Decisions, Decisions...

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this yet or not...but BOTH SONS are getting married late this summer.  

There's five years difference in their ages.  Who'da thought they'd get married within 6 weeks of each other?

At least it's the guys.  I don't think I could have managed if the girls had pulled that on us, lol.

Anyway, I have need of two Mother-of-The  outfits.  

And I need the first one in about three weeks.

I have been ordering crazy fabrics this year...and somehow it has always been more blingy than would suffice.  

Not sure what's going to ultimately happen to that blingy fabric....but that's a discussion for another day.

The wedding in three weeks is likely going to be the less formal of the two;  it's in a small country church, with the reception in the church basement.  Very classic.  The bride's mother has a rayon dress... a pretty print with a blue background.  I ordered a small floral print rayon in the right color, but it didn't have that nice silky finish that really nice rayon has...it has more of a cottony feel. It  just didn't want to play with the pattern I had in mind at all; the print was a little too ditsy for an elegant pattern and I wasn't sure it would hang right; more floaty than drapey.

After much deliberation, I've decided to frankenpattern myself a dress and hope it works, lol.  I'm going to use my Cutting Lines Design My Heart's Aflutter shell top, which has a design seam just below the waist.

I decided to shorten the upper part to my actual waist, then add ruffled tiers ala the Hippie Earth Mother Skirt, omitting the lower band bit.  I already have a linen jacket that I can wear with it.  

I decided to self-line the bodice bit;  that avoids the unruly facing issue and is less trouble in the long run than making bias tape to bind the openings. And it will help support the weight of the skirt.  I have the bodice pieces cut out, one pocket, and one skirt tier.  I need 7 more skirt tier pieces and the other pocket.  And I probably need to run by Joann's and get some blue thread after work one day this week.

I have actually been meaning to give that frankenpattern a go; I think it will make a nice summer maxi dress.  I had just planned to do it on something that didn't have to be in the spotlight quite like a Mother Of The dress, lol.

The second wedding is on a the terrace of a local state park; a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River, with the reception to be in the lodge.  The bridesmaids will be in black, so as to show up against the sky behind the bluff in the pictures.  I think the  brides' mom is wearing a full length black dress.  SO...that's going to be a bit more formal.

I am still waffling over the possibilities for THAT dress as I work on the rayon dress.  Found a piece of black guipere lace on a crazy sale this weekend...to add to the pile of fancy fabrics I have ordered over the past few months.  We'll see if I can overcome the aversion to wearing black to a wedding...or if I'm going to use one of the blingy fabrics that is already in the stack.  I may do something rather simple for the dress and make a jacket/ duster out of the blingy stuff.  

I have until I finish the tiered dress to make up my mind, lol.

But with all this fancy stuff I probably won't need to buy any more potential formal wear fabric for the rest of my life.

Actually, who am I kidding?  I really probably don't need to buy ANY fabric at all for the rest of my life...

All of this pivoting means that I currently have way too many half-started projects lying about.  I keep getting interrupted by something more urgent.  I don't know when I'm going to get to finish them up...right now, the calendar is pretty well booked until Nov. 1.  I might get a wee bit of time here and there...hopefully it will add up.  I don't like UFOs...