Bridesmaid Dresses

I waited to post this after my lovely friends got married, rather than preempt the wedding photos.

There are a lot of different definitions of bridesmaid dresses these days, which I love. I asked my bridesmaids to find a green dress, in any colour green. My bride did the same: I was tasked with finding a red dress to wear. Preferably a brighter red, not dark, or orangey, etc.

At a month before the wedding, after 4 failed dresses (I'll get into that) I finally got The One in the mail. Because as often happens, if you go looking for a specific colour of dress suddenly no one stocks it! Green came in, a lovely bright green, about the time that I started my quest. Not helpful in this case.

The first dress I found was nice and it was in a local shop. Comfortable stretch/linen, quite plain, but very flattering lines.

But I made a mistake when I bought this, because it was too small in the back and gave me bulges.

I broke the golden rule: never buy things you have to make major alterations to, especially if it is a nice garment.

I kept trying the dress on, as I did love the line of it. But I was never happy with how it looked in the back. So I added side panels in to make it bigger. My bride had been talking about lace for herself, so I knew that I could use some on my dress.

It was simple to do. I cut open the side seams and inserted panels. All of the edges were overlocked to seal them.

I had to put darts in the front, to make it more fitted. But the back still didn't sit right -there may have even been MORE bulges.
In a last-ditch effort I tried putting a scarf over it to hide it all!I don't know why I'm smiling...

It was no good. I hated it every time I put it on. So 6 weeks before the wedding, I turned to eBay. These dresses were lovely styles that would suit me, and were cheap. So I bought all three.

The problem? Despite the measurements saying they were XL, when they arrived they were way too small! I ended up selling them to a friend at work who happens to love red.

Luckily I had seen another dress online from a shop that I regularly ordered from that looked good. As usual, I ordered one size too big. The sense of relief when it arrived a week after the eBay disasters was palpable. This was The One. It fit, with a minor seam at the side to pull the bodice in tighter. My bride was ok with the belt. It went with my shoes. Success!