The end is....

here!!! It took me hand-stitching straight up to midnight, because I was so easily distracted while sewing, but the dress is officially DONE!

I'm going to wait to do the big final reveal pictures until after the wedding, because then I'll have the best pictures with my hair all done up nice and out of the way. But I do have two last detail shots from the lining, courtesy of my phone, since I've been working on this in the evenings over the last 2 days while it's been too dark to use the nice camera.

I did a narrow machine hem all around the lining--partially to speed up the process, and partially to practice the technique. I have another friend getting married this year, she already has her dress, and it fits perfectly other than it being too long, so I told her I'd hem it for her. She's practically my honorary bridesmaid, so I don't mind.

I also have a bustle, sort of--I discovered after pinning in and partially sewing the lining that the center back was hanging past the hem of the dress! At this point, I've stopped caring about perfection and just wanted to finish, so rather than rip out and redo that portion of the hem, I figured no one will see it but me, so I just tacked that up and secured it under the zipper.

I did have one tiny little mishap last night, where I was trimming a thread sticking out next to the zipper, and accidentally nicked the skirt with my scissors! I'm rather proud of myself for staying calm--it was small and hardly noticeable thanks to the zipper seam allowance underneath, so I just stuck some fray check on it this morning and left it at that. Trying to mend it would have made it more noticeable, and I don't think anyone will know except for me (and now all of you who read this.)

So, aside from the final reveal, that's it! Thanks to all of you who have followed along on this massive project and left encouraging words. And you bet my next couple of projects are going to be much less complicated!