Waistcoats and Spangles

Wedding month is officially over.  I was bridesmaid for my best friend a week and a half ago, and then had another wedding this weekend just gone, which had almost the same groomsmen as the first one!  I guess that's what happens in a close circle of friends.

The dress I had planned to wear this weekend was one I bought just after I had my baby and, whilst I did like it, was very much of an 'it will do' choice as it was the only thing available in my size and budget.  At the last minute I decided I wanted to buy a new dress.  The two friends of mine who were also going to the wedding both had new dresses.

So Saturday a week ago I went shopping, but was again faced with a limited selection in my size and price range.  In the end I found a dress at Myer, who happened to be having a 40% off sale.  It looked similar to this, but had a plain strap on the other shoulder and was in hot pink not red (I forgot to take a 'before' photo)

I wanted the dress to be 'spangly' because my friend was having a very sparkly dress, so I set to work adding beads and crystals.  I also took the flowers off the shoulder strap (but left the ruffle).  I added one of the flowers back to the other strap because it looked a little plain.

And this is how the top of my dressed ended up

It made the dress something special and I'm rather pleased with the results.  There is a combination of crystals, seed beads and sequins in there.

Hubby also decided that he wanted a waistcoat for the event, so a rush shopping trip on Monday night and every spare minute that I wasn't beading went into making this:

I think I need to make him more waistcoats now!  I was aiming for a satin brocade but we couldn't find any so we ended up with a quilting cotton.  Next time I'll have to back the fabric with something because it's a bit thin and shows the facing inside, but altogether not bad for a rush job that included fitting adjustments.

Now I can get back to my regular sewing and maybe try to do some of my Christmas tasks.....