What did you do with your wedding gown?

I love that story. Makes me want to ask her if she would like a couple of dresses for her collection!

I’m not into mind candy TV, but I have been bingeing SYTTD on FB lately while I’m sewing. I try to justify it as an exercise in tailoring and design. :rofl:

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@Corinthian I spent $120 on fabric, lace and beading for my dress! (1983 prices) If I had to do it again, I would have done a totally different design and sprung for textured lace and trim.

These days, I make veils and headpieces for my nieces. I get nice lace trim and then bead in the wedding colors. It’s just enough to be fun, requires no alterations and the nieces like the custom work. Maybe the veils will be passed on to the next generation!

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Had it professionally cleaned and packed and it’s, uh, somewhere here. LOL. It’s very plain, really, but there’s a bit of lace, the bodice, so I’d love it if my granddaughters would have a bit of lace maybe on their bouquets. Just a bit, hidden in the flowers. I absolutely loved that dress. While I was waiting on it, I found a sample dress in a local department store and I would visit just to look at it! I had bought it at another store in D.C. and wasn’t going to go into town to see it. Young and in love.

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@VaBluebird My dress has the exact same neckline, front and back! While I also had long sleeves, mine were the same lace as the dress.

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Ah! Timely thread for me!
I, too, got married 40 years ago. Pulled my dress out of the hermetically sealed box–not sure the cleaners even pressed the whole dress!) Satin was more ivory than the white I remembered! (My D would not have fit it, nor did she want it) . I’ve spent the past week making it into a christening dress for my granddaughter’s baptism tomorrow! I also used lace and ribbons from my D’s baptism gown, which had ā€œgreyedā€ enough that D said no to that one. I also made a headband with a ribbon from D’s dress and a flower from my veil…but forgot to take pic of that.

My dress.
Finished gown.

IF IF IF I get lucky enough to get a grandson, there’s enough fabric for a vest and pants. I’m also guessing that my S won’t even go the christening route if he has kids …but I plan to save fabric to potentially make a ring bearer pillow if he would want.

It was a little stressful, as I had the time constraints…and I haven’t sewn in years. Had trouble remembering how to thread my machine and read a pattern. Told D not to look too closely!

When my D was first expecting, I found an online company that I was going to utilize to make the christening gown. They re-purpose your wedding dress into many things: Bridal gowns, wedding items, robes kids clothes, memorial gifts, etc. (Explore – Unbox the Dress)
Of course, I procrastinated until GBaby was born, and then my very efficient daughter scheduled tomorrow for ceremony (she is 8 weeks old). The website needed 10 weeks at least…which is how I ended up doing myself.

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Hmmmm, maybe I could sew something from my gown. Will have to have a look at it.

I took another look at my gown and my wedding photos. My dress was pure white. My dress now, after being professionally sealed and packed, is now am off-white, very light ivory. Even the faux pearls aren’t white anymore. It makes me sad…and mad. It’s aged the same throughout, so doesn’t look bad in that respect, but still. I’m not ready to get rid of it. I’m going to get rid of the huge slip thing, and that pack the dress in a much smaller box. I can look at it from time to time as I want, but it will take up a small space.

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It’s sitting in my closet reminding me when I was a size 4. I was tiny then, how do people get to size a size 0? I guess they have no bones.

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My D is a size 00, at one point she was under 90 pounds and 5’2ā€. Now she’s about 100#. The reason she’s so light is she has chronic stamina issues due to her chronic health problems. She would prefer health any day!

My D’ wedding dress was a size 0. The woman who fitted her joked that so many brides tell her they are a 0 but very few really are. D is tiny.

Vanity sizing.

I was a size 6 when I graduated from college in 1986. Things on my person have, um, shifted a bit (darn you gravity), but my weight is within 5 lbs of what I weighed then. I now usually wear a size 2

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My size was size 10 in Middle school and generally is. I still am that same height & weight.

My wedding dress (in 1984) was a size 6. At the time I tried on my mother’s dress (from 1952) and it was a size 12. It was VERY snug on me.

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I couldn’t believe how tiny the waist of my puffy slip was that goes under the gown. No stretch either. It was 24ā€. I had no idea I had a 24ā€ waist. I measured and it’s 28ā€ now. I’ll blame it on babies. I’m always a size 8 it seems.

I won’t even bother to try on my wedding dress….i was 102. (Didn’t break 100 until a junior in college. Got married in grad school.)

I was a very picky eater growing up and not at all adventurous in trying things.

Now….i am not 102. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Food tastes so much better now.

Menopause, plantar fasciitis, etc is not fun.

I need to start focusing on improving my approach to health and fitness.

This thread has been a solidly interesting one. :+1:t2:

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You picture looks very close to the prom dress my daughter wants me to make her. If it turns out ok, I may just have to post it :blush:

Mine is hanging so a bag in my guest room closet. I weigh at least 10 lb less now than when I married 40 years ago, it would fit just fine.

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Mine (37 years old) is in its box in the basement. My sister wore my dress when she got married, five years after me. It was cleaned, preserved and boxed again, but I’ve never taken it out. H and I move the box from here to there every time we reorganize the basement, but it’s never made it to the sell or donate bin.

My daughter wouldn’t fit in it but also would never wear that style. It has the puffiest sleeves I’ve ever seen. I could hide a small child inside!

Once I was engaged, I bought one bride magazine, flipped through and saw this dress. I was delighted that a local bridal shop had it when I went to try on dresses. I tried it on first, it fit perfectly, and I told my best friend that’s it. :heart_eyes: I tried on a few more for fun and comparison. I was shocked it was in my price range.

I ordered it, paid half, then waited for months, as usual. One day, around six weeks before my wedding, I received a postcard in the mail that the bridal store had closed and went out of business. :scream:

I was distraught! I’d lost my dress money and had no dress. Thankfully, my future H was great in this crisis. He called another bridal shop and somehow got them to rush order the dress, let me pay cost (which was half) and it arrived in time.

I felt like a princess on my wedding day, with no idea what a lifelong marriage would truly entail. :joy:

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I bought my dress on sale for $99. It had sat around the bridal store a long time getting a bit dusty. So I had to pay $40 to have it cleaned… looked great. Also alterations (which I would have had to pay either way). I hesitated to pay $110 for the veil, ā€œcost more than the dressā€ - my fiance-now-husband laughed.

I have been on the fence so many times about giving it away that I had to go check the basement closet. It is still there. (But I didi give away daughter’s a few years after she divorced.). Tried it on a year - or two ago…. almost fits, just hard to zip.

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