Sweet Verbena wasn't as simple. First we cut out the front and back of the dress with the shoulder-to-floor measurement.

Then, at their bust (or under the bust, this may also be your bra size measurement) we cut it in a little bit. We sewed a curve into the pattern to make it more fitted and less bulky around the bust since we were using heavier fabric than the tutorial. This we did by starting near the sleeve opening (a 10 in cut made from the top seam down) and worked our way in.

We made sure each dress had the right curve sewn in. This happened through a lot of trying on and adjusting! After that, the neck opening was cut in the middle of the dress with the back and the front lined up cutting down 8-10 inches. This opening was angled a little bit just for preference meaning it was cut in more of a triangle than just a slit. Each opening was hemmed and the dress was done! Now as for the sashes...we'll let my mom blog about those since she did most of the work on those!

**To adjust for a pregnant bridesmaid (cough, cough Jordan) trying on right before the wedding was key. We left extra room in the front half of the dress's length and adjusted after a final fitting.

Will You Be My Bridesmaid?

The way I told my sisters I was getting married was by calling them and asking them to be my bridesmaids. They were the easy ones. Now I had to ask my fiance's 2 sisters and 1 sister-in-law. I don't really like calling people on the phone (minus my crazy family) and I also didn't have any of their numbers so I thought I'd be creative. I sent these out ASAP since we decided to make the dresses ourselves. My mom and I found these fun gold boxes and bought some ring pops. 

On the inside flap of the boxes I wrote "Will you be my bridesmaid?" (I had to punch a tiny hole in the ring pop wrapper with a pin and push out the air to get them to fit in the boxes.)

I wrote them 2 notes. One was asking them to be my bridesmaid, for some of the measurements and then I told them about myself. I also added in a note briefly about how my fiance and I met, started dating and decided to get married.

Lastly, I cut small samples of the material for the bridesmaid dresses and put them in with the letters and ring pops in a padded envelope. They got them pretty quickly and...they loved the package and all said yes!