Wedding bells

This summer we've been lucky enough to have been invited to five weddings, and of those we've been able to go to four. They were each quite different, but every one was absolutely lovely. So much romance, so much great food, so much fun choosing what to wear ...

... Speaking of what to wear, I had the task of making flowergirl dresses for my three nieces for one wedding, and the sashes for the flowergirls' dresses at my friend's wedding.

The flowergirl dresses were lovely simple white dresses with a plain bodice and panelled skirts, made using the Simplicity pattern 5641, style B. Instead of having a sash at the front the dresses had a sash at the back instead, made of ribbon in blue  to match the bride's theme.

For the sashes, my friend wanted to incorporate both the tones of purple used in her bridesmaid dresses, but despite hunting all over town for the perfect ribbon we couldn't find anything. So, we did what all good DIY sewers do and made it up instead. For the main band of the sash I used a slightly stretchy dark purple (aubergine I suppose you could say) fabric and then I sewed three strips of light mauve ribbon on the darker fabric to make the ties. The effect was exactly what we were after and perfectly tied in the bridesmaid's colours. Unfortunately by late in the day when I took the photo above Olivia's sash had loosened off a bit and fallen down slightly, but you get the idea.