Adventures in formalwear (and other stories)

So, I'm a bridesmaid again. Another of my friends got engaged back at the end of August, and will be getting married in March. The kind of bittersweet thing about it is, her fiance lives in Australia, and so after the wedding, she'll be moving there and I won't see her again for several years. But on the up side, I'll get to spend some extra time with her beforehand, since I have a lot of craft involvement on this wedding!

We're reusing the bridesmaid dresses from J's wedding, because there's bridal party overlap, the other girls (J and her maid of honor) can get access to the dresses, and they just happen to be pretty darn close to S's (the new bride's) favorite color, which is cobalt blue. Yay for recycling! My wallet thanks her profusely. We are, however, making shrugs to go over them, because spaghetti strap dresses just don't work for the rainy, cold mess that is March around here. (Half the time, March is the one part of the winter that we actually get snow in!) So I, and another bridesmaid who knows how to sew (J's sister, whose name also begins with J... let's call her J2) will be sewing those.

The other project, which is what we're working on currently, is "blueifying" S's dress. Well, technically, we haven't started the blueifying yet. First order of buisness was to make a panel to insert into her store-bought dress-- it's a halter, and she wasn't really comfortable with how low it cuts. So she brought it over on Sunday, J2 worked on figuring out possible ways to bustle the train, and I worked on the panel. (On her, it doesn't bulge out like that.) I'm pleased with the look-- but I'll have to take it out and re-sew it in this weekend, since she wants it a bit higher.

Now, the blueifying... we're going to be adding some cobalt blue beading to the beading that's already there on the lace appliques. Just need to figure out where.

Now, to all of you who may be reading this who have experience in alterations--I need some advice! We divided the work so that J2 will be working on her and her sister's things, and I'll be doing mine and the maid of honor's. The MoH is wearing S's dress from J's wedding. Which S is then planning to wear again for formal parties (one of her fiance's friends apparently has one every year). My challenge is, I need to find a way to take it in a little at the top of the dress, but in a way that can be taken out again without leaving marks on the fabric. (It's a polyester taffeta sort of thing.) Please, I will take any and all advice!! (Including my mother's, which was "stuff her bra"! ;-)

Ok, I did promise other stories. I started sewing on that chevron-cut blouse last night. No pics yet, but it seems to be working so far. I do think I cut one of the pieces (the inner front) the wrong way, but fortunately it lined up for the stripes and even though the tops of the seam didn't line up, I was still able to sew it onto the top of the front without changing the seam allowance.