When people found out I was getting married, I would usually get the inevitable “Are you making your dress??” question. Most people were surprised to learn that no, I would not be making my dress and would be buying one instead. It actually ended up being 4 dresses, because we did a private ceremony and 3 small receptions. We wanted to keep gatherings small and reduce travel due to Covid.
If you’re part of the sewing community on Insta, you’ve probably seen a few of the amazing wedding dresses that came out this year (I’m thinking of @handmade.millienial and @maison.domino – check out the beautiful dresses they made). I was so in awe of what they made and have so much respect for any sewist who makes their wedding dresses. I didn’t end up going that route and heres why!
Reason 1: Lack of time
We only had 6 months between getting engaged and our wedding ceremony. Even though we kept everything super casual, planning a wedding and multiple receptions is time consuming. We also moved cross country 3 weeks after ceremony. There was a lot of planning and change happening and by the time I would have a great idea for a dress the deadline was way too close!
Reason 2: Pressure takes the fun out of sewing
I’ve spent so much time trying to reach different “sewing goals” and honestly I’m kind of over that mentality. Sewing is my hobby. I’m trying to allow myself to just let it be fun and not create situations in which I’m on a deadline and things need to be absolutely perfect. There is enough to be stressed about during wedding planning. I needed sewing to be an outlet for stress during wedding planning, not a source of it.
Reason 3: My dress didn’t need to be the focus of the day
One of the biggest things that I’m grateful for over the course of our wedding planning was that we always focused on what actually mattered: getting married and having a great time with friend and family. The closer the day got, the more that making a dress felt like it would be for “show”. I just started to feel like I didn’t need any focus of our wedding day to be on my sewing skills.
Reason 4: I’m not enough of a perfectionist
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I don’t strive for perfection with the clothes I make. I’m not interested in making sure that every seam is exactly right. Wearing clothing with imperfections typically doesn’t bother me, but I knew that my wedding day would be different. I don’t want to be looking back on wedding photos 20 years from now nitpicking a seam that I could’ve sewn better.
But I did make one small thing…
I did end up making a sheer cover up for one of the reception dresses. I used the Papercut Patterns Sequence Top to make the wrap and extended the sleeves 6 inches because I thought it made it more interesting. It was nice to have a very small element of me-made at our first reception, but making it was stressful and I cannot look at photos without nitpicking the seams. That experience was confirmation enough that I made the right choice of going store bought for the rest of my dresses. Looking back at my photos, I couldn’t be happier with the way that everything turned out!
