The Beginning of the MOB Dress

With some decisions made, the process has begun. I have been shopping for months, trying to find an appropriate dress to wear at my daughter’s upcoming wedding. MOB dresses seem to fall into the following categories:

• Las Vegas showgirl
• Muddy colored polyester knits incorporating sequins and geriatric styling
• Cringe-worthy MOB regulation uniform 

 

Well, that just isn’t going to work. I ended up at Sew Elegant, a little shop on West Avenue, in San Antonio. They have lovely formal wear fabrics. My first visit was several months ago during lunch hour. This time, DD#1 accompanied me and when she saw this fabric, we were done shopping!

 

Now I have to decide on which patterns to use. I’ve looked at every pattern website I can think of along with searches through my own pattern collection. All I know right now is that there will be an unlined jacket from the embroidered silk organza and a simple, full-length dress sewn from the silk dupioni. The lining is rayon - Ambiance Bemberg. I’m thinking there should be an underlined bodice, but don’t really want to underline the whole dress as drapey is preferred for the skirt.

The lines need to be clean. That means no fancy pleating, ruffles, etc. to compete with the embroidery. The purple of the flowers matches the purple of the bridesmaid dresses and the mother of the groom’s dress is a creamy beige lace, so these fabrics will certainly coordinate. Tell me though - does that even matter?

For the dress, I’m considering 425A from the Autumn/Winter 2011 Burda Plus.

And, for the jacket, McCall’s 9700 (OOP from 1998), view A with the short sleeves from view B. View A lacks the front princess seams of view B. No side seams either, but the center back seam, which gives shaping, needs to go as it would be a shame to break up the flowers. Frankenpattern? Likely...

And, yes, a muslin will be happening very soon!

Happy Mother's Day!

Enjoy your week!